15. EARLY JAZZ STYLES
Maybe our forefathers couldn’t keep their language
together when they were taken away from Africa, but
this–the blues–was a language we invented to let
people know we had something to say. And we’ve
been saying it pretty strong ever since.
B. B. King, guitarist/singer/songwriter
(born 1925)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Origins of Jazz
■ Origins of jazz cannot be chronicled
– It was not recorded
– Improvised, oral tradition
– Rooted in the rural South – Storyville, New Orleans
(red light district to 1897-1917)
– Chicago tied to the first use of “jazz” in a musical
context around 1915.
– Various spellings jas, jasz
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Elements that trace back to West Africa*
■ *Note – these elements (nor the European
elements) are not mutually exclusive:
– Communal
– Call & response
– Rhythmical component including polyrhythm and
unequal division of the beat – “swing”
– Repetition
– *improvisation is common to both traditions…
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Elements that trace back to European
Music*
■ *Note – these elements (nor the African elements)
are not mutually exclusive:
– Tonal system – including melodic and harmonic
structures
– Western European instruments – sax, piano, guitar…
– Western European forms - 12 bar blues, for example
– Western European meters
– Notation
– *improvisation is common to both traditions…
(Cadenzas, for example)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Listening Guide
“Village Celebration,”
Mende tribe of Sierra Leone
■ Listen for polyrhythms
■ No structured repeating sections
■ Voices: 1 male leader; villagers respond
■ Lead vocals are improvised
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■
North America
■
mid 1800s -1920s until jazz entered
■
Played in informal settings saloons/bars
■ African -American musicians
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■
Instruments (no set instrumentation):
– banjos, fiddles
– Piano common
■ Scott Joplin – most famous
composer of ragtime
Scott Joplin
1868-1917
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Composed in 1899
Piano ragtime music
Tempo di marcia (march tempo)
AABBACCDD = SECTIONAL form
Solo piano
Rags were played on Mississippi riverboats and in
homes and nightclubs
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blues
■ Developed in U.S. rural south – Mississippi
Delta region (northwest Mississippi)
–
–
Field hollers/work songs
Evolved from African spirituals
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blues
Performance Elements
■ Style: “Slides” between notes
– In voice
– In instruments
■ “Wah wah” in trumpets/brass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msh45Mruxbo
■ Bending notes in guitars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLKxcY2QsKc
■ George Harrison tribute (Prince @ 3:20):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blues
Performance Elements
■
“Swing” - uneven subdivisions to the beat - sounds “lazy”
■
12 bar form
■
Text is personal
–
not always sad - sometimes intentionally funny
–
Language: informal/”incorrect”/slang
■
■
■
“ain’t” “gonna” etc.
reflects class status
Easy to improvise new lyrics
BB King in jam (12 bar form):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uneA-cstZs
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blues
STRUCTURAL
ELEMENTS
■ Twelve-bar blues form – 12 bars in quadruple
meter – typical form
■ Usually in quadruple meter
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■ Singing career in
minstrel shows,
nightclubs, & theaters
■ Active in 1920s
&1930s
■ Recorded ca. 200
songs
Bessie Smith
1894-1937
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Listening Guide:
“Lost Your Head Blues”
Bessie Smith
■ Recorded in 1926
■ Five twelve-bar choruses
■ Instrumentation: voice, cornet, piano
■ Listen for blue notes & sliding between notes (African
influence)
■ Call & response
■ Chordal piano accompaniment (European influence)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
New Orleans/Dixieland Combos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7M8ZkQma3I
■ “Frontline” - Soloists who played the melody…
– Collective Improvisation!
Possible instruments:
– Cornet(s)
– Clarinet(s)
– Trombone(s)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
New Orleans/Dixieland Combos
■ “Rhythm Section” Maintained beat &
harmonic
accompaniment…
■ Possible instruments:
– Piano
– Tuba
– String bass
– Guitar
– Banjo
– Drum(s) snare/drumset
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■ Chicago
Chicago became
became next
next important
important jazz
jazz city
city
■
■ Development of Big Bands
– Individual soloists featured, instead of a
group/frontline
group/ frontline of soloists
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■ Mid 1930s-50s
■ Economic recovery after Great Depression
■ Moved from saloons to ballrooms/dance halls
– Larger ensembles formed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9zHYkKoL4A
“An Intro to the Swing Era”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE31EC3NoLs
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■ Radio - disseminated music nationally/internationally
■ New York - next big jazz city
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Edward Kennedy Ellington
 Born in Washington, DC
 Band performed at Harlem’s (NYC) Cotton
Club
 Called his band an “orchestra”
 Other “Royal” Big Band leaders: “King”
Oliver, “Duke” Ellington, “Count” Basie, the
“King of Swing” (Benny Goodman)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
*Listening Guide
“It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,”
Duke Ellington
*For the test – be sure to listen to recording on Blackboard under
“music samples” – If I play this tune it will be that version.
■ Recorded 1932
■ AABA song form/Quadruple Meter
■ Instrumentation: listen for sections of instruments trombones, saxes, piano, banjo, bass, drums; vocalist
-Original with Duke Ellington’s band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg
-Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett (start :10):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE31EC3NoLs
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
■ Count Basie
■ Benny Goodman
■ Glenn Miller
■ Artie Shaw
■ Tommy Dorsey
■ Woody Herman
These names will help you find other listening samples
for you to become familiar with the characteristic
sound of big bands
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Big Band Swing
1930s-40s
Instrumentation
•SECTIONS vs. SOLOISTS: MANY on a
PART
•“Rhythm Section:”
Piano
String Bass
Guitar
Drum set
New Orleans Jazz
1920s
Instrumentation:
•INDIVIDUAL (1) soloists: trumpet,
clarinet, etc.
Piano (guitar or banjo)
tuba
Drum Set
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Big Band Swing
1930s-40s
General:
•Faster harmonic rhythm
•Individual Soloists improvising
freely over harmony
New Orleans Jazz
1920s
General:
•Slower harmonic rhythm
•Frontline of soloists improvising
freely over harmony
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Bebop a/k/a “Bop”
■ 1940s: Young musicians rebelled against big
band swing
■ Name derived from scat syllable
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Bebop a/k/a “Bop”
■ Small combos organized
– 1-3 soloists
– rhythm section
■ drums, bass - sometimes guitar or piano
■ Offered more opportunity for individual expression
-improvisation!
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Bebop a/k/a “Bop” cont’d
■ Demanded technical virtuosity
– Uneven phrases, wide leaps, rhythmic variety
– Melodies designed for instruments but
vocalists sang scat – Sarah Vaughan for
example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZo9H_karUE
– complex chords
■ dissonances/chromatics
■ Rhythm - bass more present/important (vs. drums
only)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Listening Guide: “Ko Ko”
Charlie “The Bird” Parker (1920-1955)
■ Recorded in 1945
■ Tempo is very fast (quadruple meter); listen for beats in bass
(plays 1 note per beat)
■ Instrumentation: trumpet, muted trumpet, alto sax, piano,
bass, drums
■ This is the recording also under “Music Samples” – Charlie
Parker & Dizzy Gillespie:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rMiD8UUcd0
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Free Jazz
■
Free Jazz, album by Ornette Coleman, 1960
–
■
30 minutes of collective improvisation with no set organization
■
complex rhythms
■
abrasive dissonance
Influenced by civil rights movement
–
attempt to free jazz of “Europeanisms”
–
Sample of Ornette Coleman Sextet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0HB8ybKJzo
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Free Jazz
■
By late 1960s rock comes on scene - new attempt to combine jazz
w/rock…
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
FUSION
 Was most popular jazz style to emerge in the 1960s/1970s
 An attempt to combine jazz & rock elements
 Bitches Brew, 1969 album by Miles Davis = starting point
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
FUSION
 Rock rhythms & instruments
 Even beat subdivisions (vs. uneven in jazz)
 Solid body electric guitars/basses; electric pianos
 Short “riffs” (repeating patterns)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Listening Guide
“Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”
from “Bitches Brew” Album
Miles Davis
 Recorded in 1969
 Rock Characteristics:
 Bass player plays 4-beat riff throughout
 Use of electric guitar & bass
 Even beat subdivisions (vs. uneven in
jazz)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q
Yky0bMUzU
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.