"Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it."
- Louis Armstrong, the creator of Hot Jazz
Jazz is a style of music that originated in the beginning of the 1900's, and is a combination of West African folk music and European popular and classical music of the late 17oo's and early 1800's. It is identified by its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, unexpected rhythms and notes and the swung note (which is alternation of the duration of notes, alternating from short to long). Jazz was formally initiated in New Orleans; however, it also started in other northern states of America, like Saint Louis, Kansas City and Chicago.
Around 1808, a bit less that a million Africans were brought to the United States to work as slaves. Most of them arrived from West Africa and the Congo River. The slaves brought with them their solid musical traditions, performing them in work or rituals. Their music was not concentrated on balance and harmony, like the European music did. However, some African slaves integrated the harmonic style that they absorbed from hymns of the church into their own traditional music. This combination came to be known as spirituals. Many say that the beginning of the blues actually emerged from the spirituals. The difference was that, unlike the spirituals, which part of notes joined together in harmony to create parallel rhythms, the origin of blues had variation of notes in the same melodic line, using different rhythms or tempos. In addition to the African slaves, the Parisian Creole, Spanish and French speaking people, were also very important in the creation of jazz. Due to segregation, these two cultures joined together; as a result, European and African rhythms joined together and formed the beginning of jazz-like music. Also in the early 1800's, many black musicians learned how to play various European instruments, especially the violin. As a result, many performers became quite popular, combining syncopation (unexpected notes) with European harmony tradition.
Jazz truly began when cornet player King Oliver performed in the early 1900's. It started spreading as jazz bands and musicians started performing as entertainment. More toward the 1920's, jazz music was more commonly presented by big bands, with combined components of ragtime, spirituals, blues and harmonic European music.
Starting with the Ragtime (1900) to the Jazz Rap (2000), Jazz began to grow and spread internationally. From 1914 to 1940, Jazz was accepted by countries like Europe and Paris, since many American musicians travelled away from racial and discrimination tensions that were present in the US or searched new cultural and musical liberties that could be found abroad. These jazz musicians spread the knowledge and experience of Jazz throughout the entire world. From being just an African American traditional music, Jazz became an universal sensation. This exposure to other countries and their cultural musical traditions has given rise to numerous and different Jazz styles throughout time. Some examples are the New Orleans jazz (1910's), Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz (1930's to 1940's), Latin jazz, soul jazz, free jazz, urban jazz, hot jazz and many more. Most of these are still played today.
Jazz is important for many reasons. First of all, jazz gave a certain amount of liberty and privileges to African Americans. They were able to play al places and locations where they could not remain as normal guests. It allowed them to express themselves and prove themselves. Jazz gave them some sort of power and admiration. They were considered inferior, almost like outsiders. Jazz permitted them to be there, to enjoy it and to be known to the world. It began to break the chains of oppression. Also, Jazz in one way or another brought the blacks and whites together. They would enjoy good jazz music together and share together, even though there were still presence of segregation. This is what Early, director of the African and Afro-American Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis:
"Many of the black people who performed this art rose to the stature of being considered really serious, profound artists an that really hadn't happened before in American life." (Jazz.nuvvo.com)
Jazz is important for many reasons. First of all, jazz gave a certain amount of liberty and privileges to African Americans. They were able to play al places and locations where they could not remain as normal guests. It allowed them to express themselves and prove themselves. Jazz gave them some sort of power and admiration. They were considered inferior, almost like outsiders. Jazz permitted them to be there, to enjoy it and to be known to the world. It began to break the chains of oppression. Also, Jazz in one way or another brought the blacks and whites together. They would enjoy good jazz music together and share together, even though there were still presence of segregation. This is what Early, director of the African and Afro-American Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis:
"Many of the black people who performed this art rose to the stature of being considered really serious, profound artists an that really hadn't happened before in American life." (Jazz.nuvvo.com)
Not only did it contribute to the African Americans, but Jazz also helped the entire American nation. During the Depression, jazz music became a representation of wartime resistance. It also gave hope to the decaying economy and offered cheap yet good entertainment. It helped all Americans, black and white.
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I honestly did not pay much attention to jazz at all. I began to some of the most popular jazz musicians, like Louis Armstrong. I then realized that I grew up with some of those songs, I just did not realize that they were Jazz. Jazz is a powerful art of music, using unexpected rhythms in perfect harmony, solos and variations. I enjoyed researching this beautiful music. I hope I can open up to it more and experience the magic and experience of jazz music.
Sincerely,
Michelle
This information was obtained from the following sites:
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