Jazz Music In The 19th Century

Trumpeter and band leader Maynard Ferguson once said that “change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about jazz music.” Ferguson’s view of America’s most beloved and celebrated genre of music can refer to the main element in jazz, improvisation or the developing styles that emerged in different locations and eras in the United States. Jazz itself has no set time period or location where it was born and because of this many scholars, as well as, the public have various opinions in regards to the beginning of jazz. A popular lore is that Jazz was created in Storyville, a red-light district in New Orleans. However, research has shown that it developed from both African and European influences of the past. Since the combination

There were immigrants who were coming to the city and brought their own traditional instruments and music with them. In the early 1900s; brass bands generally would play for funerals, march in parades, or perform at places such as community events. Most of the performers at this point in time were white with the exception of a select few of ethnic minorities such as the Irish, Germans, Coarations, etc. It was due to these very limited options for black musicians to perform at that lead them to performing in the streets so to speak. Here the musicians experimented with different sounds and techniques of the brass bands that gradually came to the point where they began to improvise songs. This technique was a result of one of the perks of not being constrained to only the European form of music. Then the infamous Storyville came along in desperate need of performers. There were hardly any rules and the levels of expression appeared to be unbounded. As Dixieland grew in immense popularity it brought legends of jazz to the forefront of the movement as their image of one of the best musicians in jazz began. The most notable of the performers are “King” Oliver, Buddy Bolden, and the legend trumpeter Louis