Origins of an American Rebellion

The origins of jazz music can be traced back to the African-Americans in New Orleans. Originally, the city was split in two, with black Creole musicians and higher class citizens on the east side of town, and freed black citizens to the west side of Canal Street. The Creole musicians had been classically trained in the Parisian conservatories. When segregation laws forced the Creoles to move with the American musicians who performed blues, ragtime, hymns, and spirituals, the two types of music eventually fused together to include some of the more classical instruments, such as the violin. The proclaimed inventor of jazz, Jelly Roll Morton, has been recorded talking about how classic European dances such as the waltz and polka were able to be transformed into jazz. In his article "The Origins of Jazz," Len Weinstock discusses how the transformation from ragtime to jazz was to simply add an underlying 4/4 beat to ragtime's 2/4 rhythm.

After the abolition of slavery, black men were able to find work as performers in dance and marching bands, and these instruments also became the standard for jazz music. Ragtime and jazz worked its way into the vaudeville acts the travelled the country as well, and as prohibition was enacted, jazz became the music of the rebellious crowds within the speakeasies of cities such as New York and Chicago. Now hearing the music in entertainment venues around the city, the genre took off, becoming part of popular culture and the Jazz Age was in full bloom.