The legacy of black art in Jazz

Jazz, a gorgeously versatile genre of music with a rich history rooted deeply in the influence of black artists.  What is its American story?

The origins of jazz in America begins in the 1700s, New Orleans. New Orleans was and is still known today as a melting pot of cultures. This characteristic is a major component in retelling the history of Jazz.

In the 1700s, the population of New Orleans was predominantly African American, including both slaves and freed. Over half the city of New Orleans’ population was a variety of African descent, and those arriving from the Caribbean brought cultural influences from West India.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a large influx of English speaking African Americans flooded into Louisiana.

With the continued stream of newly freed African Americans into the area, the key elements of blues, jazz and spiritual music started to form. 

By this point, the city of New Orleans was already an extremely musical environment, and the different cultural styles of music began to melt together to create jazz. 

Jazz roots are derived from African drumming traditions and dances that were brought over from Africa. 

Another extremely impactful music style that led to the creation of jazz were brass marching bands that were popular in the late 1880s.

Around this time period, syncopated rhythms and styles such as cakewalks and ragtimes became increasingly popular, and by the 1890s, brass bands changed their standard repertoire with ragtime excerpts. 

In the 19th century, German, Irish and Italian immigrants began to migrate to New Orleans before and after the Civil War. 

By the 20th century, New Orleans was a major sea and river port as well as an entertainment center. 

Many different types of bands were popular such as brass, dance and creole color bands. The standard New Orleans Jazz band was a cornet, a clarinet and a trombone.

As time went on, jazz bands changed and expanded becoming what we know today as the “Big Band”, which consists of; three trumpets, two or more trombones, four or more saxophones, and a rhythm section (drum set, piano, guitar, and bass).