The Historical Genesis of Jazz

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When tracing the sources of any artform it is easy to get lost. Sure, one can connect the dots from one milestone to another before finally arriving at a defining moment in said artform's history, yet sometimes the dots don't line up that easily. In the case of jazz there are too many factors from too many cultures to make the case for a straight timeline to its beginnings; in fact its history plays more like two or three parallel timelines which finally come to a head to create a new artform. Yet confusing as this may seem it is only fitting that a form of music known mostly for its sense of improvisation should enjoy such a varied, piecemeal background. Jazz, as we know it, is really a fusion of three separate cultures and their musical contributions: African, African American, and European, each of which play an important part in the creation of one of the most enduring forms of popular American music.

It seems terrible to think of anything positive coming from such an ugly tragedy, and indeed no excuses can be made for something so atrocious, but in the 1800's when hundreds of thousands of Africans were enslaved and brought to work in America, they were bringing with them the seedlings of a musical tradition whose legacy would still be felt today. Though the Africans may be far removed from the African Americans who pioneered jazz, they are still responsible for many of the building blocks that were later to be found in jazz music. Their propensity for music as a group, rather than a singular experience, as well as their usage of a “call-and-answer” device and what Collier calls a “coarseness of timber” (Collier, p. 13), namely an impure tone similar to the instrumental blue notes later popularized in blues music, wou...

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...ical outlook but rather a form of music built upon the aid of bits and pieces of music that, together, paved the way for what just may be the ultimate form of black musical expression. Without every aspect in place; the impure tones, cross rhythyms and group focus of Western Africa, the call-and-answer of the work-hollers, the fervent devotional attention to the spirituals, the emotion, blue notes, and improvisation of the blues, the orchestration and widespread popularity of ragtime, and the musical history of New Orleans, jazz wouldn't be what it is today: one of the longest running forms of popular music that is still evolving, to this day adding more sources to its ever-deepening legacy.

Works Cited

Collier, James Lincoln. The Making of Jazz. New York: Delta Publishing, 1978.

Oakley, Giles. The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues. London: Ariel Books, 1983.

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