2. New York City, Center of the Universe.

     New York holds a unique position in the formation and development of jazz in the 1920's. Even more so than Chicago, New York City was a multicultural center, a melting pot of traditions old and new, owing in large part to its prime location on the eastern coast of North America. New York was and remains the United States's economic and social capital. New York, even the poorer neighborhoods there in, were incubators of artistic talent. (NYTimes) A combination of the diverse background of its residents, the close quarters, and the relative economic stimulus made New York City the ideal location for artists to collaborate and grow. The New Orleans sound was reintroduced to New York after jazz had already been popularized in the form of ragtime by musicians like James P. Johnson (Best of Jazz, 23). Ragtime was not so much a form of music as much as it was a style of playing, this "jazzing" up of classical pieces was particularly popular in lower class settings (Best of Jazz, 25), but was nothing compared to the success of big band and swing jazz as introduced by Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong respectively. Both Johnson and Henderson had participated in the rise of the New York jazz dance scene by composing for the latest craze-- the Charleston, or playing in dance clubs. (NYTimes) In the mid 1920s, Fletcher Henderson put together an orchestra of jazz musicians, an introduction to the big band style, departing from the traditional dance accompaniment he had directed in the past. (Stuart) This departure from accompaniment was aided in part by a second wave of jazz musicians migrating to New York from New Orleans and the south, on occasion by way of Chicago. Louis Armstrong was seminal in the development of the next movement in jazz, often seen as an indicator of New York influence, swing. 

     There are a variety of performers that epitomize the New York jazz movement but none so much as the man who started the swing style, Armstrong. His rise from the bottom is mirrored in the movement of black Americans from the slums to fame in the entertainment industry. The new swing sound made it big on the stages of theaters on and off broadway. New York City's vital entertainment industry and tradition of live theater on and off broadway helped popularize jazz presented in the African American Revues. The Blackbirds of 1928 and the Hot Chocolates in 1929 both produced hit songs still sung today. (Stuart) The integration of jazz into the mainstream via these theatrical avenues is a unique attribute of New York jazz. At the close of the roaring 20s New York City was defined by a popularization of new age swing performance and jazz was inversely defined by New York. 

(commented on Taylor Tidwell's blog post)