Notes on The History of Jazz: The Prehistory of Jazz

Congo Square Dances: Documented around $1819$ by Benjamin Latrobe; public dances continued until circa $1885$, possibly earlier cutoff before $1870$.

Ring Shout: Recorded in the American South as late as the $1930s-1950s$ in private contexts; Library of Congress recordings in $1934$.

Moorish Influence: Moorish conquest of Iberia (early $700$s A.D.); Battle of Tours in $732$ A.D.

Haitian Refugees: Arrived in New Orleans in $1808$.

Blues Form: Typically a twelve-bar structure using $I, IV, V$ chords.

Race Records: Emerged in the $1920s$; Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" (1920–21) catalyzed demand.

Scott Joplin (Ragtime):

• Born around $1868$.

• "Maple Leaf Rag": Composed circa $1897$; published $1899$; sold over $1,000,000$ copies by $1900$.

• Treemonisha: Score published in $1911$; Harlem performance in $1915$.

• Died in $1917$.

• Ragtime revival in the $1970s$.

Key Figures:

• Congo Square/Jazz Roots: Benjamin Latrobe, Ned Sublette, Sidney Bechet, Buddy Bolden, Samuel Floyd.

• Blues Artists: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, W. C. Handy.

• Ragtime Artists: Scott Joplin, James Scott, Tom Turpin, Louis Chauvin.

• Jazz/Latin Influence: Jelly Roll Morton, Basile Barès, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, Benny Goodman, Charley Mingus, Stan Kenton, Art Tatum, Wynton Marsalis.