A term that arose in polemical writings of the late 1930s to distinguish New Orleans jazz of the 1920s from the swing style of the 1930s; it was later applied to the music of New Orleans revival groups, and is now used almost exclusively in that sense. Beginning in 1938, four forces led to a revival of a supposedly authentic New Orleans style: first, several nationally prominent black jazz musicians (Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton and Jimmie Noone) were recorded playing a purportedly traditional repertory using traditional instrumentation; second, a significant number of white musicians, both in the USA (Turk Murphy and Lu Watters in San Francisco) and elsewhere, turned to recordings of the 1920s New Orleans jazz for models; third, a number of older black New Orleans musicians who had never or rarely played outside Louisiana were recorded by white aficionados; finally, older dixieland jazz musicians, many of whom had retired to New Orleans, were recorded from the mid-1950s, often under the auspices of the New Orleans Jazz Club. The music of the third group (beginning with the recordings made under Kid Renas leadership in 1940 and continuing with those of Bunk Johnson and George Lewis) has come to be regarded as the authentic bearer of the New Orleans tradition of jazz, which is thought to continue in the music still played at Preservation Hall, New Orleans. However, this revival style was a locally evolved idiom that responded to market forces (an appetite for folklore, nostalgia and primitivism) rather than a resurrection of a type of music that was originally more cosmopolitan and technically demanding. Whatever the case, the traditional jazz movement has a very large and devoted audience and many active performers, especially outside of the USA, with an eclectic repertory and performing style.
Second Line (1948)
W. Grossman and J. Farrell: The Heart of Jazz (New York, 1956/R)
A. McCarthy: The Re-emergence of Traditional Jazz, Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz, ed. N. Hentoff and A. McCarthy (New York, 1959/R), 30324
Mississippi Rag (1973)
T. Stagg and C. Crump: New Orleans, the Revival: a Tape and Discography of Traditional Jazz Recorded in New Orleans by New Orleans Bands, 193772 (Dublin, 1973)
T. Ikegami: New Orleans Renaissance on Record (Tokyo, 1980)
LAWRENCE GUSHEE