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Karen Dalton - God Bless the Child

Dancing had long been a mainstay of New Orleans nightlife, and Bolden's popularity was based on his ability to give dancers what they wanted. During the nineteenth century, string bands, led by violinists, had dominated dance work, offering waltzes, quadrilles, polkas, and schottisches to a polite dancing public. By the turn of the century, an instrumentation borrowing from both brass marching bands and string bands was predominant, usually a front line of cornet, clarinet, and trombone with a rhythm section of guitar, bass, and drums. Dance audiences, especially the younger ones, wanted more excitement. The emergence of ragtime, blues and later, jazz satisfied this demand. Increasingly, musicians began to redefine roles, moving away from sight reading toward playing by ear. In contrast to society bands such as John Robichaux's, representing the highly-skilled Frenchmen or Creoles of color, bands such as Bolden's, Jack Laine's Reliance, or the Golden Rule worked out their numbers by practicing until parts were memorized. Each member could offer suggestions for enhancing a piece of music, subject to the approval of the leader. Gradually, New Orleans jazzmen became known for a style of blending improvised parts sometimes referred to as collective improvisation. It appealed to younger players and dancers alike because it permitted greater freedom of expression, spontaneity, and fun.

The goal of every jazz musician is to find their own voice, a sound that is at once unique and identifiable. One of the best examples is Louis Armstrong whose distinctive tone on cornet and personal singing style changed the course of American music... Furthermore, many gifted players stayed home in the 1920s, giving rise to the remarkable diversity found in local jazz recordings... None of these recordings became hits in the manner of Armstrong... but they reveal an essential truth-that the New Orleans music scene remained a fertile ground for creative musicians of diverse backgrounds, who were united by a common love of the music and a reverence for the culture that produced it.
Source: A New Orleans Jazz History, 1895-1927 by New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park


Karen Dalton - God Bless the Child
  • Written by: Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog Jr.
  • Released in: 1966
  • Genre: Folk blues

"Karen Dalton recorded a live album in October 1962, but not released until 2007, as a set of two CDs and a DVD. She would occasionally play at the Attic, a folk club in Boulder, Colorado. The album is a recording of a performances."

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