New Orleans jazz is a musical style that has a special meaning in its native setting. A current saying here is, "What did you bring it for if you're not gonna shake it." This best sums up the function of jazz in this peculiar variant of United States folklife. It was improvised music for dancing and there never was another city for dancing like New Orleans. Where else can you find so many pre-Lenten balls? Where else does one "stomp it on down" at a Sunday school parade or a funeral?

Being a seaport, and a goodtime seaport in the South, this city drew people from all parts of the world, and they heard music from all nations coming off the ...