The music of New Orleans assumes various styles of music which have often borrowed from earlier traditions. New Orleans is especially known for its strong association with jazz music, universally considered to be the birthplace of the genre. The earliest form was dixieland, which has sometimes been called traditional jazz, 'New Orleans', or 'New Orleans jazz'. However, the tradition of jazz in New Orleans has taken on various forms that have either branched out from original dixieland or taken entirely different paths altogether. New Orleans has also been a prominent center of funk, home to some of the earliest funk bands such as the Meters.
Background The African influence on New Orleans music can trace its roots at least back to Congo Square in New Orleans in 1835, when enslaved people would congregate there to play music and dance on Sundays. African music was primarily played as well as local music from varying sources such as adapted work songs, African American spirituals, and field hollers. African, Indigenous American, Cuban, and European musical forms that were popular in the city, including the evolving brass band tradition, provided the cultural mix which laid the groundwork for the New Orleans musical art forms to come.
By 1838, the local paper—the daily Picayune—ran a scathing article complaining about the emergence of brass bands in the city, which it stated could be found on every corner.
Jazz
The term "jazz" (early on often spelled "jass") did not become popular until the mid and late 1910s, when New Orleans musicians first rose to prominence in other parts of the US and the New Orleans style needed a new name to differentiate it from the nationally popular ragtime. Before then, the New Orleans style was frequently simply called "ragtime" (Sidney Bechet continued to call his music "ragtime" throughout his life), along with such local terms as "hot music" and "ratty music".
The local New Orleans dance music style was already distinctive in the 19th century. When this style became what was later known as "jazz" remains a matter of debate and definition, although most New Orleans music historians believe what became known as New Orleans style jazz was the product of a series of developments, probably reaching its famous form no earlier than the 1890s and no later than the mid 1910s.
By the 1890s a man by the name of Poree hired a band led by cornetist Buddy Bolden, many of whose contemporaries as well as many jazz historians consider to be the first prominent jazz musician. The music was not called jazz at this time, consisting of marching band music with brass instruments and dancing. Many claim Bolden was the first player to play The Blues on a brass instrument. The actual term "jazz" was first "jass", the etymology of which is still not entirely clear. The connotation is sexual in nature, as many of the early performers played in rough working class venues. Despite colorful stories of mid-20th century writers, the prostitution district known as Storyville was no more important in the development of the music than the city's other neighborhoods, but did play a role in exposing some out of town visitors to the style. Many instruments used were often acquired second-hand at pawn shops, including used military band instruments.
The Creole people of New Orleans also contributed greatly to the evolution of the artform, though their own music became heavily influenced by the pioneering work of Bolden. New Orleans-born musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton all recalled the influence Bolden had on the direction of the music of New Orleans (Armstrong himself had no memory of Bolden, but was told about him by his mentor King Oliver) and jazz itself.
Sicilian influence New Orleans had experienced a large wave of migration from the Italian region of Sicily between the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Sicilian capital of Palermo had long held cotton and citrus fruit trade with New Orleans. This resulted in the establishment of a direct shipping line between the two port cities which enabled a vast number of Sicilians to migrate to New Orleans, as well as other American cities. As a result of this migration, music of Sicily had some influence upon the development of New Orleans Jazz. This was shown in the New Orleans group the Original Dixieland Jass Band. Bandleader Nick LaRocca and drummer Tony Sbarbaro were both born to parents who were Sicilian migrants. The band's "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued.
Cuban influence
African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the nineteenth century, when the habanera (Cuban contradanza) gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. From the perspective of African American music, the habanera rhythm (also known as congo,Manuel, Peter (2009: 69). Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. tango-congo,Acosta, Leonardo (2003: 5). Cubano Be Cubano Bop; One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Books. or tangoMauleón (1999: 4) Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. Petaluma, California: Sher Music. .) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat.Peñalosa, David (2010: 42). The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins. Redway, California: Bembe Inc. .
Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform and unsurprisingly, the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera, "reached the U.S. 20 years before the first rag was published" (1999: 12).Roberts, John Storm (1999: 12) Latin Jazz. New York: Schirmer Books. The symphonic work La nuit des tropiques (lit. "Night of the Tropics") by New Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk, was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba.Sublette, Ned (2008:125). Cuba and its Music; From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Gottschalk used the tresillo variant cinquillo extensively. With Gottschalk, we see the beginning of serious treatment of Afro-Caribbean rhythmic elements in New World art music. For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk, ragtime, and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African American popular music.Roberts, John Storm (1999: 16) Latin Jazz. New York: Schirmer Books.
Whether tresillo was directly transplanted from Cuba, or if the habanera merely reinforced tresillo-like "rhythmic tendencies" already present in New Orleans music is probably impossible to determine. It is reasonable to assume that tresillo-based rhythms were performed in Congo Square by Caribbean slaves. There are examples of tresillo-like rhythms in a few African American folk musics such as the foot stomping patterns in ring shout and the post-Civil War drum and fife music.Kubik, Gerhard (1999: 52). Africa and the Blues. Jackson, Michigan: University Press of Mississippi. Tresillo is also heard prominently in New Orleans second line music.Early New Orleans jazz bands had habaneras in their repertoire and the tresillo/habanera figure was a rhythmic staple of jazz at the turn of the 20th century. Comparing the music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans "clave"."Wynton Marsalis part 2." 60 Minutes. CBS News (26 June 2011). Although technically, the pattern is only half a clave, Marsalis makes the important point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. The New Orleans musician Jelly Roll Morton considered the tresillo/habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz.Roberts, John Storm 1979. The Latin tinge: the impact of Latin American music on the United States. Oxford. The habanera rhythm and tresillo can be heard in his left hand on songs like "The Crave" (1910, recorded 1938). Morton stated, "Now in one of my earliest tunes, "New Orleans Blues", you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz."Morton, "Jelly Roll" (1938: Library of Congress Recording) The Complete Recordings By Alan Lomax.
Although the exact origins of jazz syncopation may never be known, there's evidence that the habanera/tresillo rhythm was there at its conception. Buddy Bolden, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march.Marsalis, Wynton (2000: DVD n.1). Jazz. PBS As the example below shows,"Jazz and Math: Rhythmic Innovations", PBS.org. The Wikipedia example shown in half time compared to the source. the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm.
In Early Jazz; Its Roots and Musical Development, Gunther Schuller states:Schuller, Gunther (1968: 19) Early Jazz; Its Roots and Musical Development. New York: Oxford Press.
Second line
The use of brass marching bands came long before jazz music through their use in the military, though in New Orleans many of the best-known musicians had their start in brass marching bands performing dirges as well as celebratory and upbeat tunes for New Orleans jazz funeral processions from the 1890s onward. The tradition drove onward with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Henry "Red" Allen and King Oliver. The presence of marching bands lives on today in New Orleans, with musicians such as the Marsalis family doing some of their earliest work in such bands.
Much of New Orleans music today owes its debt to the early marching bands, even those marching bands which predate the birth of jazz music. In the late 19th century marching bands would often march through the streets of the city in second line parades. Some of the earliest bands originated from the Treme and Algiers neighborhoods, and the city gave birth to such bands as the Excelsior, Algiers Brass Band, Onward and Olympia brass bands. The Onward and Olympia bands each have sustained incarnations that continue performing to this day. Modern examples of the brass band tradition can be heard in the playing of groups like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, or the Rebirth Brass Band founded by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, Keith Frazier, and Kermit Ruffins.
The history of the marching band in New Orleans is a rich one, with the various bands performing at virtually every major social event the city has to offer. They perform at funerals, picnics, carnivals and parades. The relationship between jazz bands and brass bands is one of co-influence. Jazz bands of this era began to go beyond the confines of the time signature the marching bands utilized. Instead, New Orleans jazz bands began incorporating a style known as "ragging"; this technique implemented the influence of ragtime meter and eventually led to improvisation. In turn, the early jazz bands of New Orleans influenced the playing of the marching bands, who in turn began to improvise themselves more often. Again, yet another indication that jazz music is symbolic of freedom.
Dixieland
The term dixieland was first coined by Dan Emmett in his song "Dixie's Land" in 1859. It was not a positive term for African Americans, as its usage defined any area of the south where slaves had not yet received emancipation. Dixieland music can be defined in a number of ways, though its origin is to be found in New Orleans, present first in the music of King Oliver. It quickly spread north and became popularized along with the migration of southern blacks to areas like Chicago. Today the term is used in reference to the music, which provides a general description of any form of jazz that is derived from early New Orleans jazz.