All That Jazz

Jazz. What does that word bring to mind? Somber saxophone music? New Orleans? Hazy cafes? For me, it's all that and so much more. Although I've never taken a straight on jazz class in my life, I took hip hop and jazz combo classes for several years (despite the fact that the class was labeled under "hip hop"). Consequently, I became interested in the world of jazz. I always assumed that it had some form of deep and mystic roots that could be traced back to the palaces of European emperors, but that was not the case. Jazz as we know it is believed to have been born from the post-World War 1 social revolution, in which young men and women shed their constrictive upbringings and danced the night away in speakeasies and clubs, scandalizing the older generations of Americans. The new types of dances they performed, such as the Charleston, Foxtrot, and Shimmy, required different forms of music to accompany the steps. Thus jazz, a blend of various string instruments and drums, was born. Although New Orleans is able to claim many jazz influences as its own, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Memphis are also credited with the creation of this alluring and unique form of dance.