Broad Jazz History & Women's Contributions
Jazz music originated from the many different cultures and people that were living around each other in New Orleans at the turn of the century. New Orleans’ melting pot was unique in that it allowed for collaboration and fun, as opposed to New York’s melting pot that bred competition and getting ahead. Music was always desired in New Orleans, and it kept being supplied in the never-ending party that was the city. The city’s diversity in ethnic groups allowed for many different inspirations to come together and eventually create a new style of music that encapsulated the city, and then the country. All of these influences created a music genre that involves a lot of improvisation and utilization of the swing note that was a switch up from popular American music at the time. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), one of jazz’s foremost musicians, is considered paramount in the emergence of jazz at the beginning of the twentieth century. He used his trumpet and incredible improvisation skills to attract more musicians to a budding and exciting genre of music. Since its conception, jazz has broken off into many different subgenres that all have their own unique sound. In the 1940s, Bebop emerged, which transitioned jazz from a danceable popular music toward a music that musicians found more challenging due to its faster tempos. Then in the 1950s, we were treated with free jazz, which eliminated the regular beat, meter, and formal structures to allow for more free flowing and surprising music. As the decades wore on, new subgenres emerged with new players excelling in them. Jazz is an ever-changing genre of music that has deep roots in New Orleans as one of its “calling cards” or one of the biggest parts of its history. Even recently, jazz musicians come from the great pioneering city of New Orleans. Harry Connick, Jr. the pop-jazz singer hails from the city and has commercial success. Jazz used to be manipulated by the musicians for their own pleasure so that they can create something new and exciting. Unfortunately, now jazz music is manipulated to fit the prototype of what can be a “popular” song in today’s pop culture. Hopefully, with the advances in music that happen daily, our pop culture can come to appreciate traditional jazz music and we can all start swinging again.
Women's Contributions
Jazz started off as a male-dominated field from the beginning, and as a result, women’s accomplishments in jazz have been overlooked and discharged, a notion discussed in Germaine Bazzle's interview when she talks about the risk of her career.At its inception, women were mostly studying piano and voice. Women’s roles were much greater than perceived. When bandleader Chick Webb was hospitalized in 1938, Ella Fitzgerald came in as the unknown, but new leader who quickly became the biggest name in the band. After Webb’s death, Fitzgerald took over the bad and managed and directed it for two years. While women in jazz were considered only singers, that could not be farther from the truth. Billie Holiday’s contributions to jazz, namely “Don’t Explain” and “God Bless the Child”, she advanced women from just singers to composers and performers. The next advancement was from the wonderful piano players Mary Lou Williams, Hazel Scott, and Dorothy Donegan who broke down barriers and allowed for women to play all kinds of jazz instruments. While they played all kinds of jazz instruments successfully, they were not marketed or presented the way male performers were. Then World War II rolled around. Gender roles shifted because of the war, and while men were drafted to the war and leaving jazz, the American public still demanded jazz. Women were then employed in men’s bands to fill the openings. After the war, many women transitioned into musical fields and began performing in smaller groups in nightclubs. Due to not getting the credit that women should have gotten, we only see women celebrated in jazz in recent years. Women’s jazz festivals starting gaining traction in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Regardless of this, many negative attitudes still remained, people still genuinely believed that jazz was just for men. Starting in 1993, The Women of the New Jazz festival opened in Chicago and celebrated the innovative jazz musicians that just happened to be women. Then in 1995 in New York, the International Women in Jazz Incorporated was founded. These two developments try to give credit to the pioneering female jazz musicians that never were given the time of day.
