The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans

Adapted from Tulane University HISU 4694-01

In consulting virtually any survey text on jazz history, one finds a chapter devoted to jazz origins in New Orleans, sometimes with a disclaimer stating that “jazz-like” music was also developing in other locales, although this point of view is becoming increasingly rare. Note, for instance, this passage from Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux, Jazz (2009): “in the beginning, jazz was local, even provincial—a performing tradition unique to the port city of New Orleans, which took its distinctive character from the ever-changing social conditions of that metropolis. The style known as New Orleans jazz (or Dixieland) proved irresistible enough to attract the attention of the whole country, but only in increments as it wandered north of its home base. New Orleans jazz ultimately became the foundation of jazz itself.” This course will explore the issue of the creation of jazz in New Orleans from the perspectives of regional cultural dynamics in the period 1894-1950 and related historiography, including neighborhood demographics and race, festival traditions and performance sites, and music pedagogy. Special attention will be given to the seminal artists and bands that contributed to the development of this new vernacular musical idiom and disseminated it throughout the nation and the world, as well as to the jazz historians who have told their stories through an evolving jazz historiography. Through readings, lectures, and discussions, class participants will test the “born in New Orleans” theory by tracing the development of historical paradigms relating to the primacy of New Orleans style jazz and by considering alternative origins theories.

  • Bruce Raeburn

    Bruce Raeburn

    Director of Special Collections and Curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive

    Bruce Boyd Raeburn is the Director of Special Collections and Curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University and is a specialist on the history of New Orleans jazz. He is the author of New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History (University of Michigan Press, 2009), has contributed to The Oxford Companion to Jazz and other publications, and has served as a consultant and appeared in various media projects, including “Ken Burns’ Jazz” and Don McGlyn’s “Louis Prima–The Wildest.” Raeburn has performed as a drummer in New Orleans for the past 39 years, with artists such as James Booker, Earl King, Clark Vreeland, and the Pfister Sisters.

Course Chapters

  • 1 New Orleans as a…

    New Orleans as a Music City

    About This Chapter:

    Chapter 1: New Orleans as a Music City: This class explores the colonial and 19th c. musical antecedents to jazz, from…

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    Chapter 1 New Orleans as a Music City

    Chapter 1: New Orleans as a Music City: This class explores the colonial and 19th c. musical antecedents to jazz, from the street criers and serenading activities found in open-air environments to dance halls and theaters, including coverage of the musical implications of trans-Atlantic slavery driven by syncretism in Place Congo, Eurocentric bals masqués, American vernacular forms such as minstrelsy, work songs related to labor on the Mississippi river, pan-Caribbean Latin tinge derivatives of danza and danzon, and dance-oriented string bands and ragtime. This chapter will introduce students to theoretical perspectives emphasizing the cultural ramifications of the city’s geographical situation, including concepts related to the convergence of discrete systems of cultural production (trans-Atlantic Eurocentric and Afrocentric; Gulf/Caribbean creolization; and American vernacularism) in New Orleans. Students read Jerah Johnson, “New Orleans’s Congo Square: An Urban Setting for Early African-American Culture Formation,” Louisiana History, 32/2 (Spring 1991), 117-157 Lester Sullivan, “Composers of Color of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The History behind the Music,” Black Music Research Journal, 8/1 (1988), 51-82 (with reports due on the following week).

    General Map of Colonial North America: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans

    "The Bamboula" Creator: Edward Windsor Kimble at The Historic New Orleans Collection
    “The Bamboula” Creator: Edward Windsor Kimble at The Historic New Orleans Collection

    Congo Square was a site where African ethnic musical cultures blended into an African American variant that was specific to New Orleans and a threshold for further development.

    French Opera House (ca. 1900): French and Creole In Louisiana

    The French Opera House (1859-1919) brought the latest Eurocentric culture to New Orleans. Ironically, its educational component was called the ‘Milano Conservatory’ by students because most of the teachers were Italian.

    Readings:

    Week 1 (8/27): New Orleans as a Music City: This class explores the colonial and 19th c. antecedents to jazz, from the streets to the opera house, including coverage of musical implications of trans-Atlantic slavery in Place Congo, bals masqués, minstrelsy, work songs related to labor on the Mississippi river, Latin tinge derivatives of danza and danzon, and dance-oriented string bands and ragtime. Introduction of concepts related to the convergence of discrete systems of cultural production (trans-Atlantic Eurocentric and Afrocentric; Gulf/Caribbean creolization; and American vernacularism) in New Orleans. Students read Johnson and Sullivan (reports due on Week 3);

    • African/Caribbean Based Social and Vernacular Dance Forms 6
  • 2 Jazz Neighborhoods

    Jazz Neighborhoods

    About This Chapter:

    This chapter covers the cultural implications of ‘crazy quilt’ demographics and cultural dynamics in Tremé, the lower French Quarter, the Seventh…

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    Chapter 2 Jazz Neighborhoods

    This chapter covers the cultural implications of ‘crazy quilt’ demographics and cultural dynamics in Tremé, the lower French Quarter, the Seventh Ward, Algiers, Central City, and the Irish Channel, as well as resort areas along Lake Pontchartrain: Bucktown, West End, Spanish Fort, Milneburg, and Little Woods. The discussion will emphasize ethnic diversity and the prevalence of outdoor musical performances evident in marching band parades, serenading traditions, spasm bands, and street criers and vocal quartets, along with coverage of saloons, dance halls, and theaters. Students read Donald M. Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz (LSU, 1978); report due next class.

    Siegfried Chistensen's Band on a wagon advertisement (1890s)
    Siegfried Chistensen’s Band on a wagon advertisement (1890s)
    The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 1
    Abbie Brunies, Charles Cordilla, and Emile “Stalebread” Lacoume serenading at the lakefront (1920s)
    Kid Ory's Woodland Band in LaPlace, LA (1905): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 2
    Kid Ory’s Woodland Band in LaPlace, LA (1905)
    • Jazz Neighborhoods: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 2
  • 3 Jazz Avatars

    Jazz Avatars

    About This Chapter:

    This class focuses on trumpeter Buddy Bolden as a symbol of cultural change. “Great Man theory” posits the role of individuals…

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    • People

    Chapter 3 Jazz Avatars

    This class focuses on trumpeter Buddy Bolden as a symbol of cultural change. “Great Man theory” posits the role of individuals as significant in achieving historical change, but environment can enhance or inhibit one’s choices and actions. This chapter explores the life and career of cornetist Charles “Buddy” Bolden with regard to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in the context of the Uptown African American underclass. It also traces Bolden’s impact on competitors through the reconfiguration of New Orleans’ popular entertainment market driven by changing dance fashions among young people. Report on Marquis due. Read White Michael G., “The New Orleans Brass Band: A Cultural Tradition,” in The Triumph of the Soul: Cultural and Psychological Aspects of African American Music, edited by Ferdinand Jones and Arthur C. Jones (2001), 69-96. (report due next class).

    Storyville's main drag, Basin Street (circa 1905): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 2
    Storyville’s main drag, Basin Street (circa 1905)
    The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 2
    Spencer Williams’ Basin Street Blues, his homage to The District, where he grew up

    Readings:

    Week 4 (9/17): Jazz Avatars—Buddy Bolden as a Symbol of Cultural Change. “Great Man theory” posits the role of individuals as significant in achieving historical change. The life and career of cornetist Charles “Buddy” Bolden in the context of the Uptown underclass; Bolden’s impact on competitors through the reconfiguration of New Orleans’ popular entertainment market driven by changing dance fashions among young people. Report on Marquis due. Read White (report due on Week 5).

    • Buddy Bolden's Band
    Charles "Buddy" Bolden
    Charles “Buddy” Bolden

    By Ben Sandmel

    The first documented practitioner of the music now known as New Orleans jazz was cornetist Charles “Buddy” Bolden (1877-1931). Legend has it that Bolden’s playing could be heard for miles around town when he would “call [his] children home.” Such anecdotes, combined with a relative dearth of solid information, combined to make Bolden a mythic figure. His musical innovations and tragic life story have inspired fictional works including David Fulmer’s Chasing The… read more

  • 4 Jazz and Community

    Jazz and Community

    About This Chapter:

    Benevolent Associations, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, and “second lines.” This class period will entail presentation and discussion of the film…

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    Chapter 4 Jazz and Community

    Benevolent Associations, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, and “second lines.” This class period will entail presentation and discussion of the film “Jazz Parades: Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” an episode in Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork series (Vestapol, 1998).

    Second line in Algiers, LA with Tuxedo Brass Band (1959): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
    Second line in Algiers, LA with Tuxedo Brass Band (1959)
    Jazz funeral with Eureka Brass Band (1950s): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
    Jazz funeral with Eureka Brass Band (1950s)
    Eureka at the cemetery: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
    Eureka at the cemetery
    Eureka in the neighborhood: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
    Eureka in the neighborhood

    Readings:

    Week 5 (9/24): Modes of Association and Community: Benevolent Associations, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, and “second lines.” This class period will entail presentation and discussion of the film “Jazz Parades: Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” an episode in Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork series (Vestapol, 1998).

    • Eureka Brass Band: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans
  • 5 Jazz Places

    Jazz Places

    About This Chapter:

    This class includes discussion of various instrumentations and community-based functions prevalent in New Orleans jazz bands and brass bands, closely examining…

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    Chapter 5 Jazz Places

    This class includes discussion of various instrumentations and community-based functions prevalent in New Orleans jazz bands and brass bands, closely examining a range of festival traditions and associated performance sites situated throughout the city from the river to the lakefront. Read Charles E. Kinzer, “The Tios of New Orleans and Their Pedagogical Influence on the Early Jazz Clarinet Style,” Black Music Research Journal, 16/2 (Fall 1996), 279-303; (report due next class).

    Economy Hall in Tremé: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans
    Economy Hall in Tremé
    Robichaux's Orchestra (1905): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 3
    Robichaux’s Orchestra (1905)
    Onward Brass Band (1913): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 3
    Onward Brass Band (1913)
    Henry Allen's Brass Band on Mardi Gras Day (1926): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 3
    Henry Allen’s Brass Band on Mardi Gras Day (1926)

    Readings:

    Week 6 (10/1): Festival Traditions and Performance Sites: Brass Bands and Dance Bands. This class includes discussion of various instrumentations and community-based functions prevalent in New Orleans jazz bands. Read Kinzer (report due on Week 8).

    Week 7 (10/8): Mid-term Exam.

    • Pythian Roof dance floor; Courtesy of Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University
  • 6 Jazz Pedagogy

    Jazz Pedagogy

    About This Chapter:

    Despite mythologies about jazz as continuous spontaneous improvisation generated by critics in the 1930s, in New Orleans the music evolved from…

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    Chapter 6 Jazz Pedagogy

    Despite mythologies about jazz as continuous spontaneous improvisation generated by critics in the 1930s, in New Orleans the music evolved from experiments that were based in ‘trial and error’ interactions, combing various degrees of musical skill and training. Jazz was therefore the result of a blending of amateur and conservatory traditions (based in new technology, such as the trap drum set, ‘head’ arrangements, musician ‘voices,’ and ‘readers,’ ‘spellers,’ and ‘fakers’). This class looks at how New Orleans jazz musicians created individual “voices” on their instruments and how bands achieved identity through combining those components into a recognizable band sound through interactive “chemistry.” Report on Kinzer due. Read Charles Hersch, Subversive Sounds: Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans (Chicago, 2007) for next class.

    Lorenzo Tio Jr (rear, 3rd from left) pictured with Piron's Band at Spanish Fort (circa 1920). Tio came from a long line of music educators specializing in clarinet.: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 3
    Lorenzo Tio Jr (rear, 3rd from left) pictured with Piron’s Band at Spanish Fort (circa 1920). Tio came from a long line of music educators specializing in clarinet.
    Manuel Perez (trumpet at right) with his band at the Pythian Temple (1923). Perez was a major educator on the New Orleans scene when jazz was emerging in the 1910s.: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 3
    Manuel Perez (trumpet at right) with his band at the Pythian Temple (1923). Perez was a major educator on the New Orleans scene when jazz was emerging in the 1910s.

    Readings:

    Week 8 (10/15): Music Pedagogy: the merging of amateur and conservatory traditions (technology, ‘head’ arrangements, musician ‘voices,’ and ‘readers,’ ‘spellers,’ and ‘fakers’).

    • Panseron Solfege Book: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
  • 7 Urban and Rural Synergies

    Urban and Rural Synergies

    About This Chapter:

    Jazz benefited greatly from the movement of musicians into the city from the countryside and vice versa, when music “professors” such…

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    Chapter 7 Urban and Rural Synergies

    Jazz benefited greatly from the movement of musicians into the city from the countryside and vice versa, when music “professors” such as James B. Humphrey brought instruction to rural populations. This class shows how such demographic dynamics influenced early jazz development and how the urban environment in promoted gender diversification and the social acceptance of jazz. Report on Hersch due. Read Lawrence Gushee, “A Preliminary Chronology of the Early Career of Ferd ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton,” American Music, 3/4 (Winter 1985), 389-412 and Dick Holbrook, “Mister Jazz Himself—The Story of Ray Lopez,” Storyville no. 64 (April-May 1976), 135-151; (reports due on Week 10).

    Buddie Petit's band in Mandeville, LA (circa 1920): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
    Buddie Petit’s band in Mandeville, LA (circa 1920)

    Readings:

    Week 9 (10/22): Urban and Rural Synergies in Early Jazz/Gender and the Social Acceptance of Jazz. Report on Hersch due. Read Gushee (1985) and Holbrook—(reports due on Week 10).

    • The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
  • 8 Jazz Diaspora

    Jazz Diaspora

    About This Chapter:

    This chapter concerns New Orleans jazz musicians and how they adapted to new audiences and environments as they traveled. It includes…

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    Chapter 8 Jazz Diaspora

    This chapter concerns New Orleans jazz musicians and how they adapted to new audiences and environments as they traveled. It includes the exploits of William Manuel Johnson’s Original Creole Band, a group of Creole and African American musicians from New Orleans that toured the Pantages theater circuit from 1914-1918. By 1915-1916, white bands from New Orleans, such as Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, traveled north to Chicago and New York. In every case, a period of adaptation was required in order to effectively market the New Orleans sound and the dances styles that went with it, all of which were unfamiliar to northern audiences. Once these audiences were properly “initiated,” usually by the musicians, the bands became popular, but it was also necessary for them to make some concessions to satisfy their new customers, which meant that the style changed accordingly. Read DeVeaux, Scott, “Constructing the Jazz Tradition,” Black American Literature Forum, 25/3 (1991): 525-60 and Sherrie Tucker, “Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies,” Current Musicology, 71-73 (spring 2001/ spring 2002), 375-408 (reports due next class).

    Tom Brown's Band from Dixieland was a sensation at Lamb's Café in Chicago in 1915 but failed on the vaudeville stage in New York City.: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 5

    Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland was a sensation at Lamb’s Café in Chicago in 1915 but failed on the vaudeville stage in New York City.

    The Original Dixieland Jazz Band made the first jazz recording in New York City in February 1917 after achieving success at Schiller’s Café in Chicago the previous year.

    Readings:

    Week 10 (10/29): Jazz Diaspora: New Orleans Jazz Musicians and Modes of Adaptation Abroad. Read DeVeaux and Tucker (reports due on Week 11).

    • Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 4
  • 9 New Jazz Studies

    New Jazz Studies

    About This Chapter:

    This chapter begins the section on jazz historiography, including defining the parameters of what has been called the “New Jazz Studies.”…

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    Chapter 9 New Jazz Studies

    This chapter begins the section on jazz historiography, including defining the parameters of what has been called the “New Jazz Studies.” The class concentrates on issues and perspectives relating to gender and critiques of canon formation, stylistic boundaries, authenticity validation, presentism, and essentialism. Read Thomas Fiehrer, “From Quadrille to Stomp: The Creole Origins of Jazz,” Popular Music, 10 (January 1991), 21-38 and Lawrence Gushee, “The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Jazz,” Black Music Research Journal, 14/1 (Spring 1994), 1-24 (reports due next class).

    Danny and Blue Lu Barker, a lifelong musical team from New Orleans
    Danny and Blue Lu Barker, a lifelong musical team from New Orleans
    Neliska "Baby" Briscoe: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 5
    Neliska “Baby” Briscoe is a focus of Sherrie Tucker’s work on gender in jazz

     

    Readings:

    Week 11 (11/5): Jazz historiography: “New Jazz Studies” Issues and Perspectives relating to gender and critiques of canon formation, stylistic boundaries, authenticity validation, presentism, and essentialism. Read Gushee (1994) and Fiehrer (reports due on Week 12).

    • The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 5
  • 10 Jazz Origins: American or…

    Jazz Origins: American or Creole?

    About This Chapter:

    This chapter concentrates on historiography related to New Orleans as the site of origin and includes discussion of representations of race…

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    Chapter 10 Jazz Origins: American or Creole?

    This chapter concentrates on historiography related to New Orleans as the site of origin and includes discussion of representations of race and ethnicity in the historiographical discourse, the problem of chronology, and current work toward developing new research strategies. How did New Orleans’ Creole and African American communities differ in terms of musical practices, and what were the forces that brought them together? Should jazz be seen as an aspect of African American vernacular culture, or was it something the result of other forms of creolization? Read Bruce Boyd Raeburn, New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History (Michigan, 2009) for next class.

    Pianist Manuel Manetta (top) with Oscar Celestin (1925): The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 6
    Pianist Manuel Manetta (top) with Oscar Celestin (1925)
    The Creole “Boogie Woogie King,” Burnell Santiago: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 6
    The Creole “Boogie Woogie King,” Burnell Santiago

    Readings:

    Week 12 (11/12): Jazz Historiography and New Orleans: American or Creole? Representations of race and ethnicity in discussion of jazz origins; the problem of chronology; developing new research strategies.

    • The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 6
  • 11 Hot Jazz Collectors

    Hot Jazz Collectors

    About This Chapter:

    This chapter investigates the incipience, development, and influence of the “Hot” record collecting community in the United States and Europe during…

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    • Chapter 11 of 13
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    Chapter 11 Hot Jazz Collectors

    This chapter investigates the incipience, development, and influence of the “Hot” record collecting community in the United States and Europe during the 1920s through the 1940s. This class will consider how jazz historiography originated and its subsequent stages of development until the publication of Marshall Stearns, The Story of Jazz (1956), the first holistic jazz history textbook. This section will provide insight into the jazz schism of the 1940s (in which “traditionalists” and “modernists” battled over the rise of bebop and the New Orleans revival) and also provides a framework for evaluating the methodologies associated with the New Jazz Studies. Report on Raeburn due.

    Bill Russell was a composer of avant garde percussion music, a "hot" record collector, a record producer, and a founding father of jazz studies in the 1930s-40s.: The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 7
    Bill Russell was a composer of avant garde percussion music, a “hot” record collector, a record producer, and a founding father of jazz studies in the 1930s-40s.
    The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 7
    Sidney Bechet with Bunk Johnson, cause célèbre of the New Orleans Jazz revival in the 1940s

    Readings:

    Week 13 (11/19): The “Hot” Record Collecting Community and the Construction of Jazz History. Report on Raeburn due.

    • The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans: Charles Edward Smith, William Russell, Fred Ramsey
  • 12 Other Contenders

    Other Contenders

    About This Chapter:

    In consulting virtually any survey text on jazz history, one finds a chapter devoted to jazz origins in New Orleans, sometimes…

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    • Introduction

    • Readings

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    Chapter 12 Other Contenders

    In consulting virtually any survey text on jazz history, one finds a chapter devoted to jazz origins in New Orleans, sometimes with a disclaimer stating that “jazz-like” music was also developing in other locales, although this point of view is becoming increasingly rare. Note this passage from Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux, Jazz (2009): “…in the beginning, jazz was local, even provincial—a performing tradition unique to the port city of New Orleans, which took its distinctive character from the ever-changing social conditions of that metropolis. The style known as New Orleans jazz (or Dixieland) proved irresistible enough to attract the attention of the whole country, but only in increments as it wandered north of its home base. New Orleans jazz ultimately became the foundation of jazz itself.” Alyn Shipton’s recent treatment of the subject in A New History of Jazz (2001) portrays New Orleans musicians as “Jazz Johnny Appleseeds” sowing seeds of musical revolution in Chicago and San Francisco. But the idea that jazz was “born in New Orleans” still remains a theory rather than a fact, and it is occasionally a good thing to test a theory, which is what this class is about. There are three alternate perspectives on jazz origins: first, other North American cities or regions that lay claim; second, transnational theories that eschew American “exceptionalism” and place New Orleans within a broader cultural context, such as the circum-Caribbean; and third, arguments positing early initial incubation in New Orleans but idiomatic “completion” elsewhere, notably Chicago.

    The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans: Nick LaRocca (1917) of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band claimed to have invented jazz, but where? Was it in New Orleans or Chicago?
    Nick LaRocca (1917) of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band claimed to have invented jazz, but where? Was it in New Orleans or Chicago?
    The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 8: Jelly Roll Morton
    Jelly Roll Morton

    Readings:

    Week 14 (11/26): The Other Contenders: Theories of Non-New Orleans Sites of Jazz Origins.

    • King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
  • 13 Innovation

    Innovation

    About This Chapter:

    This final chapter considers New Orleans jazz history as a “Jazz Continuum” and looks at the dynamics through which tradition and…

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    Chapter 13 Innovation

    This final chapter considers New Orleans jazz history as a “Jazz Continuum” and looks at the dynamics through which tradition and innovation interact in perpetuating New Orleans image as a “music city.” What are the boundaries between ragtime, jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, and rock in New Orleans? What purpose (and constituencies) do these genre boundaries serve? How does music replenish its connection to community life in New Orleans and what are the imperatives that shape successive generations of musicians who seek to build upon tradition? Term paper due.

    The Flamingoes (1950s) with Allen Toussaint (p), Snooks Eaglin (g), and Frank Morton (cl)
    The Flamingoes (1950s) with Allen Toussaint (p), Snooks Eaglin (g), and Frank Morton (cl)
    The Creation of Jazz in New Orleans 8: Piano virtuoso James Carroll Booker III
    Piano virtuoso James Carroll Booker III

    Readings:

    Week 15 (12/3): Jazz Continuum: Tradition and Innovation in N.O. Jazz. Term paper due.

    • Rebirth Brass Band 10th Anniversary