The key to understanding American jazz is understanding Louis Armstrong. Knowing who he was and where he came from is essential for a better appreciation of this modern and innovative idiom that has spread around the world. Although Louis was born in New Orleans in 1901, it is necessary to get a grasp of the social migrations that occurred from the fields of the plantations to the urban centers, like New Orleans in the latter half of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War and the Emancipation of the Slaves the cities became the host to a growing population of recently freed slaves. This was especially true of southern cities like New Orleans.
For everybody involved this was like traveling down a new highway without a road map. Vigilantes were on the rise and so for many of the men and women, who had once worked on the plantation, it was a desperate migration to the cities. In their new and strange environment black workers tried to find employment alongside the growing population of immigrant laborers.
The urban arrivals brought some important parts of their rural culture with them, most notably the churches. Here music was a key ingredient, plus it was the one place, where they were allowed to do anything that remotely resembled a native African-American culture. Everything done within the church was deeply rooted with a musical expression.
Over the first few decades of living in the city, clubs were formed where, the ex-slave population could meet and mingle. Musical combos sprung up that played lively party music, probably an offshoot of the church music. By the turn of the century negro music had developed to the point, where some of the musicians were in demand at white functions and so there actually developed a competition and comradeship among the musicians.
Also of importance were the lighter-skinned "Creole" musicians, who had been playing music in New Orleans for generations. They were usually students of classical music or at least popular tunes. They could read music and sometimes they had a good ear, but that was not absolutely necessary. Socially, they formed a buffer-zone and a go-between in the dealings that occurred the whites and blacks. Only in French-friendly New Orleans did this social structure develop in such a major way.
From this fascinating cultural milieu ragtime music developed. The rag in ragtime came from the expression "ragging the tune", which was the colloquial slang for musical improvisation. It did not refer to the way the musician dressed, for well-tailored stage clothes were usually available to most all musicians.
At first most black musicians had to have a good ear to play in the band, for they were not able to read sheet music. Eventually as they mingled with the Creoles, many learned how to read sheet music, and so the music "from the plantation" became a little bit more structured.
At the turn of the century, Ragtime was starting to catch on, not just in New Orleans, but also in other cities around the country. Musicians were even starting to experiment with the layering of sound and breakaway musical interludes. The groundwork was now being laid for a major breakthrough in contemporary music. The only thing that was needed was a catalyst.
Next came Louis Armstrong, who was just beginning to show some real musical talent around the night clubs and juke joints of New Orleans. Then World War I broke out. To help the war effort the young man had to take on a job. He hauled coal for the duration of the war, but once that conflict ended Armstrong went back to being a full-time musician.
On stage it soon became apparent that "Satchmo" was a master at "playing by ear" and "ragging the tune". He would take a melody and play it in a subsidiary way that perfectly complemented the original score. Soon half the brass section of a ragtime band would be doing this and so modern jazz began. Eventually, each musician would take his departing notes and lines in a different direction, thus forming a multi-layered and completely innovative approach to rhythm and sound.
Louis left New Orleans for Chicago, where he was really able to further develop what he had begun in New Orleans. After a while the New Orleans trumpet player had a white manager and was not only touring the United States, but Europe as well. He essentially became the unofficial roving "Ambassador of Jazz".
From here the music really took off, and over time, other centers of jazz innovation evolved, but nothing could ever match the cultural complexity of New Orleans at the turn of the century.
After Chicago, New York became an important center for this new creative style of musical innovation. Charlie Parker a sax-player from the Midwest moved to the Big Apple and embarked on a short but amazing career. Since then New York has remained the center of Modern Jazz, but a West Coast style did develop. There was also bebop jazz, whose prime practitioner was Thelonius Monk. Dave Brubeck, a part of the West Coast school, had one of the most popular jazz recordings of all times, called "Take Five". Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Chuck Mangione, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins are just a few of the great names in jazz history.
Today jazz theory is taught in conservatories and universities around the world. A talented and budding musician can obtain a degree in Jazz Music, a turn of events that Louis might see with quite a bit of irony and amusement, if he was alive today. New York may still be the center of the jazz world, but it has become a place, where a talented musician might journey to, instead of the fervent, birthing ground that New Orleans once was.
Jazz has gone international and is likely to stay that way. The next great artist could just as easily come from the fjords of Norway as the veld of South Africa. This ever popular idiom has tapped into the treasure of world music and probably right at this very moment there are talented youth learning to incorporate their own indigenous traditions with those of Modern Jazz.
Learn more about this author, Everett Autumn.
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