Defining The Word Dixieland
When addressing the subject of jazz styles, the following question inevitably arises: What is the difference between New Orleans Jazz and Dixieland Jazz? The definition of jazz itself has plagued the performer since its inception. When the great Louis Armstrong was asked, "Mr. Armstrong, what is jazz?" the questioner received his stock answer: "If you have to ask...shame on you!" In analyzing the derivation of the term "Dixieland jazz," we must first seek the origin of the word Dixie. Dixie was the popular name for a 10-dollar bank note issued in Louisiana before the Civil War, so called because of the large "Dix" (10) printed on one side. Dixie was also used in the title of a song composed in 1859 by Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815-1904), a composer from Ohio. The song, which depicted life in the Southern states, gained immense popularity throughout the region when the South adopted it during the Civil War. Keeping all these origins in mind, one can easily identify the states below the Mason-Dixon line as being the "land of Dixie." The roots of jazz music were taking on a recognizable form by the early 1990s, largely in the city of New Orleans. Many things played an important role in the development of our unique American art form, including brass bands, work songs of southern slaves, gospel music folk dances and syncopation of ragtime." It was a veritable melting pot of music that transformed into what was to become known as jazz.
Vice was running rampant at this time throughout the 38-block district in New Orleans know as Storyville. Brothels. Saloons, cabarets and gambling establishments were thriving. This is where the new music, then referred to as “jass” or “that jass music,” emerged. The African-American lifestyle in New Orleans also played an important part in the development of jazz. Funeral processions using brass bands were indigenous to the city. The traditional New Orleans funeral is still of interest to tourists today. During what was to become know as the “New Orleans period,” bands would be transported on trucks through the streets to advertise an upcoming event. The tailgates of these vehicles were lowered to allow trombonists freedom of movement for their slides, resulting in the term “tailgate trombone.” Jazz flourished In New Orleans during the early 1990s right up until the First World War. During World War I, the War Department took a dim view of the activities in Storyville, which were readily available to the American soldiers and sailors who were in close proximity to the district. In 1917 the Secretary of War shut down Storyville, effectively bringing to a close the New Orleans period.
Better living conditions, industrial expansion and plentiful jobs attracted African-American families to the “Windy City” of Chicago. Jazz moved up the Mississippi with this migration and touched on nearly every riverbank town and city. Jazz was now geographically dispersed to the four corners of America, ready to absorb and give birth to new textures. No one knows for sure when the term “Dixieland” was first used to label the music of New Orleans. However, one band in particular was to make it a familiar phrase. Although a few jazz bands had appeared in Chicago prior to the closing of Storyville, on had already become famous in the Windy City and had carried its message to New York. This band was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The Original Dixieland Jazz was not organized in New Orleans, nor did it play there in its early years, so it can’t be called a pure New Orleans jazz band. The band was born in Chicago in 1916 form the demise of Tom Brown’s ragtime brass band. “Brown’s Band from Dixieland.” Two New Orleans musicians, clarinetists Larry Shields and trumpeter Nick LaRocca, reformed the band with personnel changes and called the new group the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. They were booked into Reisenweber’s Restaurant in New York City for two weeks, beginning on January 15, 1917, and were an instant success. About one month later, in Victor Talking Machine Company’s studio, they recorded the first-known records by any jazz band (Victor No. 18255). With promotional photos boasting that they were the creators of jazz, they toured Europe in 1919 and were a huge smash. Their reception in London was akin to the incredible reaction the Beatles received upon their 1964 arrival in America.
We cannot possibly acknowledge all the innovators of this music here, but certainly these names cannot be overlooked: trumpeter Louis Armstrong; pianist Jelly Roll Morton; reedman Sidney Bechet; cornetist Buddy Bolden (whose band of the early 1890s is often considered the first jazz band); drummer Baby Dodds and his brother, clarinetist Johnny Dodds; and trombonist Kid Dry. The descendants of these legends, who continued to carry the torch, should also be of special note. It is interesting that guitarist Eddie Condon, whose name was synonymous with Dixieland, took exception to the term. Condon wet so far as to co-author the book We Called It Music in 1947. The great clarinetist Pee Wee Russell fought the stigma of being categorized as a “Dixielander” to the point of recording the music of the avant-garde genius, Thelonious Monk. Duke Ellington rejected the term “jazz” and preferred to call it “American music.” Whatever it is called—Dixieland, New Orleans jazz, or “that jass music”—the art form that originated in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century has become a part of our heritage for future generations to study and, above all, enjoy.
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