early new orleans jazz

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EARLY NEW ORLEANS JAZZ

Diana Fox

Jazz History and LiteratureDecember 8, 2014


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Jazz was without question the most notable musical styles to appear during the

twentieth century. At a time when racial boundaries in America were rigidifying, jazz

arose out of and encouraged racial boundary crossings by creating racially mixed spaces

and racially impure music, both of which altered the racial identities of musicians and

listeners.1There isnt one isolateddate in history that can be pinpointed to the

inventionof jazz. This style of this music was an idea crafted and formed over many

years through a multitude of groups and people. It would be erroneous to give one

person or race credit for the conception and delivery of jazz. However, New Orleans can

easily considered the birthplace of jazz.

Our journey begins in a mosquito and snake infested land. Unlike its long-

standing neighbors, New Orleans was late to take up residence in North America. Its

location made the land prone to ruthless environmental elements such as hurricanes and

flooding, however, its geographical position made the territory extremely desirable.

New Orleans was in a strategic location, sitting at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico.2

The city fell victim to numerous natural disasters in its primary stages. The occupants of

New Orleans eventually learned how to operate and survive in their below sea level

metropolis and despite its shortcomings, the citys fitting locality allowed it to quickly

become a pivotal point of trade and export.3

1Charles Hersch, Subversive Sounds : Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) 5.

2Lawrence N. Powell,Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 2012) 2.

3Alyn Shipton,A New History of Jazz (London: Continuum, 2001) 73.


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The population of New Orleans was an assortment of races from the conception.

It was an exotic destination for many.4When referring to the residents of New Orleans in

A New History of Jazz, Alyn Shipton states:

There were French, Spanish, British, and American whites and their families,

slaves, and decendants. There were Creoles who were the product of

interbreeding among all these groups, and there were new white, Creole, and

black immigrants from Europe, Cuba, Santo Domingo, and many Caribbean

islands.5

It was also common to see Italians, Germans, and the Irish among the copious assortment

of residents on the streets of this alluring city. Eventually the intermingling of these

mixed cultures allowed New Orleans to have the largest population of free African

Americans in the deep south and growing racial equality by the late nineteenth century.6

Residing in the French and Spanish built houses and narrow streets, the cities unique

combination of occupants created a conducive environment advanced the amalgamation

of a vast array of musical styles unavoidable. It is Hersch who constructs an accurate

summary when discussing the fruition of jazz music when he states: While it is true that

jazz was influenced by other kinds of music, notably ragtime and black folk music

(spirituals, work songs, and other precursors of the blues), those sources first combined

into something new in New Orleans.7

4Samuel Barclay Charters, Trumpet Around the Corner: The Story of New Orleans Jazz

(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008) 23.

5Ibid., 74.

6Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 18.

7Ibid., 16


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Alongside the social factors were political factors that contributed to the

emergence of jazz in New Orleans as well. As the twentieth century began the need for

black voters by the republicans became extinct, and the black population of New Orleans

became stronger. Lines were drawn once again separating whites, creoles, and African

Americans.Creoles with ancestry tied to African Americans now shared the same socio-

economic status as them.8A struggle to preserve their diversities emerged among the

groups Central to the growth of this music was a strong black population unafraid to

assert its power.9

It is here where the lines begin to become unclear. When examining and

discussing the evolution of jazz in New Orleans there are a handful approaches scholars

and writers can take. Some feel obligated to emphasize the racial issues and attribute the

growth of jazz directly to a cultural divide. Where as others like Al Rose and Edmond

Souchon M.D. as cited in Trumpet Around the Corner: The Story of New Orleans Jazz

write:

We will not attempt to establish finally who was the inventor of jazz. (Some of

our best friends have claimed this distinction.) Nor will we assert that we know

who were the first to play it. We feel it was not invented at all, but that it came

into being so gradually that any attempt to pin down a first time would be based

on the most specious type of reasoning. Credit for the creation of jazz is due no

individual man or race. If anything, it is a product, an inevitable product we think,

of the avenues and alleys of a unique city, polyglot, multiracial, seething with

8Shipton,A New History of Jazz, 76

9 Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 17


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love and conflict, a battleground of nations and cultures, a landscape of mire and

magnolias.10

As gentle and impartial as that statement is, it is hard to dismiss what is documented in

other texts. In ShiptonsA New History of Jazz drummer Baby Dodds takes a completely

different position. Dodds maintains that there was a distinct line separating the

population. As a member of the evolving jazz scene Dodds claims that the Creoles

strived to detach themselves musically and socially, only mixing with outside musicians

when it suit their needs.11

This is further backed up by Charters findings which state that:

different groups of musicians were expected to remain within the boundaries of

their own society, and although they were conscious of each other and borrowed

elements of their own styles from each other, they had almost no chance to sit on

the same bandstands, or even share a night sitting and drinking in the same clubs

and barrooms.12

Who the credit belongs to will always be up for debate among scholars and it is most

likely that there will never be one definitive answer, but one thing is certain, music in

New Orleans was a part of everyday life.

Music sharing among the streets of the city was delivered in many different

musical packages. There were brass bands, singing street vendors, black string quartets

playing classical European dances (schottisches, mazurkas, quadrilles) and ragtime, and a

whole variety of others.13

In the late 19th

and 20th

century brass bands became a

10Charters, Trumpet Around the Corner, 5

11Shipton,A New Historyof Jazz, 79.

12Charters, Trumpet Around the Corner, 6


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customary feature in New Orleans. Traditionally, New Orleans brass bands consisted of

a few cornets, trombones, tuba, one or two clarinets, and a small percussion section.14

Brass bands came in many assortments. You could find white, Creole, and African

American groups.15

But none of this would have been possible without the diversity and

history of the time. In many states it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write,

Africans and African Americans used music to express themselves.16

Africanfolk music

was transported to the Americas by west African slaves and ultimately made its way to

New Orleans. Cuban music, with its French, Spanish, and African influences, came to

New Orleans with Creole and black refugees.

17

All of the early jazz musicians in New

Orleans were influenced by the musical genres of their times. It was a wide range of

ragtime, gospel, blues, Spanish style music from the Caribbean and Mexico, European

military marching bands that all eventually combined and became known as traditional

jazz.18

The initial progress of jazz in New Orleans is most correlated with the fame and

reputation of bandleader Charles "Buddy" Bolden. When Bolden emerged into the music

scene he changed the history of jazz forever. He is and always will be customarily

recognized for his contributions to the genre. He became an instant icon when he:

13Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 15

14Shipton,A New History, 79

15Ibid., 80.

16Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 133

17Ibid., 145

18Kim Marie Vaz Baby Dolls : Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New

Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013).

53
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music


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broke with traditional dance-music arrangements and introduced to

dance-hall performances versions of established tunes that were

syncopated and improvisedin other words, raggy 9 music. His

transformation of standard popular tunes and marches of the day was

accomplished by quickening the musics tempo and by incorporating

Black church music, syncopation, improvisation, and the blues. Bolden

emerged as a leader among the musicians playing in the new genre. Others

followed his lead, and those bands playing in this ragging style drew large

crowds for their dances. A new music full of energy and fun, well suited to

the tastes of young people, had been born.19

Buddy Bolden was considered one of the forebearers of jazz tradition, however,

there are no existing recordings of him!

19Ibid., 53


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early new orleans jazz

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