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In reply to the discussion: Riverdancing Black woman accused of "cultural appropriation", so Riverdance team asks her to dance [View all]misanthrope
(7,411 posts)Last edited Sun Jul 19, 2020, 10:42 PM - Edit history (1)
It was a complete product of place and time. American Creoles in New Orleans (the Paris of the New World) were schooled in European Classical music traditions, instrumentation, music theory, etc. That, of course, means Creoles of Color -- who identified with their European ancestry -- followed suit.
That was also influenced by European musical traditions filtered through Caribbean cultures that could be found in New Orleans as well. It is habanera components, the "Spanish tinge" Jelly Roll Morton referenced, abundant in the introduction to Louis Armstrong's 1929 version of "St. Louis Blues."
After the Civil War and Reconstruction, a more deeply and stringently segregated society changed Creoles of Color from their earlier and loftier social class into being "colored," on a scale with the blue-collar descendants of slaves. Those purely African Americans had developed musical traditions from field and work songs, gospel, blues and older African melodic and rhythmic influences. When that interplayed with the European training Creoles knew, infused with the new ragtime syncopation moving up and down the Mississippi River, jazz was the result.
The music form is a melange of cultural influences, born from the gumbo of humanity found in the New World.