Blog #1

New Orleans. Just what is it about this city that allowed jazz to emerge and flourish instead of in other American cities? History has shown that New Orleans had a near perfect assortment of qualities that permitted jazz to surface. The first of a multitude of contributions is the common fact that New Orleans was an ideal trade center. This port city is located in the southeastern part of Louisiana and is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent to the Mississippi River; New Orleans could trade with countries from around the world specifically from countries from the following areas: the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. It's orientation near the Mississippi River allowed goods and slaves to be traded throughout the rest of the United States which caused it to be a major slave port as well. Through the Mississippi River, jazz was allowed to traverse throughout the rest of the United States as easily as any sort of trade product, but first, jazz needed to be created. So what lead to the formation of jazz? New Orleans physical position on the map was not the only significance attributing to the origination of jazz; its cultural background and accumulation served as a fundamental foundation for composing jazz as a musical form. New Orleans' cosmopolitan atmosphere was a result of its history of ownership; New Orleans belonged to the French and then the Spanish and then returned to the French and, eventually, was sold to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. As a result of its changing control, influences from each of the cultures were present during the development of jazz. New Orleans' black inhabitants were also diverse due to the presence of African slaves, as well as due to the Haitian Revolution which caused many blacks to travel from the Caribbean to New Orleans. This already present combination of differing traditions allowed the musicians of New Orleans to also fuse together the musical aspects of these opposing cultures. And so, New Orleans is one large melting pot. Besides the fact that it already has experience with unifying different cultures, how does this fact contribute to the development of jazz? One of the most important concepts that led to the creation of jazz is that the French brought with them Catholicism and after New Orleans became a part of the United States, it remained predominantly Catholic. This was critical because Catholicism's slave "code" or "laws" (Latin) contrasted those of the American's (English). Under the Latin way, slaves could marry and they could own property and they could purchase themselves and their masters could free them and intermarriage was legal, as opposed to the English way in which slaves had zero rights. This more lenient practice of slavery allowed the African culture to persist in New Orleans and caused the approval of slaves to gather in Congo Square on Sundays to play music and dance. Whites would also attend on Sundays to witness this gathering and here they were exposed to the African art of music while Africans were exposed to the European art of music. This is the point where Gioia states that the "Americanization of African music" began and the "Africanization of American music" also began (Gioia 5). This intermingling of traditions is known as "syncretism" or the "blending together of cultural elements that previously existed separately" (Gioia 5). Jazz was the result of this blending. More blending occurred with the approval of intermarriage in which a mixed-race population emerged, the Creole of Colour. This separate class is a physical fusion of the European and African cultures and further allowed the fusion of music because the Creoles disassociated themselves from the blacks; eventually, however, they were treated as blacks and so, after following the traditions of the Europeans, had to live as the blacks did, which caused a further mixture of the European style of music with the African style. One of the most significant African traditions to appear in jazz is energy or vital aliveness. Jazz, compared to the other musical forms of that time, had an emotion and feeling that caused physical motion with the body, common to African art. Some of the sources of New Orleans jazz cited by Gioia is Buddy Bolden (often considered the father of jazz), the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (an all white ensemble that made the first commercial recording of jazz), and Jelly Roll Morton (who explicitly stated he created jazz). While there is no source indicating who or which band is the sole inventor of jazz, it can be accepted that it was developed in New Orleans. Personally, I believe that the most important factor that led to jazz is slavery. Without slavery, there would not have been slaves coming to the Americas. Without slaves, African music may not have been exposed to European musicians and European music may not have been exposed to African musicians, permitting a fusion of the two forms and the emergence of jazz. New Orleans, being a major slave port and ideal cultural melting pot, brought together many different traditions and allowed these traditions (specifically music) to blend, creating jazz.