JAZZ IN THE BLOG

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ (Images of America, Series)

(Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2014)

By Edward J. Branley

Rev. by Hugh Murray

            How can a picture book be disappointing?  Most of this volume consists of 2 photographs on each page with captions.  However, many of the captions provide little information beyond a list of the musicians pictured.  Branley does include information on the New Orleans Jazz Museum, founded by Doc Edmond Souchon in 1961 (p. 78), but neglects the older Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane U., established in 1958.  The Hogan Archive not only contains recordings and oral histories by the musicians, but it has a large collection of related photographs.    Branley does mention the institution, but only in passing: “Quint Davis was working as an intern at the Hogan Jazz Archive…when he was recommended …to produce the 1970 Jazz Fest.”(p. 120)  While Branley cites the Netherlands National Archives(6), he apparently never consulted the Hogan Archive in New Orleans!

            More disappointing is the text.  Though Branley in separate captions notes that “Dixieland” jazz – the word – has fallen into disuse in some circles for they deem it “racist,” he avoids all discussion of another controversial word in this music.  Early words to describe the music evolving in New Orleans were ragtime, jass, and jazz, but what did they mean?  In the 21s century I was shopping at a supermarket near Beijing, and was struck by the title of an item on sale in the aisles, Jizbon – condoms.  I laughed to myself, for I was not accustomed to see condoms on the lower shelves of supermarkets in America.  Then I recalled that a woman on a witness stand in the famous Scottsboro cases of the 1930s asserted that several young men had jazzed her, meaning had had sexual intercourse with her.  Though the early jazz bands may not have played inside the bordellos of Storyville, the red light district of New Orleans, they played in many of the saloons down the block and elsewhere in that neighborhood.  This is substantiated by some of the photos and captions in Branley’s book.  But he never bothers to suggest a connection between the name of the new music that flourished in the bordello neighborhood, and a slang word for the activities flourishing in those cat houses.   While the music, and the word jazz, became more accepted and respectable over time, Dixieland, certainly a proper word in 1900, has become suspect by the late 20^th century.  While music of the choir and gospel music may have been born in the churches, jazz has an association of a different kind.

            I recall a radio interview some decades ago in which a musician stated that New Orleans was one of the few places where many in the audience would clap on the up-beat rather than the down.  Was a New Orleans audience different from those in other locales?  Certainly, in early jazz one heard of syncopation.  Was this an essential part of some early jazz?  Is it used today?  Merely listing some of the different types of jazz is insufficient.  Branley should have attempted short descriptions of some of the evolution of the music.

            Finally, he mentions the birth of Preservation Hall in New Orleans in 1960, and even uses a picture outside the entrance for his book’s cover.  Founded at a low point for jazz in New Orleans, this was to be a place where old-timers could play for a new generation to appreciate their artistry.  But Branley fails to mention how unique Preservation Hall, located just off Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, was in its early years: for 1) the music, 2) one could not purchase any liquor there, not even a beer.  If a drink was desired, there was only a Coke machine inside – a non-alcoholic entertainment spot in the French Quarter!, and 3) before passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Preservation Hall was perhaps the only place in the Quarter where both Blacks and whites could go and sit together without fear of arrest.  Branley includes a photograph of a band playing at Preservation Hall with a child at the piano – a very young Harry Connick, Jr.(89)  Branley might have added that Connick’s father had defeated the nationally-known Jim Garrison to become elected to the post of District Attorney for Orleans Parish.

Branley's volume is too much like a high-school year book, where one searches the photos and list of names for your favorites, but then has little impetus to view further. But the high-school book, placing the photos in alphabetical order, requires no index. Unfortunately, Branley's book ought to have one.