[T]he piano was to Harlem what brass bands had been to New Orleans. The instrument represented conflicting possibilities — a pathway for assimilating traditional highbrow culture, a calling card of lowbrow nightlife, a symbol of middle-class prosperity, or, quite simply, a means of making a living.

[T]he piano was to Harlem what brass bands had been to New Orleans. The instrument represented conflicting possibilities — a pathway for assimilating traditional highbrow culture, a calling card of lowbrow nightlife, a symbol of middle-class prosperity, or, quite simply, a means of making a living.

– Ted Gioia –

The History of Jazz

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