When I first got this assignment, there are many types of music that I could have chosen to do. Church music, brass bands, Australian music, baroque, pop music and all the other ones out there. But I wanted to do something that would be more interesting to define. When asked what the real meaning of jazz was, Louis Armstrong’s famous reply was “if you had to ask, you’ll never know”. Whatever else he meant, he was at least saying that jazz is knowable, but not necessarily explainable in words, and true enough, jazz resists definition like no other music

Consider the usual definitions: jazz is said to be an African American music, originated by black people for black people; an improvised music; a music characterized by arrhythmic feel called swing; and a music influenced by the blues. But race and ethnicity are not as clear as what the American myths would say. Throughout the history of jazz, there have been people of other races and religions – whites of several nationalities, Cubans, Mexicans, native Americans, Haitians and overseas Europeans of all sorts involved in its creation. The first proble

m with doing a history of a music that has its roots entangled among so many different cultures is how to go about determining sources and origins. That’s why jazz is so interesting to so many.

For the first half of his life, everything Armstrong did was copied as fast as he could record it, but this 1928 recording of a 12-bar blues was especially riveting for trumpet players, who struggled with it for years. His opening, out of tempo unaccompanied solo sets a pattern for what’s to come; starting with 4 simple quavers, which by all means should not sound syncopated, but do. Then as you hear, there are about 8 bars of increasingly complex figures, rising to a very high peak, and then spiraling downward. Every solo of his that follows, whether played on the trumpet or sung, has the same simple-to-complex patterns. Then on the last chorus Armstrong quickly rises to a high b-flat and holds the note for four whole bars. When the strain of the notes length and height is at its maximum, he releases it, lurching downward again and again. This is music that is extraordinarily orderly, balanced and elegant, but still, like the finest of jazz, is always full of risk and surprise

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