The JAZZ Story

reflects the emotional power and rhythmic drive of early Afro-American

music than a recording of a spiritual by the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers

from the first decade of this century.

Other early musical forms dating from the slavery years include work

songs, children's songs, and dances, adding up to a remarkable legacy,

especially since musical activity was considerable restricted under that

system.

BIRTH OF THE BLUES

After the slaves were freed, Afro-American music grew rapidly. The

availability of musical instruments, including military band discards, and

the new-found mobility gave birth to the basic roots of Jazz: brass and

dance band music and the blues.

The blues, a seemingly simple form of music that nevertheless lends itself

to almost infinite variation, has been a significant part of every Jazz style,

and has also survived in its own right. Today's rock and soul music would

be impossible without the blues. Simply explained, it is and eight (or

twelve) bar strain with lyrics in which the first stanza is repeated. It gets its

characteristic "blue" quality from a flattening of the third and seventh notes

of the tempered scale. In effect, the blues is the secular counterpart of the

spirituals.

BRASS BANDS AND RAGTIME

By the late 1880's, there were black brass, dance and concert bands in

most southern cities. (At the same time, black music in the north was

generally more European-oriented.) Around this era, ragtime began to

emerge. Though primarily piano music, bands also began to pick it up and