Jazz grew in the red-light district called Storyville in New Orleans (1897 to 1917). The roots of jazz are broader, deeper and murkier than that, going back to work songs, chants, shouts, blues, hymns, gospel, Spanish and French influences, ragtime, marches and band music, light opera, classical music and African rhythms. But my main point here is that the influence of the progressive movement combined with the U.S. Army closed Storyville. The linked article tells the story, and Murray Rothbard’s essay on World War I as Fulfillment specifically mentions the features of the Selective Service Act that led to such … Continue reading Jazz Grew in Storyville, and World War I Closed It Down