New Orleans Jazz

When you dig into the history of New Orleans jazz, you’re getting into the roots of jazz itself — the Crescent City was the music’s cradle and crucible. If Jelly Roll Morton’s 1923 post-ragtime piano romp “King Porter Stomp” is the jazz equivalent of the Lord saying “Let there be light,” then cornet killer King Oliver’s “Dipper Mouth Blues” from that same year is the Word made flesh, with a stellar crew including Baby Dodds and Louis Armstrong bringing it to life. A few years later, Louis leaped to the forefront on “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” burning with so much intensity that folks couldn’t call it anything but “hot jazz.”

In Next Steps, jazz’s young lions roar down Rampart Street.

New Orleans jazz may go back to the days of 78s and Model Ts, but there’s still a roots-conscious crew determined to make the Big Easy swing in the 21st century like it did when Louis & co. were laying down their legendary licks. Wynton Marsalis led a new generation down the Dixieland path, and on “Tom Cat Blues” the trumpet titan was so intent on capturing that classic sound, he actually cut the tune onto an Edison cylinder. Kermit Ruffins, familiar to HBO viewers from his Treme guest appearances, didn’t raid the antique shop to record “Bogalusa Strut,” but he still taps into the feel of an old-school brass band stomping their way down Rampart Street. And when Nicholas Payton blows his trumpet on “Whoopin’ Blues,” it’s like getting a crash course in Crescent City jazz history from Kid Ory to Trombone Shorty, all within a single song.

In Deep Cuts, follow the story of New Orleans jazz from bluesy blasters to cool crooners.

With more than a century to its name, New Orleans jazz has meant a lot of things to a lot of music lovers. Wynton Marsalis wouldn’t be reeling off the regal riffs of “In the Court of King Oliver” if it weren’t for the wildcat wail of Dixieland dazzlers King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band on “Snake Rag.” And if it’s not so easy to connect the dots between Harry Connick, Jr.’ Crescent City croon on “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” — what’s more New Orleans than singing about oysters? — and the Olympia Brass Band’s sure-footed stomp and raw-throated roar on “Should I,” that just shows how much ground has been covered since Buddy Bolden first unleashed his brand of bayou blues on the world at the turn of the last century.

Whether you’ve been sashaying down Bourbon Street since you were old enough to walk, or you think a second line is where you go for the express checkout in a supermarket, no one can resist the call of New Orleans jazz. When a bold, bluesy riff comes tearing out of a trumpet, or a piano man throws just the right mix of barrelhouse blues and bayou bebop across the ivories, it’s a sound that simply commands you to not only sit up and take notice, but to stand up and start getting down. Whether that means wiggling what you’ve got to Sidney Bechet’s 1938 “Weary Blues” — which sounds anything but weary — or falling into a funky frenzy when the Rebirth Brass Band throws some groove juice into the aptly titled “New Orleans Music,” we’ve got your number with this collection of crucial cuts from the birthplace of jazz.