NOLA Jazz and its Neighborhoods: The Role of S. Rampart St.

Part 2 in a 2-part series on New Orleans culture and music

On Saturday, March 29th, I participated in the panel “Early New Orleans Jazz and its Neighborhoods” at the Tennessee William Festival, alongside writers Fatima Shaik, author of Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood and John McCusker, author of Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz. The panel was moderated by Peggy Scott Laborde. Below is the paper I wrote that informed my contributions to the panel.

The first jazz history book, Jazzmen, edited by Smith and Ramsey, characterized Storyville as the “birthplace of jazz.” The 1947 film “New Orleans,” starring no less than Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, confirmed it. Poke any tourist, and if they’ve even heard of jazz, they’re sure it was born in the honkytonks and bordellos of Storyville. Hell, after a couple Hurricanes, they were there last week. Shoot, they met Tom Anderson and Lulu White. They watched Little Louis Armstrong deliver hard coal to the prostitutes in their cribs.

If Storyville isn’t the birthplace of jazz, its proximity to the Tremé neighborhood perhaps begins to tell a piece of the story. Fatima’s incredible book, Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, from which I have only lately learned so much, makes the case that just behind Congo Square in Tremé, Economy Hall and its “benevolent society provided the location, the organizational structure, and the community in which jazz could flourish in the 20th century.”

Read the rest of “NOLA Jazz and its Neighborhoods: The Role of S. Rampart St.” over at Randy’s Substack.