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● Introduction
● Early New Orleans Jazz
● Jazz in Chicago and New York in the 1920s
● The Piano
● Boogie Woogie
Text
Introduction
 The
whole world knows American
jazz music. Musicians
and performers have appreciative fans in nearly every country. The
newest songs are heard everywhere, and live
performances are well attended. Yet many are not familiar with the
early forms of jazz, a uniquely American contribution to the arts.
No other art form, painting, fiction, poetry, has had a distinctive
American contribution as has jazz music. Composers
around the world during the twentieth century found inspiration
in early American jazz.
Why
did a musical form initially performed and appreciated by a lower
class segment of American society gain acceptance in all
classes in America and spread throughout the country? First of all,
the acceptance was slow and in some cases grudging. The appeal
initially was to the young and rebellious. Secondly, as we shall
see below, as the music was accepted it became modified, softened
for more sensitive ears. Perhaps it would be better to say that
the music itself was not accepted, but that it inspired other musicians
to play acceptable versions of the original music. In any event,
the emphasis on free invention and the development of individual
ways of playing instruments appealed to themes in American culture.
The
individual style of jazz musicians is worth special comment. Violinists
in an orchestra are interchangeable. One trumpet in
a classical orchestra
plays like every other; there is no
distinctive tone or texture that separates clarinet
players. Yet listeners can identify very easily the clarinet of
Johnny Dodds, and distinguish him from other clarinetists, each
of whom has his own style. This individual sound and style can be
attributed to all the great jazz musicians. Perhaps this identification
of the individual player appeals to those American values that stress
the importance of the distinctive and different individual.
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