20 (D-42) Sounds = Accents...and MUSIC! So much MUSIC in Louisiana!

New Orleans is MUSIC!  It is an impossible job to cover all the kinds of music that are a part of Louisiana.  Negro spirituals, Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Cajun music, Zydeco, soul music and more.  And all the famous musicians and famous places.   I'm not at all an authority on music, but just a surfer on the internet, who likes New Orleans music.  Here I'll try to give you some general information.  
Negro spirituals are the songs which were sung by the black slaves in the United States in the 18th and 19th century.  Many Negro spirituals have Christian themes.  We don't know who wrote them.  They combine the traditional West African musical style with the style of Christian hymns from Europe.  Slavery was of course present in Louisiana.  We'll return to slavery later on the blog.

The African influence on New Orleans music can trace its roots also back to Congo Square in New Orleans in 1835, when slaves would congregate there to play music and dance on Sundays.  The practice seems to have stopped more than a decade before the end of slavery with the American Civil War.  In the late 19th century, the square again became a famous musical venue, this time for a series of brass band concerts by orchestras of the area's "Creoles of color" community. Congo Square has continued to be an important venue for music festivals.  

Congo Square

Gospel began in the 1920s.  It was in fact born in the black churches of the northern United States cities.  Each Gospel song has a composer.  Gospel mixes musical elements of Negro spirituals with those of blues and are open to improvising on the piano, the guitar and other instruments. 

And there is Dixieland, a term that comes from Dan Emmit's song "Dixie's Land" (1859).  (Why "Dixie"?  I'll tell you that later.)  The song became the anthem of the Confederate Army (the South) during The Civil War.   Then music took that term as a general description of any form of jazz that is derived from early New Orleans jazz.  King Oliver was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong.

The term "jazz" (in the beginning it was spelled "jass") did not become popular until the mid and late 1910s when New Orleans musicians became well-known in other parts of the USA and consequently the New Orleans style needed a new name to differentiate it from the nationally popular "ragtime".  Before that time, the New Orleans style was frequently simply called "ragtime".

Negro spirituals, 
Gospel, 
Blues,
Dixieland, 
Jazz/jass, 
Ragtime, 
New Orleans jazz!!!!

That's a lot of information, but very condensed and little confusing!  I'm sorry for making this so long.  
But it all SOUNDS so good!
Would you like to LISTEN to a little music after all this English work?

Negro Spiritual
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=zEtMhIB9oIg&list=PLJ3X0XM_SmvPutsT59kVxNHE1Y9B8kcR-&index=29
What do all of God's children ("chillun") have ("got") when the go ("get") to heaven ("heab'en")?
Dixieland Jazz
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE2F567765A7BC948   many examples, you choose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEF9QeHxrYw    King Oliver
The New Orleans style of jazz, Part 1 -- 1914 to 1935
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7k9D5I5a0


Gospel music is for tomorrow.  I hope you will come back tomorrow.

Jane
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brass band = "fanfare"  Traditionally, New Orleans brass ("des cuivres") bands could have various instrumentations, often including trumpets, trombones, clarinets, saxophones, sousaphones and percussion.  A well-know use of these bands is for the New Orleans jazz funeral.
anthem = "hymne national"
ragtime = http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/ragtime/66220  Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
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Or more reading about Congo Square, if you like.  Here is a 2012 article from the New Orleans newspaper, The Times Picayune.  
http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2012/02/congo_square_the_times-picayun.html