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History

The roots of jazz

The beginning days in the USA

New Orleans - Chicago & New York - evolution of jazz music - jazz in Belgium - real Belgian jazz

New Orleans

The city of New Orleans in the USA plays an important role in the development of jazz music. The main reason for this, was the city’s huge population of immigrants. The fact that not only Afro-Americans, but also people from the Carribean and Mexico resided there, each with their own sound and style, led to the eventual development of jazz.

Famous musicians from this period, in the years before the twenties, are clarinettists Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone and Sidney Bechet and cornetist Joe “King” Oliver. His pupil would become immensely famous, and even now his name is still intrinsically connected with jazz as a whole, Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong - snake rag

After these founding fathers of jazz launched a new musical genre into America and the world, jazz being the first indigenous American style to affect music globally, the focal point of jazz in the 1920’s moved from New Orleans to Chicago. New Orleans musicians found their way north after the clubs in the Storyville area of New Orleans were closed. In Chicago the first jazz albums were printed and they sold throughout America.

Chicago & New York

The city of New York also played an important role in the development and spread of jazz music. The first piano style to be incorporated into jazz was tride which developed from ragtime and was popular in New York. The city was also the centre of the music publishing business. James Reese Europe experimented in New York, with a style of jazz that involved large orchestras. In the 1920s, New York City had two pioneering orchestras that would eventually greatly influence jazz history. Fletcher Henderson put together a band that first appeared at the Cotton Club in New York in 1923.

Henderson's unit featured future jazz stars Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman but it was not until Henderson brought Louis Armstrong from Chicago to play with his group that the band began to develop into a full-fledged jazz group which would help to usher in the swing era. More than a few pioneers made the transition from New Orleans to New York. Duke Ellington being the most famous name, but also Clarence Williams, who had a hand in organizing many early jazz and blues recordings in New York. So in the late twenties, the jazz centre of the United States moved from Chicago to New York City as did many musicians.
Duke Ellington - it don't mean a thing, if it aint got the swing

The evolution of jazz music

The further evolution of jazz includes the introduction of arranged dance music in the 1930’s. White musicians like Benny Goodman started using black music in their scores, thereby moving jazz into the Swing- and Big Band period. Important characters in this period are Jimmy Lunceford, Chick Webb and Andy Kirk. During this period there were also jazz singers and vocalists who became household names, like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday.
Benny Goodman - Sing Sing Sing
Ella Fitzgerald - Flying Home
Billy Holiday - Summertime

In the years after the 1930’s many new sub-genres emerge. The 1940’s see the birth of Bebop, or Bop as it will later be called. Ten years later Hard Bop or Funk and Cool Jazz appear. Yet another decade later, Modal Jazz and Free Jazz take the stage. In the 1970’s jazz fuses with rock music to create Jazz-Rock, or Fusion as it is also known. The age of contemporary jazz begins in the 1980’s and various influences from other musical genres, like hiphop for instance, enter the scene.

Jazz in Belgium

In Belgium, jazz has always played an important musical role. Belgium was one of the first countries in Europe to introduce the new genre from America. As early as the 1920’s successful jazz bands emerged in what was then a major centre of Art Nouveau. The first Belgian jazz album was made in 1927, by “Chas Remue and his New Stompers”.

Following the success of this first venture into jazz, many new musicians rose and quickly gained international respect for their talents. Famous names from this early period are Jean Omer, Jean Robert, John Ouwerckx, Fud Candrix, Robert De Kers, and Stan Brenders. Besides influential musicians, Belgium also housed highly talented jazz composers, whose works were being played worldwide by famous artists like Nat King Cole. The most important of these being Peter Packay and David Bee.

After the second world war, as Bebop became popular in jazz, Belgium produced internationally acclaimed talents such as Jack Sels, René Thomas, Bobby Jaspar, and arguably most famous of all, Toots Thielemans. These gifted musicians were followed by a new generation of equally talented youngsters, such as Philip Catherine, Bert Joris, Fred Van Hove and Charles Loos to name but a few.

Contemporary Belgium Jazz has produced another generation of very talented young musicians, namely, Erwin Vann, Eric Legnini, Phil Abraham, Ivan Paduart, Nathalie Loriers, David Linx, Diederik Wissels to name but a few. Belgium's central location has attracted many famous jazz musicians passing through while touring Europe. On these occasions, Belgian musicians have performed with them and in some cases the encounter has matured into a long lasting partnership, sometimes resulting in recordings.
Erwin Vann - worlds
Nathalie Loriers - Prao

Real Belgian jazz

In the last 30 years or so, far from limiting themselves to carbon copying American masters, they have moved into new and more original paths. Many musicians have today developed projects of their own, integrating various influences and instrumental sounds. While some still make their own versions and arrangements of known standards, others are prolific composers who create delightful, innovative music of their own.

All styles of Jazz are present in Belgium : from traditional jazz to free improvised music, from be-bop to avant-garde or acid jazz, from fusion to ethnic jazz.