All over Chicago, all over the world, people were sharing the news about this unusual music, they or someone they knew, had heard. It made some want to dance; some others want to leave. But Ragtime certainly caught their attention. Within a decade, this syncopated piano style would emerge here and there in a trumpet solo, or a clarinet line. Mix in a little blues, a little Spiritual touch, and as Jelly Roll Martin said, “a little Spanish”. Do all this in the crazy hot port town of New Orleans, and who knows – you just might have something. Something that would change music forever. And this news travels fast.
But the word is, if you want to make it big, you’ve got to go to New York. And got to New York they did! Musicians were jammin’ all over the place with their best shots: Night Clubs, Cabarets, Theatres, Concert Halls, Speak Easies, Rent Parties, street corners, basements and city parks – all were buzzing with music, and people who dug it. These musicians often had traveled to faraway places and had something special that only each other could share. This exotic air added to the overall excitement of the big city
The awful odds against African Americans just working to make a living and perhaps raising a family would seem to put a damper on anybody’s desire to sing and celebrate. And yet, the musician’s approach to things seemed to provide not only a salve for the many heartbreaks and emotional wounds incurred by irrational day to day cruelty, but indeed an immediate, if only temporary, uplift of the soul toward the better things in life. Not things which can be bought, but deeper, more meaningful things like love, friendship, honor, fun, dignity, and community. . The sessions dealing with the Age of Black Music hit closest to home for me.
-- Gerry Liebmann
