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Music of Northern Louisiana
The region's location, bordered by Texas on the west and the
Mississippi Delta on the east has not led to a development
of a "local" music. Traditional and modern country music has
been dominant, creating its own country stars, like Jimmie
Davis, Trace Adkins, and Andy Griggs.
However, northern Louisiana's lasting contribution to the
world of popular music was the radio program "The Louisiana
Hayride", which started broadcasting in 1948 on KWKH in Shreveport.
Hank Williams, George Jones, Elvis Presley and nearly every
other country legend, or future country legend alive during
the 1950s stepped on stage at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium.
They performed, many for the first time on radio, on a signal
that covered much of the southeastern US. The original production
of the show ended in 1960, but re-runs and the occasional
special broadcast continued for a few years. The Louisiana
Hayride was regarded as a stepping stone to The Grand Ole
Opry, the legendary radio show from WSM in Nashville, Tennessee.
Northern Louisiana in the 1950s had a "Country Rock" scene,
many of whose artists were recorded by local Ram Records.
Later, Shreveport produced The Residents.
New Orleans Music
In the 19th century already a mixture of French and Spanish
music, African and Afro-Caribbean. The city had a great love
for Opera; many operatic works had their first performances
in the New World in New Orleans.
Unlike in the Protestant colonies of what would become the
USA, African slaves and their descendants were not prohibited
from performing their traditional music in New Orleans and
the surrounding areas. Large numbers of slaves were allowed
to gather on Sundays, their day off, on a plaza known as Congo
Square where they performed traditional music, song, and dances
as late as the 1830s. The Congo Square gatherings became well
known, and many whites came to watch and listen.
Louis Gottschalk was an early 19th century White Creole pianist
and composer from New Orleans, the first American musician/composer
to become famous in Europe. A number of his works incorporate
rhythms and music he heard performed by African slaves.
In addition to the slave population, antebellum New Orleans
also had a large population of "Free people of Color", mostly
Creoles of mixed African and European heritage who worked
as tradesmen. The more prosperous "Creoles of Color" sent
their children to be educated in France. They had their own
dance bands, an opera company, and a symphony orchestra. The
community produced such composers as Edmund Dede and Basil
Bares. After the American Civil War many Creole of Color musicians
became music teachers, teaching the use of European instruments
to the newly freed slaves and their descendants.
"Dixe" was published here. New Orleans was a regional Tin
Pan Alley music composing and publishing center through the
1920s, and also an important center of ragtime.
Probably the single most famous style of music to originate
in the city was New Orleans jazz. It came in to being right
around 1900. Many with memories of the time say that the most
important figure in the formation of the music was Buddy Bolden.
Early rural blues, ragtime, and marching band music were combined
with collective improvisation to create this new style of
music. At first the music was known by various names such
as "hot music" "hot ragtime" and "ratty music"; the term "jazz"
(early on often spelled "jass") did not become common until
the 1910s. The early style was exemplified by the bands of
such musicians as Freddie Keppard, "King" Joe Oliver, Kid
Ory, and Papa Jack Laine (see also: Dixieland). The next generation
took the young art form into more daring and sophisticated
directions, with such creative musical virtuosos as Louis
Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Red Allen.
New Orleans Blues
New Orleans was the first place where the early rural folk
style of the blues became popular in an urban setting. Buddy
Bolden was said to be the first to have the blues played by
a a band and for dancing. Rabbit Brown was one of the oldest
earliest blues musicians to be recorded. New Orleans blues
singers like Papa Charlie Jackson and New Orleans Willie Jackson
were noted for their rhythmic style; people were said to be
able to dance to them singing unaccompanied.
Louis Prima demonstrated the versatility of the New Orleans
tradition, taking a style rooted in traditional New Orleans
jazz into swinging hot music popular into the rock and roll
era.
The city also has a rich tradition of Gospel music and spirituals;
Mahalia Jackson was the most famous of the Crescent City gospel
singers.
In the 1950s New Orleans again influenced the national music
scene as a center in the development of Rhythm & Blues.
Important artists included Fats Domino Snooks Eaglin Dave
Bartholomew, Professor Longhair.
The Neville Brothers
1980s new style of "street beat" brass bands combining
the jazz brass band tradition with funk and hip hop, spearheaded
by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (which had more of a bebop influence
than many of the later bands), then the Rebirth Brass Band.
Contemporary jazz has had a following in New Orleans with
musicians such as Alvin Batiste and Ellis Marsalis. Some younger
jazz virtuosos such as Wynton Marsalis and Nicholas Payton
experiment with the avant garde while refusing to disregard
the traditions of early jazz.
Continuing development of the traditional New Orleans jazz
style, Tom McDermott, Evan Christopher, New Orleans Nightcrawlers
Louisiana blues is a specialized form of blues music sometimes
using zydeco instrumentation that uses slow, tense rhythms
and is closely related to New Orleans blues and swamp blues
from Baton Rouge.
Significant New Orleans rock & roll bands include The
Meters, The Radiators, Galactic, Better Than Ezra, and Cowboy
Mouth.
Hardcore punk in New Orleans was limited in popularity, led
by The Normals, Red Rockers and The Sluts. The rest of Louisiana,
Shreveport and Baton Rouge, for example, saw limited punk
rock action due to local hostility.
Reference
Blush, Steven. American Hardcore: A Tribal History. 2001.
Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-717-7
Previous Page - Southwestern
Louisiana Music, Zydeco, Cajun and Swamp Pop
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