The Great Depression (1929) marked the end of one of the greatest Jazz eras of all times. Two dazzling female vocalists emerged in Harlem during the 1920s: Bessie Smith, the empress of blues, and Ethel Waters. Two big bands became most popular, the Feltcher Henderson Orchestra first, followed by the best big band of all times, the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The biggest Dance club in Harlem was the Savoy, a gigantic room with two stages that allowed bands to battle all night long. This piano style became popular in part thanks to the House Rent Parties (private parties randomly held in apartments to finance the rent).
Meanwhile, Harlem saw the birth of outstanding Jazz pianists in the ragtime style such as Willie “the Lion” Smith and Pete Johnson. Further information about the role of Chicago in Jazz History here. Amongst them, the most relevant were the “Royal Gardens” (hosting the “King Oliver Creole Jazz Band” with Louis Armstong playing the cornet) and the “Apex Club” (hosting the greatest clarinetist Jimmy Noone and the pianist Earl Hines). A large number of cabarets emerged in the “South Side” district. Even if the bands could not march in the streets because of the adverse weather conditions, the New Orleans style remained almost intact. Ten years later (1917), Storyville was shut down by the federal government, forcing jazz musicians to move to Northern cities – mostly Chicago and New York City and to a lesser extend Kansas City-.Ĭhicago rapidly became the capital of Jazz between 1917-1928. Unfortunately, although Bolden was recalled as having made at least one phonograph cylinder, no known recordings of Bolden have survived. In Storyville, one could legally enjoy prostitution while listening to the first Jazz Band in history, the Buddy Bolden Band. It rapidly became a popular music throughout the city, mostly in the District of Storyville. Jazz was born in New Orleans in the late 1890s and early 1900s. King, Rufus Thomas, Rosco Gordon and other blues and jazz legends played on Beale Street and helped develop the style known as Memphis Blues. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Memphis Minnie, B.B. WC Handy composed in Memphis some of the earliest and most famous blues, the "Memphis Blues" (1909), "Saint Louis Blues" (1914), and the "Beale Street Blues" (1916). In the early 1900s, Beale Street was filled with clubs, restaurants and shops, many of them owned by African-Americans. Of the large number of historical locations that played a central role in the growth of the blues, Beale Street in Memphis was officially declared as the "Home of the Blues" by an act of Congress in 1977. The blues dates back before the beginnings of jazz and its origins are obscure beyond hope of precise documentations, although it must have come into being somewhere in the deep rural South, sometime before the turn of the 20th century. Let's start with some background on what was the real itinerary that Jazz musicians followed during the first half of the XX century.
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