Jazz Track is a unique trail across the United States that traces the development of jazz music. The trip is planned for 13 days around the United States visiting historical places and clubs related with the History of Jazz.
Memphis
The blues dates back before the beginnings of jazz and its origins are obscure beyond hope of precise documentations, although it must have come into being somewhere in the deep rural South, sometime before the turn of the 20th century. Of the large number of historical locations that played a central role in the growth of the blues, Beale Street in Memphis was officially declared as the "Home of the Blues" by an act of Congress in 1977. In the early 1900s, Beale Street was filled with clubs, restaurants and shops, many of them owned by African-Americans. WC Handy composed in Memphis some of the earliest and most famous blues, the "Memphis Blues" (1909), "Saint Louis Blues" (1914), and the "Beale Street Blues" (1916). From the 1920s to the 1940s, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Memphis Minnie, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, Rosco Gordon and other blues and jazz legends played on Beale Street and helped develop the style known as Memphis Blues. Accommodation in Memphis
New Orleans
Jazz was born in New Orleans in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It rapidly became a popular music throughout the city, mostly in the District of Storyville. In Storyville, one could legally enjoy prostitution while listening to the first Jazz Band in history, the Buddy Bolden Band. Unfortunately, although Bolden was recalled as having made at least one phonograph cylinder, no known recordings of Bolden have survived. Ten years later (1917), Storyville was shut down by the federal government, forcing jazz musicians to move to Northern cities – mostly Chicago and New York City and to a lesser extend Kansas City. Accommodation in New Orleans
Chicago
Chicago rapidly became the capital of Jazz between 1917-1928. Even if the bands could not march in the streets because of the adverse weather conditions, the New Orleans style remained almost intact. A large number of cabarets emerged in the “South Side” district. Amongst them, the most relevant were the “Royal Gardens” (hosting the “King Oliver Creole Jazz Band” with Louis Armstong playing the cornet) and the “Apex Club” (hosting the greatest clarinetist Jimmy Noone and the pianist Earl Hines). Further information about the role of Chicago in Jazz History here. Accommodation in Chicago
New York City
Meanwhile, Harlem saw the birth of outstanding Jazz pianists in the ragtime style such as Willie “the Lion” Smith and Pete Johnson. This piano style became popular in part thanks to the House Rent Parties (private parties randomly held in apartments to finance the rent). The biggest Dance club in Harlem was the Savoy, a gigantic room with two stages that allowed bands to battle all night long. Two big bands became most popular, the Feltcher Henderson Orchestra first, followed by the best big band of all times, the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Two dazzling female vocalists emerged in Harlem during the 1920s: Bessie Smith, the empress of blues, and Ethel Waters. Accommodation in New York City
Kansas City
The Great Depression (1929) marked the end of one of the greatest Jazz eras of all times. All of a sudden, Jazz musicians in Chicago and Harlem found themselves unemployed. The crisis quickly spread all over the country except in Kansas City. In the 1930s, Kansas City was the crossroads of the United States and transcontinental trips required a stop in the city. Kansas City was a wide open town with liquor laws and hours totally ignored. Many jazz musicians got caught up in the friendly musical competitions among performers that could keep a single song being performed in various variations for an entire night. Such musical competitions lead to a new style, the Kansas city Style. The establishment of the Kansas City style is attributed to Bennie Moten but it became highly popular when Count Basie took over his band after his death.
Kansas City has long been recognized as having been a major jazz center, ranking in importance only behind New York, New Orleans, and Chicago. From the mid-1920s through the late 1930s, jazz musicians from the central states of America were "goin' to Kansas City" in search of jobs, musical challenge, and good times. When they arrived they entered a musical community that was extraordinarily supportive, demanding, and artistically uplifting.
Kansas City jazz prospered while most of America suffered through the Great Depression, largely because of the corrupt but economically stimulating administration of Boss Tom Pendergast. Jazz was the popular social music of the time, and the centers of vice - nightclubs and gambling halls - usually hired musicians to attract customers. The serendipitous results were plentiful but low-paying jobs for jazz musicians from throughout the Mid-west and an outpouring of great new music. Accommodation in Kansas City
Preparing for the Jazz Track
Accommodation
The following are towns and cities on the Jazz Track. Click to view the accommodation available there. For those not listed below, use the Accommodation Search Engine to find nearest hotels.
- Memphis, Tennessee
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Chicago, Illinois
- New York City, New York
- Kansas City, Missouri
Other Matters
Information on this page may be printed out for your use when you visit USA.
Wikitravel is attributed as one of the sources for the content of this page, which is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0. Terms of Use
|
|
|
