
Louis Armstrong said, "Jazz
is music that's never
played the same way
once."

Ralph Ellison said, "Jazz is
an art of individual
assertion within and
against the group...”

You can see from the notes
on the musical staff that
some are normal, some are
slurred, and some are
syncopated. Skillful jazz
musicians are able to
combine all of these
techniques to create new
works of art right off the
top of their head. This new
creation is inspired by the
original melody, but it
represents the personality
and feelings of the
musician.
A. New Orleans via Africa and Europe


Jazz was born in New Orleans about 100 years ago (early 20th century),
but its roots can be found in the musical traditions of both Africa and
Europe. In fact, some people say that jazz is a union of African and
European music.
From African music, jazz got its:
 rhythm and "feel"
 "blues" quality
 tradition of playing an instrument in your own expressive way, making it an
"extension" of your own human voice

From European music, jazz got its:
 harmony -- that is, the chords that accompany the tunes (the chords played
on the piano); jazz harmony is similar to classical music's harmony
 instruments -- most of the instruments used in jazz originated in Europe
(saxophone, trumpet, piano, etc.)

Musical improvisation came from both traditions.
B. Why New Orleans?

New Orleans was the perfect
city for all of these elements
to come together, as it was a
port city (with people arriving
from all parts of the world), a
meeting place for people of
different ethnic groups, and a
city with a nightlife where
musicians had the
opportunity to play together,
learn from each other, and
blend all of these elements.
C. African American Experience

Jazz was born out of and
evolved through the African
American experience in the
U.S.

Jazz evolved from slave songs
and spirituals (religious
African American folk songs).

Jazz’s originators and most
important innovators were
primarily African Americans.

Improvisation is when
musicians use slurs, bent
notes and syncopation in
order to recreate the
melody in new and
interesting ways. Just as
no two artists would paint
the same scene the same
way, no two musicians
improvise a melody in the
same way.

Slurs & Bent Notes:When musicians
rapidly combine two or more notes, sliding
smoothly between them, they are said to
be "bending" or "slurring" the notes. This is
sometimes called playing a "grace note.“

Musicians use slurs and bent notes to
convey a feeling or emotion. Even though
the notes of the melody now look radically
different on the musical staff, you should
still be able to hear the familiar tune.

Syncopation: Imagine a loudly ticking
clock. The normal melody notes of Mary
Had a Little Lamb match the ticking of the
clock exactly. Syncopation, however,
means playing those same notes either
just before or just after the tick — in other
words, "off the beat."




Harmony is the simultaneous combination of tones, or
musical notes, blended together into formations known as
chords.
One way to think about harmony is that it represents the
vertical aspect of notes piled up on top of each other and
sounding at the same time, while melody is the horizontal
aspect, with the individual noted following one another in a
line.
Another aspect of chords is that some sound as though they
want to resolve or keep moving to another chord, while
others have a feeling of finality about them.
The interplay between these chords creates something akin
to a musical conversation, and the increase and decrease in
the tension between them is what makes music compelling
and interesting to listen to.





Rhythm is what the drums play. How the notes occur in time defines what the
rhythm is.
 If you take a favorite melody, and drum it out with your hands, what you are
hearing is the rhythm.
These rhythms are grouped into recurring patterns that determine what the
meter of the piece is.
Every piece of music has a rhythm — a measured pattern of strong and weak
accents, or beats.
Typical meters include 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 (two, three, four and six beats in a
bar).
4/4 rhythm has four beats per bar, and is also known as common time.
 Most popular music is in this meter, and it forms the basis for jazz music.
 A note that is one of four beats in a 4/4 measure is a quarter note, a note that
is two beats long is a half note, and a note that is four beats long is a whole
note.




Notation is the system for
writing down music. It tells us
what the note is and how long
its duration is.
The notes are represented by
small black dots placed on a
staff, which consists of 5 lines.
A musician learns to read music
by understanding what note the
dot on the line or space of the
staff represents. Each dot has a
kind of a tail on it, and the shape
of this tail represents the
duration, or rhythm, of the note.
There can also be small signs
put in front of the note telling
the musician whether to play
the note a little higher or a little
lower — these are called sharps
(#) and flats (b).



Each note has a particular place
on the lines or spaces of the staff
depending on its pitch: low
notes are shown in the bass clef,
and higher notes in the treble
clef.
The melody and rhythm of the
music together determine how
the notes are placed on the staff.
The staff is also divided into
measures, or bars, by vertical
lines, which divide the music
according to its meter.


Technically speaking, anything
that produces a musical tone
could be considered an
instrument.
But instruments used by most
jazz musicians fall into three
families:
 Brass
 Woodwind
 Percussion

Brass instruments (trumpets,
trombones and tubas) produce a
tone when the musician blows
air through into metal
mouthpiece, causing their lips to
vibrate.

Woodwind players create a
sound by blowing air across the
mouthpiece (for the flute) or by
blowing into a mouthpiece
containing a wooden reed,
causing it to vibrate (saxophone
and clarinet). Using the fingers
to open and close valves or holes
creates different musical notes.

Percussion instruments are any
instrument that are hit (drums
and piano) or plucked (guitars,
banjos), causing either the
instrument itself or a membrane
or string attached to it to
vibrate.







New Orleans
Swing
Bebop
Cool Jazz
Hard Bop
Free Jazz
Fusion