Chapter 6: The Birth of Jazz
The rich nightlife and musical vibrancy of New Orleans began to wane in the late 1910s due to a series of social, economic, and political developments. The closure of Storyville in 1917, mandated by the U.S. Navy which prohibited houses of prostitution near military bases, removed one of the city’s key entertainment districts and a major venue for jazz performance. Just two years later, the Volstead Act of 1919 enforced national Prohibition, further suppressing the kinds of nightlife spaces where jazz had flourished. At the same time, the rural South faced economic collapse. A devastating boll weevil infestation destroyed much of the cotton crop in the early 1920s, leaving thousands of people, both Black and white, unemployed. Faced with shrinking opportunities, many African Americans joined the Great Migration, seeking better lives in Northern cities where factories and urban industries promised work and stability. One of the key destinations for these migrants was Chicago, which by the mid-1920s had become a new cultural and economic hub and the emerging epicenter of jazz in America.
The musicians who relocated to Chicago, many of whom had roots in New Orleans, brought with them the foundational elements of New Orleans jazz, but they also began to refine and expand the style to suit urban audiences and modern settings. Chicago jazz musicians introduced more formal structure into their arrangements, including planned introductions and endings, as well as extended internal solos that allowed individual players to showcase their improvisational skill. The music became more harmonically adventurous, with modulations and melodic interludes that added new levels of complexity. Rhythmically, the Chicago sound featured a lighter texture and a shift toward backbeat emphasis, placing strong accents on beats two and four of each measure. This technique contributed to the swinging, propulsive energy that would become central to later jazz and rhythm and blues styles. The tenor saxophone began to replace the clarinet as a leading melodic voice, bringing a deeper, smoother tone to the ensemble, while the trombone evolved beyond its traditional tailgate role to take on more melodic responsibilities.
One of the dominant voices in Chicago jazz during this period was Joe "King" Oliver, a legendary New Orleans cornetist known for his expressive use of mutes and inventive improvisation. Oliver was invited to join the band at the Royal Gardens Café, one of Chicago’s premier jazz venues, and became a major force in the local scene. His ensemble, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, featured a young Louis Armstrong, whom Oliver had mentored back in New Orleans. Their collaboration helped shape the next era of jazz, blending the collective improvisation of New Orleans with the heightened role of the individual soloist that came to define the Chicago sound.