Its labyrinth-type network of downtown streets-laid out in a period predating the automobile-fan out from a central point, transcending narrow cross streets that frequently culminate in abrupt dead-ends. Within its boundaries are disconnected districts and pockets, possessing old and deep ethnic, cultural, and historic roots. In terms of square miles, it is a vast city with a relatively small downtown business section. Over the last 100 years, Detroit’s landscape has changed through urban renewal, highway development, social unrest, and demographic migration. Putting together an image-driven journal of Detroit in the ragtime and jazz age poses significant challenges as Detroit can be a mysterious place. Every major metropolitan area, and each small town in between, had a stake in the development of what we know as ragtime and jazz music, and the focus here is Detroit-a city that played an important and historically significant role in the development of both idioms. Musical idioms are dynamic by nature, and ragtime and jazz were enhanced, changed, and developed by composers and performers across the country. In both cases, however, the story continues. When jazz is the topic, we naturally think of New Orleans-these places are generally understood to be where these musical forms originated. When we think of ragtime music, our minds might automatically turn to Sedalia, Missouri, and Kansas City.
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