08-12-2013, 20:50
When and where did jazz begin? The usual jazz holyland is considered to be New Orleans where it sprang up among the black and Creole communities. This is hard to argue with when one considers the earliest jazz talents seem to have all come out of the Big EasyâLouis Armstrong, King Oliver, Kid Ory, Jelly Roll Morton, Freddy Keppard, Bunk Johnson, Armand Piron, Tony Parenti, Jimmy Palao, Johnny Bayersdorffer, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Johnny De Droit, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band (the first jazz band to record), not to mention Buddy Bolden (who never recorded). But jazz was everywhere in America because its disciples traveled around spreading the jazz gospel. Kid Ory went to San Francisco. Morton, Armstrong, Oliver, Keppard and others went to Chicago. Earl Fuller, James Reese Europe and Fletcher Henderson kicked off a vibrant jazz scene in New York City. W. C. Handy was playing around Memphis having spent a good deal of time in New Orleans recruiting musicians for his band. Don Redman in Detroit organized McKinneyâs Cotton Pickers into one of the first true jazz big bands that was so impressive that some of the greatest black jazz talent of the 20th century played in the band at some point. Some pioneers as the great Wilbur Sweatman spent time playing jazz in places as Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York long before these places became jazz meccas helping to plant the seeds of a future abundant crop.
When did the earliest jazz bands form and what did they sound like? Depending on the historian doing the documenting, jazz started as early as 1885 although all agree that it was definitely in existence by 1902. Buddy Bolden has traditionally been credited with starting jazz but others credit Jelly Roll Morton who began converting ragtime, generally written in 2/4, to 4/4 time which laid the foundation for swing. Handy was also definitely laying the groundwork for jazz by 1909 and perhaps as early as â03. I would think the 1885 date is a bit premature. One of the prime ingredients of early jazz was ragtimeâa music formed first from barnyard banjo dance tunes played by slaves and sharecroppers and then jig piano and riverboat songs.
Ragtime probably came about around 1890 or so. I have a ragtime recording from 1890 called âBunch of Ragsâ by Sylvester âVessâ L. Ossman, a prolific ragtime musician at that period. The point is, we can hear a clear influence of ragtime on early jazz but we do not hear any jazz in ragtime simply the does not appear have been any jazz before the emergence of ragtime. If jass preceded ragtime, it must have undergone a radical transformation and this is untenable. Moreover, ragtime would need time to establish itself as a major musical movement for jazz to have incorporated so much of it. So the first jazz bands probably came into existence by 1895 give or take a couple of years.
![[Image: RobichauxOrchestra.jpg]](http://www.kimballtrombone.com/files/2009/08/RobichauxOrchestra.jpg)
The John Robichaux Orchestra of New Orleans from a photo taken circa 1896. Since several of the band members were known to have played in true jazz bands early in the 20th century, we can surmise that the Robichaux band must have played something that was at least akin to jazz and we can be certain that they at least qualified as a ragtime band on the verge of jass (by the way, âjassâ is the correct spelling and I use it to mean early jazz of this period), a proto-jass band. They would have been on the reserved side of things with the Bolden band playing a lot hotter.
What characterizes jazz musically is swing. So we need to define swing. Now we run into an incongruity concerning American history that can be summed in the question, âWhen did it really start?â We have no clear genesis mapped out for the term âswingâ nor its meaning. Per its name, it must have started off as a physical component of music such as the sway of the body to a rhythm. This swaying was caused by a certain timing issue in the music called swing-feel which was linked inherently to syncopated rhythm. Syncopation is a way of emphasizing the unaccented beat. In standard march meter or in classical music, a 1-2 beat was simply counted ONE-two-ONE-two-ONE-two. To syncopate this, we would keep the accent on 1 but emphasize two. One way to do this would be to subdivide 2 into four sub-beats and only play on the fourth sub-beat so it sounds thus: ONEâ¦twoONEâ¦twoONEâ¦twoONE! Each period representing a sub-beat. Notice how 2 gets a certain emphasize that causes the even timing to become sort of ragged. And, yes, that is the origin of the term ragtimeâ¦ragged timingâ¦syncopated timing. It causes the body to sway and hence imparts a feeling of swinging the bodyâ¦swing-feel.
Indeed, âswingâ as a musical term had to be around since the days of ragtime although there is virtually no reference to swing from those times except for a single song recorded in 1912 by a white singer named Elida Morris called âThe Trolley Car Swingâ written by Joe Young (lyrics) and Bert Grant (music). The lyrics would seem to equate the swinging motion of a trolley car with a dance. The title itself indicates as much and for this to be so then the term âswingâ must have been around in this early era of American popular music and must have been known to people in general. After all, the dance of swing was the lindy-hop and the dance of ragtime was the cakewalk and the similarities are undeniable if not striking. In the top clip watch the segment of the white cakewalk dancers at Coney Island where the men unsuccessfully try to flip their partners (difficult to do in sea-soaked sand, Iâm sure). In the next post, we see black lindy-hop dancers doing it right. The move is the same and obviously was as much a part of cakewalk as the lindy.
[video=youtube;K1Q8vq2UsPA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Q8vq2UsPA[/video]
When did the earliest jazz bands form and what did they sound like? Depending on the historian doing the documenting, jazz started as early as 1885 although all agree that it was definitely in existence by 1902. Buddy Bolden has traditionally been credited with starting jazz but others credit Jelly Roll Morton who began converting ragtime, generally written in 2/4, to 4/4 time which laid the foundation for swing. Handy was also definitely laying the groundwork for jazz by 1909 and perhaps as early as â03. I would think the 1885 date is a bit premature. One of the prime ingredients of early jazz was ragtimeâa music formed first from barnyard banjo dance tunes played by slaves and sharecroppers and then jig piano and riverboat songs.
Ragtime probably came about around 1890 or so. I have a ragtime recording from 1890 called âBunch of Ragsâ by Sylvester âVessâ L. Ossman, a prolific ragtime musician at that period. The point is, we can hear a clear influence of ragtime on early jazz but we do not hear any jazz in ragtime simply the does not appear have been any jazz before the emergence of ragtime. If jass preceded ragtime, it must have undergone a radical transformation and this is untenable. Moreover, ragtime would need time to establish itself as a major musical movement for jazz to have incorporated so much of it. So the first jazz bands probably came into existence by 1895 give or take a couple of years.
The John Robichaux Orchestra of New Orleans from a photo taken circa 1896. Since several of the band members were known to have played in true jazz bands early in the 20th century, we can surmise that the Robichaux band must have played something that was at least akin to jazz and we can be certain that they at least qualified as a ragtime band on the verge of jass (by the way, âjassâ is the correct spelling and I use it to mean early jazz of this period), a proto-jass band. They would have been on the reserved side of things with the Bolden band playing a lot hotter.
What characterizes jazz musically is swing. So we need to define swing. Now we run into an incongruity concerning American history that can be summed in the question, âWhen did it really start?â We have no clear genesis mapped out for the term âswingâ nor its meaning. Per its name, it must have started off as a physical component of music such as the sway of the body to a rhythm. This swaying was caused by a certain timing issue in the music called swing-feel which was linked inherently to syncopated rhythm. Syncopation is a way of emphasizing the unaccented beat. In standard march meter or in classical music, a 1-2 beat was simply counted ONE-two-ONE-two-ONE-two. To syncopate this, we would keep the accent on 1 but emphasize two. One way to do this would be to subdivide 2 into four sub-beats and only play on the fourth sub-beat so it sounds thus: ONEâ¦twoONEâ¦twoONEâ¦twoONE! Each period representing a sub-beat. Notice how 2 gets a certain emphasize that causes the even timing to become sort of ragged. And, yes, that is the origin of the term ragtimeâ¦ragged timingâ¦syncopated timing. It causes the body to sway and hence imparts a feeling of swinging the bodyâ¦swing-feel.
Indeed, âswingâ as a musical term had to be around since the days of ragtime although there is virtually no reference to swing from those times except for a single song recorded in 1912 by a white singer named Elida Morris called âThe Trolley Car Swingâ written by Joe Young (lyrics) and Bert Grant (music). The lyrics would seem to equate the swinging motion of a trolley car with a dance. The title itself indicates as much and for this to be so then the term âswingâ must have been around in this early era of American popular music and must have been known to people in general. After all, the dance of swing was the lindy-hop and the dance of ragtime was the cakewalk and the similarities are undeniable if not striking. In the top clip watch the segment of the white cakewalk dancers at Coney Island where the men unsuccessfully try to flip their partners (difficult to do in sea-soaked sand, Iâm sure). In the next post, we see black lindy-hop dancers doing it right. The move is the same and obviously was as much a part of cakewalk as the lindy.
[video=youtube;K1Q8vq2UsPA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Q8vq2UsPA[/video]
