New Orleans and History of Jazz Music, Research Paper Example

New Orleans is considered to have ultimately produced Jazz music, composed of native brass-band fanfares, blues music and ragtime. Although common before the 1900s and the Jazz Age, ragtime music was not fully considered as jazz music. New Orleans’ brass bands playing a mixture of traditional music, blues and ragtime reached into dancehalls and saloons. The 1900s paved way for the blues and once the neighborhood was common with brass bands, the New Orleans’ perennial parties constantly demanded blues music. Fuente believes that ragtime just like the predominantly vocal tradition and highly expressive blues was fundamental in the development of jazz (533). At the start of the 20^th century, African –Americans expressed their emotions and stories through blues music, because the music was their way of life a state of their minds. Blues musicians of the 20^th century such as Bessie Smith, W. C Handy and Ma Rainey could imitate vocal effects of blues singers by playing the saxophone or the trumpet. Musicians employed in the New Orleans from 1900 to 1917 before “The Jazz Age” and New Orleans musicians playing and recording in Chicago were referred to as Traditional Jazz players. After Bolden, Morton orchestrated and recorded the performances of his Red Hot Peppers sessions in Chicago in 1926 and 1927, considered to be the only existing evidence of New Orleans jazz.

The 1940’s simultaneous evolution of music saw the birth of cool jazz and bebop towards the end of the decade; and gained prominence for decades that followed. The of 20^th century composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky caused cool jazz compared to bebop to be muted, restrained, moody and more subtle. The composer-arranger, bandleader and pianist Gil Evans and trumpeter Miles Davis were the fundamental contributors to the cool jazz music style (Fuente, 535). Although blues music was predominantly played by blacks, jazz music as the melting point of New Orleans was performed by whites, European immigrants, Italians and Creoles. Although the Creole and African-American communities were affected by the syncretism resulting from segregation, Afro-Caribbean communities were not exempted as well. For fear of being copied, The Original Creole Band led by Freddie Keppard, a Creole trumpeter, was also influential in exporting the New Orleans sound to Los Angeles (Fiehrer 38).

According to Wilkinson the 1970’s to the present Fusion (Jazz-Rock), combines the rhythms of rock with chord progressions and jazz improvisation. Successful fusion musicians include guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Chick Corea, while Sweat, and Tears and Chase and Weather Report Chicago were the prominent jazz-rock groups (25-32).

Although the historical development of jazz seems complete with or without the inclusion of Afro-Caribbean contributions, jazz is what it is today due to the parallel fusion of different cultures that found a united domicile in New Orleans.

Works cited

Fiehrer, Thomas. “From Quadrille to Stomp: The Creole Origins of Jazz.” Popular Music 10. 1 (1991): 21-38.

Fuente, Alejandro de la. “More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa (Review).” Journal of Social History 37. 2 (2003): 533-535.

Wilkinson, Christopher. “The Influence of West African Pedagogy upon the Education of New Orleans Jazz Musicians.” Black Music Research Journal 14.1 (1994 ): 25-32.