Culture Lost

That wonderful feelin' - that wonderful sound.

Not only that, but that wonderful scene and its effects on fashion & culture in general. With New Orleans gone - what happens to jazz and all that which it has influenced so heavily?

Jazz is the first original art form to develop in the United States of America The New Orleans area is one of just a few regions in the world that can truely be called the heart of the jazz community. Jazz culture can generally be broken up into four rich scenes - the big band jazz of the Midwestern US in Kansas City, the bluesey rythems of Chicago, the cool, smooth sounds of Scandinavia, and the improvisational heart of it all in New Orleans.

New Orleans has spawned such musical and cultual visionaries as Bill Johnson, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong - and dozens of offshoots of Jazz music such as Big Band, Bebop, Swing, Boogie Woogie, and of course, Rock and Roll.

But Jazz has also made its distinct mark on fashion ever since the decadent1920s, when the Flappers cut their hair and loosened their corsets while dancing madly to the latest jazz tunes.

The styles of those days have continued to be a heavy influence on fashion: the endurance of Chanel's trademark minimalistic lines are perhaps the strongest testimonial to the greatness and endurance of those revolutionary days, when jazz music was the inspiration to throw off the restraints of Victorian society.

These last few years the flappers have been coming back stronger and stronger. Soft feminime dresses, the cloche (the close-fitting hat with enough shade to make those wearing it look just a tad mysterious), and the comeback of the musical "Chicago", which of course featured everything flapper and jazz.

Jazz and all of its musical branches have constantly inspired fashion and culture in general - e.g. the beatniks with their bongoes, berets, and leotards - in a way that seems as everlasting and forever renewing as the improvisations of jazz itself.

It's cliche to say it, but jazz symbolizes such all-American values as freedom (improvisation), equality (rooted in black culture), ingenuity and entrepreneurialship. It's cultural influence goes so far beyond the realm of fashion it's impossible to comprehend.

All of this is rooted in New Orleans. Hopefully all of this is not lost.