Jazz and Black Nightlife

Jazz and Black Nightlife

Jazz is a uniquely American art form. It originated during the great migration when a diverse group of African American musicians, along with other migrants, travelled to northern cities seeking opportunity in the early twentieth century. After arriving, the musicians combined Creole, ragtime, and blues traditions allowing jazz to leave its birthplace in New Orleans and find a new home in the dank basement clubs of Chicago’s south side. The music expressed the optimism and angst of southern blacks as they established homes in the segregated neighborhoods of Northern cities that offered opportunities for young black men and women to dance and to strut. Soon prominent musicians became identified for their work in the Chicago clubs. Men like Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Johnny Dodds and King Oliver gained fame for their advancement of the style. Songs like Dodd’s “Bucktown Stomp” and Hines’ “Indiana” evoked the feelings and attitudes the New Negro felt about migration and adjustment to city. A love of jazz music distinguished southern migrants from older prim northern counterparts who found the slumming, sinning crowd in the nightclubs distasteful. When it traveled north, jazz became the soundtrack for the great migration of young southern blacks who sought freedom and opportunity unavailable in the South.