 This music was life itself very complicated, but simple It was a group of people making up something that sounded like noise and good at the same time It was infectious organized chaos On they go down the street even now singing shouting and crying through horns to an irresistible drum beat Full of contradiction and compromise. Well, it was a lot to comprehend So these local musicians made it very easy to understand. You know what I'm talking about They played folk melodies and popular songs that everyone knew Church hymns that use fundamental harmonies Singable melodies of Celtic folk songs filtered through the American Negro spirituals then that went all the way back to ancient China It was the contrapomal spires of the Baroque as danced in France and in Spain And it was African African physicality Spatial intelligence timbral colorations rhythmic discipline call in response humor and rhyming logic You get the gist Truth be told It was military marches and what and and it was waltzes and the syncopated language of ragtime And it was no less street level sexual ditties silly advertising tunes And even more these songs carried meaning connected to people's lives and the specific sound from each person's horn and Every thorny rhythm told a unique personal story That touched your soul if you let it Well, those drums spoke in underground codes that even the plantation masters knew had to be silenced those drums could talk Slaves were forbidden to play drums every place in America but New Orleans and This decision will come back to Harlem Because here we are there they were Just three decades after the abolition of slavery Playing a music in that same New Orleans led by drums and Created by working people cigar makers and tailors barbers and carpenters even tanners Who played wherever people would gather? Outdoor parades and family picnics dance and music halls on advertising carts at prize fights in mansions schools and low-class dives And let me tell you something They played the way they worked hard, but fair Direct and Uncentimental in expression This was an art an approach and a way of being It afforded any musician in the ensemble the opportunity to play whatever they knew it could make sound good And because it was down home wild Sophisticated and spoken in a language most anyone could understand if you were given to understanding things This new music was at home everywhere