Did Jazz Really Start In New Orleans?
You’ll have to forgive me if this newsletter doesn’t feel quite as coherent as what you’ve come to expect. Just the other day I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed and I’m still feeling the effects of the surgery. However, the show must go on right? Instead of focusing on an arranging specific topic today, I thought it might be interesting to dive into something a bit more broad, looking at how jazz started and whether what your teacher’s told you in school/university is actually correct.
Like most, I never really got into jazz because of history, I simply loved playing in a big band and that was enough to get me hooked. As with many young musicians who fall in love with the genre, I was hungry for any sort of information and had an intense desire to discover more about it. I looked into the musicians I enjoyed and then discovered even more wonderful music to listen to. Through people like Marcus Miller I got into Miles Davis, who then introduced me to a whole myriad of other artists. It’s an experience that is shared by almost everyone and to me, this kind of journey may be one of the best aspects of pursuing jazz because there are so many wonderful discoveries to be made.
Eventually my desire to learn more landed me in a jazz history class where I realized that while I had never thought about the whole process as some sort of historical undertaking, it indeed was. The class was amazing at introducing me to so many new artists and helped weave a pretty comprehensive tapestry of what jazz was in the 20th century, however it faced the same predicament that all jazz history classes face. It had to pick a definitive starting point. Unfortunately, as I get older the more I realize that it is quite rare for any single moment in history to stand alone and not be linked to a string of other relevant occurrences. The same can be said for the start of jazz. You don’t have to look far to see that most resources claim that New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz. But if we were to go back to the late 19th century and see history take place in real time, would we still feel as strongly about that statement?
For the majority of my life, I simply believed what the textbooks and my professors told me, I didn’t really see any reason to challenge the status quo. That all changed in 2020 when I decided to go on a two year long deep dive into Cuban music history. Through that process I saw how the entirety of the Americas and the Atlantic worked as one large organic hub for the better part of four centuries. Ideas, cultures, and everything else crossed so many borders and influenced one another. While there are countless examples I could draw upon, to sum up 400 years of history within a few sentences is quite the absurd task. However, by looking at the 1800s, particularly the connection between countries such as Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, you can see some clear points of interest that broaden the scope of how jazz actually started.
If you’ve ever looked into early jazz or ragtime, you’ll likely be familiar with the term “The Spanish Tinge” as made popular by pianist/composer Jelly Roll Morton. Ironically, there is actually nothing Spanish about it and the term is simply used to describe the influence of certain Afro-Caribbean rhythms such as the habanera/congo, the tresillo, and the cinquillo. It probably picked up the name due to countries such as Cuba being colonized by the Spanish and primarily speaking that language, however when it comes to music, there is a lot of evidence which suggests that the rhythms came through the various slaved African nations and not from Europe. So why is this relevant to the story of jazz?
Well through the use of the habanera/congo rhythm, we get the Big Four, a specific type of drum pattern which is considered the birthplace of the modern day backbeat. Additionally, the swing feeling/shuffle pattern is also a byproduct of mixing the common West African 6/8 bell pattern with marching band patterns. Collectively, these two developments have had such a huge impact on jazz that they are considered fundamental characteristics of the genre. Although no one can for sure say that they were created in New Orleans, the prominent theory is that they all came together at a place called Congo Square. However, at what point do these influences become jazz? The original rhythms themselves are not American, and definitely didn’t originate in New Orleans. At the time they most likely would’ve been considered Afro-Caribbean as they had existed in the Americas for centuries, and I very much doubt the people playing the music thought of it as jazz.
Going a step further we can look at the concept of blue notes, an integral part of African American folkloric music that has had an incredible impact on both jazz as well as other relevant styles such as gospel and blues. This type of singing is linked to the vocal caste system present in the Senegambia region of West Africa, and came to the United States through slavery. Interestingly, one of the theories about the origin of “blue notes” is that they were likely passed through the Arabic trade networks which linked certain areas of Africa with places as far away as India centuries ago. So one could argue that the polytonal nature of blue notes is actually Indian. While that is quite the tangent from my original question, it does provide more background to some of the influences on jazz and shows how some characteristics which seem so strongly “American” are actually the product of centuries of global history.
Getting back to New Orleans, now that we have a little bit more context, is it possible to say that jazz started in the city given that so many major elements are actually linked to so many other places outside of the USA? While no one is still alive to tell us, I think it is reasonable to say that what led to the creation of jazz was the perfect recipe of events. New Orleans just happened to facilitate the fusion of so many different elements, allowing the unique artform we now think of jazz to get started. Only in hindsight is it possible to associate the location with the formation of jazz, and it’s important to remember that the story of jazz doesn’t simply start at one time period and in one city. Jazz is simply a continuation of the events that led up to it, in a similar fashion to how rock’n’roll has its roots in jazz, and so forth. Personally, I find it extremely fascinating how many characteristics of 19th century Cuban music influenced early jazz, so much so that I can see how one might justify early jazz as simply being a continuation, or perhaps slight deviation, from what was taking place in Cuba at the time.
Inevitably we have to draw the line somewhere when learning history otherwise we are doomed to keep going back until we get to the start of time. While most jazz history classes choose to start with New Orleans, I think it’s important to make sure that it is clear that jazz wasn’t just created in a vacuum, or perhaps that it was far more complicated than the usual explanation of it being created by mixing African rhythms with European harmonies. Some level of nuance is needed and I don’t see the harm in early jazz being presented in a slightly more complex manner.
Well this newsletter ended up a bit different to normal. Perhaps it’s all of the pain medication I’m on. Let me know what you thought and if this is the sort of discussion you’d like to see in these entries. I’m a huge fan of jazz history and love unpacking the music so would happily speak more on related topics if others find it interesting.
Until next time,
Toshi