New Orleans, with
its status as a port city where the cultures of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean,
and the heartland of America coming down from the Mississippi River all came
together, as well as its more liberal Latin Code of practicing slavery, was the
perfect storm for jazz to be created.
The area of New Orleans was first colonized by
France, a catholic country. They practiced slavery under the Latin Code, which allowed
more freedoms than the English code practiced in the North. For example, slaves
could marry, and even more important, intermarry, they could buy their freedom,
be freed by their masters, and own personal property. However, perhaps the
greatest freedom in terms of the creation of jazz was the freedom to dance and
play music. In the North, just the use of drums was prohibited because whites
feared they were used to signal a rebellion. In the South however, whites would
even come to hear the music of the black folk. The center for this artistic
expression was Congo Square, a square in New Orleans that was designated on
Sunday as a place for slaves to practice forms of music and dance carried over
from Africa. Congo Square was a crucial way to preserve African traditions that
were suppressed in other colonies.
Because the city
was a connecting point between various cultures, its cosmopolitan population
contributed an array of ideas, particularly in regards to music. From Europe
came the technical and high society classical music, from Africa came
performance elements like vital aliveness and the get-down quality, and from
the Caribbean came a light, Latin rhythm. However, it wasn’t until the passing
of the Louisiana Legislative Code of 1894 that these elements were thoroughly
mixed together. The code forced any people of African descent to be considered
Negro; this meant that the Creole (mixed race) people, who for so long had
identified with their European heritage and strove to distance themselves from
blacks, were forced to come into close contact with them. It also meant that the
European style of music that the Creole class practiced could comingle with the
blues and ragtime genres of blacks, combining technical skill with emotion to
create jazz.
Besides the city
itself, there were many figures who contributed to the birth of jazz. The first
of which was Buddy Bolden, a composer and cornetist who is credited as the
inventor of the “Big Four,” a key rhythmic device characteristic of jazz.
Considered the father of jazz, he also combined elements of ragtime with the
raw emotion of the blues, which is essentially the definition of jazz. Perhaps
his most important contribution to jazz, however, was his commentary on the
current situation for blacks. His bold lyrics were a critique of the police brutality,
unjust judgment, and general discrimination against blacks. Another contender
as the creator of jazz was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, an all-white band
that was the first to commercially record jazz standards. But the only figure
to claim himself as the creator of jazz was Jelly Roll Morton, who played in
Storyville, New Orleans’ Red Light District. Like Bolden, he too fused ragtime
and the blues together to form jazz.
Of all these
contributors to the genre’s creation, the most important was its position as a
port city. The flow of ideas allowed for the innovation, influence, and
improvisation that is so important to creating a new form of anything. That
jazz was born from multiple cultures is a way for blacks to reconcile with
double consciousness; even though blacks did not identify wholly with the
African continent since they were so far removed from it, nor did they identify
with whites because they were constantly reminded of their own inferiority, they
could find solace in making America their foster home. And that jazz is a
purely American creation (albeit a creation out of different cultures) is
something that encourages and affirms the worth of African Americans. Because
the most important aspect of jazz is its fusion of different cultures, it only
fits that it should arise out of such a cosmopolitan city as New Orleans.
