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Jazz, The First Thirty Years

As a musical language of communication, Jazz is the first indigenous American style to affect music in the rest of the World.

The city of New Orleans features prominently in early development of Jazz. A port city with doors to the spicy sounds[1] of the Caribbean and Mexico and a large, well-established black population, the Crescent City was ripe for the development of new music at the turn of the century. New Orleans was home to[2] great early clarinetists Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone and Sidney Bechet.

Chicago became the focal point for Jazz in the early 1920s when New Orleans musicians found their way north after clubs in the Storyville area of New Orleans were closed. Chicago was a magnet[3] for musicians in the Mid-West.

New York City contributed to the richness of Jazz in many ways. The first piano style to be incorporated into Jazz was stride[4]. The city was also the center of the music publishing business. Also in New York, James Reese Europe experimented with a style of Jazz that involved large orchestras. In the late twenties, the Jazz center of the United States moved from Chicago to New York City as many musicians did also.

As Jazz evolved, highly arranged dance music became the norm. When white musicians like Benny Goodman added black arrangements for their scores, Jazz began to move into the Swing or Big Band period. Large black and white Jazz bands toured the United States filling the radio airwaves with swing, a term which became synonymous[5] with Jazz. Great African American bands during the swing era were Jimmy Lunceford, Chick Webb, Mills Blue Rhythm and Adny Kirk's Clouds of Joy.

注释：

[1]Spicy sounds：spicy的原意是辛辣的意思，在这里指加勒比海、墨西哥及黑人的极具特色的音乐风格。

[2]Was home to：我们都知道home是家的意思。文中的home是发源地的意思，指New Orleans是早期单簧管演奏者的发源地。

[3]Magnet：magnet的本意是磁铁和磁体。在这里形象的引深为集中地的意思。例如，本文中出现的地方就是"芝加哥成为了中西部地区音乐家的集中地"。如果说芝加哥是块磁铁，那么音乐家们就是被磁铁所吸引过来的了。

[4]Stride：一个音乐术语。意思是在爵士乐的一种特殊技巧或钢琴伴奏风格，其演奏是左手由强烈的低音到中音和弦有韵律的转换而实现的。

[5]Synonymous：是synonym（同义词）的形容词形式，意思为"同义的"。

爵士乐初期的三十年

作为一种联络性的音乐语言，爵士乐是第一个影响世界的美国本土化音乐。

New Orleans (新奥尔良)在爵士乐发展初期起着举足轻重的作用。对不同风味的加勒比海、墨西哥及黑人音乐敞开门户，使在世纪初的Crescent City具备了发展新兴音乐的成熟条件。新奥尔良是早期单簧管演奏者Johnny Dodds，Jimmy Noone和Sidney Bechet的发源地。

二十年代初当新奥尔良Storyville区域的俱乐部被关闭使得当地的音乐家们大批的流向北方，芝加哥从而成为爵士乐的焦点，也成为了中西部地区音乐家的集中地。

纽约同样对爵士乐的丰富做出了很多贡献，例如对钢琴表演与爵士乐的完美结合。同时纽约也是音乐出版物行业的中心。James Reese Europe在纽约实验了大型管弦乐队与爵士乐的合奏。二十年代后期，爵士乐在美国的中心从芝加哥搬到了纽约。

随着爵士乐的发展，良好的舞蹈音乐形式成为了一种标准。当白人音乐家例如Benny Goodman在音乐中加入了黑人的编排，爵士乐开始向Swing或称为Big Band的时期发展。大型黑人和白人乐队的巡美演出以Swing充斥着电台，从而使Swing变为Jazz的同义词。Swing时代著名的黑人乐队有Jimmy Lunceford，Chick Webb，Mills Blue Rhythm和Adny Kirk's Clouds of Joy。