Origins of Jazz

       For some, the American art form is defined by consumerism pop art; by Campbell's Soup and Andy Warhol. But this is not the original American aesthetic. In fact, the American art form, Jazz, originated over one hundred years prior to the pop art movement, in New Orleans. Born out of the oppression of African-Americans, Jazz developed in a social context. Jazz was displaced—from both the synchronous orchestration of European music and White America. This gave jazz a certain cultural attachment, referenced by the existence of New Orleans' "Congo Square," where slaves would gather to perform cultural dances accompanied by African-style strings and percussion. The Congo Square evidences an "actual transfer of African ritual to the native soil of [America]." In this tiny corner of New Orleans, jazz was clearly subjugated, but nevertheless, allowed to flourish. In addition, New Orleans experienced a booming economy due to the Mississippi shipping industry. Soon people were coming to New Orleans not just for the sights, but for the debauchery. "Storyville, a red light district in New Orleans," offered a safe-haven for sin, and a stage for Jazz. Most importantly, New Orleans was more socially tolerant of "Creoles of Color," which resulted from the numerous master-slave relationships. This was imperative to the evolution of Jazz in New Orleans because Black Creoles, like Buddy Bolden and Jellyroll Morton, spliced classical forms, like quadrilles, into blues charts and rhythms to form the roots of ragtime. Other cities only offered bits and pieces of what New Orleans had to offer. Going into the twentieth century, New Orleans gave African-Americans a distinct outlet to express their social condition, and an affluent audience that would fund the evolution of an American art form.
       By the 1920's, New Orleans was an antiquated nineteenth century city, and all but the physical center of Jazz. However, New Orleans continued to produce all of the big names. New Orleans rapidly transplanted jazz from Black culture to a public cultural icon. Unfortunately, much of New Orleans' musical history went unrecorded, obscuring the true "New Orleans sound." However, there is no question that in the early twentieth century, New Orleans continued to evolve jazz. Joe "King" Oliver, a New Orleans cornetist, formed the King Oliver Creole Band in an effort to find the perfect ensemble sound. But Louis Armstrong, another cornetist in the band rivaled the collective aesthetic that Oliver so longed for. In this way, New Orleans catalyzed the stereotypical duality between the soloist and the ensemble, characteristic of later Jazz styles.Once again, because phonographic recording was in it's infancy, and because New Orleans had dried up as an economic center, the Creole Band had to travel to survive. Thus, New Orleans' own dilapidation and disrepair contributed to the rapid movement of Jazz to the northern cities. Ultimately, it was the New Orleans sound that spread to other cultural centers, giving Jazz a direction about which it could further evolve.