New Orleans is often considered the birthplace of jazz, and rightfully so, since it is the first city to fully recognize and embrace its unique sound. However when you look back further the reason why jazz was able to reach New Orleans was because of European colonization and slavery in West Africa, where africans were captured and shipped to America in order to work their plantation systems.
One of the biggest cities that welcomed these slaves was in fact New Orleans during the nineteenth-century. Slaves usually were allowed to perform slave dances every Sunday in the open area of Congo-Square in order to keep in touch with their culture from back home. This exposure caused by Congo-Square is the beginning of the mixture between African and European culture which is essentially how jazz music was formed. But it was not only European culture that was affecting the creation of Jazz but the fact that New Orleans was also the home of Spanish and French influences as well. Spanish culture in particular had a huge effect influencing many local instrumentalist and providing one more link to the complex relationship of Latin and African-American style.
The musicological impact demonstrated by the Latin-Catholic culture influenced nineteenth century New Orleans, and helped bring about the development of jazz music. As Jelly Roll Morton, one of the pioneers for New Orleans jazz musicians, describes the relationship between spanish culture and jazz, “if you can’t manage to put tingles of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz.” However this culture was also going through it’s share of discrimination, but was more more tolerant in accepting unorthodox social hybrids than the English-Protestant ethos that prevailed everywhere else in the New World. Put simply, the music and dance of Congo Square, as well as the blend of multiple cultures in one city would not have happened in the more Anglicized colonies of the Americas, which is why Jazz could not be founded by anywhere else besides New Orleans
The musicological impact demonstrated by the Latin-Catholic culture influenced nineteenth century New Orleans, and helped bring about the development of jazz music. As Jelly Roll Morton, one of the pioneers for New Orleans jazz musicians, describes the relationship between spanish culture and jazz, “if you can’t manage to put tingles of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz.” However this culture was also going through it’s share of discrimination, but was more more tolerant in accepting unorthodox social hybrids than the English-Protestant ethos that prevailed everywhere else in the New World. Put simply, the music and dance of Congo Square, as well as the blend of multiple cultures in one city would not have happened in the more Anglicized colonies of the Americas, which is why Jazz could not be founded by anywhere else besides New Orleans
As I already discussed earlier the sources of jazz came primarily from the Congo-Square which was the first exposure given to the New World about African culture and led to the eventual blend with European culture. Later on New Orleans which was constantly switching possession from France to Spain, was passed on the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. It is because of this event as well as the addition of settlers from Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland that was able to play a decisive role in shaping what made New Orleans what it was in the nineteenth century.
To me the most important factor that led to jazz in New Orleans was the one of a kind cultural gumbo, that led to the creation of jazz. New Orleans was the only city where African and European culture, as well as all the other cultures that were residing in the city at the time could merge together to form jazz. This laissez-faire environment led the way to not only jazz but influenced other types of music that soon followed after such as the blues and ragtime. Its because of this accepting and mixed culture that is why i feel like why it is the single most important factor for why jazz formed in New Orleans.
To me the most important factor that led to jazz in New Orleans was the one of a kind cultural gumbo, that led to the creation of jazz. New Orleans was the only city where African and European culture, as well as all the other cultures that were residing in the city at the time could merge together to form jazz. This laissez-faire environment led the way to not only jazz but influenced other types of music that soon followed after such as the blues and ragtime. Its because of this accepting and mixed culture that is why i feel like why it is the single most important factor for why jazz formed in New Orleans.
