Jazz - the original World Music
by David Hills

Part 3 of an occasional series.

When you consider the history of jazz, you'll realise that it is actually the very first blend of music from most continents. Until then, maybe one or two 'music's' blended, but jazz emerged from several - and it could only have happened in the south of the USA, and only during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

During the 18th century, the slave trade and slave culture was entrenched in the south. New Orleans was the second busiest port in the US, with goods coming and going from around the world, and being shipped up and down the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, opening up the vast mid-west up as far as the Canadian border. This activity was made even more profitable with slaves who were brought in like animals. Many came from the West Indies, but most of them came from the Dahomey part of Africa, where voodoo flourished even as it does today - with music from voodoo drums, flutes, primitive banjos. And music was an integral part of their life in Africa, music for every activity; it was carried across the Atlantic by the slaves into their lives in the US. Black music - its rhythms, instruments and songs - was always a basis. Over time, other cultures blended in. Spain owned the south of the US, but sold it to France - the Louisiana Purchase - but in the music, they left a Spanish tinge, rhythms, and guitars. From France came the violin, clarinet and saxophone, marching bands and dances like the quadrille. From English and German pioneers came brass bands and Protestant hymns. From Scotland and Ireland came folk tunes. Sad songs came from Portuguese fado and Russian sentimental songs. Everything blended with the black polyrhythms with strong off-beat emphases, scales - especially with what are called 'blue notes' like quarter tones. Jazz is essentially an inclusive form of music.

Adding to this mixture was the piano - every home had one - and favourite slaves, especially the children of the slaves with the owner, were taught to read music and play the piano. Also, the more prosperous churches had an organ.

For nearly 200 years, ships from around the world and down the rivers came and went, bringing influences that affected the way the blacks behaved.

When voodoo was outlawed, the blacks put all their beliefs and efforts in to Christian churches. The Southern Baptist people set up wooden churches, and the congregation would treat Sunday as if it was a voodoo rite, with powerful singing and hand-clapping often ending in religious possession.

The Civil War actually did very little for most slaves, but - and this was a very big but - lots of musical instruments were left on the battlefields. The black people picked them up, and learned them so they could play them around campfires, in church, at dances, and particularly for street marches. Pianos were played in drawing-rooms and in the 'sporting houses'.

There's a myth about blacks not being able to read music - nearly all of them could, though they pretended not to, as 'ignorant darkies'. Most of them were excellent musicians. In the late 1880s, in public, they played schottisches and waltzes - but at night in their own circles, the music was Dahomean, black and hot. They invented their own dances, like the cakewalk with music to match. Ragtime -the rage from 1890 to 1914 - had a strict format, was written, and was rather gentle music. And so, as - from 1914 to today - jazz became a blend of music from a dozen different countries. Truly, it is the first World Music.

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