Great Oak Gazette

Genesis Abrams’29

Louis Armstrong once said, “What we play is life.” Jazz music isn’t just free-flowing passages, long solo stretches, and artists performing on a stage. Stories from around the world are conveyed through jazz every day, and its roots run deeper than phonographs. The story of jazz is ever changing, but one of its most transformative chapters unfolded in the early 1900s.

Jazz formally began in New Orleans, though its influences from Africa had spread since the era of slavery. Most jazz performers are known for their distinctive renditions of songs they play — “unlike European classical music, which gives primacy of place to the composer, jazz is performer-oriented…” (Hasse and Blumenthal 2011). This emphasis on individuality helped jazz stars rise quickly, since no artist could easily replicate another’s sound. Musicians traveled to tell their instrumental stories instead of simply performing a setlist, adding to the nuanced charm that defines jazz.

While the Harlem Renaissance began before jazz’s northern prevalence, especially in New York City , it integrated perfectly into the growing African American melting pot of ideas at the time. After W.E.B. Du Bois founded the NAACP in 1909, encouraging “many African Americans fleeing the oppressive Jim Crow laws of the Deep South as part of the Great Migration” (Alexander 2025), jazz found its first major audiences outside of New Orleans and solidified its place as a cornerstone of Black culture.

Beyond the East Coast, jazz also developed in various western cities such as Seattle. Migration from the South helped create “one of America’s jazz epicenters in the early 20th century” (Lindsay 2022). While most Black establishments were marginalized by segregation, “it was ideally located near Seattle’s two main train stations in downtown Seattle” (Lindsay 2022). This juxtaposition shone a light on Black musicians, amplifying their influence and turning Seattle into a symbol of progress compared to other American cities.

Many of the most prominent jazz artists chose to remain in the Northeast, where cultural change was dense and constant. Segregation forced Black artists to unite and band together — “the primary influence on orchestral development, however, came from African American bandleaders Fletcher Henderson, who standardized ensemble instrumentation and arranging style, and Duke Ellington…” (Hasse and Blumenthal 2011). Despite racial oppression, jazz advanced most through Black innovation and continued its integration into the fabric of American culture.

Certain landmarks in jazz’s evolution challenged racial norms and allowed Black musicians to enter spaces once reserved for white audiences. Louis Armstrong often played at venues where “the Iroquois was one of the first places where it was performed in a concert setting, both on the stage and in the pit orchestra during silent films” (“Iroquois Theater (U.S. National Park Service)” 2024). Jazz was no longer a niche genre for hobbyists; its prominence as an art form forced society to recognize it as a cornerstone of Black identity and community. Jazz even reached the heights of social justice and reform — “the song was dedicated to the memory of Emmett Till, a Black teenager murdered by racists in 1955…” (Frey 2022). John Coltrane crafted stories through his saxophone when words failed to express his fire for change. As sparks caught, jazz blazed a trail for generations of musicians to come.

Jazz later transcended into other art forms like soul, helping shape the Civil Rights Movement decades later. Black music no longer shared mere similarities with later imitations, “the word ‘soul’ was a catchall for what ‘blackness’ supposedly meant for all Blacks—urban, hip, and decidedly nonwhite” (Donaldson 2025). Jazz, combined with a new sense of Black individuality, birthed soul music: a unique representation of the Black experience that no other culture could appropriate.

Certain artists achieved individual acclaim, standing out within this larger movement. Sharing the Black experience was widely celebrated — “She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2018). Ella Fitzgerald sang from her soul about what it meant to be Black, carrying pride in her work and affirming that African American music was, indeed, music for all. Visual art forms mirrored this sentiment: “Bearden and his musical peers saw themselves as part of a long tradition of Black creative innovation, reaching back through blues and spirituals, forward into free jazz and Afro-futurism” (Bearden Foundation 2025). This philosophy — drawing from the past to shape a better future — defined the heart of all Black civil activism in the 20th century and beyond.

From its vibrant history to its evolving future, jazz didn’t just change the Black diaspora — it revolutionized it.