Celebrating Black Music Month, Back that jazz up!
12th June 2023 · 0 Comments
At a time when efforts are underway to erase the contributions of African Americans and their culture from the annals of American history, during this Black Music Month, The Louisiana Weekly celebrates the accomplishments of Louisiana and New Orleans’ African-American musicians.
New Orleans is an indisputable music mecca and the birthplace of America’s most notable music genres, especially Jazz and Rhythm & Blues. Evidence of this can be found in the sheer number of New Orleans musicians who have received Grammy Awards.
Before we celebrate the legends of New Orleans music, myths about what jazz is must be addressed.
“Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in gospel, blues, and ragtime,” according to Wikipedia. This description is on point.
Yet, the concerted effort by white musicologists and authors to make jazz a musical form “influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms,” is slanderous.
As mentioned in part 1 of this series, the late musician Professor Ellis Marsalis made a point of disputing the word “jazz” as descriptive of music created by New Orleans’ Black musicians.
Nicholas Payton, a renowned trumpeter and Grammy winner from New Orleans, who studied under Marsalis and his musician-teacher father, Walter Payton, set the record straight about what jazz is and isn’t. In 2011 in “On Why Jazz Isn’t Cool Anymore,” Payton wrote:
“Jazz is a label that was forced upon the musicians. The musicians should’ve never accepted that idea. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t play Jazz.
“I play Postmodern New Orleans music. Louis Armstrong and Danny Barker play Traditional New Orleans Music. Ellis Marsalis and James Black play Modern New Orleans music. Kidd Jordan and Clyde Kerr play Avant-garde New Orleans music. Donald Harrison plays Neoclassical New Orleans music.
“I play Postmodern New Orleans music. I am a part of a lineage. I am a part of a bloodline. My ancestors didn’t play Jazz, they played Traditional, Modern and Avant-garde New Orleans Music. I don’t play Jazz.”
Indeed, on his website #BAM (Black American Music), Payton is credited with redefining the art form known as jazz. As a leader, Payton’s seminal writings and discussions on the problematics of the term and associations of “jazz” have inspired musicians, researchers, music listeners and thinkers alike.
As such, he termed Black American Music, or #BAM for short, to represent the breadth of improvisational musical creations created by Black people in the U.S., regardless of genre. His introduction of #BAM into the lexicon of popular music discourse landed him an entry in The New York Times’ “The Decade in Jazz: 10 Definitive Moments,” in 2019.
WBGO 88.3 FM. a non-profit, publicly funded arts and cultural institution in Newark, N.J., is dedicated to the curation, presentation, and preservation of music created out of the African-American experience.
On WBGO’s website, an article entitled, “Where Did ‘Jazz,’ the Word, Come From? Follow a Trail of Clues, in Deep Dive with Lewis Porter,” uncovers the truth about the word “jazz.” Porter confirms what many New Orleans musicians have known since trumpeter Charles “Buddy” Bolden, credited with being the “father of Jazz,” began playing gospel-tinged blues, the word “jazz” did not originate in New Orleans.
“Jazz” seems to have originated among white Americans, and the earliest printed uses are in California baseball writing, where it means “lively, energetic.” (The word still carries this meaning, as in “Let’s jazz this up!”), Porter explains.
The Louisiana Weekly wholeheartedly agrees with Payton’s position and Porter’s research. However, for the purposes of this article, we will use the term “jazz,” as the music industry describes New Orleans’ indigenous music genre.
The list of “jazz” musicians from New Orleans includes many artisans. Joe “King” Oliver, Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and other early New Orleans musicians were directly inspired by Buddy Bolden’s music.
Bolden’s band was said to be the first to have brass instruments play the blues. He was also said to have adapted ideas from gospel music heard in uptown African-American Baptist churches, according to Daniel Hardie, author of “The Loudest Trumpet: Buddy Bolden and the Early History of Jazz.” Bolden was born in 1877 and died in 1931.
Duke Ellington paid tribute to Bolden in his 1957 suite “A Drum Is a Woman.” The trumpet part was taken by Clark Terry.
Lizzie Miles was a Creole blues singer who worked with Kid Ory, A.J. Piron, and Joe Oliver from 1909-1911. She performed with Manuel Manetta in Chicago and Charlie Elgar and Freddie Keppard in 1921. The next year, she produced her first phonographic recordings in New York.
As the leader of a trio, Miles recorded with Oliver and the esteemed Jelly Roll Morton. Before retiring, she recorded several Dixieland and traditional jazz band songs and appeared at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival.
Sweet Emma Barrett, a self-taught jazz pianist, was known for working with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra between 1923 and 1936. During her career, she worked with notable musicians such as Armand Piron, Sidney Desvigne, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Barrett’s 1961 album “New Orleans: The Living Legends Series” brought her national recognition.
New Orleans is the birthplace of many musical families, including the Humphrey Brothers, who also played with The Preservation Jazz Band.
Daniel (Danny) Moses Barker was a rhythm guitarist for Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter during the 1930s.
Barker was born to a family of musicians in New Orleans in 1909, the grandson of bandleader Isidore Barbarin and nephew of drummers Paul Barbarin and Louis Barbarin. He took up clarinet and drums before switching to a ukulele that his aunt got him, and then a banjo from his uncle or a trumpeter named Lee Collins. His wife, Blue Lu Barker sang jazz and blues.
Barker wrote and had published two books on jazz from the Oxford University Press. The first was “Bourbon Street Black,” co-written with Dr. Jack V. Buerkle, in 1973, and “A Life In Jazz” in 1986.
Germaine Bazzle is a jazz vocalist, recording artist, and educator. She grew up in a musical family and began playing the piano by ear at a young age. Her formal musical education began at the age of 12 at the Xavier Junior School of Music.
After graduating from the Xavier University of Louisiana, Bazzle worked as a teacher, including as choir and music appreciation at Xavier Prep. She retired from teaching in 2008.
As a performing musician, Bazzle collaborated and performed with Red Tyler, Peter “Chuck” Badie, Victor Goines, George French, Ellis Marsalis, Emile Vinnette, Larry Siebert, and David Torkanowsky, and with her band, Germaine Bazzle & Friends. She has been performing in New Orleans night clubs for more than twenty years.
New Orleans bid farewell last April to the notable Edward “Kidd” Jordan, a jazz saxophonist and music educator. He taught at Southern University in New Orleans from 1974 to 2006. Jordan majored in music education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, attending the school simultaneously as his brother-in-law, Alvin Batiste.
Jordan founded the The Kidd Jordan Institute of Jazz and Modern Music, an arts education organization dedicated to preserving avant-garde music through arts collaboration. Jordan’s children followed his musical footprints: Marlon Jordan, a trumpeter, is one of six performers in his musical family. He is the son of saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan, classical pianist Edvidge Jordan, and brother of flutist Kent, violinist Rachel, and jazz singer Stephanie. While they have pursued separate careers, the family frequently collaborates.
Alvin Batiste Sr. was an avant-garde jazz clarinetist. He taught at his own jazz institute at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Batiste is a member of the Batiste Family of New Orleans. The large family tree claims 25 musicians, including Harold Battiste (AFO Records), Lionel Batiste, Russell Batiste Jr. and Jon Batiste (Stay Human).
Batiste was a member of the New Orleans-based American Jazz Quintet with Harold Battiste, Ed Blackwell, and Ellis Marsalis Jr., His final album was a tribute produced by Branford Marsalis and also featured Russell Malone and Herlin Riley.
Ellis L. Marsalis Jr., a New Orleans modern jazz pianist, taught his sons and other New Orleans’ musicians at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and the University of New Orleans.
Many leading jazz artists today – alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, pianist Harry Connick Jr. – studied at NOCCA with Marsalis.
After 12 years at NOCCA, Ellis spent 13 years heading the jazz department at the University of New Orleans. Beyond teaching, he continued to perform around the world, as well as at home with a longstanding weekly gig at New Orleans’ pre-eminent jazz club, Snug Harbor.
Ellis’ sons, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, and Jason Marsalis are all renowned musicians.
Branford is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader and three-time Grammy winner. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, from 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band.
Branford was nominated for a Tony Award for his work as a composer on Broadway, cited by the National Endowment for the Arts as Jazz Master, and was nominated for a 2021 Primetime Emmy for the score he composed for the Tulsa Burning Documentary. He also did the soundtrack for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a Netflix film. Upcoming Jazz Tours and Classical Tours for the Branford Marsalis Quartet include performances in Canada, London, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, and France.
Wynton, a composer, trumpeter, and managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is the only musician to have received Grammys for jazz and classical music. He has eight Grammys. Delfeayo is touring with his band, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, and Jason, a drummer, performs and tours with his 21st Century Trad Band.
Several NOCCA fellow students of Wynton and Branford are also iconic musicians, including Terence Blanchard.
Terence Oliver Blanchard is a trumpeter, pianist and composer. He started his career in 1982 as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, then The Jazz Messengers. He has composed more than 40 film scores and performed on more than 50. A frequent collaborator with director Spike Lee, he has been nominated for two Academy Awards for composing the scores for Lee’s films “BlacKkKlans-man” (2018) and “Da 5 Bloods” (2020). He has won five Grammy Awards from fourteen nominations.
Blanchard served as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami, and a visiting scholar in jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music. In 2019, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), named Blanchard to its Endowed Chair in Jazz Studies, where he remained until 2023.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York staged Blanchard’s opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” in its 2021–2022 season, the first opera by an African-American composer in the organization’s history.
Victor Louis Goines is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who has served as president and chief executive officer of Jazz St. Louis since September 2022. From 2000 to 2007, he directed the jazz program at Juilliard.
Goines graduated from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans and has been a member of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993. Goines served as the director of jazz studies and professor for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University from 2008 to 2022.
Doreen Ketchens is a jazz clarinetist. She has performed throughout concert hall and festival in the city, and from U.S. Embassies to her weekly performance in the Royal Street Performing Arts Zone. She has performed for four U.S. presidents and today is one of the first and few female bandleaders in the city. Ketchens has performed with talents like Ellis Marsalis, Trombone Shorty, and The Black Crows and opened for Macy Grey and Dr. John.
This article originally published in the June 12, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
