Jazz: A History

Jazz: The History

The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the original song.

The average Jazz musician could not read music at all, but the way they performed on stage gave life to the audience. It thrilled them in a way that brought joy to their emotions. Their spontaneous music captured their hearts, which fell in love with the music known as Jazz. African-Americans and Creoles in New Orleans first played Jazz. And it was generally known that Buddy Bolden was the first Jazz musician to play. Some other veteran Jazz musicians such as Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, and Clarence Williams were known to first play Jazz music. Although these people are not famous as of today, their style and ideas are still affecting musicians today.

Although Jazz was enjoyed by many audiences, many men could not make a living off of music and therefore were forced to work minor jobs to get around. The second generations of Jazz musicians were some like Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Ory, and Jelly Roll Morton. These people formed a small band and started to reshape the way the original Jazz music was played. They have made it into a different style with more complications and twists and turns. And so it became known as "Hot Jazz". King Oliver found a young artist by the name of Louis Armstrong. He soon grew to become the greatest Jazz musician anyone has known. He is still a big star in the world today. By the 20th Century, African-American musical styles became the dominant force.

The instruments played during Jazz were the average instruments played today, and nothing dissimilar. There would be about ten instruments in a band such as trumpet, string bass, guitar, piano, drums, saxophone, clarinet, trombone, and oboe. They are not all of the instruments but the basics. But in general, any instrument can become a Jazz instrument as long as it can play to the beat of Jazz.

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