by: Jenni Vinson
February 23, 2001
Since the beginning of time, man has attempted to replicate the rythyms and the sounds heard in nature and from within the human body itself. We have dedicated to the task of combining these sounds and cataloguing them in what we call �music�.
Maybe we heard the angels make such sounds and that�s how we came up with the concept of music. No one knows when the first song was set forth into the world, but we have had a plentitude of them since and we seem incapable of running out of music.
The Internet-based music sharing website, Napster and others like it, have brought about a renassaince or a renewal of the world�s interest in music. While the industry was selling music at a rather high cost, people found themselves purchasing only what they knew they liked.
This was fine, but it made people limited in what they heard and limited in their understanding of just how much of a variety of music is available in this vast world.
We have always shared music with one another. Mariachi and minstrels traveled from town to town sharing the music of their cultures with whomever would listen.
All of a sudden, as the Internet has connected the planet, we are again, sharing the music the world has collected. We are diversifing our musical diet and our hearts and souls will be healthier for it. On Napster, it is not uncommon to see a collection of songs that may include Rap and contemporary titles and then also have mixed into that collection- Rythym and Blues, Jazz and even Classical.
The recent release of the tremendous scientific study of the human gene proved that 99% of the genetics of all humans are the SAME. But, that little 1% goes a long way in determining our looks and our tastes. Amazingly, we are 99% the same and yet we still have individualism. We have a lot to offer one another and the combinations of sounds that will emerge as we meet up with each other will yield even more music.
My personal interest of late is Jazz. The history of Jazz is incredible. In the 1880�s, New Orleans was inhabited by a diversity of Black people. Creoles were freed as a part of the Louisiana Purchase and they were flourishing culturally. They spoke both French and Spanish.
They were living as a part of New Orlean�s upper class society and they had embraced European Classical music, spending vast hours in practice of this highy technical music.
Across town from the Creole lived the poor Blacks who still labored in the fields. Their music embraced their West Indies influence that was comprised of complex rythyms and improvisational singing. As they labored, they added spiritual lyrics to their songs or they lamented about the situations in their lives, giving birth to the Blues.
In 1894, segregation laws were passed that forced the Creole to move into the areas and live among the poor, uneducated Blacks in New Orleans. It was that meeting of the cultures and their musical influences that brought about Jazz.
Jazz is the next step up in the evolution of music from Classical. It may sound like an ecclectic collection of random sounds and rythyms, but it is theoretically complicated and extremely techincally difficult. Jazz is to music as Calculus is to Math. Jazz requires higher level musical thinking. And it is a lot of fun!
America is just now discovering Jazz because when it was first performed by the original Jazz masters, the vast majority of America refused to participate in it. Jazz was being performed by Blacks and past that it was being performed in bars or juke joints. Those two factors kept people from it.
It was not until Elvis Presley discovered Jazz and imitated it that White America was introduced to a watered-down version of what was being performed. Elvis relied more on the purity of his voice and of course, his hips, than on the rythyms and technicality of real Jazz.
It is exciting to see that Jazz is finally being given it�s proper place within the Music world, with highschools and universities insisting on teaching Jazz.
Jazz is the finest product of this great experiment we call America, where we come together as a diversity of people, cultures and musics and eventually, as we accept and share our differences, we come up with incredible American innovations.
If you have not sampled Jazz, I encourage you to do so. Ella Fitzgerald, the first lady of Jazz, is a great artist I would highly recommend as a start for getting into Jazz.
Just take a few minutes, set up your CD, serve up your sweet tea and get ready to get happy.