Jazz Age

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Original Dixieland Jazz Band – The original members formed the band in 1916. ODJB is credited with being the first to record jazz commercially and to have hit recordings in the new genre, The term in the name was originally “Jass” rather than “Jazz” but the label of an early Victor recording of “Tiger Rag” shows it had been become “Jazz” by 1917.

From Wikipedia (image added):

On March 3, 1916 the musicians began their job at Schiller’s Cafe in Chicago under the name Stein’s Dixie Jass Band. The band was a hit and received offers of higher pay elsewhere. Since Stein as leader was the only musician under contract by name, the rest of the band broke off, sent to New Orleans for drummer Tony Sbarbaro, and on June 5 started playing renamed as The Dixie Jass Band. LaRocca and Nunez had personality conflicts, and on October 30 Tom Brown’s Band and the ODJB [sic] mutually agreed to switch clarinetists, bringing Larry Shields into the Original Dixieland Jass Band. The band attracted the attention of theatrical agent Max Hart, who booked the band in New York City. At the start of 1917 the band began an engagement playing for dancing at Reisenweber’s Cafe in Manhattan. [read more]

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Tiger Rag (m. Edwin B. Edwards, Nick La Rocca, Tony Spargo & Larry Shields, w. Harry De Costa) – The songwriting credits went to the members of the ODJB. Credit is certainly in dispute as you can see in the brief history by JazzStandards.com here: Tiger Rag.

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(ab0ve) A slide show of photos from late jazz age Berlin accompanies a 1929 Homocord label recording of “Doin’ the New Low-Down” (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields) credited by the video provider to “Lud Gluskin m.s. Orch. (aus dem Café Berlin), Refraingesang: Emile Christian, Howard Kennedy, Eddie Ritten.”

The song was composed in 1928 for Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1928, a show which also also introduced two jazz standards by McHugh and Fields, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” and “I Must Have That Man,” as well as the hit “Diga Diga Do.” Despite the word “new” in the title, the great songwriting team have here fashioned an archetypal Jazz Age song with strong echoes of iconic hits of the age such as “The Charleston” (1923), “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?” (1925), and “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” (1925).

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The “Jazz Age” Defined

The Jazz Age refers to a period of time after World War I, beginning with the Roaring Twenties and the ending with the beginning of the Great Depression. F. Scott Fitzgerald is credited with creating the term for the time, and he named [a 1922 collection of] short stories after this period — Tales of the Jazz Age

Unsurprisingly, the age refers to the popular music of the time—jazz. The age represents a shift in values in America, and a focus on living life to the fullest. The Jazz Age refers not only to the music of the time, however, but also to the literature, and new developments in art, and a change in the social behavior of America. – Answer to the question “What is the Jazz Age”? at yourdictionary.com

The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s, ending with the Great Depression, in which jazz music and dance styles became popular, mainly in the United States, but also in Britain, France, Germany and elsewhere. Jazz originated in New Orleans as a fusion of African and European music and played a significant part in wider cultural changes in this period, and its influence on pop culture continued long afterwards. The Jazz Age is often referred to in conjunction with the Roaring Twenties. – Wikipedia

the period that in the U.S. extended roughly from the Armistice of 1918 to the stock-market crash of 1929 and was notable for increased prosperity, liberated or hedonistic social behavior, Prohibition and the concomitant rise in production and consumption of bootleg liquor, and the development and dissemination of jazz and ragtime and associated ballroom dances. – Dictionary.com

The Great Gatsby takes place during the summer of 1922. Fitzgerald coined the phrase, “the Jazz Age” that same year to describe the flamboyant—”anything goes”— era that emerged in America after World War I. – from Cornell University: New Student Reading Project (needs link added)

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Some major genres and styles of music popular during the Jazz Age:

selected popular dances of the Jazz Age”

Shimmy
Black Bottom
Varsity Drag
Collegiate Shag
Toddle
Charleston
Lindy Hop
Foxtrot
Waltz
Baltimore

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The links under “Features” below are to Songbook pages, while those under “External Links” go to external sites and resources.

FEATURES

Composers:

Irving Berlin
Shelton Brooks : standards, 1911-1917
Spencer Williams: selected standards and hits, 1915-1936
Walter Donaldson: My Blue Heaven, a selection of standards, hits, and other songs 1918-1934
George Gershwin biography
George and Ira Gershwin: selected songs, 1919-1927
George and Ira Gershwin: selected standards, 1928-1935
Ray Henderson: selected standards and hits, 1923-1931
Duke Ellington
Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields: two early hits and selected standards, 1928-1935 – Their early compositions as a team are within the Jazz Age era, particularly two hits and two standards from 1928.

Performers:

Mamie Smith, early recordings 1920-29
Bessie Smith: 1923-1926
Bessie Smith: 1927-1933 + gallery
Ethel Waters
Clarence Williams: selected recordings 1923-1929
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five: recordings 1925-1928 (.ra audio files)
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, 1926 selections — Armstrong is also present, as noted in the musician credits, on several recordings in our first Bessie Smith feature page.
Ruth Etting: selected recordings 1927-1935

Musical Theater:

Late Jazz Age musical films:

Tribute in film:

New Orleans (1947): featuring Louis Armstrong and his Band, and Billie Holiday
A Star is Born (1954) (“Born in a Trunk” medley)

Songs of the Year

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External Links

performer profile and tribute

Red Hot Musicians (The Red Hot Jazz Archive)
Red Hot Bands (The Red Hot Jazz Archive)
Louis Armstrong House Museum
Bix Beiderbecke – bixbeiderbecke.com, “A Bixography”
Ted Lewis
jazzage1920s.com

jazz age music

Classic Jazz Online: A Jazz Anthology (jazz-on-line.com) (link fixed, 1/5/2021)
first jazz records
Jazz Age (Wikipedia)
Jazz Roots (jass.com)
JazzStandards.com
Jazz standard: definition and chronological lists, by decade and year (Wikipedia)
- pre-1920 jazz standards
- 1920s jazz standards
Keep (it) Swinging
On This Day in Jazz Age Music
The Red Hot Jazz Archive: A History of Jazz before 1930
Vitaphone Varieties
From Spokane beginnings…: Bing Crosby and Mildred Bailey
Cotton Club Parade sheetmusic covers
Jazz – (Ken Burns) 2001, episode summaries

musical theatre

African-American musical theater

History of African American Theatre, A — by Errol G. Hill, James Vernon Hatch (2003) — Google eBooks preview
The Development of an African-American Musical Theatre 1865-1910 — from the American Memory collections of The Library of Congress website — This article has divided the time frame 1865 to 1910 into six chronological parts. Each section contains a brief summary of developments in African-American musical theater during the period in focus, and sheet music for notable songs within the period. Noteworthy vaudeville shows and musicals are briefly described, and principle composers of musicals and other stage shows, songwriters, and performers are identified.
Jass.com: 1895-1920 African-American Music
Jass.com: 1895-1920 African-American Popular Music Composers (14 feature pages)
African American musical theater
vaudeville
minstrel show

Harlem Renaissance: history and biography

art of the Harlem Renaissance