[QUOTE]But jazz was everywhere in America because its disciples traveled around spreading the jazz gospel. Kid Ory went to San Francisco. Morton, Armstrong, Oliver, Keppard and others went to Chicago. Earl Fuller, James Reese Europe and Fletcher Henderson kicked off a vibrant jazz scene in New York City. W. C. Handy was playing around Memphis having spent a good deal of time in New Orleans recruiting musicians for his band. Don Redman in Detroit/QUOTE]
One detail about the original spread of Jazz: Those we would call the originators of this new music called jazz didn't exactly pack up of their things and leave New Orleans out of the mere goodness of their hearts to "spread the gospel of jazz". This might be what is written in history textbooks but the truth isn't quite as rosy. The truth is that on November 12, 1917, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker issued and order forbidding open prostitution within five miles of an army cantonment, this essentially outlawed New Orleans red-light district which honestly was the source of most jazz musicians business at the time. These musicians were forced to travel up the Mississippi and look for work elsewhere, and it's no surprise they ended up in other urban areas along the river: Chicago, New York and Kansas City.
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