Jazz music in the United States has roots dating back to the arrival of the
first African American slaves in North America. Originally, the blues
sound was a combination of rhythms made by instruments brought from
Africa, combined with the fiddle strains and songs from white settlers
from the British Isles. This blend evolved until it emerged in the 1890s
as a type of music called ragtime. Ragtime eventually became jazz.
New Orleans, Louisiana, is considered the birthplace of jazz. Most
early residents of New Orleans were Creole, people of Spanish, French,
or African descent, and the early musicians brought the sound of their
particular heritage to create a genre of jazz that became known as
Dixieland. Another term for this type of music, which was played on
brass instruments, is creole jazz. Dixieland music is marching band
music with offbeat rhythms and improvised solos. Early Dixieland musicians included pianist Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton (1885–1941) and
cornet player Joe “King” Oliver (1885–1938). Morton is considered to
be the first jazz composer.
Leaders of the band
One of the most famous jazz musicians was Louis Armstrong
(1901–1971). Armstrong was born in New Orleans and learned to play
the cornet as a young teen. Throughout the 1920s, he performed in
Chicago, Illinois, and New York City, eventually landing a long-term
engagement at Connie’s Inn, a popular and glamorous nightclub in New
York City’s Harlem. Armstrong became known for his ability to improvise. His career spanned decades and included performing on Broadway
and singing. He is heralded as a key figure in the evolution of jazz music.
Often taking jazz in new directions was Miles Davis (1926–1991),
a jazz trumpeter and composer. While never as technically talented as some of his contemporaries, Davis was influential in jazz circles for his
style, which became known as cool jazz.
Another jazz great was Duke Ellington (1899–1974), who regularly
performed at the Cotton Club, a music hot spot of the 1920s. Ellington
played piano but was most influential as a composer and bandleader.
Along with bandleader Fletcher Henderson (1898–1952), he created the
Big Band sound, which features a jazz orchestra with more than one musician playing each instrument. Ellington’s signature sound was one that
incorporated mutes and growl techniques in the horns.
Thomas “Fats” Waller (1904–1943) was another jazz great who
made a name for himself playing piano in Harlem nightclubs. Jazz was
the premier genre of music throughout the 1920s, and its popularity
knew no bounds. Paul Whiteman (1890–1967) was a bandleader who
was promoted as the Jazz King. His most famous contribution to jazz
was a 1924 concert that introduced the new song “Rhapsody in Blue,”
written by George Gershwin (1898–1937). George and his brother Ira
(1896–1983) were the most successful songwriters of the Jazz Age, and
their music combined elements from jazz, classical, and even opera.
These crossover sounds found a strong fan base in white audiences.
Beyond the Jazz Age
As America entered the Great Depression (1929–41), jazz decreased in
popularity. Its sound was simply too celebratory, and Americans were not
in any mood to celebrate. Millions had lost their jobs and homes, and
their daily lives were a struggle. The new music of choice was folk
music, the lyrics of which reflected this new experience of loss and injustice.
There were a couple of exceptions. Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) enjoyed a long and illustrious career as a jazz singer. She began singing jazz
with the orchestra of bandleader Chick Webb (1909–1939) in the mid-
1930s. Before the end of the decade, she had recorded several hit songs
and gained notoriety. Fitzgerald left the band in 1942 to embark on what
would be a successful solo career. Benny Goodman (1909–1986) was another popular jazz musician whose clarinet style eventually fused into a
type of music called swing. Goodman was one of only a few white jazz
musicians who was able to build a career with his music.
Jazz had its loyal followers, however. Music of the 1940s included
jazz, but its sounds were often incorporated and mixed with those of classical, blues, and swing. Jazz pianist William “Count” Basie
(1904–1984) was also a bandleader whose band performed for more
than fifty years. He incorporated jazz in a structured, orchestral setting
and his band backed some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the
time, including Billie Holiday (1915–1959), Lester Young (1909–1959),
and Herschel Evans (1909–1939). Pianist Thelonious Monk
(1920–1982) made his first recordings in the mid-1940s and often collaborated with other jazz greats including saxophonist Sonny Rollins
(1930–), saxophonist John Coltrane (1926–1967), Miles Davis, and
Charlie Parker (1920–1955).
Charlie “Yardbird” Parker was a jazz saxophonist considered by historians to be one of the great jazz pioneers. Parker’s sound eventually
fused into a form of jazz called bebop. This form is characterized by fast
tempos and improvisations that are based on harmony rather than
melody. Parker’s work in 1945 with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie
(1917–1993) took the jazz world by storm.
The first annual Newport Jazz Festival was established in July 1954.
This was an act of courage on the part of socialites Elaine and Louis
Lorillard. Among wealthy white crowds, jazz
was considered inappropriate for the more sedate, proper country-club audiences. But six
thousand jazz lovers paid up to $5 a ticket for
the two-day Rhode Island program. Twenty-six
thousand fans attended the 1955 Newport Jazz
Festival and were entertained by two hundred
musicians. The event moved to New York City
in 1972 and became a two-site festival when it
returned to Newport in 1981. Since 1986, it has
been known as the JVC Jazz Festival.
The 1960s, like the 1930s, featured folk
music, again, because its lyrics reflected the political and social unrest of the era. The 1970s
were not notable for jazz music, either, although
some musicians experimented with jazz-rock fusion. The early 1980s saw artists like Pat
Metheny (1954–), Al Jarreau (1940–), George
Benson (1943–), Chuck Mangione (1940–),
and Kenny G (1956–) on the charts. Not one of these musicians was a jazz purist, but each mixed jazz sounds with other
genres such as pop, rhythm and blues, and fusion. In an era of mixed
sound, two names stood out in jazz circles. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
(1961–) surprised the jazz world with his mastery of technique. By the
time he was nineteen years old, Marsalis had signed a contract with a
major recording label. Having studied classical music as a teen, Marsalis
became the first musician ever to win Grammy Awards in both jazz and
classical in the same year (1984).
Harry Connick Jr. (1967–) reached stardom at the age of twenty
when he released his first recording in 1988. Connick’s New
Orleans–style piano playing and smooth vocals made him a favorite
crossover artist whose music was played on jazz and pop music radio stations. Like his contemporary Marsalis, he had studied both classical and
jazz; at one point, he had studied piano under the tutelage of Marsalis’s
father, Ellis.
Although jazz was not one of the more popular music genres of the
1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century, it maintained a
loyal following. Some new musicians arrived on the scene, most notably
singer-pianist Diana Krall (1964–). In an era when musicians relied
upon elaborate stage performances and music videos to enhance their
acts and popularity, jazz musicians had difficulty competing.