What is jazz? Jazz is the folk music of the age of machines. - Paul Whiteman If you need to ask what jazz, you will not ever know. - Louis Armstrong Jazz must have "that thing". You must be born with it. You can not even buy it. If I could buy, they were on sale at the next Newport festival. - Miles Davis Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains. - Paul Whiteman New Orleans is the only place I know where when you ask a child what he wants to be and instead of saying "I want to be a policeman" or "I want to be a fireman," he says, I want to be a musician. "-

Alan Jaffe The etymology of the word jazz is unknown, but the great Dizzy Gillespie jasi said that, in an African dialect, means "living at a fast pace." Paradoxically, those who will know will be the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, directed by Nick La Rocca, orchestra musicians born whites in New Orleans, which incisero in the first disc in 1917 in New York. The son of La Rocca told the first tour of ODJB in New York, during which the posters advertising their evenings have been altered by buontemponi del'epoca as follows: delete the letter "J" from the phrase "Jass Band" for her become "Ass Band," which in English means "sit" or "seat of the band." Later they had to change the word "Jass" to "Jazz." Enslaved blacks, deported from 1500 to 1865, met with the Europeans arrived to colonize the Americas, and from the ground forces of a people regarded as instinctive (Africans) and the vision born of the Western classical Greece and Germanic flourished from the world a new cultural form based on the creativity and conviviale instinctiveness on improvisation, vocal and instrumental. In the southern U.S. blacks slaves maintained associated with their music and especially singing, musical instruments brought from Africa, especially the drums, were in fact confiscated because whites believed that they were used to communicate and to incite rebellion . The songs, work songs, songs of the plantation, they had to win the living condition of inferiority and subjection to which they were forced and not to forget his identity as the black codes (codes for the blacks) had them private. The musical tradition of Africa was linked to events of daily life and agricultural and pastoral event of war. The European tradition provided the impetus to draw from other musical forms: the classical music, religious songs, folk songs, dance music, marches, the opera, and musical instruments from piano to wind instruments. Among the sacred music borrowed, an example is Oh Tannenbaum, later adapted to travel in style and played jazz with the title of Maryland, My Maryland. The negro spirituals arose from religious traditions formed during slavery. The choral music was deeply charged with emotion and often melancholic, structure of polyrhythm. The texts are almost always the topic of religion: "Oh, when the saints, go marching in / Oh, when the saints, go marching in / Oh Lord, I want to be in that number / When the saints, go marching in" (Oh when the Saints come / marching "into your kingdom", / Oh, Lord, I want to be together) Oh when the sun begins to shine, when the sun begins to shine. Oh I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in. Oh when the moon goes down in blood, when the moon goes down in blood ..... Oh when the horn, begins to sound ..... Oh when the rev - elation comes ..... Oh when the day, of judgment comes .... Religion was a source of common strength, hope that everyone in heaven would have the freedom that God had freed from slavery to black people. "Joshua fit the battle of Jerico, Jerico, Jerico / Joshua fit the battle of Jerico, and the walls came tumbling down" (Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho / Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls collapsed) This song evokes the taking of Jericho by Joshua and the army of Israel that, according to the Biblical legend with only the sound of trumpets they made the walls collapse. "I'm gonna lay down my sword and Shield, down by the riverside, / down by the riverside, down by the riverside, / I'm gonna lay down my sword and Shield, down by the riverside, / is not gonna study war no more " (Give up my sword and shield, along the river, / along the river, along the river / give up my sword and shield, along the river, / and I will never again war). This is part of spiritual jazz traditional folkloric orally handed down that you do not know neither the author nor the date of composition. The argument is peace among the peoples and the song was used during the years of war in Vietnam by folk singers Americans. The best blues or country blues developed after 1863 in states along the Mississippi delta. The Bluesmen were farmers who after work entertained friends accompanying himself rudimentary guitars built by themselves. The blues generally has a structure of 12 bars, which in some cases becomes 8 or 16 bars or more, the diatonic scale which is altered in the 3rd and 7th grade - called "blues scale". The blues voice and frank and direct, may be the atmosphere of despair, cynicism or satire. The urban blues (blues urban) led instead dall'emigrazione Bluesmen of the country to the cities of the North. In Ananais song, a blues than 16 bars, the argument is religious spiritual "Ananais, Ananais, / tell me what kind of man Jesus is / spoke to the wind, wind stopped still / tell me what kind of man Jesus is" (Ananais, Ananais, / tell me that man is Jesus / talked with the wind, the wind ceased to blow / tell me that man is Jesus) The blues classic, unlike the rural and urban was more sophisticated and evolved. It was the prerogative of women singers who adorned the ostrich boa presenting shows such as the European great dive. We recall, among the most famous Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith. This marked the first disc in this style in 1920. The most important jazz musicians began precisely in the years'20 to accompany the singers for recordings and concerts. Careless Love is a classic example of the blues. The ragtime was originally a musical genre inspired black piano. The name derives from time = time and = rag rag, rags. E 'una musica drafted be difficult to enforce given a small group of educated blacks connoisseurs of European music. His biggest representative is Scott Joplin, musician of great black modernity, lived from 1868 to 1917. Joplin composed in 1903 A Guest of Honor and in 1911 Tremonisha, which operates in the mix ragtime, black folk music and European operetta. Gradually the ragtime was played by small bands, from band and finally by jazz groups. The Nineteen Nineteen Rag (Year 1919) is a ragtime-time ride.