A spasm band is a musical group that plays a variety of Dixieland, trad jazz, jug band, or skiffle music.
The term "spasm" applied to any band (often made up of children) who made musical instruments out of objects not usually employed for such. The first spasm bands were formed on the streets of New Orleans in the late eighteen hundreds, [1] with both styles spreading rapidly along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Baton Rouge, Memphis, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Louisville and Cincinnati, [2] with jug bands being essentially spasm bands that incorporated a jug player "to handle the bass parts". [2]
The earliest band to play under the name "spasm band" in New Orleans was formed in 1895, [2] known informally as Stale Bread's Spasm Band and billed as the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band at semi-professional engagements, such as outside the West End Opera House. [3] They played, amongst other things, a length of gas pipe, a kettle and a fiddle made from a cigar box.
The spasm band style was one ingredient in the development of instrumental New Orleans jazz. Contemporaries report that the style was imitated by adult orchestras such as the Right At 'Em Razz Band, which featured future Original Dixieland Jass Band clarinetist Alcide Nunez.
The term "spasm band" has been revived by jazz groups the Barnstormers Spasm Band, The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, The End Times Spasm Band, and Anthony Joseph and The Spasm Band. The term was also adopted by noise group The Nihilist Spasm Band.
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals.
The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses have a single string whose pitch is adjusted by pushing or pulling on a staff or stick to change the tension.
The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the most famous being "Tiger Rag". In late 1917, the spelling of the band's name was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
A jazz band is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a horn section.
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, jew's harp, and comb and tissue paper. The term jug band is loosely used in referring to ensembles that also incorporate homemade instruments but that are more accurately called skiffle bands, spasm bands, or juke bands because they do not include a jug player.
Dominic James "Nick" LaRocca, was an American early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band, who is credited by some as being "the father of modern jazz". He is the composer of one of the most recorded jazz classics of all-time, "Tiger Rag". He was part of what is generally regarded as the first recorded jazz band, a band which recorded and released the first jazz recording, "Livery Stable Blues" in 1917.
Lawrence James Shields was an early American dixieland jazz clarinetist. He was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz band to record commercially.
The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were one of the most influential jazz bands of the early to mid-1920s. The band included New Orleans and Chicago musicians who helped shape Chicago jazz and influenced many younger jazz musicians.
Tom P. Brown, sometimes known by the nickname Red Brown, was an American dixieland jazz trombonist. He also played string bass professionally.
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be standards changes over time. Songs included in major fake book publications and jazz reference works offer a rough guide to which songs are considered standards.
Music in the United States underwent many shifts and developments from 1900 to 1940. The country survived both World War I and the Great Depression before entering World War II in December 1941. Americans endured great loss and hardship but found hope and encouragement in music. The genres and styles present during this period were Native American music, blues and gospel, jazz, swing, Cajun and Creole music, and country. The United States also took inspiration from other cultures and parts of the world for her own music. The music of each region differed as much as the people did. The time also produced many notable singers and musicians, including jazz figure Louis Armstrong, blues and jazz singer Mamie Smith, and country singer Jimmie Rodgers.
Raymond Burke was an American jazz clarinetist.
The Dixieland Jug Blowers were a popular American musical group of the 1920s. The group was a jug band, incorporating the usual jug, banjo, guitar and fiddle, but it was also considered as a jazz band due to its use of alto saxophone, trombone, piano, and clarinet. With this wide variety of instruments, the Dixieland Jug Blowers became the most sophisticated of its time, and influenced other jug bands of the time such as the Memphis Jug Band.
The origin of the word jazz is one of the most sought-after word origins in modern American English. Interest in the word – the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century in 2000 – has resulted in considerable research and the linguistic history is well documented. "Jazz" began as a West-Coast slang term around 1912. The meaning varied, but the word did not initially refer to music. "Jazz" came to mean "jazz music" in Chicago around 1915.
The music of New Orleans assumes various styles of music which have often borrowed from earlier traditions. New Orleans, Louisiana, is especially known for its strong association with jazz music, universally considered to be the birthplace of the genre. The earliest form was dixieland, which has sometimes been called traditional jazz, 'New Orleans', and 'New Orleans jazz'. However, the tradition of jazz in New Orleans has taken on various forms that have either branched out from original dixieland or taken entirely different paths altogether. New Orleans has also been a prominent center of funk, home to some of the earliest funk bands such as The Meters.
"Livery Stable Blues" is a jazz composition copyrighted by Ray Lopez and Alcide Nunez in 1917. It was recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band on February 26, 1917, and, with the A side "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" or "Dixie Jass Band One-Step", became widely acknowledged as the first jazz recording commercially released. It was recorded by the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York City at its studio at 46 West 38th Street on the 12th floor – the top floor.
Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, fostered awareness of this new style of music.
Jazz – musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States, mixing African music and European classical music traditions.
Clifford George Hayes was an African-American multi-instrumentalist and bandleader who recorded jug band music and jazz in the 1920s and 1930s, notably as the leader of the Dixieland Jug Blowers, Clifford's Louisville Jug Band, and Hayes's Louisville Stompers. His main instrument was the violin.