Jazz Music For All Ages

In the beginning the Southern States of the United States of America created and cradled the infant that we now call Jazz music. It came from the work songs, the hymns, the party music and the sorrow of the times, down in the deep southern regions of the U.S. and mostly from the African American population. Many will argue that it has its roots in Africa or Cuba but no one will deny that it is a music that is now completely American; popularized and nurtured by African Americans and finally assimilated by the Caucasian and all races as the Jazz music that we all know and love today.

There is no one person or exact genesis of this fascinating music. Even the musicians themselves, the men who were there when jazz was just an infant, and who actively aided in its development, cannot recall precisely who accomplished most in furthering the music. But New Orleans unquestionably was the focal point of jazz in its early years and men like Willie "Bunk" Johnson, Ferdinand (Jelly-Roll) Morton, Huddie (Leadbelly) Leadbetter, Edward (Kid) Ory and many other African American musicians of the 1900-1920 period did much to propagate the struggling, lusty musical form and establish it with the younger musicians.

Jazz music is accepted throughout the world today as a great music; no longer is it necessary to enjoy jazz in the depressing atmosphere of back alley saloons. The radio, TV, movie theaters, schools, clubs and different media around the world recognize its qualities, and millions of people endorse it as a moving force an art of extreme and profound importance. It also can be humors, World War 2 found a legion of fighting men rallying to its message, inspired by its intriguing rhythms and ingenious improvisations over shortwave broadcast. Even in the modern era of rap and hip hop you can still here the lingering effects of Jazz, it has helped shape even the newest of today's artists.

The glory of New Orleans and the South will never be dimmed, in the eyes of jazz lovers. And although it ceased to be a hub of the wheel around which all activity revolved, the romantic and historic Louisiana metropolis will forever be associated with jazz and jazzmen. The north at this time was eager to taste this exciting new music and its residents were in a situation to pay higher prices to benefit from the jazzmen's talents. A new era was born the syncopated orchestra of Paul Whiteman, Ted Lewis and Art Hickman had created the "flapper" and Warren G. Harding and prohibition, and the American public was hailing jazz, not the New Orleans pure brand, but a synthetic and more show-man type as "keen" and the "cats meow".

The stage had been set for jazz's Golden Era, however, and a period which would find Duke Ellington, Red Nichols, Bessie Smith, and Henderson brothers and Bennie Moten, among others, digging in and beginning to perfect the golden product was under way. Great things had happened in the first period of jazz's birth and its childhood in the Deep South. But greater things were in store. The radio became all powerful; the records came along, and along with these came the message of jazz. The many different jazz bands and their followers would change the sound of music for generations to come, with the changes in music that they instigated 90 years ago still be felt in society today. Many things came from the Deep South in this era but jazz was the finest.

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