Jazz music was founded during the 1700s in the city of New Orleans. Since its birth, other distinct jazz styles have emerged. Although it was made out of a collision between two cultures— African and American, the issue of social stratification and racial identity was hardly ever addressed in early jazz history. Back then, music that predated jazz was primarily for entertaining small groups of black slaves to alleviate them from the adversities of oppression by the white men. However, by the time jazz hit New York City, it was then being played, recorded, and listened to by both the blacks and whites. Ever since then it spanned so many cultures, allowing fervent racism to further breed within its rapid growth. It was during 1930s, the rise of technology and consumer culture, that allowed the world to take heed to blatant racism and urged people to take a stance to defend the black jazz musicians.

But the history of jazz wouldn’t be complete without the contributions of Louis Armstrong, cornet and trumpet player, singer, and recognized as one of the most— if not the most— influential person in the jazz genre of music. Despite being an African-American, with his black skin, his music transcended race and gender boundaries. He was the first man to bring jazz music to the forefront outside of New Orleans and to the other parts of the globe. He popularized and codified the well-known jazz swing rhythm that is now considered as a standard characteristic of jazz. He also broadened the jazz solo vocabulary. He was— without a doubt— the much-imitated innovator of early jazz. All right, enough of its history.

At present, did you know that there’s actually an app inspired by Louis Armstrong?

Read the app review below and take a step back in time to relive the birth of jazz.

JAZZ: Trump’s Journey by EggBall Games and Bulkypix is a puzzle platformer compatible for devices that is based on the life of the early 20th century jazz supremo, Louis Armstrong. The game is set in New Orleans where you play the young man named Trump, an aspiring jazz musician in the early 1920s. With the app, you simply immerse yourself in his memories by trudging through 11 levels as he thrive to become the cool cat in the side of Mississippi and fight injustice during the old era of jazz.

Rhythmic Features

• Platform game – Length approximately 3 hours
• Contains 11 levels, broken up into sections filled with checkpoints and collectibles
• Move around New Orleans depicted using stylish graphics
• Follow young Trump’s moving story and be part of the birth of jazz.
• Discover the jazzy band sound specially composed by jazz musicians
• Use your trumpet to stop time
• Brave all the dangers and traps, with bosses, moving platforms, cops, spikes, and much more
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Nonchalant Blues of Trump

The setting of the app starts with Trump’s hometown in New Orleans—where you can live through and reminisce the early days of jazz. You must help him fulfill his dream of becoming a jazzman by forming his own band and recruiting some members to compete and win a local competition. Ergo, you must go through a multi-level exploration journey with different challenges which includes a quest to find his trumpet, retrieve his band members and chase after his love interest, Lady Coquelicot.

There are various onscreen controls in this app that are somewhat similar to Storm in a Teacup and the classic game, Braid. To control Trump and recollect his youth, navigate him using the left and right arrow on the left side of the screen and the jump control on the other side. If you encounter ladders, app will automatically present you an up and down button to climb, or ropes that can help you swing your way over gaps and dangerous spike pits. You basically collect a certain number of quavers or musical notes and postcards as you move on through each stage. Postards are mostly well-hidden, so it’s up to you to find it and recollect Trump’s memory. Once you stumble on a treble clef, then you must make Trump play his trumpet. The latter causes time to freeze— ideal for moving platforms, traversing hazards, among plenty more. There are also useful boxes along the way which you can be moved by tapping on the glove icon. It comes handy especially if you have to jump into a higher place. Another resemblance of it with Storm in a Teacup are the checkpoints that allows you to spawn at your last stop when you die. And oh, you must raise Trump’s hat every time you proceed to another level. You simply do this by tapping on a hand button that will instantly appear once you’re done at a particular stage.

This app contains plenty of puzzles to get your teeth into that gets fiendish as you progress. There are also bosses and policemen to avoid, block or kill by jumping on them. As you get to the succeeding stages, you’ll get large chunks of Trump’s youth and therefore will be able to connect everything about his past and therefore, complete his journey.

Harmonic Fusion

The app offers a perfect harmony of euphonic music and clever gameplay. It is well-designed and makes you have a feel of the retro and old-fashioned movies. Every action is interceeded with silent movie style dialogue along with the flickers you get with old films.  The app definitely puts it over the top, emulating old era with its classic jazz music and occasional cutscene framed in a silent movie with coarse film grain filter.

I may not be a big fan of jazz but I can say that the catchy music played in the game was extraordinarily captivating and phenomenal. It’s just so refreshing. In addition to that, I also commend its adventure with kitschy levels and superb, canny graphic design with whimsical cut-out art deco. Overall, it’s hard not to be charmed with this engrossing game.

However, I can hardly find nor connect it to the lesson on racism. It probably has something to do with Satchmo, his rival to Lady Coquelicot or perhaps I just missed out on those parts because of the few misspellings and grammatical errors in the app. My (minor) gripe though is that there are times when controls seems oversensitive, whizzing you off in a different direction.

The free trial game is only limited to 2 levels, thus you must purchase additional levels by availing it on the app itself. Nonetheless, the free version certainly provides you more than enough to suss the game out.

Final Thoughts

JAZZ: Trump’s Journey is a fascinating and a competent platformer. It triumphantly married the standard platform design and creative embellishments to produce a wholly new and fresh game. Its initial download from Google Play is free, but once you pass the second level, the game will then ask you to purchase the additional 11 levels for $0.99. No worries, you’ve probably got your buck’s-worth of fun for this exceptional title. It’s certainly JAZZ for you!

Get into the groove and download this app on or .

Watch the trailer of the app below: