Blog Post 1: New Orleans as the Site of Social and Musical Syncretism

               There are a wide variety of factors that contributed to the emergence of jazz from New Orleans in the early 1900s.  One such factor, according to Gioia, was the declining economy of the city in the late 1800s. New Orleans’ economy was based primarily on trade via steamboat, so when the railroad grew in prominence and allowed for faster trade by land, the city’s revenue steeply decreased.  This economic trouble was accompanied by a high mortality rate; in the 1880s, New Orleans’ mortality rate was 56% higher than for an average American city.  The citizens of New Orleans responded to these poor conditions, according to Gioia, by distracting themselves from their troubles through celebration. (Gioia, 28)  Such celebrations, which prominently featured music, provided many opportunities for musicians to perform, and the nearly ubiquitous nature of music, especially of the brass band variety, in the city provided constant exposure to a variety of musical styles.

                In my opinion, the most important aspect of New Orleans that caused it to become the birthplace of jazz was the city’s diverse population.  As an important trading center, New Orleans attracted a wide variety of people, from whites and French to Mexicans, Creoles, and Blacks.  The syncretism of these groups was a key component in the creation of jazz, as jazz was formed as the gestalt of a number of aspects contributed by each group.  For instance, the Mexicans in New Orleans played a significant role in the creation of jazz by providing classical music instruction for many later jazz musicians, and are also largely responsible for the popularization of woodwind instruments in early jazz bands, the saxophone having been introduced to New Orleans by Mexican saxophonist Florencio Ramos (Johnson, “Sobre Las Olas”)  Their influence can also be noticed in the music itself; as Jelly Roll Morton claimed, “tinges of Spanish” form an essential part of the “right seasoning” of jazz. (Gioia, 6)  However, the most important aspect of the cultural diversity in New Orleans that contributed to the creation of jazz was the social conflict between Blacks and Creoles.  Unlike the majority of the United States at the time, New Orleans followed the Latin Code in regards to slavery, under which the offspring of relationships between free people and slaves were considered free people.  These people were referred to as Creoles, and occupied a social class situated between that of Blacks and Whites before the Civil War.  The Creoles often tried to distance themselves from Blacks to retain their higher social status; however, after slavery was abolished, and particularly after Louisiana Legislative Code No. 111, which “designated anyone of African ancestry as a Negro” (Gioia, 32), was passed, this distance began to diminish, and Creoles and Blacks were forced to associate.  The Creoles continued to try to distance themselves from Blacks; for instance, Jelly Roll Morton fervently insisted that he had no African roots, claiming “All my folks came directly from the shores of France” (Gioia, 38).  However, Jelly Roll Morton’s actions, such as his criminal activity, do not fit in with the Creole archetype either, suggesting that he, through the interactions of Blacks and Creoles, formed a complex identity that cannot be cleanly classified as either.  This defiance of existing labels parallels that of jazz, which contains elements of ragtime and blues but is not simply one or the other, and since I would argue that music is often a way of expressing one’s identity, I would suggest that the syncretism of the identities of Blacks and Creoles was a key factor in the creation of jazz.  Moreover, perhaps the most distinctive aspect of New Orleans jazz is the interaction between members of the ensemble, which echoes the social interactions of the many different peoples in the city of New Orleans.

-Commented on Addison Jerlow's post