I associate jazz with a sense of freedom, freedom in expression and freedom in form. However, after spending some time learning about the origins and roots of jazz, I realized that jazz was not always so freely structured and spontaneous; there was a time when jazz was structured around rigid musical forms and techniques. Some of the earliest jazz ensembles were focused on cohesion and unity as opposed to focusing on soloists and improvisation. Despite the organized nature and sound of early jazz, I still hear and feel a degree of freedom, and I think that this freedom was the most important factor in the emergence of jazz.

In the 18th century, the Atlantic slave trade brought Africans, of widely diverse and unique backgrounds, to New Orleans. In 1764, France ceded New Orleans to Spain, and in 1800, France regained New Orleans. In 1791, the Haitian Revolution brought thousands of white, French refugees. So at this time in New Orleans, there were Spanish, French, African, German, Italian, English, Irish, Scottish, and Caribbean people present. In “perhaps the most seething ethnic melting pot that the nineteenth century world could produce (Gioia, p.9),” the stage was set for a melding of cultural and artistic traditions. This syncretism heavily influenced the emergence and subsequent development of jazz.

A common theme throughout the history of jazz is the emergence of the oppressed. States like Georgia and South Carolina can forbid musical instruments, but the slaves will still sing. States can prohibit slaves from meeting in large groups, yet in New Orleans’ Congo Square the people will congregate. Louis Armstrong can be forced into the background of ensembles, but his horn will still resonate, even today. Intellectual and artistic liberties can only be suppressed for so long.

New Orleans was unique in the amount of personal freedom slaves and residents had. In 1817, the New Orleans City Council established an official site for slave dances, while at the same time South Carolina was banning drums and Georgia was forbidding horns, drums and any loud instrument. In Congo Square, the African principles of song and dance, e.g. attack in sound and motion, call and response, and propulsive rhythm, were exposed to non-African eyes and ears. These forms persist in jazz today, however the transformations of jazz took place gradually.

The freedoms and liberties that New Orleans offered cultivated, in the early 20th century, a culture of celebration and an inseparable relationship to music. New Orleans residents were hearing music in parks, at parties, at fish fries, on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, in restaurants, and at almost every major event (Gioia, p.32). These bands played wide varieties of music, and a notable shift occurred in the gradual “ragging” of traditional works. Musicians and artists exercised their freedom to push the boundaries of jazz.

Jazz could not have emerged in any other city. New Orleans and the musical arts became inseparable due to the freedoms the city allowed. The preexisting cultural diversity and richness of the area combined with the relatively lax slave-related laws led to a meshing of African and European artistic traditions which eventually amalgameted into jazz.