Part A: The historical 'elements' of Jazz includes a discussion of

An Overview of "Dixieland Jazz"
the Southland's Ante-Bellum Days and the Pre-cursors.
The Blues, Jazz, Ethiopian Minstrels, Rags, Brass and Ragtime bands of Old New Orleans and the mid-southwest.

Part A: Old New Orleans, 1890's to 1920:
A The Brass Parade Bands
The Black Bands
The White Bands
B. The bagnio musicians in the Storyville district.
C. The "Blues" tradition (12 Bar)
D. Barrelhouse, piano music of the western saloons.

Part B: from the 1920's, and the movemment of musicians up-river.
E. Names of Some Female Blues Singers (and some Males).
F. The Black Chicago Bands
G. The White Chicago Bands

Part C: New York City, 1930's -40's, and The Dixieland revival.
H. The 1940's - New York City Brief Revival
West Coast, 1940's - 70's. - The Last Great Gasp but DIXIELAND LIVES!.
I. The 1940's - San Francisco & the End.

Old New Orleans Bands - Black and White

Early Female/Male singers and Black Dixie influence in Chicago

Early Chicago Jazz Bands

Old Dixie Bands in Chicago

It's rather sad to relate, but even many Americans (the land where Jazz was born) no longer understand the meaning of the expression "Dixieland Jazz". If we define 'Jazz' as the free improvisation on a melody, then "Dixieland Jazz" is that type of improvisation which we today associate with bands originally playing in America's 'Southland'. (Most folks now think of 'Southland' as New Orleans, LA, but in fact the music was being played over very large areas of the U.S.A. including, Memphis, St. Louis, Texas, Detroit etc., not to mention the lively 'Barrelhouse' music of San Francisco's Barbary Coast.)
SIDENOTE: Readers interested in the use of the word "Jazz" in music, may wish to read our entry on the Art Hickman Orch., showing the word used in the old "Barbary Coast" area of San Fancisco, CA. Readers may also wish to peruse our page on Jazz Etymology, showing the word used in old New Orleans, LA.

Before -say the 1880s - composers would write a melody, which in time would be orchestrated for a small orchestra. Bands would always play the tune the same way - precisely as it was orchestrated. Eventually, small groups of musicians took it upon themselves to improvise on the melody - to "Jazz" it up. Early bands were usually very small groups, a "Frontline" of cornet, trombone and clarinet/Saxophone, and a "backline" (rhythm section) of Brass Bass (tuba), Banjo (an American invention), Drums and Piano.

In the South, these bands would play 'ensemble style' - no solos - with different instruments of the frontline varying, 'Jazzing', the melody -while the musicians all played together (no solos). This 'Ensemble Playing', with each instrument 'jazzing up' it's own part, is what came to be called "Dixieland Jazz".

When the music moved to St. Louis, MO, Detroit, MI, and to Chicago, IL, - it changed somewhat, but most notably in two ways. Firstly, due very greatly to the influence of one musician, Bix Beiderbecke, instrumental Soloing became a fixture of Dixieland Jazz. Musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and others, would take Bix's idea and expand on it by making Solos a fixed feature, along with routining the way bands would play, and some other improvements. Secondly, Dixieland changed into a 'harder driving' form. In America's South, the music seemingly 'unfurled' in front of you. A relatively gentle style of playing, - associated with the gentler days of the old South. In the North, - in Chicago - the music reflected life in Chicago, - a hard driving, hustling and bustling city of stock yards, businesses, saloons, gangsters, bootleg 'hooch', and JAZZ. Due to Bix Beiderbecke's influence, soloists were given "space" in each tune, and the music was more forcefully presented to the audience.

The 1920s are still called "The Jazz Age". Ladies shortened their tresses and bobbed their hair, they hiked up their skirts, rolled down their stockings, and rouged their lips. Men dressed in the new styles of suits, slicked down their hair, and - it seemed - the entire world was listening to, and dancing - publicly - to Jazz. The Fitzgeralds -Scott and Zelda - were telling the world about what their young sons and daughters were doing, and John Held was drawing the cartoons of the age.
Nowadays, one can get an instant "feel" for this music by listening to recordings by 'the Lawson-Haggart World's Greatest Jazz Band', 'Bob Crosby and the Bob Cats', and others of this type, which are readily available in most record shops. And certainly, listening to the many re-issues of the original bands is a most. (Many of these albums use the term 'Dixieland Jazz' in their description.) Listen! It's a real treat. The music is sensational! Purists however, will hunt out the original recordings by such bands as Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines, King Oliver's Creole Orchestra, and Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven to name just a few. This writer would especially urge listening to the Frankie Trumbauer recordings. Frankie's sax work may very well have predated the "birth of the Cool", and Bix's cornet was never better.

In the modern world, Jazz is a well accepted style, that carries on the traditions of 'Chicago Style' Dixieland. That is to say, it is ensemble playing, with each instrumentalist getting adequate 'space' to display' his musical ideas on music written by composers of virtually every nation in the world. Let us now take a look at the origins of this wonderful music.

The Blues:
=========
When the Civil War ended, Black musicians were free to roam the south. They must have done solo only, with just a banjo or guitar accompaniment, singing of their economic or sexual worries. These men are, naturally, also the main source of the "prison" and other work songs.

Jazz:
=====
One writer ( "A Study in Jazz Historiography: The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz." by Eileen Southern.) has suggested that the plantation music of anti-bellum days was one of the forbears of Jazz. A 3 piece group, Fiddle, Banjo and Drum, was basic.

By the 1890's, the plantation combo had grown to include: Fiddle; Banjo; Drum; Bass Fiddle or Cello; and Cornet. By the early 1900's, the Fiddle disappeared and the Trombone; Clarinet were added, sometimes with a 'brass Bass' - the Tuba. And, by the 1920's, the guitar had replaced the banjo.

"Ethiopian Minstrels"
=====================
In the 1880,s White men in Black Face were still producing traveling Minstrel Shows. The racial hatred spawned by these shows will forever remain a disgrace in American history. These minstrels gave rise to "Coon" songs which remained popular into the the early '20's. Some examples of these songs are:
1883: New Coon In Town, J. S. Putnam
188?: There's No Coon Half so Warm
1897: Tuxedo Club Minstrels formed in Toledo, OH. They had a
              "hit" called "All Coons Look Alike to Me".
1903: The Cakewalk in Coontown
By the late 1880's, Vaudeville had pretty much replaced the Minstrels. In the last decade of the 1800's, 1890 and into the 1900's, what we now call 'jazz' developed out of this melange of plantation music, the Blues, The Rags, brass bands, field hollers, spirituals, Vaudeville and Minstrel music, and such.

The Rags:
========
In the 1890's, a group of musicians, including Scott Joplin, were living in and around Sedalia, MO, writing Rags.

Old New Orleans:
================
Actually, in the late 1800's New Orleans was _two_ cities. There was the uptown, or American Section, West of Canal Street, and the downtown, or French Section, East of Canal Street.

The Downtown city had Whites and Creoles, while the Uptown was mostly recently freed Black slaves. The Creoles were musically trained, -good sight readers. John Robichaux (see link later on) was the most popular orchestra leader in town. The blacks, from uptown, often studied music with Creole instructors.

In 1894, all that changed. Very restrictive racial segregation laws were promulgated, insuring the segregation of even the Creoles. It was something of a comedown for the usually well trained Creole musicians, to be thrown into competition with the poorer, largely untrained, 'uptown' Blacks, and to play for audiences who rarely appreciated their superior musical background.

Years later, the Creoles did combine with the "Uptowners", and added their own very special ethnic influences to the music. Men such as John Robichaux and Peter Bocage contributed a French-Haitian mixture; Oscar Duconge, Alcibiades Jeanjacque, Punkie and Bouboul Valentin lent their French style; while Lorenzo Tio, who had been educated at a Mexican conservatory, added a Spanish touch. The first melting and refining of Jazz was already taking place. Musicians began to play what they felt, -what their talents allowed, with each making his individual contribution to the whole.

In 1897, the city council passed legislation that restricted all prostitutes and brothels to a 38 square block area, that came to be known as the the Storyville district (after assemblyman Story, who sponsored the ordinance restricting prostitutes to the area), or just "the district" to the locals.

If Jazz wasn't born in Storyville, it was certainly incubated in the districts extravagant saloons and Brothels. Between 1897 and 1917, Basin Street (the district's main avenue) flourished, as did America's truly indigenous music. A brothel prostitute was known as a "Jazz Belle", while her customer was a "Jazz Beau". The better establishments were decorated with gilded mirrors, Oriental carpets, and crystal chandeliers, while guests were entertained with nightly music by such men as Buddy Bolden, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, and King Oliver.

There were even two Storyvilles, Uptown side - "Back O' Town", west of Canal Street, was for Blacks, while the downtown side, east of Canal Street was for Whites.

At Storytown's peak, over 2000 prostitutes, in various bagnios, were selling Love in hourly increments. These brothels employed every type of musician and musical groups, - from ragtime pianists, to string trios and even brass bands.

The Brass and Ragtime Bands of New Orleans & the Mid-Southwest.
==============================================================
The Brass Bands:
About the time of the Civil War, most towns had a bandstand, or Belvedere, set up in a park. There was no Radio; records or TV of course, and on weekends, a small brass band - 4 to 8 pcs- would entertain the townsfolk. Dressed in their uniforms, they must have made a very pleasant sight. Probably, these bands, were the prototype for the bands of New Orleans and other towns, too.

This writer does not wish to get into the argument of who had the greater influence on the development of Jazz, - Black or White men. Suffice it to say, that modern jazz historians now feel that there was a parallel development of the music by the two groups: The White and the Black Brass Bands and musicians were each listening to each other. Both groups had much to offer.

When we think of old New Orleans, the mind conjures up a montage image of:

        Street Parades with Jack "Papa" Laine's Brass Band leading the way.
        A Band riding thru town, in a horse drawn wagon advertising a dance.
        Funeral Processions, with the band playing dirges, for example,
             "Nearer My God To Thee", on the way out to the cemetary,
             with songs such as "When The Saints Go Marching In"
             and "Didn't He Ramble" on the way back.

The two groups, White and Black, listened avidly to each other's playing. The negro bands trying to learn from the better educated, smoother playing White bands, and the White bands trying to get the essence of the rougher Black music. And so, there was a parallel development of Jazz by both Black and White Bands. (Since that time, each group has tried to claim the "invention" of jazz for themselves.)

Tom Anderson's Cafe was a major musical center of Storyville at Basin and Iberville Streets. Just a few doors up was the Mahogany Hall, now best remembered for the jazz tune "Mahogany Hall Stomp".

An outlying area of N.O. was Milneberg, where many bands played. Now best recalled by the great Jazz tune "Milenburg Joys" , lyric: Walter Melrose; music: Leon Rappolo, Paul Mares, and "Jelly Roll" Morton. This 1928 version by the 'Husk O'Hare's Wolverines' is interesting due to it's vocal by Turk Savage. Curiously, the various recordings and sheet music usually refer to the tune as "Milenberg Joys". (This version has been digitally re-engineered by Mr. Verne Buland.)

These were the men who paraded by day, and many of whom worked in the Storyville bagnios, saloons, etc., at night.
New Orleans was a bustling city, a port of commerce located at the mouth of the Mississippi River. As such, it drew a large and varied population. The city had an active vice traffic, which in 1897, was confined to a 38 block area in the 'French Quarter'.

This area of Saloons, Cabarets, Gambling Joints and Brothels came to be known as the "Storyville District", or to the locals, just -The District. All of these activities, including the brothels, were employers of musicians. Sometimes just a piano player and other times a 3 or 4 man group, ofttimes with a washboard or kazoo.

On the next page, we list some of the bands active in and around N.O. at the turn of the century - 1890's to 1920.