Cyndi Epplin Reveals Her Treasured Type of Music's History

Jazz is unequivocally my favorite form of music to listen to and I desired to write about the background
of this classic with the readers here. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Jazz became structured as a musical genre in the United States in the early twentieth century, but its
roots originated in the l9th century in the South. The Atlantic Slave Trade brought over half a million
Africans to America and with them emerged musical influences from their native land. As African
Americans learned how to play European instruments in the 19th century and produced their own styles
of music, like the cakewalk. The Cakewalk is a combo of harmony and syncopation. It grew to become
extremely popular and caught on, and was played in minstrel shows.

Towards the end of the 19th century, a fresh style of music came forth called ragtime. After the
abolition of slavery, opportunities to learn opened up to many African Americans. Numerous talented
African Americans took jobs as musicians in minstrel shows, in bars and clubs. Ragtime was developed in
the red-light districts of New Orleans and was a modification of the march, characterized by
polyrhythm’s and syncopation. It was very upbeat and perfect for dancing. Ernest Hogan was a black
entertainer who first recorded ragtime on sheet music in 1895. It became very popular music and was
even adopted by white musicians in America and in Europe. The ragtime is considered the very first type
of jazz music.

The ragtime carried its popularity into the 20th century. Little jazz groups set about to travel and
gradually spread the music from coast to coast. Jazz even sailed across the seas. During World War I, the
"Hellfighters" infantry band carried ragtime to Europe. By the 1920’s Jazz had become the dominant
genre of music in America. Jazz was related with parties, extravagant tendencies and drinking. The peak
of Jazz music in the first half of the century lasted from 1920 to 1933. Many believed it was the cause of
moral decay in American society. This period was the dubbed "The Jazz Age."

By the 1930’s ragtime had lost its novelty. A new grand and exaggerated form of jazz was introduced,
the big band swing. Big band or swing jazz was composed of a very large section of brass and reed
instruments and was headed by a bandleader or an arranger. Some of the most famous bandleaders
were Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller.

In the 1940’s Swing Jazz introduced a string section and vocals to the big band. Swing jazz was
broadcasted over the radio and soon traveled to other countries. During World War II, for example, a
collection of dissenting German youth known as the “swing kids” adopted swing jazz and swing culture.
They would dance and play swing music in defiance to Hitler. He had forbidden any Swing Jazz or swing
dancing because of its ties with African-Americans and Jews.
During the 1950’s a type of jazz called “cool jazz” was preferred. The 1950’s was a decade of
conservatism and the jazz music of the period definitely reflected that. Cool jazz was a toned-down
version of jazz, where the big band reduced in size and sound.

The 1960’s and 1970’s saw a new form of jazz with the introduction of Latin cultural influence rock and
roll and soul. In the 1960’s Afro-Cuban jazz became popular, but was soon replaced by Brazilian Jazz.
Latin jazz combined traditional jazz with unconventional instruments like bongos, maracas and different
types of flute. Into the 1970’s soul jazz was formed from a mixture of soul, blues and gospel music. The
unique thing about soul jazz was that the solo instrument was typically an organ, which was very new to
jazz music. Finally the 1970’s saw a rise in rock and roll. Jimmy Hendrix was famous for infusing jazz with
rock and roll and established a form of jazz- jazz infusion. In the recent history jazz has been
experimented with and a plethora of subgenres have emerged like, pop fusion or “smooth jazz”, jazz
rap, nu jazz and even vocal jazz.