CHAPTER 12 | THE RISE OF JAZZ 287
the New Orleans scene. In the 1890s, how-
ever, new dances began replacing them—
especially the one-step, a simple walking
and gliding movement well suited to rag-
time. Later, the fad for “animal” dances such
as the turkey trot called for a new, earthier
accompaniment.
Another distinguishing trait of the
New Orleans music scene lay in the expres-
sive ways that black New Orleans musicians
found to play dance music. Even before 1900
visitors to the city mentioned local musicians’
aptitude for melodic playing. Perhaps some
players’ melodic inventions, together with
new rhythmic emphasis, brought a different
character to their performance of ragtime.
Yet pinpointing when, where, and how jazz music fi rst diverged from ragtime, and
from blues music as well, is diffi cult if not impossible, for even in those early years
“jazz” referred to a way of performing that was improvised, not written down.
From the beginning, jazz was the quintessential performers’ music.
A typical turn-of-the-century New Orleans dance ensemble was led by a
violinist, joined by several wind instruments, plus a rhythm section of drums,
guitar or piano, and double bass (the last usually bowed rather than plucked)
that provided the harmonic and rhythmic underpinning. Gradually, following a
national trend of replacing guitar and double bass with the banjo and the tuba,
New Orleans dance bands also dropped the violin and adopted the saxophone
family. As the 1920s dawned, melody was generally assigned to the cornet player,
who was often the band’s leader.
By that time, the three melodic voices of the New Orleans jazz ensemble’s
front line—cornet, clarinet, and trombone—had assumed contrasting roles and
performing styles. Joe “King” Oliver (1885–1938) and other cornetists of his gen-
eration born in the city played the lead melody without much variation. The
clarinetist wove a countermelody, often in rapid, even notes over a wide range
of the instrument but focusing on the upper register to stay clear of the cornet’s
lead. Clarinets were sometimes missing from pre-1920 New Orleans ensem-
bles, but never trombones, which played in tailgate style, with frequent smears
(glides through several adjacent pitches) and a mixture of countermelody in the
tenor range and doubling of the bass line. The players’ drive for expressivity may
be heard in the earliest recordings made by Oliver, Sidney Bechet, and others,
which incorporate blue notes and portamento (melodic slides) into a fl uent,
sometimes eloquent melodic style.
Dippermouth Blues (LG 12.2), recorded in 1923 by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz
Band, is an exemplary recording of this early New Orleans jazz idiom. The form
is simple: a four-bar introduction, nine choruses of twelve-bar blues, and a two-
bar tag at the end. The fi rst two choruses, plus the fi fth and ninth, are played by
the full ensemble in the texture called collective improvisation, closely identi-
fi ed with New Orleans jazz. Honoré Dutrey’s tailgate trombone leads into the
fi rst chorus with an upbeat smear, then fi lls in dead spots between the phrases
of Oliver’s cornet lead to keep the momentum going. Meanwhile, clarinetistLG 12.2collective improvisationK The Piron and Williams
Orchestra of New Orleans,
around 1915. Members
include (standing) Jimmie
Noone, clarinet; William
Ridgley, trombone; Oscar
Celestin, cornet; John
Lindsay, bass; (seated)
Ernest Trepagnier, drums;
A. J. Piron, violin; Tom Benton,
mandolin-banjo; John A.
St. Cyr, banjo; and (in front)
Clarence Williams, piano.172028_12_280-304_r3_ko.indd 287 23/01/13 8:40 PM