jazz
Today is the world of Jazz. Here are five great places to get down with the trumpets.
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Beginning with the home of jazz, New Orleans’ French Quarter still swings to the trumpets each and every night. Developing in the Red Light Districts in the early 20th Century the music slowly became commercially popular. The city produced Jazz names such as Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet.
Havana, Cuba
Havana is New Orleans’ sister city when it comes to jazz music. While the cities both produced high amounts of jazz early on in the decade, music wasn’t recorded as frequently in Cuba. However, with increasing migration into the US, Cuban jazz became more openly known and accessible and its more African and Latin flavours were merged into America’s jazz scene.
Brussels, Belgium
The staple jazz instrument, the saxaphone, was invented in Belgium along with the most influential jazz musician in Europe, Django Reinhardt. However, Reinhardt’s Gypsy Jazz didn’t only begin a jazz revolution in Europe, but his French flair began shaping jazz guitar playing throughout the world.
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
While Cuba’s Latin spices influenced the US jazz scene, Brazil fused the whole genre of samba with jazz to produce Bossa Nova. Although considered its own genre, Bossa Nova has similar tones and structures to jazz. Bossa Nova king João Gilberto fused some of the iconic elements of jazz with traditional Brazilian music, leaving a mark of jazz in Brazil.
Cape Town, South Africa
While the influence of American jazz developed quickly in Johannesburg during the late 60s, Cape Town’s late arrival to the scene would be a more influential one. Artists like Kippie Moeketsi and Hugh Masekela became prominent names within the Joburg jazz scene, Cape Town artists like Abdullah Ibrahim paved the way for a genre of jazz which is known as Cape Jazz.
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James Mellan @jamesmellan1
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