The emergence of jazz is a story of convergence, the coming together of different cultures and ideas to form a unique phenomenon. But critical to the understanding of how these converging factors birthed the genre of music we now know as jazz is an examination of the location and conditions in which this genesis took place. That location was New Orleans, and in looking at the city’s unique nature—from the prominence of music and performance in the city’s social life, to the syncretic relations of the city’s diverse cultures and classes—we can gain a more complete understanding of why the Crescent City can be properly called “the cradle of jazz” [Gioia, 42]
One of the most distinctive features of New Orleans during the late 19th and early 20th century (and still today) was the way in which music was so deeply integrated into daily social life. Whether in sporting houses or Baptist churches, at fish fries or lawn parties, to audiences of both high and low class, music was present and prominent—“if you didn’t go to the music in New Orleans, it often came to you” [Gioia, 30]. Especially striking was the way in which the city allowed for the public expression of Black music and dance from early on; the establishment of an official public site for slave dances by the New Orleans City Council in 1817 was atypical and demonstrated an “exemplary degree of tolerance” [Gioia, 7]. This early acceptance of Black artistic expression fostered a citywide cultural identity of music and performance, which itself necessitated a very large number of musicians and performers. This high concentration of musically inclined people in New Orleans would harbor an environment that would give rise to more new and experimental music than other cities.
Going beyond the sheer musicality of New Orleans, the city was also unique for its constitutive cultures and classes, as well as the syncretic dynamic in which they interacted. The presence of European, African, and American elements in New Orleans was itself incredible, but what made the city truly exceptional was that it “was far more tolerant in accepting unorthodox social hybrids” than other parts of the New World. This social hybridization made New Orleans a legitimate cultural melting pot, rather than a collection of disparate and separate ingredients.
The emergence of Black Creole culture was an example of this ethnic convergence that had an especially important impact on jazz’s birth. Coming from both European and African ancestry, Creoles of color enjoyed a sort of intermediate social class, between the Whites and the Black underclass, and from a musical standpoint, they were heavily influenced by the highbrow musical traditions of the European settlers from which they descended. Eventually, however, legislation in 1894 decreed all persons of African descent as being Negro, and the Creoles further associated with the black underclass society. This integration saw the mixing of the more technically skilled Creole musicians with the “more boisterous black bands that were pursuing a ‘hotter’ style, one that would serve as the foundation for New Orleans jazz” [Gioia, 32]. These differing styles drew influence from one another, and though the latter, “hotter,” style became more prevalent, this convergence of cultures and classes to form something new entirely is a paradigmatic example of New Orleans’s unique cultural mixing.
Often overlooked in a historical account of jazz’s emergence in New Orleans is the role of Mexican culture. At the 1884 World’s Cotton Exposition in New Orleans a Mexican national military band performed, and upon the Exposition’s end, many of these Mexican musicians remained in New Orleans and injected their own culture into the city’s music scene—“their influence would echo in the jazz and blues of this region from [that] point forward” [Johnson, 225]. Especially important was the classical music instruction that many Mexican instrumentalists imparted on New Orleans’s prominent musicians. Ultimately, however, the weight given to Mexican influence on the emergence of jazz should not be overstated; though important, I would not call it necessary to jazz’s existence. Classical music instruction was not unique to Mexican culture, and though this culture brought the saxophone to New Orleans, there is no reason to believe that without Mexican influence, the sax wouldn’t have arrived there at some point thereafter.
What I believe to be the most important factor in jazz’s emergence in New Orleans is the stylistic convergence and experimentation of the genre’s early individual stars—whether it be Buddy Bolden’s blues-ragtime fusion, Jelly Roll Morton’s avant-garde abstract theorization of jazz, or Louis Armstrong’s popularization of the jazz solo. It is debatable whether or not these individuals truly “invented” jazz, or even the things that I have just attributed to them, but it was their individual star-power, their large success, that propelled the genre into the mainstream. Without them, the music we know as jazz may have existed, but it is because of them that jazz truly came to life.
Comment: Dalton Klock
Comment: Dalton Klock
