January 25, 2013

            New Orleans contributed a lot of material to the emergence of jazz in the 20^th century. For starters it started the trend of jazz being sexy with its “emergence” in the brothels in the District. It contributed to a temporary stigma of the time about jazz. The thought that it was a lesser form of music until it really started to catch on. New Orleans also contributed to the popularity of big brass bands. Although they were playing all over cities, what made New Orleans kind of unique is that that the bands were not limited to concert halls, they would play everywhere even the streets and that helped with the emergence of jazz. At the same time a lot of artists were introduced and their styles influenced future jazz styles like Jelly Roll Morton who used the stop-time technique which is explained on page 41 in History of Jazz. These are just some of the ways New Orleans contributed to jazz and gives some insight as to why jazz emerged here.

            In my opinion, there is one main reason as to why jazz emerged in New Orleans. As professor Stewart stated in lecture, the Atlantic Slave Trade had to go through New Orleans since it was one of the biggest ports in the South. So a lot of black people ended up in New Orleans and brought with them their native music. And after a couple years of playing in Congo Square and eventually music evolving and stuff you end up with jazz.

            But it wasn't always jazz. First it was ragtime, which is the art of ragging on traditional European music. And the blues, which is music that comes from the soul. Some, like Jelly Roll Morton, would say that jazz even needs to have a Spanish flair. Jazz’s sources is an evolution of music. With African roots and some European mixture it is a combination of everything and all sounds.

            The most important factor of jazz emerging in New Orleans, was definitely its location. I think jazz could of formed in Los Angeles if was closer. It's like real estate. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.