The expression arose sometime during the later nineteenth century in the better brothels of New Orleans, which provided music and dancing as well as sex. The original Jazz band was the 'Spasm Band' made up of seven boys, aged twelve to fifteen, who first appeared in New Orleans about 1895. They advertised themselves as the "Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band."
In 1900 another band adopted the same billing for an appearance at the Haymarket dance hall. It is said the 'Spasms' loaded their pockets with rocks and dropped by to protest the infringement. This prompted the owner of the hall to repaint his advertising placards to read: "Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band!", which represents the word's earliest-known appearance in print.
'Jazz' probably comes from a Creole or perhaps African word, but exact connections have not been proven. The presumed sexual origin is quite in accord with the development of many other related words:'boogie-woogie', 'gig', 'jelly roll', 'juke' 'swing'
'Jazz' is not a bad word now, but almost certainly is of extremely low origin, referring to copulation before it was applied to music, dancing, and nonsense. The vulgar word was in general currency in dance halls thirty years or more ago and the 1919 announcement of the first 'Jazz band' to play in Columbia inspired feelings of terror among the local Baptists such as what might have been aroused by a personal appearance of Yahweh.
I.2. The Definition of Jazz
What is Jazz music?
Jazz - an American art form and an international phenomenon! Jazz music is not found in websites or books or even written down in sheet music. It is in the act of creating the form itself, that we truly find Jazz.
An academic definition of Jazz would be: a genre of American music that originated in New Orleans circa 1900 characterized by strong, prominent meter, improvisation, distinctive tone colors & performance techniques, and dotted or syncopated rhythmic patterns. But Jazz is so much more than that!
Unlike other mediums, the nature of music is tipped toward the emotional rather than intellectual. Most genres of music involve the listener into the realm of the completed work as it was scored. Jazz draws the onlooker to a deeper league, that of a partnership, of being along when each new phrase is created, when each inspired motive is often the interactive result of audience involvement.
Jazz music's dynamic is its "newness" which can be attributed to the defining component - improvisation. While Classical music may strive to conform the musical tones to orchestral sonorities, Jazz music thrives on instrumental diversities; the player's individual "sound" becoming the desired proficiency. This is where the passion is, a kind found no where else.
I.3. Jazz Improvisation
What is it?
Jazz improvisation is the process of spontaneously creating fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes of a tune. It has been said that the best improvised music sounds composed, and that the best composed music sounds improvised. Composed music and improvised music may seem to be opposites, but in Jazz they merge in a unique mixture.
"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it." - Duke Ellington
Early Jazz-Its Roots and Musical Development" by Gunther Schuller
- "Chicago Jazz. A Cultural History (1904-1930)" by William Howland Kenney
- "Black Beauty, White Heat : A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz 1920-1950)" The Frank Driggs Collection
- www.jass com
- www.redhotjazz.com
- www.apassion4jazz.net
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