1920s
When the United States formally joined World War I, change was inevitable. But no one predicted that the type of jazz that was being played in New Orleans would flower and reach full maturity in another city. But that is what happened.
With the entry of the United States into World War I, New Orleans was declared a war port. The Secretary of the Navy viewed the goings on in Storyville as a danger to the morale of his troops. So the legal pleasure zone of New Orleans, located at South Rampart and Perdido Streets, was closed by official decree.
The decree deprived not only the ladies of Storyville but also the many musicians who played there for their daily bread. Many left town. And most headed for a city which was as acquainted as New Orleans was with the ways of human fraility.
Chicago was mostly in the hands of gangsters in the 1920s. And so it naturally harboured all the cabarets and dance-joints there had ever been down South.
Thus New Orleans jazzmen found a new 'conservatory' to develop in. Coming into Chicago, almost at the same time the new imigrants arrived, was Prohibition. This added fuel to the fire, starting off a chain reaction of bootleg crime and a vast network of speakeasies. Nothing could have been better for the musicians. People looking for a drink also needed music for company too.
Among the big venues which featured New Orleans jazz, was Lincoln Gardens on Chicago's southside. Joe "King" Oliver and his famous ensemble the Creole Band played there. It was here, in 1922, that Oliver sent for a gifted young trumpeter he taught in New Orleans.
Louis Armstrong had gone a long way musically since his mentor had travelled north. He now had a melodic imagination that went way beyond that of his teenage heros. No one can track any single influence for his growth except his own genius. Armstrong could squeeze in more notes into a bar of music than anyone else - with the astonishing ability of sounding them at unequal lengths with unpredictable emphasis. His trumpet sound shone.
And the sound carried a long, long way. Young , middle-class whites were coming to black neighbourhoods on weekends to hear this new music. Oliver's band with Armstrong grew so popular that Lincoln Gardens began staging 'midnight rambles' on weeknights especially for these white fans which included future 'names' like Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbeck and Gene Krupa.
Whites had role models closer home as well. The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, a white band influenced by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and Oliver and Armstrong. Musicians like Beiderbecke had a polished less bluesy sound and the Austin High School Gang (Benny Goodman, Jimmy Partland, Bud Freeman, Eddie Condon) developed a crisp, light swinging jazz misleadingly labeled Chicago style. A style that was to finally influence swing and mainstream jazz.
It was here in Chicago that the most famous New Orleans jazz recordings were made. It was in Windy City where Louis Armstrong formed his Hot Five and Hot Seven; Jelly Roll Morton his Red Hot Peppers, Johnny Dodds his New Orleans Wanderers. What we call New Orleans Jazz isn't what was played in the first two decades of the century, but what matured and grew and was played by New Orleans musicians in Chicago in the third decade.
But Chicago's role in jazz history was not to live very long. And neither was that of New Orleans Jazz.
Jazz was now spreading faster than ever. Commercial radio was born in the 20s. And by 1922, over 500 stations had signed up. All over the States, budding musicians latched onto the new sounds from the North. A new Chicago administration hit the gangsters hard and closed down their dives. America was tuning in to a cooler, hipper rhythm. And New York was fast becoming the center from where that rhythm pulsated.
It was time to move.
