The origins of Jazz music have a story to tell! The essence of the sound of Jazz music is so versatile due to the origins from which it first began. New Orleans is considered to be the birthplace of Jazz, during the years between 1850 and 1900 originated by African-americans both before and after the Civil War. The first style of Jazz music was known as Dixieland.
In Africa from the Middle to Central to the West, one can hear the intricate rhythmic improvisation of the percussive instruments similar to that which is often heard with Jazz Music. These rhythms combined with the traditional Gospel and church music from the hymnals, mixed that with bluegrass, farm-type hoedown sounds and ultimately created a resultant “melange” of sound that became known as “Jazz”. At first, this kind of music was perceived as kind of a stange, nameless sound until around 1915 when the term Jazz came to be born. The great pianist Earl Hines was born in 1903 and played this type of music before the title Jazz became an official style of music. The word “Jazz” which was formerly spelled as “Jass” has origins in American slang, coming from the literal sound that was used to describe the sound of the music.
At the beginning of the 1900s, the instrumentation that was used in Jazz music included European percussion, brass and woodwind instruments of the kind used primarily for military marching bands or dance bands.
You’re probably familiar with the New Orleans tradition of Jazz parades for a funeral. This derived from the fact that these instruments were used in the funeral marches in the deep south of the United States as well as the deep north. The essence of Jazz finally came into its own with an original shape, expanding its style to the point where it couldn’t be defined as pure folk music even though Jazz always had its roots in Folk music tradition.
Once the education system started providing formal musical training for people in the USA, it paved the way for lots of people to learn the technical skills on their instruments, so that they could create music from the heart. The reason why we want to study the origins of Jazz music is to learn all about the sound that many have fell in love with. Jazz music represents freedom to create color and sound that can be interpreted best by the performers and composers who create this style of music. The origins of Jazz music has been a subject worth debating over when it comes down to labeling it a particular style. Duke Ellington himself explained it as “It’s all music” due to the fact that the music has no particular structure or form it has to take.
Jazz music is unique in world history – its many styles are so varied that one might argue any sub genre of Jazz Music, such as bebop, swing, funk jazz, avant-garde jazz or electric piano jazz can each be a whole genre unto itself. The original Jazz music is a mixture of African rhythms and tonalities with Western rhythms and tonalities through the somewhat forced integration of African culture and its rich musical heritage with American Christian and European culture with its rich musical heritage. African slaves were forced to learn Christian hymns, so they learned the notes and the chords but added their own African rhythms and tonalities. The result was one of the most original, versatile and high energy musics ever known to man/woman: Jazz. Not to mention, beautiful, wonderful, and also frighteningly powerful, is Jazz. Jazz flourished in the after-hours joints, prohibited nightclubs, whorehouses and brothels until it was more widely accepted after the Prohibition era.