New Orleans was the starting point of the popularity of jazz in the United States and that is where Dixieland originated. New Orleans generated all sorts of jazz attributes from musicians to forms of jazz itself. It was the early years of New Orleans that all of the jazz crazes came froth but to this day it is known as the city of jazz. The development of Ragtime however is more loosely connected with New Orleans. Its birth in the American Mid-West and gradual movement down the Mississippi proves this fact. With Ragtime not originating in New Orleans and it being more of a composer-oriented type of music, mad Ragtime’s acceptance into the jazz family difficult. With this said, Ragtime still had an influence on jazz music and musicians. Although Dixieland has a closer relationship to New Orleans than Ragtime, they all still have a definite relationship with one another.

Jazz is the art of expression set to music and is said to be “the fundamental rhythms of human life and man’s contemporary reassessment of his traditional values.” (Kottews) A lot of literature has been written on the origins of jazz based on African-American lifestyles. The early influences of tribal drums and the development of gospel, blues and folk songs seemed to point out that jazz has to do with people’s feelings and lives. (Kottews) Jazz provides a special feeling to all its listeners and that feeling is blues.

Another early form of music connected to jazz was Ragtime. Like any musical genre, Ragtime had its roots in many of its predecessors. The musical roots of Ragtime are tied to life on the plantations. One popular for of entertainment was the cakewalk. Couples in fancy dress would promenade, and the beast walkers around would, “take the cake.” The cakewalk eventually made its way to Europe. Rhythms, which were a part of the musical heritage brought from Africa, were incorporated into cakewalks. Coon songs and the music of jig bands eventually developed into Ragtime. The music, characterized by opposing rhythms common to African Dance, was vibrant, enthusiastic, and often extemporaneous.

Since there were so many people in New Orleans, most of those people had secret societies in order to keep their kind together, which was a good thing for jazz music. For example, some of these societies were white, black, Creole, octoroon, quadroon and so on. These societies had many performances going on so it provided a great deal of work for many musicians. If you were black, the black society would hire you, if you were Creole you would get hired by the Creole society and so on. Secret societies provided a great deal for the people of New Orleans and helped to spread Dixieland throughout the city and helped to get more people involved. These societies provided people with money, burial plans, as well as something they could just belong to. “Many blacks were attracted to join secret societies out of fear of loneliness.” (Davis, p. 53)

Dixieland would have never gained such popularity as it did without the major artists that came out of New Orleans. Louis Armstrong, who is considered to be the greatest jazz musician of all time by many great observers, brought so much to the industry, which may have not been contributed by anyone else that did not have the dedication that Louis had when it came to his music. Coming from a fortuneless background, Armstrong rose above his hardships and continued to on to be an incredible musician. He learned how to play the cornet at a very young age and continued to practice music, which he loved dearly. He almost perfected his jazz ability in New Orleans, then took his specialty nor

Some topics in this essay:
Jazz Band, Orleans” Davis, Scotland African, Louis Armstrong, Orleans Chicago, Storyville Storyville, St Louis, Storyville Jazz, Chicago York, Weisman Jazz, dixieland jazz, jazz band, jazz music, dixieland jazz band, original dixieland, original dixieland jazz, form jazz, people orleans, secret societies, dixieland dixieland, recording jazz, cities chicago york, originated orleans, jazz called dixieland, form jazz called,