Storyville (New Orleans)
Storyville was a historic New Orleans entertainment district .
history
The neighborhood was nicknamed by councilor Sidney Story, who drafted the laws that made it possible to establish it in 1897. With the establishment of the district based on the model of legalized red-light districts in northern German and Dutch cities, the city administration hoped to better control the prostitution that is flourishing in the busy port city . In 1917, Storyville was closed by federal authorities against opposition from the city government. The official order was justified by the fact that prostitution should be prohibited in the vicinity of naval bases. In the 1940s, most of the buildings were demolished to make way for the Iberville social housing estate. In 1949 jazz historians attempted to save one of the last brothel buildings, Lulu White's Mahogany Hall , which had been immortalized with the "Mahogany Hall Stomp," a jazz standard adopted by Louis Armstrong and others. However, this attempt failed and today only three remains of buildings remind of old Storyville .
jazz
Storyville is often described as the birthplace of jazz , although the new style of music was played in many parts of the city. Many of the better establishments employed a pianist, and sometimes a small band. Since 1898, every brothel in Storyville had a resident pianist called a professor . He welcomed guests and invited young, mostly African-American musicians from all over the city to play in the brothel.
Jelly Roll Morton , Tony Jackson , Clarence Williams , King Oliver and Manuel Perez were among the musicians who played here every night. Louis Armstrong delivered coals to one of the brothels as a boy and heard so many of the famous musicians.
The reason why many highly skilled African American musicians played in Storyville was also due to a restoration phase in racial relations, 30 years after the slave liberation as a result of the American Civil War . The increased segregation meant that trained black musicians were restricted in their performance options and employment in the brothels was so welcome.
Many of the musicians went to other major US cities after the closure of Storyville. One of the main destinations was Chicago . This exodus formed u. a. Basis for the development of Chicago jazz , but also gave new impulses to other jazz scenes all over the USA or just founded them.
Record label
The district was the name model for the Danish jazz record label Storyville Records and for the jazz label of the same name by George Wein (who also had a Storyville club in Boston), which existed until 1965 . A large number of musicians and bands released recordings under this label.
literature
- Al Rose: Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red Light District University Alabama Press, 1978, ISBN 0-8173-4403-9
- Frank Yerby : The girl from Storyville
Movies
Pretty Baby , 1978
