[Dixielandjazz] New Orleans Jazz without Louis.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Gee Whiz, you'd think the High School kids and Jazz teachers in a city  
right next to New Orleans, would know a little something about LOUIS  
ARMSTRONG and include him in there tome about Jazz. Below from IRISH  
EYES, the School paper at Grace King High School in Metairie Louisiana.

Maybe they edited out a section between Jelly Roll Morton and Wynton  
Marsalis?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

RICH JAZZ HISTORY DEFINES CITY
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

New Orleans is renowned for its jazz music. From its improvisation to  
its syncopation and call-and-response patterns, jazz is a clear  
reflection of the spontaneity and individuality of New Orleans.


Where it all began
African culture was typically suppressed by the colonies and the  
states but not in New Orleans. In the early 1800s, the city’s black  
community experienced an increase in population due to immigration  
from the Haitian Revolution. Thousands of Africans and Creoles flooded  
New Orleans, reinforcing African traditions, especially music. By the  
beginning of the twentieth century, the city was famous for the  
musical convergence known as jazz.

Jazz music erupted from the confrontation of African tribal music and  
European classical music in New Orleans. Traditional African music  
lacked harmony, but the product of the two cultures utilized the  
European harmonic quality and syncopation, or variety of unexpected  
rhythms. Jazz is described as having a special relationship to time or  
swing and a spontaneity in which improvisation plays a vital role.
Of all the components in jazz music, improvisation is the most  
essential. Jazz musicians don’t rely on arranged music. Jazz is more  
of a creative process, and musicians interpret the music to suit their  
individuality. The composition depends on many things: the mood, the  
experience of the artist, members in the audience or interaction with  
fellow performers. Because the artist is free to alter the music at  
will, the same piece is hardly ever played twice.

King’s talent
Band director Lewis Jackson teaches a jazz ensemble class to students  
who have a passion for jazz and for New Orleans. Lewis said, “The New  
Orleans style jazz is so much different than other types because there  
can be mass improvisation going on at once, and that’s something you  
don’t have with other music.”
Elizabeth Falgoust is a member of King’s jazz ensemble and plays  
trumpet. Falgoust said, “Seeing the musicians at concerts and seeing  
how much they enjoy playing definitely helps you get involved in the  
music.” Falgoust said there is more freedom and expression in jazz  
music, which is why she likes it. “You play it once, and then you  
can’t stop playing it.”

NOLA’s musicians
Ragtime was made popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth  
century by the “jigs” or “rags” that black marching bands played.  
Buddy Bolden was a black cornetist and a key figure in the progression  
of New Orleans’ style ragtime, which later came to be known as jazz.  
He is described as being “the first man of jazz” or sometimes the  
father of jazz. Bolden left the jazz scene by 1907. One of his more  
famous songs called “Funky Butt,” was, until recently, the name of a  
popular jazz club in the French Quarter.


Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton was another New Orleans born jazz  
musician, and in 1904, he toured the United States, introducing jazz  
and blues to northern cities, including Chicago and New York. His  
“Jelly Roll Blues” was published in 1915 and is arguably the first  
jazz arrangement in print.


The first family of jazz is known to be the Marsalis men. Ellis  
Marsalis, a talented saxophonist and pianist, is father to Branford,  
Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, all jazz musicians. Marsalis  
impacted jazz music because he did not specialize in Dixieland jazz or  
rhythm and blues. Instead, he worked with a variety of artists and  
composed over twenty albums. Marsalis was a dedicated teacher until  
2001, influencing students at Tulane University, Xavier University and  
the University of New Orleans. He also worked with students at the New  
Orleans Center for Creative Arts, where his son, Jason, works now.


Another prominent jazz figure in the New Orleans area is Irvin  
Mayfield, talented trumpeter and founder and director of the New  
Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO). Mayfield and the NOJO won the 2010  
Grammy Award for large jazz Ensemble with their album “Book One.”  
Mayfield continued to show his dedication to the city of his birth  
with the establishment of his Bourbon Street club, Irvin Mayfield’s  
Jazz Playhouse. At the Saints’ celebratory parade on Feb. 9, Mayfield  
was honored to play the national anthem.


New Orleans is the city of jazz. No other city is as widely acclaimed  
as the Big Easy when it comes to jazz music. The city seems to foster  
a love of music in its inhabitants, as a number of musicians are the  
product of New Orleans. Lewis said, “Jazz offers everything to New  
Orleans because it originated here, but it offers a lot more to the  
world.”