A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music, although some jazz clubs primarily focus on the study and/or promotion of jazz-music. Jazz clubs are usually a type of nightclub or bar, which is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. Jazz clubs were in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz , when bands were large and often augmented by a string section . Large rooms were also more common in the Swing era, because at that time, jazz was popular as a dance music , so the dancers needed space to move. With the transition to 1940s-era styles like Bebop and later styles such as soul jazz , small combos of musicians such as quartets and trios were mostly used, and the music became more of a music to listen to, rather than a form of dance music. As a result, smaller clubs with small stages became practical.
44-646: Colored Musicians Club is a historic jazz club located Buffalo, New York . Opened in 1935, it is home to the oldest continuously operating African American musicians' organization in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. As of 2021, the Colored Musicians Club is undergoing a massive reconstruction and renovation. Under plans by Stieglitz Snyder Architecture and execution from Kanaka Construction Management,
88-604: A market , sing, dance, and play music. This singing, dancing and playing started as a byproduct of the original market during the French reign. At the time the enslaved could purchase their freedom and could freely buy and sell goods in the square in order to raise money to escape slavery. The tradition continued after the city became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase . As African music had been suppressed in
132-420: A community gathering place for brass band parades, protest marches, and drum circles. Today, there are still celebrations of the historical and cultural heritage of New Orleans. Congo Square Preservation Society is a community-based organization created by percussionist Luther Gray that aims to preserve the historical significance of Congo Square. Every Sunday, it carries on the tradition by gathering to celebrate
176-635: A form of entertainment and a celebration of African culture. Some of the dances and types of music heard in Congo Square were the result of these voodoo ceremonies. Marie Laveau , the first and most powerful voodoo queen, is one of the most well-known practitioners of voodoo in Congo Square. In the 1830s, Marie Laveau led voodoo dances in Congo Square and held darker, more covert rituals along the banks of Lake Pontchartrain and St. John's Bayou. Hoodoo practices at Congo Square were documented by Folklorist Newbell Niles Puckett. African Americans poured libations at
220-427: A number of tails of the smaller wild beasts, with fringes, ribbons, little bells, and shells and balls, jingling and flirting about the performers' legs and arms. The women, one onlooker reported, wore, each according to her means, the newest fashions in silk, gauze, muslin, and percale dresses. The males covered themselves in oriental and Indian dress and covered themselves only with a sash of the same sort wrapped around
264-517: A single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns. Lavish festivals featuring African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo , or Congo Square , in New Orleans until 1843. Another influence on black music came from the style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals . During
308-410: A steadier "funk" style groove, which was different from the swing rhythms typical of much hard bop. Soul Jazz proved to be a boon to Jazz clubs, because since organ trios were based around the powerful Hammond organ , a three-piece organ trio could fill a nightclub with the same full sound that in previous years would have required a five- or six-piece band. The 1980s saw something of a reaction against
352-615: Is an open space, now within Louis Armstrong Park , which is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana , just across Rampart Street north of the French Quarter . The square is famous for its influence on the history of African American music , especially jazz . In Louisiana 's French and Spanish colonial era of the 18th century, enslaved Africans were commonly allowed Sundays off from their work. Although Code Noir
396-512: Is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre , which originated in African-American communities of primarily the " Deep South " of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads . The music of New Orleans had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. Many early jazz performers played in venues throughout
440-506: The violin , tambourines , and triangles. Gradually, the music in the square gained more European influence as enslaved English-speaking Africans danced to songs like “Old Virginia Never Tire.” This mix of African and European styles helped create African American culture. Creole composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk incorporated rhythms and tunes he heard in Congo Square into some of his compositions, like his famous Bamboula, Op. 2 . As harsher United States practices of slavery replaced
484-451: The Jazz Age were keen on the sound of jazz music, and especially of jazz clubs. By the advent of the 20th century, campaigns to censor the "devil's music" started to appear, prohibiting when and where jazz clubs could be built. For example, a Cincinnati home for expectant mothers won an injunction to prevent construction of a neighboring theater where jazz will be played, convincing a court that
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#1733085563728528-501: The 1930s heyday of the Cotton Club . Soul Jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues , gospel and rhythm and blues to create music for small groups, often the organ trio of Hammond organ , drummer and tenor saxophonist. Unlike hard bop , soul Jazz generally emphasized repetitive grooves and melodic hooks, and improvisations were often less complex than in other Jazz styles. It often had
572-628: The African-style dancing and music. Observers heard the beat of the bamboulas and wail of the banzas , and saw the multitude of African dances that had survived through the years. There were a variety of dances that could be seen in Congo Square including the Bamboula, Calinda, Congo, Carabine and Juba. The rhythms played at Congo square can still be heard today in New Orleans jazz funerals , second lines and Mardi Gras Indians parades. In addition,
616-575: The Protestant colonies and states, the weekly gatherings at Congo Square became a famous site for visitors from elsewhere in the U.S. In addition, because of the immigration of refugees (some bringing enslaved Africans) from the Haitian Revolution , New Orleans received thousands of additional Africans and Creoles in the early years of the 19th century. They reinforced African traditions in the city, in music as in other areas. Many visitors were amazed at
660-665: The Tremé neighborhood around the square. After a decade of debate over the land, the City turned it into Louis Armstrong Park , which incorporates old Congo Square. Starting in 1970, the City organized the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and held events annually at Congo Square. As attendance grew, the city moved the festival to the much larger New Orleans Fairgrounds . In the late 20th century and early 21st century, Congo Square has continued to be an important venue for music festivals and
704-527: The beat and cadence of military marching bands and the syncopation of the ragtime piano , led to the creation of a new way to listen to live music. In the jazz history books, places such as New Orleans, Chicago, Harlem, Kansas City, U Street in Washington D.C., and the Central Avenue zone of Los Angeles are often cited as the key nurturing places of jazz. The African musical traditions primarily made use of
748-445: The body. Except for that, they went naked. One witness noted that clusters of onlookers, musicians, and dancers represented tribal groupings, with each nation taking their place in different parts of the square. The musicians used a range of instruments from available cultures: drums , gourds , banjo-like instruments, and "quills" made from reeds strung together like pan flutes , as well as marimbas and European instruments such as
792-562: The ceremonial starting place of a march that goes all the way to the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument on South Claiborne Avenue. On this holiday in 2012, a ceremony was held in Congo Square in which New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu gave an inspirational speech calling for the city to reduce violence in the streets. The annual Red Dress Run begins in Congo Square, and is organized by the New Orleans Hash House Harriers,
836-579: The city, such as the brothels and bars of the red-light district around Basin Street , known as " Storyville ". In addition to dance bands, there were numerous marching bands who played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals ), which were arranged by the African-American and European American communities. The instruments used in marching bands and dance bands became the basic instruments of jazz. Despite its growing popularity, not all who lived in
880-423: The clubs where it is performed in these countries provide meeting places for political dissidents , however, attendance of these clubs is minuscule compared to the popularity of jazz clubs during the Jazz Age . Known as the "birthplace of jazz," New Orleans is home to some of the oldest and most famous jazz clubs in the United States, including: Congo Square Congo Square ( French : Place Congo )
924-599: The early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments. The " Black Codes " outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through "body rhythms" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba . In
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#1733085563728968-455: The expansion will add over 2,000 square feet of space to the existing building. The addition will provide a new handicapped-accessible main entrance that includes a reception and lobby area, and an elevator. The second floor will feature a prominently projecting glass-walled flexible rehearsal and event space with two practice rooms and a lobby that connects to the existing building via an enclosed bridge. The existing building will continue to house
1012-479: The four corners of Congo Square at midnight during a dark moon. During slavery , a ring shout (a sacred dance in Hoodoo) was performed to invoke ancestral spirits for assistance and healing in the enslaved and free black community. In the late 19th century, the square again became a famous musical venue, this time for a series of brass band concerts by orchestras of the area's " Creole of color " community. In 1893,
1056-437: The fusion and free jazz that had dominated the 1970s. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis emerged early in the decade, and strove to create music within what he believed was the tradition, rejecting both fusion and free jazz and creating extensions of the small and large forms initially pioneered by such artists as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington , as well as the hard bop of the 1950s. Whether Marsalis' critical and commercial success
1100-530: The history and culture of Congo Square through drum circles, dancing, and other musical performances. Along with these gatherings, other celebrations and events that are held in Congo Square every year include Martin Luther King Day celebrations, and the Red Dress Run. There are also numerous weddings, festivals, and concerts that take place in the park every year. On Martin Luther King Day, the park serves as
1144-526: The more lenient Spanish colonial style, the gatherings of enslaved Africans declined. Although no recorded date of the last of these dances in the square exists, the practice seems to have stopped more than a decade before the end of slavery with the American Civil War . Besides the music and dancing, Congo Square also provided enslaved blacks with a place in which they could express themselves spiritually. This brief religious freedom on Sundays resulted in
1188-404: The most prominent from the 1820s to the 1860s, as Congo Square provided an opportunity to expose people to this intriguing practice. The types of voodoo ceremonies performed at Congo Square were very different from traditional voodoo, however. True voodoo rituals were much more exotic and secretive and focused on the religious and ritualistic aspect, while the voodoo in Congo Square was predominantly
1232-450: The museum on the first floor and the club/bar/stage on the second floor. There is a planned reopening Spring of 2022. This article about a Registered Historic Place in Buffalo , New York is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jazz club In the 2000s, jazz clubs may be found in the basements of larger residential buildings , in storefront locations or in
1276-464: The music played became the music of Louisiana Voodoo rites. Townsfolk would gather around the square on Sunday afternoons to watch the dancing. In 1819, the architect Benjamin Latrobe , a visitor to the city, wrote about the celebrations in his journal. Although he found them "savage", he was amazed at the sight of 500-600 unsupervised slaves who assembled for dancing. He described them as ornamented with
1320-410: The music was dangerous to fetuses. By the end of the 1920s, at least 60 communities across the nation enacted laws prohibiting jazz in public dance halls. Prohibition in 1920 fostered the emergence of the underground, gangster-run jazz clubs. These venues served alcohol, hired black musicians, and allowed whites, blacks and audiences of all social classes to mingle socially for the first time. Although
1364-720: The post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. The abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for the education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows , and in vaudeville , during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs and brothels, as ragtime developed. Blues
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1408-400: The practice of voodoo ceremonies. Voodoo is an ancient religion that developed from enslaved West Africans who brought this ritualistic practice with them when they arrived in New Orleans in the 18th century. Although it is not the most noted recreational activity people took part in at Congo Square, it was nevertheless one of the many forms of entertainment and social gatherings here. Voodoo was
1452-411: The shores of Lake Pontchartrain at Milneburg and Bucktown, making red beans and rice banquettes on Mondays, and holding nightly dances at neighborhood halls all over town. This long and deep commitment to music and dance, along with the mixing of musical traditions like spiritual music from the church, the blues carried into town by rural guitar slingers, the minstrel shows inspired by plantation life,
1496-522: The square was officially named “Beauregard Square” in honor of P. G. T. Beauregard , a Confederate General who was born in St. Bernard Parish and led troops at the Battle of Fort Sumter. This was part of an attempt by city leaders to suppress the mass gatherings at the square. While this name appeared on some maps, most locals continued to call it "Congo Square". Local New Orleans author and historian Freddi Williams Evans
1540-541: The underground jazz clubs encouraged the intermingling of races in the Jazz Age, there were other jazz clubs, such as the Cotton Club in New York, that were white-only. By the 1940s, jazz music as a form of popular music was on the decline, and so was the popularity of jazz clubs. In the early 1940s, bebop-style performers began to shift jazz from danceable popular music towards a more challenging "musician's music." Since bebop
1584-440: The upper floors of retail businesses. They can be rather small compared to other music venues, such as rock music clubs, reflecting the intimate atmosphere of jazz shows and long-term decline in popular interest in jazz. Despite being called " clubs ", these venues are usually not exclusive. Some clubs, however, have a cover charge if a live band is playing. Some jazz clubs host " jam sessions " after hours or on early evenings of
1628-399: The week. At jam sessions, both professional musicians and amateurs will typically share the stage. In the 19th century, before the birth of jazz, popular forms of live music for most well-to-do white Americans included classical concert music, such as concerti and symphonies , music played at performances, such as the opera and the ballet , and ballroom music. For these people, going out
1672-477: Was Congo Square, a true gift to the entire country and world.” In 2011, the New Orleans City Council officially voted to restore the traditional name Congo Square. In the 1920s New Orleans Municipal Auditorium was built in an area just in back of the square, displacing and disrupting some of the Tremé community. In the 1960s a controversial urban renewal project leveled a substantial portion of
1716-400: Was a cause or a symptom of the reaction against Fusion and Free Jazz and the resurgence of interest in the kind of jazz pioneered in the 1960s (particularly Modal Jazz and Post-Bop ) is debatable; nonetheless there were many other manifestations of a resurgence of traditionalism, even if fusion and free jazz were by no means abandoned and continued to develop and evolve. Well into the 1980s,
1760-643: Was a formal occasion, and the music was treated as something to listen to (if at the symphony or the opera house), or dance reservedly to (if at a ball). During the same century, African-American communities were marginalized from an economic perspective. But despite this lack of material wealth, they had thriving community and a culture based around informal music performances, such as brass band performances at funerals, music sung in church and music played for families eating picnics in parks. African-American culture developed communal activities for informal sharing, such as Saturday night fish fries, Sunday camping along
1804-465: Was implemented in 1724, giving enslaved Africans the day off on Sundays, there were no laws in place giving them the right to congregate. Despite constant threats to these congregations, they often gathered in remote and public places such as along levees, in public squares, in backyards, and anywhere they could find. On Bayou St. John at a clearing called "la place congo" the various ethnic or cultural groups of Colonial Louisiana traded and socialized. It
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1848-452: Was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it could use faster tempos. Drumming shifted to a more elusive and explosive style and highly syncopated music. While bebop did not draw the huge crowds that had once flocked to Swing-era dance clubs, the bebop style was based around small combos such as the jazz quartet . With these smaller combos on stage, smaller clubs could afford to pay the ensembles even with much smaller clubs than were common in
1892-400: Was not until 1817 that the mayor of New Orleans issued a city ordinance that restricted any kind of gathering of enslaved Africans to the one location of Congo Square. They were allowed to gather in the "Place des Nègres", "Place Publique", later "Circus Square" or informally "Place Congo" at the "back of town" (across Rampart Street from the French Quarter ), where the enslaved would set up
1936-493: Was the main advocator for the name change. As a result of her encouragement, City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer created an ordinance to rename the area Congo Square in 2011. In the ordinance, Palmer claimed that “By restoring the name, Congo Square will continue to be remembered for the birthplace of the culture and music of New Orleans” and that “Jazz is the only truly indigenous American art form, and arguably its genesis
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