New Orleans gave birth both to jazz and the master of the improvised jazz solo, Louis Armstrong. Born in 1901, Armstrong was destined to become one of the most iconic and influential musicians in jazz history. He helped move Dixieland jazz from its collaborative improvisations to individual solo efforts, transforming its identity into the form most widely recognized today. Improvisation is at the heart of the genre and Armstrong played a critical part in its evolution and implementation.
African Americans seeking to improve their situations began to migrate northward in the 1920s, bringing jazz and blues to northern cities such as New York and Chicago. With readily available record players and radio, a generation of Americans embraced this new music form as an expressive alternative to their parents' outdated tastes. Once found only in New Orleans, jazz discovered a broader audience and became an important part of American culture, spreading over national airways and into homes and dance halls.
The uplifting feel of swing bore stark contrast to the melancholy nature of jazz's foundation in the blues. A product of the Great Depression, swing saw its highlight in the mid-1930s, known as the swing era. Swing was the national dance and the feel-good nature of this jazz form was a boost to the morale of many Americans through the challenges of the times. The leadership of orchestra greats Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Count Basie helped propel swing to the forefront of the '30s music scene.
World War II saw many musicians become draftees. African American military service membership reached one million as a result of oppressive segregation. Musicians for concert and dance halls became hard to find. Those thinning numbers helped pave the way for jazz to move away from big-band formations and into smaller groups focused on innovation and airplay rather than dance and tradition. Bebop was the result. Presented as jazz for an intelligent audience, bebop sped up tempos, wove intricate melodies and presented involved harmonic qualities.
Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie were among jazz musicians of the '50s seeking to infuse the genre with new influences. Drawing from Latin America's rich musical background, Ellington, Gillespie and others merged their song crafting with these multicultural sounds, giving birth to Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz. This union was solidified when Cuban musicians began collaborations with New York jazz players. Latin jazz merges the sounds of the Americas into a common and mutually relatable form.