The music now known as Traditional Jazz
developed over the early years of the twentieth century in New Orleans,
Louisiana, USA. It was first made popular in the UK through the records of the Original
Dixieland Jass Band who visited London in 1919. They were not
the first jazz band, but they were the first to find fame through
their records.
Musicians playing this music today tend
to trace their interest back to the British revival of the 1940s and
1950s - since when it has been, in one form or another, ever present.
For a period in the late 1950s and early 1960s it even made inroads into
the pop charts, with some bandleaders such as Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball becoming household
names as traditional jazz bands featured regularly on popular television
programmes.
Today the music still attracts a large
following with jazz clubs in virtually every part of the country, the
calendar bursting with jazz festivals covering the UK from Scotland to
Cornwall and from Wales to East Anglia, and many hotels now offering jazz
breaks - weekend accommodation with entertainment from several jazz bands.
The experience of Jazz Pzazz is that traditional jazz also remains popular
with more general audiences, people of all ages finding it easy to listen
to its combination of infectious rhythms and improvisation.
THE REPERTOIRE
With
some exceptions traditional jazz calls on music written between 1890 and
1960. Much of it started life as popular songs - examples are After The
Ball (1892), I Cant Give You Anything But Love (1928), Pennies From Heaven
(1936) and Mister Sandman (1954). Several ragtime pieces, such as
Maple Leaf Rag (1899) have survived from the output of composers such as
Scott Joplin and James Scott. Composer such as W.C.Handy combined original
composition with adaptation of traditional blues material.
Probably
the largest category is music composed by the jazz musicians themselves.
Nick La Rocca and Larry Shields (Cornet and Clarinet respectively) wrote
At The Jazzband Ball in 1918 and King Oliver (Trumpet) wrote Canal Street
Blues in 1923.
In the mid 1920's Louis Armstrong's
Hot Five recorded several original numbers, some by Louis and others by
trombonist Kid Ory and pianist Lil Hardin. At the same period Jelly
Roll Morton's recorded output consisted largely of original numbers, and
many of these are still played today.
