the story of jazz

Today, I will resume you a the story, the origin of a type of music that we listen today differently from the past : Jazz. This kind of music finds its origins from different parts of the world, and has evolved through the time.

The Jazz, like I said previously, hadn’t the same aspect as we can know today, even if they are so many types of Jazz actually nowadays. The main origins of this Afro-american music are straightly linked with the slavery period : between 1619, when the first Africans came to Virginia, and the American Civil War, two millions of slaves were deported in North America colonies to work in cotton/corn fields etc…

In plantations, the slaves had to work very hard, being ill-treated, violently repressed… Consequently, they started to sing between us to encourage themselves to endure all the day. Those songs were called “Work songs”. They are sang a Capella (without accompaniment), cadenced by regular rhythms to synchronize the slave’s movements during chores.

Later, The negro spiritual has been born. It is a religious song born in the 18th century, among the black slaves of Untied States, which could be the origin of the Gospel. For example, Claude Nougaro picked up the melody from the Old Testament “Go down Moses” to write his tribute for Louis Amstrong.

Then, the Blues appeared in Mexico and United States in the 19th century, it is a vocal and instrumental type of music where the musician express his sadness and runs of bad luck. We can feel it because of the harmonies, the scales and chords.

The Rag Time appeared also near the same period, it is characterized by piano pieces, which were supposed to accompany the black American dancers. The most famous compositor, Scott Joplin, had so much influence that his music was spread in Europe. Even classical musicians were inspired, like Claude Debussy.

At the very end of the 19th century, street bands appeared in the quarter of the New Orleans, called Storyville. The African influences integrated rhythms named “syncopation”. Those music bands were composed of transportable instruments ( trumpet, trombone, clarinet, banjo/guitar, tuba, washboards etc…).

From the 20’s, a new type of gender of music spread out : the Broadway. This term refers to plays or musicals performed in each of the 40 major professional theaters in the Broadway district of New York. In the 1920’s, 200 plays and musicals were played every year on Broadway. Many famous compositors like Cole Porter or George Gershwin composed musicals, some of which have become that we call “standards”.

Furthermore, we can also talk about the Swing (my favorite) : the Swing was spread in the 1930’s. It represents the golden age of the big bands (group of instruments as trumpets trombone, saxophone, drums, double bass etc…). The most famous of which are those of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. With the advent of swing, jazz quickly became more famous than it had ever been before. If you want to start listening Swing, I recommend you the pieces of the 2 composers that I mentionned.

I spare you the explanation of other under categories of Jazz (Cool, Bee Bop, Hard Bop, Fusion etc…). All those words to say that this type of music evolved according the time, the people and the historical context, being one of the most type of music listened nowadays.