The city of New Orleans played a crucial role in the
emergence of the jazz music. First of all, New Orleans was culturally and historically
different from other American cities. After French found the New Orleans in
1718, the city had been developed as a major trading port under the control of
France. The city was filled with many exotic foods, goods and people including
slaves from the all over the world. These people brought their own culture, religion,
music, custom, tradition and everything. In a sense New Orleans, which had these
cultural and racial diversities, was ready to accept totally new music long
before the jazz emerged. From 1763 to 1801 New Orleans had been ruled by Spain until
France retaken it in 1801. After the United States bought the city from France
as a result of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the city rapidly flourished as
the metropolitan trading city.
I think the most significance
in New Orleans was laid on religious culture the French and Spanish brought: the
Latin-Catholic culture. Unlike the English-Protestant, it was racially and
culturally more tolerant to the slaves. Under its rule, they were allowed to
intermarry and buy their freedom. This racial tolerance still remained in the
society after the United States ruled the city. This custom of the tolerance made
it possible for the city to establish Congo Square in 1817. In that square the slaves
were allowed to play music and dance while it was usually forbade in other
locales.
I imagine black
people at that time were suffering from the inner conflict between African and
American, so called double consciousness. Because black people were forced to
come to New Orleans as slaves and most of them had never seen African land
before, their identities were fragile. In that state of mind, music and dance
was indispensable for black people because it is related to the humanity. I
think black people had formed a collective memory of being black or African, sharing
music and dance. Creating the collective memory, black people could establish their
own strong identity of being African. The shared memory was handed down from
generation to generation, until it took a form of ragtime, blues and jazz, as a
result of adopting the elements of western music. In terms of those meanings,
Congo Square was significant.
In
Latin-Catholic culture, Creole of color could establish their social status
which was distinguished from black people. So they could belong to the middle
class between White and Black. They identified themselves as White, not Black. So
they had opportunity to experience and learn the Western musical culture like piano
techniques. It is no doubt that their existence in New Orleans helped develop
the cultural integration between African and European. This custom of the
racial tolerance had continued until Jim Crow Era came after the
Reconstruction. During Jim Crow Era, Creole came to be treated as Black. More
and more Creole and Black came to play music together. When the cruel Jim Crow
Era was about to come, jazz emerge in such an environment for the first time in
the history. I think it was the Latin-Catholic culture that made it possible to
mix African music with European music and create jazz.
