Just as New Orleans is the home of gumbo, a spicy stew that blends many ethnic foods, so it is also the home of jazz, music that combines sounds of very diverse origins.
Before and after the Civil War, New Orleans was the most cosmopolitan of southern cities. This is where “ragtime” music developed – a blend of parlor, Creole, and Cajun songs – as well as Caribbean and church music, with some brass band marches thrown in as well. This spicy music later became known as “jass” or “jazz.” This music was popular all over America at the turn of the century.
Another form of jazz developed at the same time, and this form is complex and based on individual improvisational styles of players blended into one sound. King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band is considered one of the first true jazz bands. Playing in Oliver’s band was the young Louis Armstrong, one of the most famous trumpet players and jazz singers of all time.
The jazz style of music became so popular that bands across America, and later the world, adopted it. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald called the 1920s the “Jazz Age.” Jazz was identified with youth, sex, liquor, and a free style of living. Today, rock ‘n’ roll symbolizes much of this, but jazz remains a sophisticated and rich form of music whose masters are revered around the world.
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