COURSE TITLE:
JAZZ: ITS ORIGINS & ERAS
NO OF CREDITS:
6 QUARTER CREDITS
[semester equivalent = 4.00 credits]
WA CLOCK HRS:
OREGON PDUs:
INSTRUCTOR:
SHERRY BOZORTH, M.A.I.S.
360/225-6186
bozdv54@gmail.com
60
60
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
ASSIGNMENT #2:
INTRODUCTION
Jazz is the art of expression set to music! Jazz is said to be the fundamental rhythms of human life and
man’s contemporary reassessment of his traditional values. Volumes have been written on the origins of
jazz based on black American life-styles. The early influences of tribal drums and the development of
gospel, blues and field hollers seems to point out that jazz has to do with human survival and the
expression of life. Some of the early sounds of jazz were associated with whore houses and "ladies of ill
repute." However, the meaning of jazz soon became a musical art form, whether under composition
guidelines or improvisation, jazz reflected spontaneous melodic phrasing.
The standard legend about jazz is that it was conceived in New Orleans and moved up the Mississippi
River to Memphis, St. Louis and finally Chicago. Of course that seems to be the history of what we now
refer to as jazz, however, the influences of what led to those early New Orleans sounds goes back to
tribal African drum beats and European musical structures.
In reviewing the background of jazz one can not overlook the evaluation over the decades and the fact
that jazz spanned many musical forms such as spirituals, cakewalks, ragtime and the blues. Jazz
functions as popular art and has enjoyed periods of fairly widespread public response, in the "jazz age" of
the 1920s, in the swing era of the late 1930s and in the peak popularity of modern jazz in the late 1950s.
Beginning in the 20s and continuing well into the 30s, it was common to apply the word "jazz" rather
indiscriminately, melodically or tonally.
The influence and development of the blues can not be over looked when discussing the early years of
jazz. The ”feelings” as expression of blues music fits very comfortably with the strains and phrases of
jazz. Today, Bessie Smith is considered primarily a blues singer, however in the 1920’s, she was most
often referred to as a jazz singer.
WATCH YouTube video of Bessie Smith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgOzYpRQVMI
An ability to play the blues has been a requisite of all jazz musicians, who on first meeting one another or
when taking part in a jam session, will often use the blues framework for improving. Blues, stemming from
rural areas of the Deep South, has a history largely independent of jazz. Exponents of blues usually
accompanied themselves on guitar, piano or harmonica or were supported by small groups who often
played unconventional or homemade instruments.
A number of the early jazz performers relied on the blues for more than the chord exchanged. Many of
these jazz musicians used the blues for the driving force of their musical emotions, such as the work of
Don Redman, Stuff Smith, Ma Rainey and the early works of Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter.
WATCH YouTube video of Don Redman: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AqFg-3HzQZ4
WATCH YouTube video of Louis Armstrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W232OsTAMo8
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
1
Revised 1/20/2016
Ragtime
Piano ragtime began to be published in the late 1890s. It was immediately successful and subjected to
various kinds of popularization, almost all of which have continued. It was (and is) sometimes played fast
and shallow, with deliberately still rhythms, so much so that it is difficult to convince some listeners that
the early ragtime composers were highly gifted “melodists” and serious craftsmen who produced an
admirable body of musical art.
Ragtime was basically a piano keyboard music that Gilbert Thomas said was an "Afro- American version
of the Polka." Somewhere in the background of the music is the Sousa style march, thus the first great
ragtime composition, Maple Leaf Rag, by the first great ragtime composer, Scott Joplin (sometimes called
“The King of Ragtime”), was built on four melodies, or themes. If we assign a letter to each theme, the
structure of Maple Leaf Rag comes out to ABACD. In ragtime, these themes were sixteen measures like
their European counterparts.
WATCH (listen to) YouTube video of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc&feature=related
There is every reason to believe that a rich body of Afro-American inspired music preceded ragtime,
although there are no recordings from those years. Certainly the cakewalk, an Afro-American dance
initially based on an elegant, stylized parody of Southern white courtly manners, preceded it, and there
was published cakewalk music (bamboula), although publishers in those days were not quite sure how to
indicate its rhythms properly. But ragtime introduced, in the accents of its right-hand melodies, delightful
syncopation onto the heavy 2/4 oom-pah rhythm of its cakewalk-derived bass line and almost immediately
became a kind of national, even worldwide craze.
The first true ragtime composition was published by William Krell called "The Mississippi Rag" in 1897.
Tom Turpin, the first published African American composer wrote "The Harlem Rag" the same year. Over
the cores of Ragtime’s initial popularity, a number of composers merged as the voice of this musical form,
namely James Scott, Louis Chauvin, Joseph Lamb and Scott Joplin.
Little is known of the early development of Ragtime, however it is clear that it surfaced after years of
evolution in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Ragtime has been traced to minstrel shows and
cakewalks as early as 1895. The cakewalk, originated in the Caribbean’s, arrived in the United States as
a syncopated music form based on a march, the polka and a two-step. Once Ragtime emerged as a
unquiet musical form, it became a strong base for the music that lay ahead of it, jazz.
By the early 1900s, Ragtime was no longer being performed by a solo pianist. Small orchestras, military
bands and piano-banjo combos were among the earliest recordings of Ragtime, which added elements
that alluded to popular dance bands of the Dixieland, New Orleans and Swing styles yet to be developed.
An individual musical voice was being established in America, it was an exciting era of development and
change.
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
2
Revised 1/20/2016
Pre-Jazz (1850 - 1900)
This time before the conscious recognition of jazz as an individual music is perhaps its most important. It
was then that the musical and cultural influences merged to create the uniqueness and diversity of jazz.
However, because records were not kept and recordings were not available, much of the history of prejazz goes unknown. We can look back and try to recreate it by looking at the writings of the day and by
projecting backwards from what we know now of jazz.
The influences seemed to come from all directions. The African musical practices that remained a part of
the slave culture were superimposed on the dominant white musical culture of western Europe. The
western tradition spanned music as diverse as the songs of Stephen Foster to the operas of Wagner. The
popular music of the day had simple harmonies, simple rhythms, and the form often used was AABA. The
black tradition depended more on oral transmission and was represented by spirituals, work songs, field
hollers, and later the blues. At this same time, four million slaves became American citizens. The four
million, mixing their African background with the popular and church music around them, were to be the
nucleus of jazz.
WATCH YouTube video of field holler (first part of video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajSEpNj21Cs&list=PL6MH8bF56ylt6gP9oRSQ59lqDi2AXqsQo
Early Jazz (1910s-1920s)
Not all jazz performed in the beginning of the 20th century can be described as New Orleans or Dixieland
Jazz. Beginning in the late teens, a rich jazz influence of dance bands and soloists helped in the
development and growth of improvisational music. The stride pianist, the early jazz vocalists and the horn
soloist of this period have been hard pressed to be categorized. Often these performed have been placed
in categories called "Classic Jazz" or "Traditional Jazz" but no matter the term, the sound became a
foundation for the Kansas City, Chicago and Swing styles to follow. Among the artists that had a major
impact on Early Jazz were Clarence Williams, Bessie Smith and Bix Beiderbecke. Early Jazz is as much
a definition of the time (early teens to mid 1920s) as it is a definition of the sound and style of the music.
WATCH YouTube video of Bessie Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxmbie8dfkI&feature=related
WATCH YouTube video of Clarence Williams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J45MXgCI1TY
WATCH YouTube video of Bix Beiderbecke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhXKRtqvI4c
Delta Blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region
of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the
south, the Mississippi River on the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The Mississippi Delta area is
famous both for its fertile soil and its poverty. Guitar, harmonica and cigar box guitar are the dominant
instruments used. The vocal styles range from introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery. Although
Delta blues certainly existed in some form or another at the turn of the 20th century, it was first recorded
in the late 1920s, when record companies realized the potential African American market in Race records.
The earliest recordings were by the major labels and consist mostly of one person singing and playing an
instrument, though the use of a band was more common during live performances. Some of these
recordings were made on field trips to the South by record company talent scouts, but some Delta blues
performers were invited to travel to northern cities to record.
WATCH YouTube video of Sunnyland Smith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICd-fNX19jQ
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
3
Revised 1/20/2016
Chicago Blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois by taking the basic acoustic
guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar,
drums, piano, and sometimes saxophone, and making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an
instrument amplifier. In fact, some even used the trumpet. The music developed in the first half of the
twentieth century due to the Great Migration (African American) when poor Black workers moved from the
South into the industrial cities of the North such as Chicago.
Originally, the Chicago Blues was street-corner based music. But after the music quickly gained
popularity, it became a giant commercial enterprise. Soon the new style of music reached out and
touched Europe, which led to many famous English rock n' roll bands to get their inspiration from the
Chicago Blues.
WATCH YouTube video of Muddy Waters (Father of the Chicago Blues) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl7iBJOjEKE
Dixieland
Dixieland is an umbrella to indicate musical styles of the earliest New Orleans and Chicago jazz
musicians, recorded from 1917 to 1923, as well as its developments and revivals, beginning during the
late 1930s. It refers to collectively improvised small band music. Its materials are rags, blues, one-steps,
two-steps, marches, and pop tunes. Simultaneous counterlines are supplied by trumpet, clarinet, and
trombone, accompanied by combinations of piano, guitar, banjo, tuba, bass, and drums. Major exponents
include; Joe King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, Paul
Mares, Nick LaRocca, Bix Beiderbecke, and Jimmy McPartland.
Major developers and revivalists include Bob Crosby's Bobcats, Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band, Bob
Scobey, Bob Wilber, Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart (World's Greatest Jazz Band), The Dukes of
Dixieland, Turk Murphy, and James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band. Aficionados make distinctions
between various streams of traditional New Orleans jazz, the earliest Chicago jazz, and the assorted
variations that are performed by revivalist bands. Some historians reserve Dixieland for white groups
playing traditional jazz. Some restrict it mostly to disciples of the earliest white Chicagoans.
WATCH YouTube video of King Joe Oliver’s Creole jazz band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONDr4zau53c&feature=related
Early New Orleans Dixieland (1900-1917)
As rural music moved to the city and adopted new instruments, the polyphony typical of the AfricanAmerican singing tradition found an expression in the style now identified as Early New Orleans
Dixieland. It differed from the later Chicago Dixieland and the even later revival Dixieland in its
instrumentation and rhythmic feeling. These first groups used a front line of a cornet, clarinet, and a
trombone. The rhythm section was made up of banjo, tuba, and drums. The origin of these instruments
was in the marching bands reflected the need to move while playing.
The rhythm section accompanied the front line on a flat-four fashion, a rhythmic feeling that placed equal
emphasis on all four beats of the measure. This equal or flat metric feel was later replaced by Chicago
groups with a measure that emphasized the second and fourth beats and was referred to as 2/4 time
(accents on 2 and 4).
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
4
Revised 1/20/2016
WATCH (listen to) YouTube of early Louis Armstrong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMXDOXcPYao
Chicago Style Dixieland (The 1920s)
The merger of New Orleans Style Dixieland with ragtime style led to what is now referred to as Chicago
Style Dixieland. This style exemplified the Roaring Twenties, or to quote F. Scott Fitzgerald, "the jazz
age." Chicago was exciting at this time and so was its music. In 1917 with the closing of the Storyville
section in New Orleans, Chicago became the center of jazz activity. Many workers from the south
migrated to Chicago and brought with them a continued interest in the type of entertainment they had left
behind. Chicago Style Dixidland was faster paced than New Orleans Dixieland, reflecting the hustle &
bustle of the city.
The New Orleans instrumentation was augmented to include a saxophone and piano and the influence of
ragtime added 2/4 backbeat to the rhythmic feeling. The banjo moved to guitar and the tuba moved to
string bass. The tempos were generally less relaxed than New Orleans Dixieland, and the music seemed
more aggressively performed.
There was jazz activity in other cities as well, mainly New York and Kansas City. These centers would
later claim center stage as they moved toward a definition of swing, but during the 1920’s Chicago
remained the hub of jazz.
The Jazz Age describes the period after the end of World War I, through the Roaring Twenties, ending
with the onset of the Great Depression. Traditional values of the previous period declined while the
American stock market soared. The age takes its name from popular music, which saw a tremendous
surge in popularity. Among the prominent concerns and trends of the period are the public embrace of
technological developments typically seen as progress — cars, air travel and the telephone - as well as
new modernist trends in social behavior, the arts, and culture. Central developments included Art Deco
design and architecture. The phrase was coined by the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who greatly criticized
this new era of 'relaxation' in novels such as The Great Gatsby.
WATCH YouTube video of Muggsy Spanier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lE6DnNTUCU
WATCH YouTube video of Eddie Condon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSM_gLiQfUE
WATCH YouTube video of Jimmy McPartland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGzi4KO_kfs
Tin Pan Alley
"Tin Pan Alley was a real alley on East Fourteenth Street near Third (in New York). But it was never just a
place, Tin Pan Alley has come to be known for an era of songwriting when many musical ideas mixed
together to form American Popular Music. Tin Pan Alley brought together many styles, blues, jazz,
musical scores and ragtime. A new breed of popular music publishers were established in New York in
the 1890s. These publishers were, essentially, salesmen who didn’t sit in their offices waiting for
performers to come to them, but went out to the entertainment palaces and badgered not only the singers
but also the orchestra leaders, dances, and comedians to use their numbers. This act developed into the
profession of song-plugging. They hustled themselves, as well as their hired singers and whistlers into the
finest theaters and lowest dives. After a few years on creation, Tin Pan Alley published its first song in
1892, "After The Ball" by Charles Harris, selling six million copies of sheet music!
WATCH YouTube video of “After the Ball”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOr1ezXdCF8
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
5
Revised 1/20/2016
American Popular Music had arrived!
Within a year, Irving Berlin published "Alexander’s Ragtime Band," which mixed the popular beat of the
day along with the legend of Ragtime. The song gave Tin Pan Alley its crowning achievement and Berlin
his first million. The song also changed the way America listened to music, "Alexander’s Ragtime Band"
has often been credited, in part, for the increase in the sales of radios and phonographs, both rather new
to the buying public.
Soon the attention of Tin Pan Alley shifted from Ragtime to other popular topics such as dances (The
Charleston, the Fox Trot) and other music forms (Blues, jazz).
Towards the end of World War I, Tin Pan Alley’s publishing companies moved closer to the Broadway
and vaudeville districts. Once the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was
formed, Tin Pan Alley became a mega force in popular music, producing over 90% of the commercial
songs and inspiring the sales of millions of copies of both sheet music and 78 recordings.
Within just a few short years a shift occurred in the make-up of composers and performers of American
Popular Music. In spite of the terrific interest in African American music, ASCAP’s membership remained
predominantly white, there were only a half dozen African Americans in the organization by 1925. Dr. Billy
Taylor once referred to this era as, "the first concert example of musical segregation in American Popular
Music." As the boon of jazz and blues crept into the consciousness of America, a number of African
American composers gained their long awaited recognition. Among these composers some of the best
known were, Eubie Blake, W. C. Handy, Clarence Williams, James P. Johnson, Cecil Mack, Perry
Bradford and Henry Creamer.
WATCH YouTube video of Eubie Blake’s orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSf8jCqSqg
WATCH YouTube video of WC Handy (Father of the Blues)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynikZ7Zz53E
WATCH YouTube video of Billie Holiday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIlgdXSDy3c&feature=related
These and other African American song writers respected their musical heritage and referred to black oral
traditions of themes, melodies and song structures. In doing so, their white counterparts gained their
techniques and generated a mix of pop-culture and the traditions of jazz and blues. A number of white
members of ASCAP emerged as the first to combined these mixes, songwriters such as George
Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Arlen.
Tin Pan Alley became a melting pot for culture and musical tastes, despite racial lines, and although
limitations still existed, the art of the music was still able to emerge!
WATCH YouTube video of George Gershwin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sMW6n-8Hpw
WATCH YouTube video of Hoagy Carmichael:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em3xyZz_mow&feature=related
Boogie-Woogie
Boogie-woogie is a jazz style that seems quite accessible to the listener. It is a piano style that was
occasionally orchestrated successfully. This full-sounding style came into existence when it became
necessary to hire a piano player to substitute for an orchestra. The resulting "barrel-house" piano which
could be found in rural southern juke joints tried to imitate the sound of three guitars: one playing the
chords, one melody, and one bass.
Most boogie-woogie is played on the blues chord progression with a repeated ostinato. The definite
feeling of eight beats to the measure is the signature of this style.
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
6
Revised 1/20/2016
During the 1930s, the strict blues form was being used more in jazz recordings as the tempos were
speeding up. In the years just before 1940, the primitive blues form of boogie woogie became a popular
fad. Music historians have credited Meade Lux Lewis for the boogie woogie craze. All during the 40s
boogie influenced a number of arrangements within the big bands. The swing bands found great success
when they added the element of boogie, such as the case of Will Bradley’s "Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The
Bar," and Tommy Dorsey’s "Boogie Woogie."
Of the boogie woogie players who came to promeinence during the boogie fad; seven stand out as the
major contributors and influences: Pine Top Smith, Albert Ammons, Jimmy Yancey, Joe Sullivan,
Clarence Lofton, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis. In later years Freddie Slack, Cleo Brown and Bob
Zurke came to promidence as the younger generation of boogie woogie players.
The blues based boogie would later merge with the stride style to became the main line of development of
jazz piano playing, a form that would lead to a major movement in jazz, led by the "Fatha," Earl Hines.
WATCH YouTube video of Jelly Roll Morton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n20U8hWHSE&feature=related
WATCH YouTube video of Tommy Dorsey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7QjMZ4ckZc
Swing
Swing is the jazz style that emerged during the early 1930s and emphasized big bands. It spilled into the
late 1940s and then remained popular in recordings, film, and television music long after its main
proponents had disbanded. Most swing-style groups had at least 10 musicians and featured at least three
or four saxophones, two or three trumpets, two or three trombones, piano, guitar, bass violin, and drums.
Guitarists, bassists and drummers offered repeating rhythms that were sufficiently simple, buoyant, and
lilting to inspire social dancers, the style's largest audience. Musicians strove for large, rich tone qualities
on their instruments. Solo improvisers did not seek intricacy in their lines so much as lyricism and a hot,
confident feeling that was rhythmically compelling. For these reasons, the musical period of the 1930s
and 1940s has been called the swing era and big-band era. Not all dance music played by big bands of
the 1930s and 1940s was jazz. A large segment of the public, however considered almost any lively,
syncopated popular music to be jazz.
WATCH YouTube video of Glenn Miller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJE-onnw2gM
WATCH YouTube video of Artie Shaw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOi5vtxCbA
Progressive Swing:
Progressive swing, also known as Progressive Jazz was an extension of the jazz orchestras following the
decline of the big band era. The style is closely associated with the output of Stan Kenton beginning in the
late 1940s, however, the term applied to a number of bands and small groups who played a darker sound
than their big band era counterparts. Moreover, Progressive Swing was modernistic with a more
dissonant harmonic turbulence, as rebellious as swing could get.
The term, Progressive Swing, is referred to in the post-bop era as Progressive Jazz and hence has
become synonymous with modern jazz. A few examples of Progressive Swing are Stan Kenton’s
"Chorale for Brass, Piano and Bongos" recorded in 1947 and "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet" in 1952.
Boyd Raeburn also performed Progressive Swing for a short time with output that included "Boyd Meets
Stravinsky" which his orchestra recorded in 1946.
WATCH YouTube video on Stan Kenton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9sp6ApX4o
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
7
Revised 1/20/2016
Big Band
Big band refers to a jazz group of 10 or more musicians, usually featuring at least three trumpets, two or
more trombones, four or more saxophones, and a rhythm section of accompanists playing some
combination of piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Big-band music as a concept for music fans is identified
most with the swing era, though there were large, jazz-oriented dance bands before the swing era of the
1930s and 1940s and large jazz-oriented bands after the swing era. Classification difficulties occur when
music stores shelve recordings by all large jazz ensembles as though it were a single style, despite the
shifting harmonic and rhythmic approaches employed by new ensembles of similar instrumentation that
have formed since the swing era.
By lumping the music of all large jazz bands together marketers overlook the different kinds of jazz that
large groups have performed: swing (Duke Ellington and Count Basie), bebop (Dizzy Gillespie), cool
(Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, Shorty Rogers, Gil Evans), hard bop (Gerald Wilson, Charles Mingus), free
jazz (some of Sun Ra's work after the l950s) and jazz-rock fusion (Don Ellis's and Maynard Ferguson's
groups of the 1970s). Not all of them are swing bands.
WATCH YouTube video of Duke Ellington: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg
WATCH YouTube video of Benny Goodman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mJ4dpNal_k
Scat
Scat is the art of creating an instrumental-style improvisation vocally. This requires a vocabulary of vowels
and consonants related less to identifiable words and more to the tone and articulation of jazz
instrumentalists such as in the trumpet-like "Oop-Pop-a-Da" by Babs Gonzales or Sarah Vaughan's
saxophonic "Shulie-abop." first done on records by Louis Armstrong.
Scat is most closely associated by the general public with Ella Fitzgerald and her many imitators. Brought
to an early peak of perfection by Leo Watson who, by introducing occasional real words inspired the
development of a vocal-orchestra.
Louis Armstrong’s improvisational approach to written lyrics, mixing, jumbling, and reinventing the words
along expressive musical lines, echoed new directions in jazz. As early as 1926, Armstrong dropped the
lyrics to "The Hebbie Jeebies" and spontaneously substituted scatting for the words. The technique was
copied so often that an actual jazz form develpoed. Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys, featuring Bing
Crosby, were thought to be the first white group to use the scat style. Whiteman’s national radio programs
promoted scat, however, it wasn’t until Ella Fitzgerald adopted the styles that scat became a house-hold
word.
Ella seemed to add dazzle to scatting and clearly defined it as a vocal improvisation using phonetic
sounds similar to the instrumental sounds of jazz. To paraphrase a popular song, if Louis named scat,
Ella claimed it! With her recording of "Flying Home" (thought to be her first scat based song, released in
1947) she introduced variations of scat which showcased a segment of songs made famous by other
performers. These sampling, variations included the works of Lionel Hampton, Chick Webb, Slam Stewart
and Dizzy Gillespie. In fact the recording also showed that Ella was already educated on the fast
emerging bebop movement.
WATCH YouTube of Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chromeinstant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=ella%20fitzgerald%20scat%20how%20high%20the%20moon
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
8
Revised 1/20/2016
BeBop
Although the swing style may have launched the art status of jazz by placing it in the ears and the minds
of the world, it was its successor, bop, which claimed mainstream status. More significant changes, both
musical and nonmusical, occurred in jazz with the advent of bop than at any other time in jazz history.
The military service draft of World War II brought about the dissolution of the big bands and the rise of
small combos. The country was nervous, and the music was nervous and agitated. Because many wellknown players were in the military, new, young players and their ideas were able to get exposure.
There were considerable changes in techniques and attitudes toward performances.
There also were changes of attitude toward audiences. Bop became the first jazz style that was not used
for dancing. Consequently, there were great changes in the repertoire. There was also a shift away from
the popularity that swing enjoyed to a more elite listening audience. The elitism also expanded to the
players. If you were an accomplished swing player, there was no guarantee that you would be able to
survive the expectations of the bop musical world. The music’s complexity required players to extend their
former playing knowledge. A theoretical underpinning began to emerge as players stretched the harmonic
boundaries of early jazz styles. Players had to have a greater and more immediate sense of chord
recognition, as well as their extensions and possible substitutions.
The music was generally fast, demanding execution on individual instruments seldom required by
previous styles. It is interesting that bop is today considered the mainstream of jazz style, yet it was not
enthusiastically accepted by the jazz community at the time of its emergence.
BeBop Era
The BeBop era, 1944-1955, represents for many the most significant period in jazz history; several
consider it the time when musicians began stressing artistic rather than commercial concerns, put
innovation ahead of convention, and looked toward the future instead of paying homage to the past.
Others view bebop as jazz's ultimate dead end, the style that instituted solemnity and elitism among the
fraternity stripped jazz of its connection with dance, and made it im- possible for anyone except hard-core
collectors, academics, and other musicians to enjoy and appreciate the music. Each assessment contains
enough grains of truth to merit closer, more extensive examination, and there have been many studies,
dissertations and essays, devoted to addressing and evaluating these contentions. But it's undeniable
jazz changed forever during the bebop years. This chapter looks at the musicians who made these
sweeping changes and what they were.
WATCH YouTube video on Charlie Parker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOwEr4UaqzM
WATCH YouTube video on Dizzy Gillespie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC5TauvLkcY
Cool
Cool jazz followed bop but was entirely different in mood, in its approach to arranging, and even in its
choices of instruments. World War II was over-the country was relaxed and jazz relaxed.
In this era, which began in 1947, many instruments were used in jazz for the first time. Softer-sounding
instruments, unamplified, created a different mood from that expressed earlier. The G.I. Bill made
schooling possible for many jazz players, which encouraged experimentation in jazz that had been
previously ignored: new meters, longer forms, and explorations in orchestration. Longer forms were also
made possibly by the introduction of long-playing records.
Although Lester Young came primarily out of the swing style and Miles Davis out of the bop style, they are
two of the players associated with the development of the cool style. Young’s contribution was the relaxed
sound and style of his playing. Davis’s work with Gil Evans that led to the recording of the "Birth of the
Cool" signaled the beginning of that period.
WATCH YouTube video on Miles Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8kjOpfMBbM
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
9
Revised 1/20/2016
Hard Bop
When introduced, bop was as unpopular as swing had been popular. The complexity of the style often left
the audience behind. The funky players were interested in recapturing the audience and reestablishing
the hot jazz expression that had been abandoned by the cool style. This return was enthusiastic and
reached back to the most communicative music in their past- church music. Another motive, less defined
and certainly debatable, was the need to reclaim jazz as a predominantly African-American expression.
Cool, and particularly West Coast jazz, was predominantly white even though Davis and Young were the
forerunners. The structured, soft-spoken arrangements were certainly more typical of the European
tradition than the expressive African-American voice heard in the early blues.
Hard Bop influenced other musical forms beginning in 1955 and thus transcending all future jazz styles.
The public accepted this moving music joyful and appreciated the opportunity to participate once again in
jazz performances. Funky jazz uses simpler harmonies, an emphasis on rhythm, easily recognizable
tunes, and anything else that players like Horace Silver could invent to increase the audience’s
involvement and pleasure. Gospel jazz is an extension of funky jazz. Funky jazz can be heard in the
performances of Bobby Timmons with Art Blakey, as well as with Cannonball Adderly. The adoption of
gospel idioms by Les McCann could place his performances in the church as easily as on stage or in the
night club.
WATCH YouTube video on Art Blakey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFn0vHF6-c
WATCH YouTube video on Cannonball Adderly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxAC4ywaJ4
West Coast
The West Coast (or The Coast) was an established jazz center by the 1920s and the first black New
Orleans-style band to make records, Kid Ory's did so in Los Angeles in 1922. But what is usually meant
by West Coast jazz is a particular type of mutant modernism which became popular in the early 1940s.
Its most typical sounds were associated with former sidemen of the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman
bands such as Shorty Rogers and Shelly Manne, who specialized in a brand of easily palatable filleted
bebop. The melodies were especially rhythmic, predictability as much of their material was by superior
soloists, people like Bud Shank and Art Pepper. The occasional use of European-style counterpoint and
of instruments such as flute and oboe was greeted with more enthusiasm than seems justified in
retrospect. Other, more distinctive, sounds from the groups of Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck were
classified for geographical reasons as West Coast jazz, but the movement as a whole is associated with a
watering--down of 1940s bebop, just as European tradition of the 1950s diluted the 1940s New Orleans
revival.
Probably more significant in terms of historical impact was the West Coast Blues movement of the late
l940s and early 1950s. Groups such as those of Roy Milton and Joe Liggins provided a considerable input
into the newly defined field of rhythm and-blues, while leaders such as T-Bone Walker incorporated the
style of amplified guitar work that was to become so crucial in the development of rock and roll. During the
1960s, West Coast Jazz fit into the mold of the Cool style.
WATCH YouTube video on Woody Herman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAijbYC6pw8
WATCH YouTube video on Roy Milton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2quIKF9ZxRY
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
10
Revised 1/20/2016
Free Jazz
Free jazz is one name for the music of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, and their colleagues
and disciples. Though Coleman and Taylor had recorded before the '60s, the free jazz term was not
common until then. The free designation derives from Coleman's decision to offer performances that were
not always organized according to preset melody, tempo, or progression of accompaniment chords.
Freedom from these guidelines allows improvisers a greater degree of spontaneity than was available in
previous jazz styles.
Though non-musicians find much of Coleman's music indistinguishable from bebop, musicians make
distinctions according to the methods used (lack of preset chords) and the melodic vocabulary (original
not bebop-derived). Much of Cecil Taylor's music is extremely active. It is densely packed with rapidly
shifting layers of complex harmonies and rhythms. And some recordings of Albert Ayler, Pharoah
Sanders, and Ornette Coleman include loud screeches and shrieks from trumpets and saxophones,
combined with nonrepetitive, highly complex sounds from basses and drums. For these reasons, some
listeners equate the term "free jazz" with high-energy, seemingly chaotic group improvisations, even
though freedom from adhering to preset chord progressions does not necessitate high "energy" playing or
any particular tone qualities or ways of organizing tones for melodic lines. For example, some of John
Coltrane's music of the middle 1960s is often classified with "free" jazz, probably because of its
collectively improvised turbulence, despite its using preset arrangements of the harmonies guiding the
improvisers.
WATCH YouTube video on Ornette Coleman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72SVN9sO4P4
WATCH YouTube video on Cecil Taylor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r21206DbBaE
WATCH YouTube video on Albert Ayler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtiSA2RKDzc&feature=related
WATCH YouTube video on Pharoah Sanders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6lB7FKxi8
Bossa Nova
Bossa Nova is a style of Brazilian popular song that was most successful in the early 1960s. Strangely
cool by comparison with other exportable by the harmonic language of West Coast Jazz, it soon acquired
a permanent place in international middle of the road music.
It has also repaid its debt to the West Coast by entering the repertoire of all easy listening jazz players
everywhere. The performers who played Bossa Nova gained almost a cult following in the decades that
followed, thanks in large part to Jazz Festivals.
WATCH YouTube video on boosa nova: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_tkje6NjU
Jazz/Rock Fusion
As jazz developed its cannon and rock and roll filled its role as America’s popular music, a new crossover
began between the two musical styles. This musical crossover eventually became known as fusion in the
jazz community beginning around 1965. Jazz began to import rock’s instruments, volume, and stylistic
delivery.
Like bop, fusion did not occur without controversy. As jazz was establishing its legitimacy, it was taking a
risk by fusing with rock. Rock also represented a generational division in the American profile. It
accompanied the emergence of the post- World War II baby boom to adolescence. It was the first
associated exclusively with the young generation and worked as a banner distinction. Its further
association with the social and political polarity of the 1960s tended to reinforce the generation lines. Jazz
criticism at that time was founded in the swing and, to a lesser extent, the bop traditions. Rock fusion
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
11
Revised 1/20/2016
represented a commercialization of an emerging American art form. As the popularity of rock was carried
by the baby boom into the adult listening market, its possible fusion seemed guaranteed.
The earliest notable fusion experiments happened again under the guidance of Miles Davis in his albums
In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. This later album included players who later form the most popular
fusion groups.
The most prominent later fusion groups belonged to former Davis players, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea,
Joe Zawinul, and Wayne Shorter. At the time, this style offered a new virtuosity which, like earlier
technical approaches, has become a part of common practice.
WATCH YouTube video on Percy Jones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXyKhA-3nw
Neobop
By the early 1980’s, the jazz of yester-year had been all but swallowed up in the drastic musical direction
which the 70’s free jazz and jazz fusion brought. Young and upcoming jazz players longed for the
rhythmic and harmonic sophistication of the bebop and hard bop eras. Spearheaded by players such as
Wynton Marsalis, Jeff Watts, Kenny Kirkland, and others, neobop formed in the early 80’s into a viable
outlet for a new generation of jazz players influenced by both bop forms and by the current challenges of
today’s society. Being a newly developing style, neobop is continually evolving while finding its place in
jazz history. New players (such as Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, and Benny Green) influenced Soul
Jazz
Soul Jazz came partly from the funky subcategory of hard bop. Its earthy, bluesy melodic concept and the
repetitive, dance-like rhythmic aspects stood as higher priorities than the invention of complex harmonies
and intricate solo improvisations jazz swing feeling was foremost. Considerably simplified-often only a hint
of bebop harmony or rhythmic complexity remained--soul-jazz became the form of hard bop known to the
largest audience, particularly in the music of Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, Jack McDuff, Richard "Groove"
Holmes, Jimmy McGriff, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Hank Crawford, Stanley Turrentine and Houston
Person. Soul Jazz combined the urban, electrified Chicago harp style with that of California swing bands
and added a touch of Philadelphia tenor sax jazz from the 1960s.
WATCH YouTube video on Jeff Watts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVSJbgiwjc0
WATCH YouTube video on Roy Hargrove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8fIBUMvY0o
Afro-Latin
The term Afro-Latin covers a huge variety of music, resulting from the combination of elements of African
styles with the Spanish, Portuguese, and even French cultures transplanted to South and Central
America. The blend was achieved earlier and more thoroughly than any such hybrid in North American
music before the 1970s - indeed, watered-down South American music was being successfully exported
to the USA (and Europe) from the time of the tango in the l910s.
However, there were of course hints of African polyrhythms in ragtime and early New Orleans jazz, not to
mention occasional borrowings from South American rhythms such as the habanera. So it was only to be
expected that, by the 1930s jazzman including Duke Ellington were becoming interested in new Latin
imports like the rumba and that bands from those countries who settled in the USA began incorporating
jazz-induced improvisation. In this way, the stage was set for the first real collaborations, joining the
innovators of bebop such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker with the innovators of the mambo such as
Machito.
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
12
Revised 1/20/2016
For a while, progress in this direction was sporadic, but since the early 1960s, with the introduction of the
bugalu (and its soft-core contemporary, the bossa nova), there has been a continuous interchange in the
USA between jazz and Afro-Latin musicians. As with any fusion, the lowest common denominator often
seems to predominate but it's increasingly the case that the creative performers who have emerged on
each side have real knowledge of both fields. What may be even more significant in the long run is that in
the last three decades especially in Paris and London, musicians from Africa have been collaborating with
players of a jazz/Afro-Latin background, and the latest fusions from various African counties have
achieved some success in the USA.
Africa and Latin America are vast areas, and both still distinct regional styles in the way that North
America used to before it became so homogenized. Possibilities for interaction are therefore endless and
it has even been suggested that Latin jazz will eventually become the mainstream. John Storm Robert’s
The Latin Tinge gives some idea of the ground covered so far.
WATCH YouTube video of Machito: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKtZ9568QE
WATCH YouTube video on Stanford University’s Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYD2Qp1vbeg
Acid Jazz
The phrase acid jazz was the first jazz term to be coined by a disc jockey rather than by a musician. It is
much more a marketing phenomenon than a coherent musical style, even more so than tradition and as
with traditional. Acid jazz is very much the commer- cialization of a revival movement. Just like earlier
revivals, it was inspired initially by listening to records rather than to live musicians. In this case the
original style is that of late-1960s' and early 1970s’ jazz-funk. The sort of music that wasn't heavy enough
to be free jazz or early fusion but was more jazz-oriented than the average soul record.
At the time, this found a ready response among black listeners and a few white aficionados. After the
usual twenty-year gap, a new generation of fans succeeded in promoting the music to a much wider
crossover audience. Most of the creative musicians who have flirted with the acid-jazz market have found
it too restricting and have moved on, exactly as with other revivals. and they have taken some of their
listeners with them.
WATCH YouTube video on acid jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaRhetAoqEw
World Fusion
World fusion refers to a fusion of Third World music or just world music with jazz, specifically:
(1) Ethnic music that has incorporated jazz improvisations (for example, Latin jazz). Frequently, only the
solos are improvised jazz. The accompaniments and compositions are essentially the same as in the
ethnic music.
(2) Jazz that has incorporated limited aspects of a particular non-Western music. Examples include
performances of Dizzy Gillespie’s "A Night in Tunisia" music on some of the 1970s quartet recordings by
Keith Jarrett's quartet and quintet on Impulse, in which Middle Eastern instruments and harmonic
methods are modified and used; and some of Sun Ra's music from the 1950s into the l990s, in which
African rhythms are incorporated; some of Yusef Lateers recordings that feature traditional Islamic
instruments and methods.
(3) New musical styles that result from distinctly original ways of combining jazz improvisation with
original ideas and the instruments, harmonies, compositional practices, and rhythms of an existing ethnic
tradition. The product is original but its flavor still reflects some aspects of a non-jazz ethnic tradition.
Examples include Don Cherry's bands; some of John McLaughlin's music from the 1970s and the l990s
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
13
Revised 1/20/2016
that drew heavily on the traditions of India; some of Don Ellis's music of the 1970s that drew upon the
music of India and Bulgaria; and work by Andy Narell in the 1990s that melds the music and instruments
of Trinidad with jazz improvisations and funk styles.
World fusion jazz did not first occur with modern jazz and its trends are not exclusive to American jazz.
For instance, Polynesian music was fusing with Western pop styles at the beginning of the twentieth
century, and its feeling attracted some of the earliest jazz musicians. Caribbean dance rhythms have
been a significant part of American pop culture throughout the twentieth century, and, since jazz
musicians frequently improvised when performing in pop music contexts, blends have been occurring
almost continuously. Django Reinhardt was melding the traditions of Gypsy music with French
impressionist concert music and jazz improvisation during the 1930s in France.
WATCH YouTube video on Andy Narell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fKntnlIYTQ
WATCH YouTube video on Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQYXn1DP38s
WATCH YouTube video on Django Reinhardt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq0tPjdfHME
Straight Ahead/Neoclassical
The bop and hard bop styles have become the cornerstones of mainstream jazz, which has two centers
of activity, New Orleans and New York. This mainstream can be traced through the activity of player/band
leaders like Art Blakey. His playing is rooted in the bop style and his group, the Jazz Messengers, served
as a vehicle for launching many jazz players. The self-proclaimed champion of that long list of players
now viewed as straight-ahead players. The self-proclaimed champion of that long list of players is Wynton
Marsalis who established himself as a premier player and advocate of traditional jazz in the 1980s.
The line of players that follow in his wake have established a style of jazz often referred to as the
neoclassical school. The neoclassical label is borrowed from the other art worlds, such as classical music,
and represents a looking back to borrow ideas and material from earlier stylistic periods. The neoclassical
school of jazz looks back primarily to the Hard Bop era for its expression and to the New Orleans era for
its heritage. With the focus on hard bop, that era in jazz emerges as the center of gravity for the jazz
tradition. The transition from popular to art music is reinforced in the minds of the world listener. Although
the movement is a backward looking one, its demeanor presents jazz in a new posture stressing its
contributions as America’s unique art form.
WATCH YouTube video on Wynton Marsalis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OtZrIjQuwA
WATCH YouTube video on Wynton Marsalis “Caravan”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_7uaWJAiOA
Modern Creative
Although partly influenced by the great improvisational masters of the past, modern creative continues to
forge ahead by combining older jazz styles such as bop, free, fusion, with newer comtemporary musical
styles such as pop music, funk, and rock to create a full body meduim with which to present jazz in a new
‘modern’ light. Modern jazz makes great use of ‘new technologies’ in the form of modern electronic
instrumentation and recording devices/mediums to bring compostional and improvisational forms to a new
level. Modern creative forms tend to be ‘softer’ than earlier bop derivatives while still maintaing an edge
through the incorporation of more diverse, often ethnic, rhythmic approaches to the music. Coming into
light in the mid 80’s and being of a predominately improvisational nature, modern creative is greatly a
product of its environment - society. Though the players each have unique voices, society blends them to
reflect its ‘modern’ sound and feeling.
WATCH YouTube video on Stevie Ray Virus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gwsw8MR33Y
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
14
Revised 1/20/2016
ASSIGNMENT #3: hhttp://www.apassion4jazz.net/timeline.html
Go to website, click on the following:
Ragtim
New Orleans Style
Hot Jazz
Chicago Style
Swing
Kansas City Style
Gypsy Jazz
Bebop
Vocalese
Mainstream
Cool
Hard Bop
Bossa Nova
Modal
Free Jazz
Soul Jazz
Groove
Fusion
Modern Mainstream
Afro Cuban Jazz
Post Bop
Acid Jazz
Hard Bop Revival
Classicism
Smooth Jazz
Retro Swing
European
Jazz: Its Origins & Eras – Supplement
15
Revised 1/20/2016