Jazz à la Creole: Fench Creole Music and the Birth of Jazz

Where jazz came from has been a compelling topic for over 100 years. It is hard to picture now, but in the 1920s there was no consensus that the style had originated in New Orleans. Alternative theories suggested New York City by way of the Caribbean. This was despite the fact that so many prominent early jazz musicians, White and Black, had come from New Orleans and even included the city's name, or its Creole identity, in the names of their bands. Part of the confusion was that while jazz only became a mass market phenomenon after 1917 there were stirrings of it among ragtime dance bands in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C, and elsewhere for a decade prior. Often, as revealed by later scholars, under the influence of musicians traveling out of New Orleans. The Original Creole Orchestra was one such act, and while Freddie Keeppard was not a Creole himself several of his bandmates were. The same applies to King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Jelly Roll Morton, who was a Creole, left New Orleans early and brought the style with him to the West Coast. What did early jazz artists mean when they identified as Creole? What did it signify for their bands? And what role did the French and Spanish Creole culture of New Orleans play in birthing jazz in that city rather than some other? These are not questions susceptible to easy answers. In prior decade