The earliest mention of Jazz I found was in 1917 from the New York Sun. I really enjoyed reading the article titled “Whence Comes Jass?” The article described how primitive jazz is and the savages that played it. This reminded me of what was discussed in class; white people love black culture but hate black people. The author was talking about how the music makes you want to dance and how everyone loves it then degrades the people making the music; “The music of contemporary savages taunts us with the lost art of rhythm.” The author then describes how complicated jazz is. Jazz is pure rhythm, there is usually no melody. During the time this was written, most composers could not wrap their heads around how that could possibly work and therefore disregarded the “savages music.” However, the author did describe how intense and difficult it is to write and perform jazz. Jazz originated in Cuba and worked its way into New Orleans. “For years jazz has ruled in the underworld resorts of New Orleans… wild men and wild women have danced to jazz for gladsome generations.”

One quote I found very interesting was “It was an attempt to reproduce the marvellous syncopation of the African Jungle.” This intrigued me because when listening to jazz, the jungle is not the first thing that comes to mind.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1917-08-05/ed-1/seq-23/#date1=1789&index=17&rows=20&words=Jazz&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=New+York&date2=1963&proxtext=jazz&y=18&x=14&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1