Blog #1, Down the River

The Louisiana Purchase opened up a vast amount of land to the still nurturing United States in 1803. As this area developed, the Mississippi River became a hallmark of trading and market sharing between regions and businesses across the country. New Orleans as it happened was located in at the mouth of this pipeline, catalyzing it as a bedrock for trade with $5 million in goods incoming per year in the early 1800s to $200 million in 1851. On top of that, the South had already established a vibrant local foundation of economic investments in the area, particularly with the slave trade and long-established plantations (27, Gioia). With any hotspot for trade, an animated cosmopolitan culture emerged, clashing musical backgrounds, especially between the upper class whites and the densely populated blacks from New Orleans’ slave-trade origins (7, Gioia). Out of this social conflict and multi-generational presence in a common area, the creole class emerged, provided with the perfect environment to gain upper-class popularity while utilizing and spreading the musical styles of blacks that we have now coined as “jazz.”

This cosmopolitan dynamic is clearly emphasized in the case of Storyville, also known as “The District,” which formed the proper environment in which the lower and upper classes were able to discreetly conglomerate. (29, Gioia). Additionally, some of the most prominent contributors discussed include Buddy Bolden, often seen as the first true jazz musician to come out of the waters, displaying strong ties in his music to blues and ragtime (34, Gioia). Jelly Roll Morton is often the highlighted example of a creole successfully separated from his “darker” roots, managing to lead an ensemble to fame, and even making the somewhat audacious claim to have “invented” jazz as an abstract principle. His history is often embellished with a bold personality, but even when objectively analyzing his pieces there is no denying his progressive style and complexity crucial to jazz’s evolution (41, Gioia) Alongside them include Freddie Keppard, Sidney Bechet, “King” Oliver, and of course his protégé Louis Armstrong, the first “soloist” to ironically escape the ensemble and bring out individuality to the heart of jazz, just like the blues (43,58, Gioia).

As noted earlier though, the influences to jazz did not come purely internally. New Orleans as a trading hub brought in styles from across the hemisphere. A major factor to note is the Eighth Regimental Band’s presence during the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in 1884. Multiple members stayed and mentored up and coming jazz musicians not only with classical techniques, but also integrated woodwind instruments (particularly the clarinet) into the local genre (229, Johnson & 55, Gioia). I believe this contribution to jazz’s maturity was vital, as it provided the style with a stronger—but NOT fundamental—tie to organization in its musical theory, subtly embedding its reach to upper-classes’ social networks of the time further.

Direct origins of jazz have long been debated, especially with regards to the most significant proponents. This obscurity, however, is arguably the most important aspect of this style’s history, in that just like its improvisational and interactive components on a musical front, similar links are found in its history. In other words, there is no important factor for the emergence of jazz in New Orleans. For all we know given our own historical bias, there are numerous underground stories we shall never learn about, all of which were vital to the compilation of what we have come to call “jazz.”

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