i will close today's class, and thank you. i hope that you guys have a good weekend. >> interested in american history television? visit our website@tran01.org/history. you could view our tv schedule and preview archival films and more. american history tv at cspan.org/history. we are on the banks of the mississippi river learning about the city's history. new orleans was the birthplace of jazz, louis armstrong got his start here. up next we take it to the new orleans museum to learn about the city of music history.

>> jazz was the original american art form. certainly it's one of the most famous. most world-renowned. >> something the country could be proud of is to find america. people outside of america, it's like any great art that's spoken for family, speaking to the great issues of our time. right now we are on the second floor of the jazz museum at the exhibit. it's been going since 1983 but

after hurricane katrina, the exhibit was moved out and put into storage until basically now. it's slowly but surely starting to -- we slowly but surely started taking the instruments out of the archive and taking it here. the exhibit behind me. this mural, slowly but surely it actually is a jazz museum. they turned the entire second floor and to an entire history of jazz exhibit. it's kind of collectively improvised dance music, influenced by blues, and ragtime, and other things that had come across the city.

>> jazz starts new orleans for a lot of different reasons. one is that new orleans was a huge port place, the various cultures that contributed to jazz they came here through the port with people delivering goods either from europe or from the caribbean or you know, from the northern portions of mississippi. there was a large presence of enslaved africans here and yet, there wasn't laws -- the laws governing how you treated them were more lenient than any other place in the country. i'm not saying that was easy to be a slave here, no, it was as difficult as you might expect. they had no day off. you could not splint -- spit-up lame's -- spit-up families.

they could have their own properties or businesses. it was more lenient for them. >> in terms of the things that came together for jazz, you could start to see this in the early 1890s, and then probably by the early 1900s 1940s 1910, he could start hearing, you could say oh, that is jazz. >> in new orleans, music has always been an essential portion of the culture. they say the first opera ever performed in america was performed here, several opera houses, there were lots of dance halls, a lot of places to hear music. music has always been a

inherent portion of the culture. because of that, the music was part of every kind of cultural tradition, there was always music there. >> so we've got this collection of jazz. this is a clarinet that louis armstrong learned to play on. it provided him -- it was provided to him. >> louis armstrong was born now where this traffic corridor is. he was born probably as poor as

you could be in this country, he started out kind of you know, running the streets, in a group with his friends, kind of like being one of those characters you see with the bottle caps on the bottom of their shoes, very resourceful, a very resourceful kid. he played a little bit and he saying, then he was arrested new year's eve. he was shooting off his mom's boyfriend's pistol in the area on new year's eve and was sentenced to a year and a half in incarceration. that's where the bandleader there saw his potential then he got into the band and started playing in the band and when he got out there, he had decided he had wanted to be a musician so he started playing music among the other odd jobs. he hung out with all of her there.

it was kind of like he was a father figure to him. oliver and his wife would have louis over for dinner. so that you could see, it was hard for the kids and for many years afterwards. peter davis the superintendent was the one who presented it to him as a gift as the jazz museum in 1965. louis armstrong confirmed that this was one of the notches he had made in the mouthpiece. you could see the mouthpiece there today. he would put his lips on the instrument. so moving into the other area of this museum, the area where we've got the number of instruments on display, this one is a particular interest, the trumpet owned by him.

>> he's living in his 90s now, he was a prolific producer and arranger and writer and a bandleader. he was really fundamental in his career, he helped produce and arrange for many people. one of the earliest in the development of the rock 'n roll scene. a direct link from jazz to rock 'n roll. this was one of the best pianos, it was in the den of his home. despite being internationally known, one of the creators of rock and roll, he wanted to live

here. his home was damaged during katrina. it was under 12 feet of water. once the water receded it was damaged. the legs of this had broken off. the entire piano was just really in a horrible way. it had been conserved but it's not playable. it's been conserved and brought back to its original appearance. they said that if they tried to make it play, it would not have been the same piano so we didn't want to lose the nature of the piano. >> fats domino was from new orleans. he influenced really all of early rock 'n roll. he was really one of his biggest fans.

he came here in 65 i believe. they asked if they could meet with fats domino and there's the famous photo of the beatles with fats domino. he had many friends, many musicians he performed with or who stayed with him during his career, they went on to influence many of the others. they created their own music and their own band. they had a strong influence on the music here in new orleans. less than a year ago was a major blow to the city, and to his family of course, he left a wonderful legacy though. and he influenced so many people. with his warmth and his community. so this musician was born in 1897 and died in 1984. she was really well known. she

wore bells on her ankles as you could see in this photo right here. she was a wonderful musician and in her later years, she began playing preservation hall and was in -- and was a well- thought-out musician. with got a wonderful video of her performing in the first just -- in the first jazz fest. she had a pretty broad style. >> so now moving into the collection storage areas so come this way. this was a unique drum set here. the drum set, as you could see,

the longtime driver -- the longtime drummer of the band. there some wonderful footage of this drum being played in the band. so this would have been the jazz band that was led by kit. we were happy to have this it came to us about six years ago as a donation. right over here, speaking of drums, we have the drums, the snare shelf, that's one of this musicians drums. >> many drummers played here. kind of the father of modern drumming. and it came with this white

pearl set that he played. he had them throughout his career. >> when people come to the museum i would like for them to take away several things, i would like them to take away the deep history of the music here.

watching american history tv. to join the conversation like us on facebook at c-span history. historians discuss defining quality and the declaration of independence. the talk about the views and interpretations of w eb the voice, frederick douglas and thomas jefferson as well as the perspective of 18th-century african-american and women. the american antiquarian society and the freedoms way heritage association cohosted this event. it's about one hour and 40 minutes. good evening.