23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

Dixieland
Dixieland, sometimes referred to as hot jazz or traditional jazz, is a style
of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the
Dixieland
20th century. Stylistic Jazz
origins
One of the first uses of the term "Dixieland" with reference to music was in the
Cultural New Orleans, United
name of the Original Dixieland Jass Band (which shortly thereafter changed
origins States
the spelling of its name to "Original Dixieland Jazz Band"). Their 1917
recordings fostered popular awareness of this new style of music. Typical Horn · banjo · piano ·
instruments keyboard ·
A revival movement for traditional jazz, formed in reaction to the orchestrated double bass · drums ·
sounds of the swing era and the perceived chaos of the new bebop sounds of guitar · vocals
the 1940s (referred to as "Chinese music" by Louis Armstrong)[1], pulled
Regional scenes
"Dixieland" out from the somewhat forgotten band's name for the music they
championed. The revival movement included elements of the Chicago style that
New Orleans · Chicago
developed during the 1920s, such as the use of a string bass instead of a tuba, Other topics
and chordal instruments, in addition to the original format of the New Orleans List of jazz venues · jazz standards ·
style. That reflected the fact that virtually all of the recorded repertoire of New jazz (word)
Orleans musicians was from the period when the format was already evolving
beyond the traditional New Orleans format. "Dixieland" may in that sense be regarded as denoting the jazz revival
movement of the late 1930s to the 1950s as much as any particular subgenre of jazz. The essential elements that were
accepted as within the style were the traditional front lines consisting of trumpets, trombones, and clarinets, and ensemble
improvisation over a 2-beat rhythm.

Contents
History
Etymology
Main forms
Chicago style
West Coast revival
Dutch "Old-style jazz"
Styles influenced by traditional jazz
Revival
Partial list of Dixieland musicians
Festivals
Periodicals
Quotations
See also
References
External links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 1/7
23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

History
The Original Dixieland Jass Band, recording its first disc in 1917, was
the first instance of jazz music being called "Dixieland", though at the
time, the term referred to the band, not the genre. The band's sound
was a combination of African American/New Orleans ragtime and
Sicilian music.[2] The music of Sicily was one of the many genres in the
New Orleans music scene during the 1910s, alongside sanctified
church music, brass band music and blues.[3]

Much later, the term "Dixieland" was applied to early jazz by

traditional jazz revivalists, starting in the 1940s and 1950s. The name
is a reference to the "Old South", specifically anything south of the A traditionalist jazz band plays at a party in
Mason-Dixon line. The term encompasses earlier brass band marches, New Orleans in 2005. Shown here are Chris
French Quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective, Clifton, on trumpet; Brian O'Connell, on
clarinet; Les Muscutt, on banjo; Chuck
polyphonic improvisation. While instrumentation and size of bands
Badie, on string bass; and Tom Ebert, on
can be very flexible, the "standard" band consists of a "front line" of
trombone.
trumpet (or cornet), trombone, and clarinet, with a "rhythm section"
of at least two of the following instruments: guitar or banjo, string
bass or tuba, piano, and drums. Louis Armstrong's All-Stars was the band most popularly identified with Dixieland during
the 1940s, although Armstrong's own influence during the 1920s was to move the music beyond the traditional New
Orleans style.

The definitive Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually the trumpet) plays the melody or a recognizable
paraphrase or variation on it, and the other instruments of the "front line" improvise around that melody. This creates a
more polyphonic sound than the arranged ensemble playing of the big band sound or the straight "head" melodies of
bebop.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the earlier group-improvisation style fell out of favor with the majority of younger black
players, while some older players of both races continued on in the older style. Though younger musicians developed new
forms, many beboppers revered Armstrong and quoted fragments of his recorded music in their own improvisations.

The Dixieland revival in the late 1940s and 1950s brought many semi-retired musicians a measure of fame late in their
lives as well as bringing retired musicians back onto the jazz circuit after years of not playing (e.g., Kid Ory and Red
Nichols). Many Dixieland groups of the revival era consciously imitated the recordings and bands of decades earlier. Other
musicians continued to create innovative performances and new tunes. For example, in the 1950s a style called
"Progressive Dixieland" sought to blend polyphonic improvisation with bebop-style rhythm. Spike Jones & His New Band
and Steve Lacy played with such bands. This style is sometimes called "Dixie-bop". Lacy went on to apply that approach to
the music of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Herbie Nichols.

Etymology
While the term Dixieland is still in wide use, the term's appropriateness is a hotly debated topic in some circles. For some
it is the preferred label (especially bands on the USA's West coast and those influenced by the 1940s revival bands), while
others would rather use terms like Classic jazz or Traditional jazz. Some of the latter consider Dixieland a derogatory
term implying superficial hokum played without passion or deep understanding of the music and because "Dixie" is a

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 2/7
23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

reference to pre-Civil War Southern States. Many black musicians have traditionally rejected the term as a style distinctive
from traditional jazz, characterized by the staccatic playing in all-white groups such as The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
in contrast to the slower, syncopated back-beat style of playing characterized by musicians like King Oliver or Kid Ory.

Dixieland is often today applied to bands playing in a traditional style. Bands such as those of Eddie Condon and Muggsy
Spanier were tagged with the Dixieland label, reflecting the grouping of the Chicago and New Orleans styles of traditional
jazz under the same label.

Main forms

Chicago style

"Chicago style" is often applied to the sound of Chicagoans such as Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier,
and Bud Freeman. The rhythm sections of these bands substitute the string bass for the tuba and the guitar for the banjo.
Musically, the Chicagoans play in more of a swing-style 4-to-the-bar manner. The New Orleanian preference for an
ensemble sound is deemphasized in favor of solos. Chicago-style dixieland also differs from its southern origin by being
faster paced, resembling the hustle-bustle of city life. Chicago-style bands play a wide variety of tunes, including most of
those of the more traditional bands plus many of the Great American Songbook selections from the 1930s by George
Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. Non-Chicagoans such as Pee Wee Russell and Bobby Hackett are
often thought of as playing in this style. This modernized style came to be called Nicksieland, after Nick's Greenwich
Village night club, where it was popular, though the term was not limited to that club.

West Coast revival

The "West Coast revival" is a movement that was begun in the late 1930s by Lu Watters and his Yerba Buena Jazz Band in
San Francisco and extended by trombonist Turk Murphy. It started out as a backlash to the Chicago style, which is
closer in development towards swing. The repertoire of these bands is based on the music of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll
Morton, Louis Armstrong, and W.C. Handy. Bands playing in the West Coast style use banjo and tuba in the rhythm
sections, which play in a two-to-the-bar rhythmic style.

Much performed traditional Dixieland tunes include: "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Muskrat Ramble", "Struttin'
with Some Barbecue", "Tiger Rag", "Dippermouth Blues", "Milenberg Joys", "Basin Street Blues", "Tin Roof Blues", "At the
Jazz Band Ball", "Panama", "I Found a New Baby", "Royal Garden Blues" and many others. All of these tunes were widely
played by jazz bands of the pre-WWII era, especially Louis Armstrong. They came to be grouped as Dixieland standards
beginning in the 1950s.

Dutch "Old-style jazz"

Largely occurring at the same time as the "New Orleans Traditional" revival movement in the United States, traditional
jazz music made a comeback in the Low Countries. However, most Dutch jazz bands (such as The Ramblers) had long
since evolved into the Swing-era while the few remaining traditional jazz bands (such as the Dutch Swing College Band)
did not partake in the broader traditional revival movement, and continued to play ragtime and early jazz, greatly limiting
the number of bands aspiring jazz musicians could join or (as they were using instruments unavailable to most Dutch
musicians such as double basses and the piano) were forced to improvise, resulting in a new form of jazz ensemble
generally referred to "Oude Stijl" ("Old Style") jazz in Dutch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 3/7
23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

Influenced by the instrumentation of the two principal orchestral forms of the wind band in the Netherlands and Belgium,
the "harmonie" and the "fanfare", traditional Dutch jazz bands do not feature a piano and contain no stringed instruments
apart from the banjo. They include multiple trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet,
sousaphone and a section of Marching percussion usually including a washboard.

The music played by Dutch jazz bands includes both the original New Orleans tunes, as well as the songs of the revival era.
In terms of playing style, Dutch jazz bands occupy a position between revivalist and original New Orleans jazz, with more
solos than the latter but without abandoning the principle of ensemble playing. With the average band containing up to 15-
players, Dutch jazz bands tend to be the largest ensembles to play traditional jazz music.

Styles influenced by traditional jazz

Musical styles showing influences from traditional jazz include later styles of jazz, rhythm and blues, and early rock and
roll. Traditional New Orleans second-line drumming and piano playing are prominent in the music of Fats Domino. The
New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad adapted second-line drumming to modern jazz styles and gained crossover
influence on the R&B style of James Brown. Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy combined New Orleans style polyphonic
improvisation with bebop. Bassist Charles Mingus paid homage to traditional jazz styles with compositions such as Eat
Dat Chicken and My Jellyroll Soul. The contemporary New Orleans Brass Band styles, such as the Dirty Dozen Brass
Band, The Primate Fiasco, the Hot Tamale Brass Band and the Rebirth Brass Band have combined traditional New
Orleans brass band jazz with such influences as contemporary jazz, funk, hip hop, and rap. The M-BASE (Multi-Basic
Array of Synchronous Extemporization) improvisational concept used by ensembles including Cassandra Wilson, Geri
Allen, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Kevin Eubanks and others is an extension of the polyphonic
improvisation of New Orleans jazz.

Revival
The Dixieland revival renewed the audience for musicians who had continued to play in traditional jazz styles and revived
the careers of New Orleans musicians who had become lost in the shuffle of musical styles that had occurred over the
preceding years. Younger black musicians largely shunned the revival, largely because of a distaste for tailoring their
music to what they saw as nostalgia entertainment for white audiences with whom they did not share such nostalgia.[4][5]
The Jim Crow associations of the name "Dixieland" also did little to attract younger black musicians to the revival.

The Dixieland revival music during the 1940s and 1950s gained a broad audience that established traditional jazz as an
enduring part of the American cultural landscape, and spawned revival movements in Europe. Well-known jazz standard
tunes such as "Basin Street Blues" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" are known even to non-jazz fans thanks to the
enduring popularity of traditional jazz. The Vietnam-era protest song "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" is based on tonal
centers and the "B" refrain from the New Orleans standard "Muskrat Ramble". Traditional jazz is a major tourist
attraction for New Orleans to the present day. It has been an influence on the styles of more modern players such as
Charles Mingus and Steve Coleman.

New Orleans music combined earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime, and blues with collective,
polyphonic improvisation. The "standard" band consists of a "front line" of trumpet (or cornet), trombone, and clarinet,
with a "rhythm section" of at least two of the following instruments: guitar or banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums.
The Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually the trumpet) plays the melody or a variation on it, and the
other instruments improvise around that melody. This creates a more polyphonic sound than the heavily arranged big
band sound of the 1930s or the straight melodies (with or without harmonizing) of bebop in the 1940s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 4/7
23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

The "West Coast revival," which used banjo and tuba, began in the late 1930s in San Francisco. The Dutch "old-style jazz"
was played with trumpets, trombones and saxophones accompanied by a single clarinet, sousaphone and a section of
Marching percussion usually including a washboard.

Partial list of Dixieland musicians

Some of the artists historically identified with Dixieland are mentioned in List of jazz musicians. Some of the best-selling
and famous Dixieland artists of the post-WWII era:

Louis Armstrong All-Stars, organized in the late 1940s, featured at various times Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard,
Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole,
Barrett Deems and Danny Barcelona.
Kenny Ball, who had a top-40 hit with "Midnight in Moscow" in the early 1960s, is a leader of the British Trad
movement.
Eddie Condon, guitarist who led bands and ran a series of nightclubs in New York City and had a popular radio
series. Successor bands played until the 1970s, and their mainstream style is still heard today, especially in touring
bands led by cornetist Ed Polcer who was a co-owner of Condon's last nightclub in New York.
Jim Cullum Jazz Band, led by cornetist Jim Cullum, based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1962 in partnership with
his late father, was originally known as the Happy Jazz Band. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is currently featured on the
long-running USA public radio series, Riverwalk Jazz (http://www.riverwalk.org/). Cullum's Landing Jazz Club (http://la
nding.com/) has been in continuous operation on the San Antonio Riverwalk since 1963.
The Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats, co-led by cornetist David Jellema and former Jim Cullum Jazz Band trombonist
Mike Pittsley, is a relatively new 6-piece San Antonio-based traditional jazz band composed of many former JCJB
members.
Steamboat Willie, a veteran musician of Dixieland, jazz and ragtime music still playing at the Cafe Beignet in New
Orleans today.
The Dukes of Dixieland, the Assunto family band of New Orleans. A successor band continues on in New Orleans
today.
Pete Fountain, late clarinetist who led popular bands in New Orleans.
Al Hirt, trumpeter who had a string of top-40 hits in the 1960s, led bands in New Orleans until his death.
Ward Kimball, leader of the Firehouse Five Plus Two based in Los Angeles.
George Lewis was a New Orleans clarinetist featured at Preservation Hall in the 1960s, also led his own band.
Turk Murphy, trombonist who led a band at Earthquake McGoons and other San Francisco venues from the late
1940s through the 1970s.
Chris Tyle, cornetist, trumpeter, drummer, clarinetist, saxophonist, leader of the Silver Leaf Jazz Band. Also known as
a jazz writer and educator. A member of the Jazz Journalists Association.
Chris Barber, trombonist and bandleader, influential figure in the European dixieland and traditional jazz revival after
World War II

Festivals
In the United States, the largest traditional jazz festival, the Sacramento Jazz
Jubilee, was held in Sacramento, California annually on Memorial Day
weekend, with about 100,000 visitors and about 150 bands from all over the
world. It ended in 2017 after 44 years. Other smaller festivals and jazz parties
arose in the late 1960s as the rock revolution displaced many of the jazz
nightclubs.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana
features jazz and many other genres by local, national, and internationally
known artists.
In Tarragona, Catalonia, the Tarragona International Dixieland Festival
(Catalan: Festival Internacional Dixieland de Tarragona), Spain's only The International Dixieland
dixieland festival, has been held annually the week before Easter, since 1994, Festival in Dresden
with 25 bands from all over the world and 100 performances in streets,
theatres, cafés and hotels.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 5/7
23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

In Dresden, Germany, a week-long international Dixieland festival has been held every year since 1970, the
Internationales Dixieland Festival Dresden. The event culminates in a parade with floats.
In Davenport, Iowa, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is held on the Mississippi River waterfront each
summer celebrating Dixieland music and the life of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, a 1920s musician from Davenport. It is
combined with a prestigious road race, the "Bix 7".
In Ghent, Belgium, every year during the second week of July there is an international Jazz festival, the Gent Jazz
Festival.

Periodicals
There are several active periodicals devoted to traditional jazz: The Mississippi Rag, the Jazz Rambler, and the American
Rag published in the US; and to an extent Jazz Journal published in Europe.

Quotations
Arguably the happiest of all music is Dixieland jazz. The sound of several horns all improvising together on
fairly simple chord changes with definite roles for each instrument but a large amount of freedom, cannot
help but sound consistently joyful.

— Scott Yanow[7]

By the mid-1930s the word 'Dixieland' was being applied freely to certain circles of white musicians. First by
the trade press, then by the public. By the end of the decade it all but lost any direct 'Southern' association.

— Richard Sudhalter[8]

See also
List of Dixieland standards
Music of Chicago
Second Line
Trad jazz

References
1. Edwards, Brent Hayes (Spring 2002). "Louis Armstrong and the Syntax of Scat" (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/d
oi/abs/10.1086/343233?mobileUi=0&journalCode=ci). Critical Inquiry. University of Chicago Press. 28 No. 3.
doi:10.1086/343233 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F343233) – via University of Washington.
2. Viale, Valerio (10 March 2017). "First Recording in Jazz History has strong Sicilian roots" (https://www.italoamericano.
org/story/2017-3-10/jazz-history-sicilian-roots). italoamericano.org. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
3. https://www.lavocedinewyork.com/en/arts/2018/05/19/jazz-the-sicily-new-orleans-connection-and-the-art-of-
encounter-par-excellence/
4. Baraka, Amiri (1999). Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0688184742.
5. Davis, Miles & Troupe, Quincy (1990). Miles: The Autobiography. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-63504-2.
6. "Festival Internacional de Dixieland — Ajuntament de Tarragona" (http://dixieland.tarragona.cat). tarragona.cat.
7. Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing.
p. 124. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 6/7
23/4/2019 Dixieland - Wikipedia

8. Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing.
p. 132. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.

External links
Jazz History Database (http://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/#)
Dixieland Jazz – John P. Birchall (http://www.themeister.co.uk/dixie/dixieland_jazz.htm)
Listen to Australian Graeme Bell's 'Swanston St Shamble' and 'Two Day Jag' (http://aso.gov.au/titles/music/swanston-
st-shamble-2-day-jag/) on australianscreen online (http://aso.gov.au/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&oldid=890888401"

This page was last edited on 4 April 2019, at 06:17 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dixieland&printable=yes 7/7