Chapter 6: The Birth of Jazz
Jazz was born in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century, a city uniquely positioned to foster musical innovation due to its rich cultural, ethnic, and musical heritage. As a port city at the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans was a hub of commerce and immigration, attracting people from across the United States and around the world. Its history as a former French and Spanish colony, combined with the legacy of slavery and Reconstruction, gave rise to a diverse population that included Black Americans, white Americans, Creoles of French and Spanish descent, Creoles of color (people of mixed African and European ancestry), and immigrants from the Caribbean and Europe. These communities lived in close proximity, and despite the racial segregation codified by Jim Crow laws, musical ideas and traditions often crossed boundaries in ways that laws and social norms did not.
By the late 1800s, New Orleans had a vibrant and eclectic musical culture that included brass bands, opera houses, street parades, social clubs, and dance halls. The city’s famous "second line" parades, community processions with live bands playing upbeat music for dancing and celebration, provided a space where marching band traditions blended with African rhythms, syncopated dance music, and musical improvisation. Music thrived not only in formal concert settings but also in saloons, gambling halls, and especially in Storyville, the city’s red-light district, where musicians were hired to entertain clientele.
Jazz emerged from this dynamic environment as a hybrid form that combined ragtime’s syncopation, the blues' expressive phrasing and 12-bar form, brass band instrumentation, and the harmonic and structural language of European music. Theater orchestras, gospel traditions, and folk melodies also contributed to the genre’s development. It was both a product of cultural fusion and a form of resistance, offering Black musicians a platform for artistic expression and innovation during an era of racial oppression and limited opportunity
Although we know which musical components combined to form jazz, the origin of the word "jazz" remains unclear. Some believe it may come from a Creole word meaning "to speed up." Others suggest it is a corruption of the bawdy Elizabethan word "jass," meaning "to copulate with." Still others claim it is Cajun slang for "jazz belle," a variation on Jezebel, the infamous biblical queen associated with seduction, idolatry, and moral transgression. What is certain is that the word did not originate in polite society. It emerged from the margins, from working class communities and entertainment districts, reflecting the gritty, passionate, and rebellious spirit of the music itself.