The History of Jazz Part I: Prehistory

Jazz is often thought of only in terms of its stars. Miles Davis on trumpet and Coltrane on sax come to mind. While these and other stars did have a huge impact on jazz in America, there is a lot more to the music than its celebrities. My hope with this series is to give people some insight into the lesser-known sides of jazz.

In the first section of this series I will focus on the musical influences that made jazz what it was, and what it has become. This is the history of jazz before it became jazz.

I. Slave Music Lays the Foundation

The first evidence of music that would become jazz was seen in 19^th century New Orleans. In Congo Square-where Louis Armstrong Park is today-slaves would come together to play music, sing and dance together.

These dances would often start when one person started pounding out a rhythm on a makeshift drum. Other percussionists would join in, followed by a slave playing a stringed instrument made from a calabash. Soon, the dancers would begin to gather. Drawings from this era confirm that these slaves were playing instruments almost identical to those used in indigenous African music. The dances, and the documentation of them, show us a tie and place when Europeans were exposed to African ritual.

Except for an interruption during the Civil War, these dances seemed to last until about 1885. They disappeared at about the same time that the first jazz bands started playing in New Orleans.

Slaves in New Orleans, most taken from West Africa, clung to what social elements they could carry with them to the colonies. Music and folk tales proved to be the most resilient of these elements. New Orleans' (relatively) tolerant stance on slaves meeting and playing music became the foundation of what would become jazz.

Minstrel shows had an odd impact on jazz. In these shows, white people would put on blackface and mimic (often in a derogatory way) slave culture. Later generations of black entertainers would imitate the white stereotypes of black culture. Hence the oddness: black entertainers mockingly imitating white stereotypes of black culture.

The work song is another example of slave music that would influence jazz. African workers would ritually vocalize while working. There were field hollers, prison work songs, levee camp hollers, street cries, and many other songs. The work song is, sadly, all but extinct today, but its call-and-response had a huge impact on jazz.

II. Country Blues and Classic Blues

If the work song was all about discipline, the work song was all about release. Early accounts of slave music don't say much about the blues, but that's not surprising, considering that the blues was slaves' way of expressing how they felt about the oppressive conditions they lived under. Because the true origins of the blues are still open to debate, we will focus on the blues recordings f the 1920's and 1930's.

Robert Johnson is the best known of the Mississippi Delta blues singers. He didn't have a huge amount of commercial success when he was alive, but, because of his superb rhythmic guitar playing and the universal themes of his songs-unrequited love, traveling, etc.-his music has become more popular with age. Johnson's country blues music, along with that of Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, and Leadbelly, had a huge impact on later jazz musicians.

In the 1920's and 30's, the great female blues singers recorded a wealth of outstanding music. While the country blues singers would take liberties with the length of notes, these women (often referred to as "classic blues" singers) stuck closely to the 12bar form that I associated with blues today. Generally, the country blues songs would have little instrumentation other than a guitar. The classic blues singers often fronted a band.

The classic blue singers took the music from street corns and bars into theatres and assembly halls. The music became so successful that record companies sent talent scouts on field trips to find promising black musicians. This change of the blues from folk art to mass entertainment gave it more exposure to up-and-coming jazz musicians, thus influencing their music.

III. Ragtime

Some argue that ragtime surpasses the blues as an influence on early jazz. Jazz and ragtime were thought of as so similar in the days of early New Orleans jazz that the two terms were used almost interchangeably. Differences can be seen between the two, but not without careful study of their rhythms.

Scott Joplin is the most well-known ragtime composer. While he wrote and performed a huge amount of music, including an opera (that can only loosely be described as "ragtime"), his most famous piece is "The Entertainer," a player piano staple for generations.

The throwing around of the terms "ragtime" and "jazz" as thou they were the same in New Orleans shows us that ragtime had a profound impact on jazz. Ragtime's popularity dropped off, but its impact on jazz cannot be ignored.

This is a brief overview of the prehistory of jazz. Further study is encouraged. And, while you're at it, pick up a Son House CD, and maybe some Scott Joplin, too. You won't be sorry.