I recently had a great trip to New Orleans and the slogan, "Louisiana Feeds the Soul" came true and it wasn't the food that topped my list. It was the special style of music that poured out of every nook and cranny of the city into my very being.
After visiting Snug Harbor in the French Quarter to hear Jason Marsalis and a few other exciting music venues we decided to go to the New Orleans Jazz Museum which has moved all over New Orleans. In 1977 the entire collection of this museum was donated to the people of Louisiana and became the New Orleans Jazz Club Collections of the Louisiana State Museum. This jazz collection now is located on the second floor of the old U.S. Mint building.
The museum's collection includes the world renowned New Orleans Jazz Club’s collection which was gathered over several decades by the New Orleans Jazz Club. The collection includes the world’s largest collection of jazz instruments, prized artifacts, photographs and ephemera. The trumpets of Louis Armstrong and instruments of Bix Beiderbecke, Sidney Bechet and many other greats are displayed. I even saw Fats Domino's piano and galleries of information and photographs about Louis Armstrong.
There were galleries which talked about the different regions of Louisiana which each had their own style. The first wall text read, "From the 1950s and 60s southwest Louisiana brought a new sound to the blues, characterized by an easy groove and raw sound that reflected the heat and humidity of the region as much as its live in-the-mood approach to life. Swamp blues as the genre was called, made its mark on American music.
Artists such as Slim Harpo, Lightnin Slim and Lazy Lester did much to create the swamp blues sound. Across the Atlantic, the Rolling Stones and other British Invasion bands fell for the seductive rhythms and used them to create a similar sound.
Much of the blues in north Louisiana came out of Shreveport. As home of the famed Louisiana Hayride, a live country music radio show, that aired from Shreveport 's Municipal Auditorium in the late 1940s and 50s and was second in importance only to the Grand Ole Opry."
Laura Mortone wrote in "The Evolution of Jazz and Blues," "While New Orleans is known for fine art galleries and historical architecture, and has inspired writers, artists and filmmakers over the decades, its biggest claim to fame is its music. This city is one of the world's most dynamic music scenes. Jazz was invented here, a conglomeration of mostly Afro-American traditions that has rural counterparts elsewhere in southern Louisiana in the form of zydeco and Cajun music.
New Orleans’ unique history produced an ethnically, racially and culturally diverse population that encompassed African Americans, people of French,
Spanish and Creole heritage, in addition to immigrants from Cuba and the Caribbean. The cross-influences of these African derived cultures mixed with those of Creole set the stage for the development of a distinctive New Orleans jazz style.
New Orleans jazz is a 20th century type of collectively improvised ensemble music that draws from several sources: ragtime, blues, marches(syncopated brass bands), African American religious music, gospel, hymns, European Classical music, popular song, minstrels and musicals.
And we are proud here in St. Louis of a few natives that went directly down to New Orleans and made quite a name for themselves. Jeremy Davenport of University City is now a vital part of the New Orleans music scene. With his original lyrics and music, Davenport infuses his unique style and mood of storytelling creating not only a modern edge, but also the distinct feeling of a lifestyle reminiscent of a time when jazz was at its peak of popularity.
Neal "Sugar" Caine also went to University City High School and is a band leader and incredible bass player who has performed with Harry Connick, Jr. of New Orleans for years.
And Peter Martin, yet another University City alum, has played and taught piano all over, including in New Orleans. Martin is an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, arranger, educator and entrepreneur. He has toured all over the world and even played for President Obama at the White House.
Of course Victor Goines, president and chief executive officer of Jazz St. Louis is a world renowned clarinet player and grew up with the Marsalis family in New Orleans. Goines served as the director of jazz studies for Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He has collaborated with the likes of such jazz greats as Terence Blanchard, Bo Diddley, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Dylan and many, many more.
Goines has been a member of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993.You can meet all of these great St. Louis jazz gems at Jazz St Louis and the Sheldon from time to time.
And W.C. Handy, even though he wrote it in Memphis, was inspired in our own St. Louis to write the St. Louie Blues for a romantically distraught woman that he met in St. Louis. You can hear this song in all the best jazz and blues clubs all over New Orleans any night or even day of the week.
When I think of New Orleans, I thinks of the songs "Birth of the Blues,” “Basin Street Blues” and I mostly think of Louie Armstrong.
Nancy Kranzberg has been involved in the arts community for more than forty years on numerous arts related boards.