Jazz it up!

The post­war pop-bohemianism launched itself with a cult of the primitive, of ceramic beads and dirndl skirts, of ankle-thong sandals and curtain-hoop earrings, of shaggy corduroys and ten-day beards, of seamen's sweaters and home-dyed battledresses; the clubs which set themselves up in London and Paris and promoted New Orleans jazz like a religion were totally outside of commerce, running at the start of things on a non-profit-making basis, employing amateur bands, collections of students, who imitated the great recordings by King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton with varying skill and complete self-deception... The following result was an establishment of a self-conscious and partisan, opinionated and crusading minority: to them New Orleans jazz was a music straight from the heart and the swamp, unclouded by the corrupting touch of civilization, which would refertilize the world.