History of Jazz ① Born in New Orleans (1900s–1920s)
Jazz wasn't invented by any single person. It bubbled up naturally in New Orleans, the southern port city, in the early 20th century, as many musics boiled together. This first installment follows that moment of birth.
What is jazz — three essentials
Before we dive in, remember three things that make jazz jazz.
- Swing: a rhythmic feel that rolls and leans rather than ticking like a machine. Without "that feeling," it isn't jazz.
- Improvisation: inventing melody on the spot instead of just reading the page.
- Blue notes: slightly lowered notes (♭3, ♭5, ♭7) that give jazz its aching, soulful color.
Add the common 12-bar blues form, and you have the skeleton of jazz.
A city where everything mixed
New Orleans was a port where French, Spanish, African and Caribbean cultures intermingled. After emancipation, the Black community's blues and spirituals, European brass band marches, piano ragtime, and the African rhythms kept alive in Congo Square all collided in the streets every day. In a city where a funeral march turned from a mournful tune into a joyful one, a music built on mixing and bending grew up.
The first heroes
- King Oliver (cornet): bandleader who defined the early New Orleans sound — and young Louis Armstrong's mentor.
- Jelly Roll Morton (piano/composer): the first great jazz composer-arranger, who boasted "I invented jazz."
- Louis Armstrong (trumpet/vocals): the pivotal figure who turned ensemble jazz into the art of the soloist.
Essential listening
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band – "Dippermouth Blues" (1923)
A textbook of early New Orleans collective improvisation, with several horns weaving at once. Young Armstrong was in this band.
Jelly Roll Morton – "Black Bottom Stomp" (1926)
An early masterpiece of "well-designed jazz," balancing improvisation and composition beautifully.
Louis Armstrong – "Potato Head Blues" (1927)
The moment Armstrong's stop-time solo erupts, the individual voice becomes the star of jazz.
Louis Armstrong – "West End Blues" (1928)
A historic recording whose famous unaccompanied opening cadenza single-handedly raised the bar for the whole music.
Once Armstrong opened the age of the solo, jazz soon exploded into a massive popular music that had all of America dancing.