Jazz— musical anarchy pioneered by the oppressed colored Americans which, whether precisely known or not at the time, came to uproot outdated systems and cry out with songs of freedom. As beautifully stated in Burns’ first episode, titled Gumbo: “Jazz grew up in a thousand places but it was born in New Orleans.” Thanks to the smorgasboard of culture lent to us by 19th century America's most cosmopolitan city, New Orleans had the rich and diverse influences of slaves traditions, spirituals, creole music, minstrels, the war, ragtime, and of course the blues, all of which gave birth to jazz before it was even called as such. Jazz celebrated individual expression, the profundity of life and picked apart the human condition in its own improvisational language, evolving with every conversation but almost always rooted in the blues. Starting with a checkered past, segregation and Jim Crow laws quickly strained the cultural fusion taking place musically after the abolishment of sla
Comments
Post a Comment