| dc.description.abstract | As jazz critic Gunther Schuller has commented, it is surprising to discover the "diverse regions of the country" from which jazz musicians have hailed. It is especially surprising that such musicians, with differing geographical, political, social,
religious, ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds, have been able to come together to perform a music that requires a very particular spirit, peculiar technical skills, and a sensitivity to and an appreciation for musical forms and traditions that owe their origins to conditions rarely endured by the musicians themselves. Few, if any, of the first black jazzmen, and certainly none of the early white jazzmen, had ever known the often inhuman servitude borne by those who sang the chants, spirituals, and blues that would form the basis of jazz from its beginnings right up to the present time. | en_US |
