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"In the late 19th century, while the rest of America was stomping their feet to military marches, New Orleans was dancing to VooDoo rhythms.

"New Orleans was the only place in the New World where slaves were allowed to own drums. VooDoo rituals were openly tolerated, and well attended by the rich as well as the poor, by blacks and whites, by the influential and the anonymous. It was in New Orleans that the bright flash of European horns ran into the dark rumble of African drums; it was like lightning meeting thunder. The local cats took that sound and put it together with the music they heard in churches and the music they heard in barrooms, and they blew a new music, a wild, jubilant music. It made people feel free. It made people feel alive! It made people get up and dance. And they danced to the birth of American music. And nobody played it like they played it in New Orleans, a city already used to feeling jubilant, and expressing its jubilation. A city where you could dance down the middle of the street, in the middle of the daytime, in the middle of the week, and instead of people wondering why you weren't at work, they'd be wondering how they could join you. The glory of New Orleans is that it's still that way today. Everyone loves a parade. Everything is touched by the joyous anarchy called New Orleans Jazz. And everybody's middle name is "Celebrate."

...

Jazz wasn't born on a particular day, it was created over a period of time. It wasn't just one person or one race that was responsible for creating it. It was a meeting, and mixing, of the essences and emotions of many people, of many cultures. When circumstances are right and a variety of influences come together to create something special, when many flavors combine to make a new taste that is greater than the sum of its spices, we have a name for it down here: we call it gumbo. And just like Jazz, nobody makes gumbo like we make it in New Orleans."

I love jazz and you presented it in the best visual way Rajat, the lighting is great!

Best regards!

PDE

Rajat that was a very enjoyable write up to go with this excellent image.

BR,

Holger

Very well done and composed: clever idea&result.

Hi Rajat,

A fine effort all around. Great job my friend.

I grew up (since four years old) listening to Jazz on old 331/3 and 78 records, as well as the live concerts in out home featuring some excellent young talent that played along with my Aunt Barbara (the pianist).

I am an audiophile, and classical Jazz is the number one sound that plays through my home now.

I have a custom designed sound and speaker system built many years ago, that is delightful to hear.

Best Regards,  Mike

Love the images, Rajat, and I very much appreciate your treatise on New Orleans and jazz. My own introduction to the music came in the early 60s when I was introduced to the "real deal" (bebop played by Monk, Coltrane, Evans, Rollins, Haynes and a host of others) at a club on Manhattan's Lower East Side called the Jazz Gallery.  Purchase of a 75-cent bottle of beer got you a seat just a few feet away from the genre's most forward-thinking performers playing at their creative best.  It was where Coltrane introduced his soprano sax and where Rollins first played after coming down from the bridge. It was an awesome venue and truly an amazing time for jazz. Much later I worked as a jazz and blues radio programmer and host; needless to say, bebop and hard-edged blues figured prominently in my programming.  Keep making that gumbo. Regards...Bill

Every Sunday from 9-12PM  NPR plays jazz and I catch some part of it, always making me feel connected with my emotions..... emotions that I obseve and named and control to some extent...the mixing of people and what comes out of that creativity is great in many ways! Great presentation and explanation!  Warm regards my friend.

Rajat,

The story line and the history of Jazz in your description and your overall presentation of these photographs makes me want to visit our local Jazz Museum here in the midwest, . . . as a much desired trip to New Orleans is out of the question!

"I can hear that Sax already!"

Great photograph presentation!

Regards always,

Jim j.