[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland before ragtime?

[jazz_trombone at axint.net]

  Blacks did invent blues. Blues essentially comes from field
hollers(working in the fields) and from spirituals. Many early blues
were sung acapella because you very well couldn't be harvesting cotton
while pickin' a guitar. Blues spoke of their despair of the life they
were forced into with no way out. While no one knows how old the blues
is, it can't be older than when the first black indentured servants
landed in jamestown, Virginia in 1619.

  As far as dixieland goes, to the best of my knowledge it is a northern
term. I have no idea if it comes from blacks or whites but as far as the
musical style goes, I believe that it was invented by blacks as well. It
probably goes back to the days of the black brass bands.

MB








> ps.  I've heard it said that Blacks invented the blues and in the same
> breath the speaker said "and whites invented dixieland."  I have no idea
> whether or not any of this is true.
>
> BG