Where did jazz originate from? Jazz originated in New Orleans in the second half of the 19th century. A port city, New Orleans had people coming in from around the world socializing and sharing their music. Music from a variety of cultures and styles could be heard in the streets of New Orleans. New Orleans was also one of the only places in America that permitted slaves to own drums.

West Africa, the birthplace of many slaves, was home to rich musical traditions which continued through the songs and field chants of America’s slaves. When slavery was abolished and the American Civil War ended (1865), many former slaves found jobs as musicians, exposing them to other musical styles from around the world. Jazz was born into this new world of emancipation and freedom, stimulating a spirit of experimentation and expression which would become key elements of jazz.

Jazz is often thought of as being founded by both the musical traditions of West Africa (rhythm, “feel”, blues) and Europe (harmonic chords, variety of instruments). Early jazz also incorporated church hymns, slave songs, field chants, and cuban-style rhythms. However, jazz didn’t get its big break until the 1890s when “ragtime”, a precursor to jazz, started to catch the ear of white Americans. The most famous of artists at the time was Scott Joplin, who composed 44 original ragtime pieces before his death in 1917. It was around this time that other artists started to add in improvisational elements to the overall sound, a crucial component of what would become modern jazz.

The Jazz age really began in the 1920s when this music became popular across the US and Europe. The “Roaring Twenties” came with prohibition, speakeasies, flappers (and lots of music!) drove jazz into the mainstream and made overnight success stories of black musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. The age of Jazz culminated in the historic 1938 Benny Goodman concert at Carnegie Hall, bringing together musicians from various ethnicities to perform jazz inside this hallowed hall. At this point, the jazz of the 1920s and 30s was already starting to give way to the Big Band era although musicians such as Ellington and Armstrong would continue to develop and perform jazz music until their deaths.

Despite the dominance of jazz music ending with the Great Depression, jazz has continued to evolve with new styles and sub-genres forming as its influence on pop-culture continues to echo through time.

Jazz legend Louis Armstrong once said: “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”

Information from: https://jazzobserver.com/the-origins-of-jazz/

As you scroll through this site there will be a list of tasks to complete in order to help you prepare for arranging your own jazz standard. By the end of this unit you will have successfully created your own arrangement of a classic jazz standard!

For Students: Go to the Activities page to begin working on your arrangement!

For Parents: Head to the Outcomes page to see which outcomes students will be working on as they go through this unit.