Mojo Triangle

The Mojo Triangle, a geographical and cultural area located within a triangular connection between New Orleans, Nashville and Memphis, is the birthplace of country, blues, jazz, and rock 'n' roll. The Mojo Triangle has presented the world with an astonishing array of creative artists, not just in music, but also in literature and films.

The phrase “Mojo Triangle” was first coined by author James L. Dickerson in his award-winning 2005 book, Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock ‘n’ Roll.

A fiddle tune named “Natchez Under the Hill,” which originated in the joints along the docks in Natchez, was one of the first original songs ever published in America, according to Dickerson. Published in 1834, it was re-titled “Old Zip Coon,” only to later morph into “Turkey in the Straw.” With that song began a tradition that inspired the creation of a musical dynasty.

Natchez remained a musical cauldron throughout the 1800s, blending traditional folk music from Europe with the exotic rhythms and harmonies of the Choctaw and Chickasaw, and the unique phrasing vocalized by slaves from Africa. But it was not until the late 1920s, when Jimmie Rodgers began recording what would later be recognized as America’s first country music that the first blend of European/Native American/African music took hold.

Ten years later, Robert Johnson took the music recorded by Rodgers and moved it a step further by recording what we today call blues music. Both Rodgers and Johnson owe an enormous debt to the Choctaw. “Both use 6/4, 5/4, and 4/4 time signatures, and both use short 6/4 introductions that quickly change to 5/4 or 4/4 after one or two bars. For example Johnson’s ‘Little Queen of Spades’ has a one bar introduction in 6/4 that changes to 4/4, an identical time signature to the Choctaw’s ‘Wedding Dance,’ which also goes 6/4 to 4/4.”

Musicians in New Orleans incorporated the music of Natchez and added Caribbean influences to produce jazz, a free-flowing instrumental interpretation of the same influences that birthed blues and country. In the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore and Bill Black took the work of Rodgers and Johnson and gave shape to rock ‘n’ roll, creating an unbroken circle of creativity that continues to this day.

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