File:  <84mor.htm>     <Contact>

 

ALL THAT JAZZ

 

Robert D. Morritt

                                                                                                                                                                         Availability

 

          Jazz began as an improvisation, a mutation of styles and influences in an area. It was born out of African-American experiences, traveling vaudeville shows, the sound of horns and ecstatic responses to preachers' chants, and exposure to marching bands. When Storyville closed in 1917 not all Ragtime or Jazz musicians took steamboats up river to Chicago. Many musicians were out of work. Many returned to the former occupations as laborers, or farmhands or part-time employment. Jazz was a mix of African tribal rhythms, work songs of Southern field hands, fused with Creole styles of African-American Brass Bands at social gatherings together with Ragtime styles from Storyville parlors mixed with ‘Blue notes’ combined with improvisation and syncopation gave birth to ‘Jazz’. Later,as the music migrated north to Chicago it mutated again, influenced by early ‘City’ Jazz Bands. Included is a discography sampling of early recordings of 'Jazz' music.