Some say that Jazz was born in 1895, when Buddy Bolden started his first band. Others say 1917, when Nick LaRocca and his Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded the first Jazz record, Livery Stable Blues. Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton said, "It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz, and I myself happen to be the inventor in the year 1902." The truth is that Jazz wasn't born on a particular day, it was created over a period of time. It wasn't just one person or one race that was responsible for creating it. It was a meeting, and mixing, of the essences and emotions of many people, of many cultures. Jazz is alive. It grows, it dies, it changes, it stays the same.
New Orleans is the city where you could dance down the middle of the street, in the middle of the daytime, in the middle of the week, and instead of people wondering why you weren't at work, they'd be wondering how they could join you. The glory of New Orleans is that it's still that way today. Everyone loves a parade. Everything is touched by the joyous anarchy called New Orleans Jazz. And everybody's middle name is "Celebrate." Jazz musicians perform on street corners, but also at funerals and celebrations alike, and audience frequently joins in to "second line", dancing as they follow the jazz band through the streets.
About the stamps
About the first stamp, featuring a portrait of George Washington, I wrote here.
The second stamp, depicting the iconic figure of "Wisdom" which is installed over the entrance to the GE Building at Rockefeller Center, was issued in October of 2003, then reprinted again in September of 2008.
References
Second Lines - New Orleans Official Guise
Birthplace of Jazz - New Orleans Official Guise
Sender: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 07.03.2015
Photo: Werner J. Bertsch / 2000
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