Who Founded Jazz Music?
Contents
This blog dives into the history of Jazz music and discusses who is credited with founding this popular genre of music.
The Origins of Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen as “America’s classical music”. So who founded this genre of music?
The early years of Jazz
Though today we think of jazz as uniquely American music, its origins are in fact a blend of various cultures from around the world. Jazz has roots in West African music and in the music of theEnslaved Africans who were brought to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade. It also has roots in European music, particularly in Ragtime which was popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The first recorded use of the word “jazz” was in a 1913 review of a musical performance by bands led by Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton. The reviewer called the style ” Jesse James music” or “ragging”, but popular usage soon shortened the term to “jazz”.
Over time, jazz has evolved into a variety of different styles, including swing, bebop, and fusion. Each style has its own characteristic sound, but all improvisation and ever-changing nature of jazz.
The first Jazz recordings
The first Jazz recordings were made in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jass Band. But it was not until the 1920s that Jazz became popular, with bands such as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recording some of the most famous early Jazz tracks.
During the 1930s, Swing music became popular, with big band leaders such as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman becoming household names. The 1940s saw the rise of Bebop, with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie making some of the most influential Jazz recordings of all time.
The 1950s saw a return to popularity for Swing music, with artists such as Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald achieving widespread acclaim. But it was also during this decade that Jazz began to splinter into different subgenres, with artists such as Miles Davis exploring modal Jazz and John Coltrane experimenting with free Jazz.
Today, Jazz is more popular than ever, with new subgenres continuing to emerge and old ones enjoying renewed popularity. Whether you’re a fan of swinging big bands or avant-garde free improvisation, there’s a corner of the Jazz world for you to explore!
The Founders of Jazz
Jazz was first founded in the early 20th century by African American musicians in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first jazz recordings were made in 1917. The first known use of the word “jazz” was in a song called “Jass Band Blues” which was released in 1918. Jazz quickly spread from New Orleans to other parts of the United States, and by the early 1920s, it was being played in Europe and Australia as well.
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong, born in New Orleans in 1901, was a jazz trumpet virtuoso and one of the most influential figures in jazz history. As a young man, he played in the pioneering style of New Orleans jazz with its collective improvisation and polyphonic ensemble playing. In the 1920s, he became a leading soloist, creating innovative musical ideas and phrases that influenced subsequent generations of jazz musicians. He helped to codify the jazz solo form with his distinctive 4-bar breaks and ideas that were passed on to other soloists. He was also an accomplished singer, performing with a gravelly voice that was well suited to the blues. His popularity soared in the 1930s with his appearances in films and on radio, and he went on to enjoy a successful career as a bandleader and recording artist. He died in 1971.
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( October 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton is credited with naming and helping to develop the “Dixieland” style of jazz through his composition of such numbers as “Jelly Roll Blues”, “New Orleans Blues”, “Black Bottom Stomp”, and “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say”. Morton also wrote suits for other musicians including “Big Foot Ham”, who helped spread the popularity of the style beyond New Orleans.
During the 1920s, Morton was a leading figure in the revival of classic ragtime compositions by younger musicians such as W. C. Handy and Thomas “Fats” Waller. His innovative competitive recordings and performances helped to gain respect for him among other jazz musicians leading to his inclusion in 1926 on Sidney Bechet’s first visit to Chicago and then as part of Bechet’s band from October 1928 until early 1930 when he returned to Los Angeles.
In 1915 Jelly Roll Morton began working with music publisher John Steppling which led to the publication that year of Morton’s first composition, “Jelly Roll Blues”. In 1918 he moved to Chicago where he continued performing while working part-time for Steppling editing sheet music. He also began traveling more frequently playing throughout the Midwest reaching as far north as Wisconsin by 1919. He became increasingly interested in Latin American rhythms which he would later incorporate into some of his compositions like “The Pearls” (1923), while continuing his developing career as a piano soloist playing mostly ragtime and other popular tunes of the day.
King Oliver
King Oliver was born in New Orleans in 1885. His first musical experience came as a member of the brass band at his local church. He quickly began to develop his own style of playing, which incorporated aspects of both European classical music and the African-based folk music he grew up with. In 1918, he moved to Chicago and assembled a group called the Creole Jazz Band. This band made some of the first recordings of what would come to be known as jazz. Oliver continued to play and record until his untimely death in 1930.
The Spread of Jazz
Originating in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, jazz spread through the Southern United States to the rest of the country and then to the world. Jazz is a music genre that is characterized by a syncopated rhythm, as well as by improvisation, horns, and a strong rhythm section.
New Orleans
New Orleans is a major port city on the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana, United States. With a 2019 estimated population of 393,292, it is the most populous city in Louisiana. A key factor in the city’s growth was the position of the city on the river and its geography. The city is built on several naturallevées that form ridges along the river (see figure below). The Mississippi River floods the surrounding region every spring, but the high natural levées protect New Orleans from much of the floodwaters.
Chicago
Chicago was a major center for jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. The city had dozens of clubs, many of them on the South Side, where music could be heard seven nights a week. The first jazz record, “Livery Stable Blues,” was recorded in Chicago in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Some of the most important early jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and King Oliver, came from New Orleans and moved to Chicago in the 1920s to find work. They helped to develop the new style of music known as Chicago jazz.
New York
In New York City, jazz took off in a big way. In the early years of the twentieth century, the city was a hotbed of musical activity, with performances and recordings happening all over town. The music sometimes referred to as “hot jazz” or “Dixieland” was played by bands led by such New Orleans musicians as Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver. These groups often featured a combination of trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and sometimes even a tuba. They played a style of music that was based on the marching band traditions of New Orleans, but with a lot more improvisation.
The Evolution of Jazz
Jazz music has been around for over a hundred years and has undergone a great deal of evolution in that time. It was first created by African Americans in the early 20th century and was originally a fusion of African and European musical traditions. Jazz has since been influences by a wide variety of genres and has produced many sub-genres itself. In this article, we’ll take a look at the history of jazz and some of its most important innovators.
Bebop
Bebop was a major development in jazz music, and it emerged in the early 1940s. Bebop was characterized by its fast tempo, complex harmonic structure, and its use of improvisation. Bebop was developed by a group of young musicians who were tired of the constraints of the Swing Era style of jazz. They wanted to create a style that was more expressive and personal.
The two most important figures in the development of bebop were alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. They were both virtuosic musicians with a deep understanding of harmony. They also had a shared love of the blues. Parker and Gillespie worked together extensively, and their work laid the foundation for bebop.
Other important bebop musicians include pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Max Roach. Bebop quickly spread throughout the United States and Europe, and it had a profound impact on the development of jazz music.
Hard Bop
Although jazz is considered a truly American musical art form, its roots can be traced back to West African music. The earliest jazz musicians were influenced by the sounds they heard in their everyday lives, from the music played in their churches to the songs sung by field workers. Over time, these influences began to coalesce into what we now know as jazz.
One of the earliest and most important styles of jazz was known as “New Orleans Jazz.” This style was developed in the early 1900s in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. One of the most important innovators of this style was trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Armstrong’s playing style was characterized by a unique approach to melody and improvisation that quickly became popular with other musicians.
In the 1940s and 1950s, a new style of jazz emerged that came to be known as “bebop.” Bebop was characterized by fast-paced, complex melodies and chord progressions. This style was pioneered by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Parker and Gillespie’s playing pushed the boundaries of what was possible on their respective instruments, and their influence can still be heard in today’s jazz musicians.
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the rise of another important style of jazz known as “hard bop.” Hard bop was a return to some of the elements of New Orleans Jazz, but with a more complex approach to harmony and improvisation. Trumpeter Miles Davis was one of the key figures in the development of hard bop. His 1959 album Kind of Blue is considered one of the most important recordings in jazz history.
Modal Jazz
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a new style of jazz emerged that was influenced by both bebop and blues. This style came to be known as modal jazz. In modal jazz, improvisation is based on a given mode or scale, rather than on chord progressions. This gives the music a very different feel from that of other types of jazz.
Modal jazz was popularized by Miles Davis, with his album “Kind of Blue.” Other important modal jazz musicians include John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.
