The Brief History of Jazz:
Jazz has been around for a long time. Perhaps the most influential person to the jazz genre was Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong was a multifaceted musician known for his compositions, singing, and ability to play the trumpet with style and flair. However, the roots of Jazz go back to even farther than that.
Buddy Bolden, a cornet player, was a man ahead of his time he is typically regarded as the first bandleader to play the improvised music that we currently call Jazz. Bolden was born on the sixth of September 1877 in New Orleans. His popularity and style of music playing would later earn him the title ‘King’ as he played his instrument, unlike anyone who came before him. Bolden was said to be paranoid about people copying his music style, so he would often cover his hands when he played.It will be a few more years before Jazz really gained traction as the vastly recognized music genre it is known for today.
Enter the Civil rights era. The Jim Crow laws were just passed and many interracial musicians (typically with one parent being white and another parent (grandparent etc.) being black) were impacted in a way they might not have expected. Before then many of the interracial individuals played in primarily white venues and were classically trained. However with the introduction of the Jim Crow laws many interracial individuals were suddenly without work. Soon, they started playing in primarily black venues which played mostly blues style music. After a while, the two styles merged and the resulting music was amazing. The raw feelings and note sliding from Blues mixed with the crisp ‘proper’ sound from classical music gave birth to jazz and would eventually morph into the jazz that many of us are familiar with today.