The influence of New Orleans on the development of jazz can not be overstated. The culture of New Orleans contributed to some of the most fascinating developments in Black culture and was truly a one-of-a-kind city.
What exactly did New Orleans contribute to the emergence of Jazz, and why New Orleans?
To answer this question we have to go back to the period in which New Orleans was under French control. While slavery certainly existed, the French version of slavery looked quite different than the American/Latin version of slavery. The French (or Catholic) version of slavery allowed a lot more, for lack of a better term, freedoms than did the Latin version. For instance, on Sundays slaves were allowed to go into an area called the Congo square where they could dance, sing, and play music with each other. This allowed a spread of ideas and culture between slaves. This encouraged the development of work songs, which in turn led to the blues, as well as faster dance songs. Another facet of the Catholic slave code was that slaves could intermarry (something that was highly frowned upon in the Latin slave code), which led to a large number of Creoles of color. As Ted Gioia states, "Creoles of color did not associate with black society; instead they imitated the ways of continental European settlers". These creoles saw themselves as higher up the food chain than Blacks, and treated them as such. However, when Jim Crow laws began to take hold in America, the Creoles were no longer treated well, and had to merge themselves with all other Blacks in the city. This is where we truly start to see the emergence of Jazz.
The fusion of Ragtime and Blues and the emergence of Jazz
In New Orleans, two major types of music were popular. Blues, popular within the Black population, was a slowed, rhythmic type of music with lyrics depicting the hardships slaves and free Blacks had to endure within the city of New Orleans. The other type of music, which was popular within the European and Creole population, was much faster and upbeat, and included horns and piano. However, in the late 1800s, as the Creoles lost status and began to integrate with Blacks, these two genres began to fuse. Many different people or groups claim to be the originator of Jazz music, but it's unknown its true origin. Next I will begin to evaluate a couple different possibilities of where Jazz truly began.
One claim upon the origination of Jazz belongs to Buddy Bolden. There are no recordings of his music, and the first mention of his music appeared two years after his death. As Gioia says, "any assessment of his importance must be drawn from scattered and often contradictory first-person accounts." Bolden started out in a string band, and later became more prominent as he evolved into emphasizing wind instruments and drums. "By the close of the decade... his group gained increasing notoriety for its daring move into the syncopated and blues-infected sounds that would prefigure jazz." In addition to more syncopated rhythms that seemed jarring to whites and some creoles, his lyrics, which were daring and outspoken, caused much controversy within the city. In fact, it is said by some that "the police put you in jail if they heard you singing [one of Bolden's] songs." Unfortunately, Bolden's career spiraled out of control quickly and he was put in an asylum where he died many years later.
Another Source that Gioia mentions as a proclaimed originator of jazz is the great Jelly Roll Morton. Few performers were as popular as Jelly Roll around the turn of the century, thus leading him to declare himself the originator of jazz. Gioia dismisses this as inaccurate, but says that he was "perhaps the first to think about it in abstract terms, and articulate... a coherent theorietical approach to its creation." Despite this, many in the Jazz community today view Morton as a blabbering loudmouth who rewrote his own history to match his personality. Morton rejected his creole backing, both insisting he disliked the french as well as denying he had any African ancestors, another example of Creoles resisting assimilation into the Black community. Morton was a massive superstar. His status could be compared to popular rappers of today-- both in his associations with lowlifes, gamblers, and pimps, as well as in his appearance (he was known to wear a diamond in his tooth). Everywhere he went, he was noticed. Jelly Roll certainly produced some of the hottest jazz records in the country for quite a while and without a doubt contributed to the massive explosion of the genre throughout the early 20th century. His presence inspired many others to follow suit and begin their own jazz bands.
Wrap it all up
In my opinion, the most important factor leading to the emergence of jazz in New Orleans was the Catholic version of slavery. Without the "freedoms" that were permitted to slaves in the Louisiana area, it's highly unlikely that the spread of ideas and culture throughout the slaves could have occurred. Because the slaves were allowed to intermarry, Creoles of color emerged, creating a distinct middle ground between Whites and Blacks, allowing a subset of groups to identify with both European and African heritage. As the Creoles began to integrate with the other free black Americans, their two cultures merged, including their forms of music, eventually forming what we now know as jazz.
