New Orleans • Louisiana

As the birthplace of Jazz, New Orleans music has influenced musicians, performers, authors, painters, and even an infamous serial killer known only as The Axeman.

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While Jazz grew out of drumming and musical improv, it was an artform rejected by high society in its early days, only to be played in gin joints and dime-a-trick cribs in the old Storyville District.

 

Between two world wars and among a great depression, Jazz music became the uplifting spirit in a time of battle and loss. Instruments were made to sing notes played from the heart rather than sheets of paper. Brass bands began performing syncopated Jazz on the stage of riverboats, all-night bars, and rowdy dance taverns, working its way into the esteemed theatres and upscale venues.

 

Therefore, when the city was terrorized by a murderous Axeman who slayed families in their homes, a letter was sent to the local newspaper written by the Axeman himself, telling the people of New Orleans that he would spare the city any killings one certain night if every household were to play his favorite type of music, Jazz. On that night, folks hired bands, played records, and packed in to music halls to comply with the serial killer's request. No one was axed down on that night. Jazz had saved the city.

 

The folklore of the Axeman's Jazz signifies how Jazz music can transform and transcend. It is the marriage of a cornet, a trumpet, and a trombone. It is the lifeblood of New Orleans. It is the soundtrack of the city, the cosmopolitan cadence, the melting pot of music.

 

Jazz is legend.