Era Everyone has heard or at least has heard of Jazz music. The bands, the singers, and the Instruments make you want to get up and start dancing! Jazz music has been around longer than you would think and Is still a very popular type of music today. But do people know of the back story? How jazz started out, how it matured or even how today, it is used in deferent ways in music that you might not even notice? Not really. Jazz music may be one of the biggest impacts in our world today and we don’t even see how.
Jazz originally started out as sound like every other type of music does. But what makes them different is how the music is played; in a specific way with specific instruments to make that sound. To mix those parts together you would need influences to Improve the music in its own way. In Jazz, there were influences of “European harmonies and American Instruments” (Barber 53) and particularly the “music of African- Americans who were determined to keep their own traditions alive” (Barber 53) during slavery times around the sass.
The music of the slaves began In New Orleans at a place called the Congo Square (Today known as Louis Armstrong Park) where they played spirituals, blues, and ragtime music and chanted and danced in circular patterns to the music. Then they mixed that music with “European-based military music” (Schuman 31). All this mixed together developed into the earliest form of jazz. Years later, Charles “Buddy” Bolder was named the father of Jazz for changing the instruments from strings to brass instruments. People ad “began to call it ‘lass. ‘ Over time it became known as jazz” (Schuman 31). The exact history of Jazz is uncertain, but it is generally accepted that the music was born in New Orleans, came north to Chicago by way of traveling musicians, then spread to New York City-?and from there around the world. ” (Woos 27). Dance bands were also part of the Jazz history. They would sometimes dance to the music the musicians played. A typical band would have a front line which had a clarinet, trombone, and ornate or trumpet, and they were supported by a rhythm section that had a guitar or banjo, piano, bass or tuba, and drums.
Jazz is a mixture of different styles; it is not just a single tune. The different styles depend on where they come from and how it was developed there. In Chicago, Jazz is an “expression of cultural diversity’ (Kenney). Jazz players performed deferent styles all over the city in clubs, concerts and festivals. It still goes on today in the 21st century. In New Orleans, it is represented as reminder of where the African Americans come from and their rich, and prideful culture that they valued In slavery times.
Instruments weren’t always Just used for music. “During the Steno Rebellion in 1739, drums had been used to a signal an attack on the white population. ” (Gila). That caused South Carolina to ban the use of drums towards slaves. The Georgia slave codes were also established to prevent drums, horns and other loud Instruments. In order to “convert” the African Americans to Westernizes music, they used religion based ideas such as the Hymns and
It actually made the slaves do the opposite and want to play more, but enrich the European idioms with African Traditions. And Jazz is Just one of the genres that were produced through this enrichment. Jazz has a rich history that matured over a long period of time. And since no one knows exactly when it started, for all we know, it could have been around for over 300 years. The Jazz music you hear today may Just have a little part of how they played in the sass but it’s the new additions that everyone knows and that greatly impact our world today.