Foreign correspondent Charles A. Selden posted the following stunning exclusive news in a cable dispatch from Paris, France, to the Los Angeles Times dated June 11, 1919:
Whether it is a part of the anti-American propaganda now more prevalent in the French press, or an isolated attack, is not clear, but Le Matin declares that the credit of inventing the jazz band does not belong to the United States, but to France.
The jazz band idea, it says, originated in Paris in the time of the Directory, when people went to ball concerts.
“In this day, as well as now,” it continues, “people did not know how to amuse themselves, so they made a noise. Those who had great taste for noise went to the concerts of the cat orchestra. There were twenty cats with their heads in a row on the keyboard of a harpsichord. The performers, by striking the keys worked a device which pulled the cat’s tail, causing a caterwauling which gradually took on as much volume of sound as the jazz band and was fully as musical and entertaining. This so-called America invention is only a recurrence.”
This bulletin appeared on page 13 of the Times and, one can assume, was read by very few citizens, who luckily took no offense, their knowledge of jazz at the time being quite limited. As such, jazz continued its steady but slow climb to respectability to become an internationally recognized American invention without interference from the fashion-setting French.
Photo: Andrey Kuzmin
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