Jazz Music

Jazz is a broad genre of music spanning from the end of the 19th century to modern times. The focus for this essay is the period of time between 1880 and 1955. In its beginnings, jazz originated with the African slave population and was not permitted to play their music publically in most parts of the United States but slaves in New Orleans on Sundays. As the Africans played their music, their musical elements like the call and response, repeated refrains, and a chorus format became central to jazz but European influences didn’t directly appear until after the 1920s. (Schuller, 1968) Throughout the 20th century, the music that was called jazz went from a largely unknown music played by African slaves to a genre called ragtime in the 1910s and

The music that developed into the 1910s came to be known as ragtime and, by now, African Americans had been forming bands. These bands generally consisted of instruments like the piano, banjo, and violin. Ragtime was characterized by the steady rhythms played in the left hand of the piano while the right hand played more complex rhythms. (Chilton, 1979) Also, European musical forms such as Rondo and 3 part structures started to show up in African compositions. (Schuller, 1968) The 1920s saw the first few major figures in jazz such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton make their appearance and impact on the jazz scene. Jelly Roll Morton had claimed that he invented jazz because he developed the notation for it and Louis Armstrong has made his mark as being one of the most influential jazz performers. (Biography.com) Jazz in 1920s America came to be known as Dixieland Jazz (name characteristics) and, by now, was. By the 1930s, jazz had become more widespread and more popular and saw the emergence of big bands (larger groups or jazz musicians). Jazz in this decade was easier to listen to and the majority of well-known jazz songs such as Sing, Sing, Sing, In a Sentimental Mood and Take the A Train were composed. Swing jazz was a genre of jazz that focussed primarily on being dance music. Swing took well-known songs and

In 1919, there was a film made titled “Does the Jazz Leads to Destruction” which looked at jazz quite negatively. (Johnson, 1987) Ragtime was quickly accepted and, by 1926, jazz was a popular music genre and people were comfortable with music that the Americans were bringing and, with growing cities, there was more demand for entertainment.

Jazz became a wide influence on many composers including Bernstein and Gershwin while other composers and performers such as Benny Goodman and Billy Holiday gained their popularity and success directly from the jazz scene. As time went by, countries around the world started composing making their own jazz with their own characteristics but still

In short, the early reactions to jazz in Australia were very similar to the reactions in America. Audiences in both countries were initially sceptical of the new music but gradually grew to enjoy it. Jazz developed from being played by African American slaves and being enjoyed by few to a widespread genre listened to and enjoyed by many. Nowadays, jazz is a minority though major figures such as Louis Armstrong influence modern composers and