Sp12. Could jazz's origins only have developed in the United States?

Discussion

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Introduction

Actual origin factors of the creation of jazz

Start with the fact that jazz did develop in the United States 🇺🇸. There is little question that the predominant performers and creators of the music were from the underclasses within American social structures. A significant number of early jazz practitioners came out of the region in and surrounding the major port city of New Orleans. New Orleans was the most mixed race and cosmopolitan city in the country at the turn of the century contributing to a mix of both cultures and, especially for the purposes here, of many musical cultures, in particular three. The three large-scale musical cultural influences were a European music, harmony and musical instruments together using European musical techniques, Africanized rhythms, work songs, spirituals (already a hybrid of European and non-European/Africanized influences), and third a Caribbean island/Latin American "Spanish tinge."

The people in power in American society were predominantly of the Caucasian race. It may be a truism that people in power tend to enjoy and find cultural aspects of the under-privileged classes exotic and intriguing and are attracted to them.

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• Thomas Fiehrer, "From Quadrille to Stomp: The Creole Origins of Jazz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) in Popular Music Vol. 10, No. 1, The 1890s (January, 1991), pp. 21-38.

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The United States of America is NOT the only possible place for the creation of jazz

➢ Could jazz have been created on Mars?

Thought Experiment for the creation of Martian jazz:

Here is a self-consistent therefore logically possible alternative jazz history. If the story has no self-contradictory elements, then it means the events dictated within the story are logically possible. Something is only logically impossible if it involves a self-contradiction and this story has no self-contradictory elements. Since the story is self-consistent, the events described are logically possible for Martians to have created jazz.

It turns out jazz had already been created and played on Mars, but the Martian culture was on its last legs. There were just five Martian jazz musicians left. The five Martian jazz musicians decide to abandon their home planet and come live on planet Earth. Their cosmopolitan city of choice making it easier for them to blend into American society is to live in and around the City of New Orleans, (and perhaps a few other places) right around 1880. They get settled in over the next fifteen to twenty years and after successfullly integrating into American society so well that even to this day there is no knowledge of their existence. Now feeling comfortably integrated into American society they feel they can start to let their hair down better and begin to play a little bits of jazz-like music and using some jazz techniques. The five jazz Martians 👽 begin to start playing and musically influencing teenage Buddy Bolden, King Oliver as a child, played and gave a quick music lesson to Jelly Roll Morton when he was ten years old, and so on sowing the seeds of jazz like Martian Johnny Appleseed's of jazz salesman. And that is why, Johnny, jazz exists today on Earth. It all started on Mars, came to Earth 🌍 and influenced the movers and shakers on Earth to go in a jazz direction.

OK, it has been shown it is logically possible for Martians to have caused jazz to exist on Earth, but what is the likelihood that another planet could independently have created a jazz musical genre? For discussion on this topic see MetaSB1. Can Martians (intelligent aliens ignorant of Earth's musical practices) play jazz?.

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The United States of America in New Orleans has the right factors for creating jazz

➢ What are the right factors required to create jazz?

We know what the actual factors were for the creation of jazz and these were all available in and around New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century. Those factors are the ones found in this list:

☞ Cosmopolitan city, most often a major port hub, that does not actively discourage the mixing of cultural, especially musical, influences.

☞ A location that encourages music to flourish and has multiple needs for music that can perform multiple functions. Early jazz musicians played for dances, parades, funerals to the graveyard with sad music and music back from the graveyard that was more festive. There was a need for musical entertainment in Storyville, the red light district of New Orleans until it got closed down in 1917.

☞ A plethora of lower priced high end musical instruments made available to the people as was the case with a glut of musical instruments immediately following the Civil War.

☞ Performing music was a way to make a living for musically talented second class citizens.

☞ Because many lower class musicians could not read musical scores they had to have a good ear and a great memory. Once one has to remember the music it is a short step to start to improvise and fill in any spots where memory had failed. This style of music was open to being played while improvising it.

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Internet Resources

Lynne Seago, "From Potent to Popular: The Effects of Racism on Chicago Jazz 1920-1930," Constructing the Past, Vol. 1, Iss. 1, Article 6, 2000.

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NOTES