Chicago's Breakdown: When Jazz Came North
October 12, 2022"One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don't know what's going to happen next. Do you?" - Bix Beiderbecke (March 10th, 1903 - August 6th, 1931)
It’s often been said that while jazz was born in New Orleans, it grew up in Chicago. During the heady days of the 1920s, jazz underwent a fundamental transformation that profoundly continues to influence music to this day. Jazzmen from a century ago pioneered new ways of creating music, and in doing so, wove the city’s essence into its very being. Jazz and Chicago are forever linked.
Jazz and Chicago first met in 1915. Freddie Keppard’s Original Creole Orchestra was the first New Orleans jazz band to tour nationally, but Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland was the first to make a significant impression in Chicago.
The band opened at Lamb’s Cafe in the Chicago Loop district on May 15th, 1915 and had a successful four-month run. Jazz would not be recorded until 1917, so one can imagine how cutting-edge and intriguing this new music must have been to the average patron who had never heard it before. Brown's Band moved on to New York until February of 1916, at which time they returned to New Orleans. Their move to New York foreshadowed what was to come for jazz in the Midwest, but for now, the home of jazz was Chicago.
Following the success of Tom Brown in Chicago, another New Orleans group was brought up north. The Original Dixieland Jass Band (as it was spelled at that time) landed a residency at Schiller’s Cafe on East 31st Street, in March of 1916. This was the first jazz band to record and was also the group that ushered in the so-called Jazz Age. Much has been written about the ODJB and their future fame in New York, but their time in Chicago has often been overlooked. Trombonist Eddie Edwards later remarked that the frenetic energy of Chicago and its dancers changed the way the band played. According to him, the band could play "soft and ratty" so that "the shuffle of the ‘dancers' feet could be heard." Jazz was just beginning to settle in and know itself, but it would take a few more years and many more players to tame this adolescent on the run.
Jazz did not appeal to everyone—it was new and initially embraced by a small group of avant-garde music lovers. But it slowly began to attract a diverse group of new listeners: The sophisticated and wealthy, who wanted to present themselves as not-too-dicty, (dicty was an in-vogue term for pretentiousness and ostentatiousness) and the working class, who saw it as aspirational and worldly. It became the perfect metaphor for culture in Chicago. It was seemingly homespun music made by seemingly untrained musicians dressed in expensive tuxedos and playing pricey gold-plated instruments. All types of people from all income levels could be found mingling with each other in the city's nightclubs and speakeasies. There was something for everyone to appreciate.
Two years later, in 1918, Joe Oliver left New Orleans and made his way to Chicago. Oliver was third in line for "cornet royalty." The first cornetist to be dubbed "King" by fellow musicians was fellow New Orleanian, Buddy Bolden. Freddie Keppard later stole the crown, and now, it was time for King Oliver's reign. He spent a few years in Chicago, and then spent the summer of 1921 in California. When he returned to Chicago in 1922, the stage was set. His band was about to revolutionize jazz music.
King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band opened up at the Lincoln Gardens, in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
This area was soon to become the center of Black jazz in Chicago. The nightlife at 35th and Grand Boulevard would not be eclipsed until Harlem’s Renaissance in the 1930s. By this time, Oliver's band had developed an increasingly bluesy style and a relaxed feel. Unfortunately for the King, his lip had been giving him trouble. Fortunately, for history, this led him to send for a young Louis Armstrong to join him on second cornet. Adding Little Louis to this already stellar group sent shockwaves into the musical community and inspired innumerable players to pursue their own ambitions.
The two-cornet front line was unlike anything ever done before, and it allowed Oliver and Armstrong to play seemingly improvised breaks together. A break happens when the rhythm instruments (piano, banjo, tuba, drums) drop out for a couple measures and allow one or more other instruments (cornet, clarinet, trombone, saxophone) to play alone. The dynamic between the band and the crowd was electric, and soon musicians and music fans from all over the city were coming to hear the band. Cornetist Muggsy Spanier was once invited to sit in, and it was an experience he held close for the rest of his life. King Oliver even gave him a special mute, which Muggsy cherished and played on every gig thereafter.
The buzz around the Creole Jazz Band renewed interest in jazz music, and soon new bands were forming to take advantage of it. One such band was the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.
Like their predecessors, most of the band came north from Louisiana. This time, however, there were younger, native Chicagoans ready to join the band. Jack Pettis was featured on the C-melody saxophone, and his infectious eighth-note feel drew in some young acolytes. Among them were George Johnson and Don Murray, comprising what was called the "Northwestern School" of saxophone. The band also attracted the attention of Bix Beiderbecke, who would become the first tragic saint of jazz. For now, he was a "young man with a horn," always sitting in on cornet and piano.
Leon Bix Beiderbecke was born on March 10th, 1903 in Davenport, Iowa. He was, in a sense, the first modern jazz musician. He played piano from a young age, but after hearing a record made by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, he was inspired to pick up the cornet as his main instrument. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he played music because he had discovered jazz. By contrast, Louis Armstrong played cornet before he ever heard jazz music. Bix was a true musical genius and a prodigy, and like many musicians of a similar caliber, he struggled in school and anything else not related to music. In a failed attempt to get him on the straight and narrow, Bix's parents sent him to Lake Forest Academy. It was located a mere thirty miles from Chicago, and a short train ride would land him in the Loop. Bix was in.
The band that formed in 1924 around Beiderbecke was called the Wolverine Orchestra of Chicago. While they loosely were based off the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, under Bix's direction, the band introduced a new kind of looseness and swing. A highly mobile front line was complemented by a sturdy rhythm section. They never had a steady engagement in the city but could often be found playing dances and parties. As with many of these bands, the Wolverines eventually found their way to New York City.
By the mid-1920s, the epicenter of jazz and popular music was beginning to shift to New York, but Chicago wasn't down for the count just yet. Louis Armstrong had moved East in 1924, but by 1926 he was back in the Windy City, making records under his own name for the OKeh label. The Hot Five was comprised of Louis on trumpet, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Lil Hardin Armstrong (Louis’ wife) on piano, and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo. These records remain classics to this day and are very highly sought after by fans of early jazz. Armstrong stayed in Chicago for a couple years, and then returned to New York to begin his transformation into an international jazz icon.
Since the beginning of recorded jazz, there had been a fairly standard instrumentation: cornet, clarinet, trombone, piano, drums. Pretty soon thereafter, bands started adding instruments like saxophone, banjo, and tuba. In order to fill up big venues with sound in the pre-amplification era, the big dance bands of the day even added multiples of the same instrument, such as three saxophones. However, one unique band in Chicago went the other direction. Clarinetist Jimmie Noone, like many before him, was from New Orleans originally. He set up shop in Chicago and played with fine bands such as Doc Cooke's Dreamland Orchestra. When he went out on his own, he decided to try it without cornet-- up to that point it had been the only instrument to carry the lead. Instead, his front line consisted of just alto saxophone and clarinet. This lean and mean combination offered a brand-new sound, and its freedom inspired other young musicians, such as Chicago native Benny Goodman.
There were countless jazz bands and dance bands in and around Chicago. Most of them never recorded, and some are lost to history. Musicians lived a very fluid existence; there was so much work, if you lost your job, you could just go down the street and get hired by the next band. In a time before television, and at the dawn of radio, most people were looking for good entertainment. The demand was so great for music that even run-of-the-mill bands tended to be highly experimental and innovative. This dynamic musical culture kept going strong in the city until the late 1920s. The Depression changed everything. There were still great bands and great players, but the experimental nature of these early jazz bands became risky for promoters and record producers. They needed something guaranteed to sell.
In truth, jazz has always been part of an underground culture. The term "Jazz Age" is somewhat of a misnomer. It was a few fleeting, exciting years of youthful energy, unprecedented experimentation, and artistic innovation. The musicians going to see Louis Armstrong at the Sunset Cafe, King Oliver at the Lincoln Gardens, and Jimmie Noone at the Apex Club were all part of a fraternity of young musicians determined to make something great out of this music. The people who just came out to have a good time were part of it, too. They added the spark to a music whose time had come. Sweet Jazz Music, as Jelly Roll Morton called it, burned white hot for over a decade.
As jazz moved from its New Orleans cradle into the lap of the Midwest in the adolescence of its evolution, this genre of purely American music is woven into the wild notes and rhythm that shook the clubs and dance floors of Chicago. By the end of the 1920s, jazz was all grown up and ready for the world stage. But like every world-weary adult who not-so-secretly wishes to go back to a time without responsibilities, borders, and conventions, sometimes jazz wants to go back, too… when no one is looking so closely, to go be a kid again...when all it had to do was play. Louis and King Oliver and Bix are there, just waiting. Just listen...