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Understanding music, both as a listener of it and a player of it, is a never-ending journey, with multiple layers of meaning and revelation. It seems that every time you get to the true essence of a piece, a genre, a performance, or an artist you find that you can go deeper still. One of the great joys of music is this discovery of meaning. Getting to the hidden roots of jazz music enables this joy.

Jazz is so encompassing of so many genres that discovering the sources can take a lifetime. It may be a lifetime well spent, but it there seems to be no finally definitive moments that caused the birth of the sound. Rather, it is an ongoing amalgamation of a wide variety of sounds and sources, and that is one of the reasons that the field remains so vital and fresh.

One good way to get to the beginnings of any style of play is to find out what any given performer’s influences were. Then listen to them, and then on to those influences, and on and on back through time. This is not only an enjoyable experience; it is wholly educational as well.

Jazz is a music that may have no real beginning at all. Rather, it is an organic outgrowth of all of the things that make music speak so dearly to a listener’s heart and mind. There will be layers upon layers of meaning and nuance, and looking deeper and deeper still can create a whole new understanding and appreciation of the art form.The information doesn’t stop now. Keep looking: The Anti-JAzz campaign 1934

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