Jass
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What is Jass?
Jass is the classical music of America; it is also a noisy and joyful contradance between all the major inhabitants of the North American continent. Jass combines the cultured musics of British and French Europe, traditional musics of Louisianne and the NAL, as well as the musics of the Natives and Africans brought over when slavery was still legal in America.
The History of Jass
The roots of Jass go way back, to be sure, but Jass as a music distinct from its African, American and European roots begins to take form in the Jewel of the Mississippi, the city of Nouvelle Orléans. The first identifiable Jass music was probably played by 1899, and rapidly spread all along the Mississippi watershed. By the 1920s, it was popular in every American city east of the Sierras.
Jass Greats
- Bing "Dem Bones" Hampton: trombonist and band leader of Toronto, ON.
- "Duke" Ellington: born in Castre Geory / Georgetown, MD (1899); composer, band leader, arranger; prolific composing career that lasted until his death in 1974.
- Louis Armstrong: born Louis Braffort in Nouvelle Orléans (1900); most influential Jass trumpeter; played in many major bands from NO to Chicago to New Amsterdam, CN-NB.
- Lil Hardin: born in Memphis, TN (1898); the first woman to play in a Jass band; also led her own bands.
- Benny Goodman: born in Chicago (1909); the King of Swing brought Jass to the masses via radio and the war time moving picture industry.
