I'm told that two different TV series are in development about jazz and prostitution in New Orleans. That kind of combination is irresistible to the entertainment industry. After all, sex sells, and jazz is the obvious soundtrack for the sinful lifestyle. Put the two together and you have the makings of a hit show.
Some will even tell you that jazz is inseparable from transgressions, both moral and legal. According to this account, the music was born in the brothels of New Orleans, came of age in the illegal speakeasies of Chicago in the 1920s, and reached maturity nurtured by organized crime in Harlem, Kansas City, and other corrupt communities in the 1930s. Religious authorities have often given credence to this interpretation, condemning jazz as a gateway to a dissolute life. Many Catholics even saw Pope Pius X's attack on instruments “that may give reasonable cause for disgust or scandal” as a specific warning against the evils of the saxophone.
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