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AN INTERACTIVE HISTORY OF JAZZ: 1718 TO NOW

Sowing the Seeds : 1718 - 1899

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* 1718 - New Orleans Louisiana is founded by the French Mississippi Company (the same company that laid claim to and controlled The Mississippi River for the French). It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of France at the time; his title came from the French city of Orléans. NOLA would become Ground Zero for the global jazz explosion; the most fertile environment for the merging of cultures that made jazz music inevitable. 

* 1803 - President Thomas Jefferson pushes for the purchase of 828,000 square miles of French territory - in the middle of North America - the 23 million dollar deal is known as the Louisiana Purchase and it extended the U.S. boundaries beyond Illinois to include present-day Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, northern Texas, portions of Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and all of Louisiana; New Orleans becomes the gateway for the new expansion and a center for diversity pivotal in the development of jazz.  

* 1826 - Stephen Foster, America's first songwriting star, was born July 4th (the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died) Foster's songs provide the first examples of a dignified cultural integration within American music but his legacy is complex and at times controversial. Most significantly, the unmistakable signs of African-American influence in Foster's music offer a reference point for black and white musicians in the process of creating new ways of telling a story with a song i.e. jazz.     

* 1862 - Federal troops capture New Orleans, which benefits from the new influx of people from all walks of life, including numerous slaves seeking refuge. By the end of The Civil War, NOLA's population would increase by nearly 50%

* 1865 - Civil War ends, Lincoln assassinated; Ernest Hogan, cited by many as the person to first publish sheet music for ragtime songs, was born in, of all places, the  Shake Rag district of Bowling Green , Kentucky. Hogan, who may have even coined the term "ragtime" from "ragged-time", (describing the odd meter typical of ragtime music) would go on to be the first African-American to stage and star in a Broadway show - "The Oyster Man" in 1907.

* 1877 - The end of the Post-Civil War "Reconstruction"; Union troops began to withdraw from the south. As a result, New Orleans becomes more relaxed and freedom of expression flourishes. The same year, Buddy Bolden, the first jazz icon, is born. His captivating style is the stuff of legend... and conjecture since there are no recordings of his playing. But one thing is certain; by the time Bolden is 21, he has no equal and no one individual has affected the music in the same manner as him ; Much of what survives in the record about jazz from 19th century revolves around Bolden, who's popularity also seems to reflect greater appreciation for individual virtuosity. 

* 1882 - James Reese Europe, a key figure in early development of jazz, born February 22.    

* 1893 to 1895 - The Chicago World's Fair opens to the sound of a new music sweeping across

America - ragtime. Millions of people, including a twenty-something Scott Joplin, hear the odd but infectious dance music for the first time at the World's Fair and within a few years time, ragtime songs will become the first million-sellers and central to the nation's "youth" movement. By 1895 the first ragtime songs would be published by Ernest Hogan, including one called "All Coons Look Alike to Me." The song is phenomenally popular but it's racial overtones cause uproar among African-Americans, no matter that Hogan is black. Unfortunately the song's popularity spawns an entire genre of demeaning imitations - "coon songs" - and Hogan's role as a ragtime pioneer would be diminished as a result. Meanwhile, Buddy Bolden is making a name for himself in New Orleans and soon, the separate, fledgling musical worlds of Hogan & Bolden would collide to create a new art form.

*1899 - Scott Joplin, now a budding composer with six published songs to his credit, publishes #7, "Maple Leaf Rag" taking it's title from the social club where he plays piano in Sedalia, Missouri, his home at the time. "Maple Leaf" is Joplin's first hit and the first instrumental to sell over 1 million copies. It has been estimated that Joplin made about $360 per year on the song in his lifetime. 

  Generation Alpha: 1900 - 1920

* 1900 - The newest and hottest music in America is ragtime, spreading from it's northern origins to the south, where there is also a new sound emerging from the pioneering musicians of New Orleans, equally influenced by ragtime. Meanwhile, Don Redman (Joshua's great-uncle), who's gifts as a composer would have a seminal effect on jazz music, was born on July 29th.

* 1901 to 1910 -  This ten year period produced most of the important innovators of early jazz including Louis Armstrong, the most important of all jazz musicians, born on August 4th 1901;  other legends born during this decade include Bix Beiderbecke (1903), Count Basie (1904), Tommy Dorsey (1905), Art Tatum, Lester Young and Benny Goodman (1909). One of Goodman's clarinet idols, Johnny Dodds, learned how to play his instrument when Benny was in diapers, barley out of them himself. His teacher wasn't much older - teen-age prodigy Sidney Bechet, considered by many to be greatest clarinetist of all time and the man who almost single-handedly introduced Europe to jazz.  

* 1911 to 1920 -This was the decade of many firsts; in 1912 Louis Armstrong plays the trumpet for the first time; an 18 year old pianist named James P. Johnson, eventually one of America's most gifted and influential composers - he wrote the song many identify with the "roaring twenties" era (his hey day) "The Charleston" - plays his first professional engagement at Coney Island, Brooklyn. In the same year, The Clef Club, a New York City "society club" for African-American in the music biz, organized what many regard as the first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. The Clef Club and the concert was the creation of James Reese Europe, the most celebrated African-American bandleader of his day. Europe is also credited by some with making the first jazz recordings in 1913-14, 3 years before the commonly referenced historical accounts which cite The Original Dixieland Jazz Band's 2/26/1917 recordings of "Livery Stable Blues" and "Dixie Jass Band One Step" as the first. During World War I, Europe was a member of the famous 369th Infantry Regiment aka "Harlem Hellfighters" and the leader of the regiment's popular musicians. The band is unanimously credited with introducing early jazz to the European continent and thus creating international acclaim for the new music, which was virtually unheard of outside of America. Europe returned to New York in 1918, just in time to meet the rise of what was called "New York Ragtime",now known as "Stride". Luckey Roberts and Willie "The Lion" Smith are acknowledged stride piano pioneers and influences but James P. Johnson would eventually be called "the father of stride piano." In 1918 Johnson makes his first piano roll in New York, indicative of his enormous popularity and the growing enthusiasm for stride piano. Duke Ellington, who wrote his first composition ("Soda Fountain Rag") in 1914, cites Johnson as a major, singular influence, echoing the sentiment of many important musicians. Before the end of the decade, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Dizzy Gillespie would be born and Paul Whiteman, the man who would soon be given the controversial stage name 'King of Jazz', gives birth to his first dance band in San Francisco. 

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