A purely American art form.
Listen
What’s in this PowerPoint?
• A brief history of jazz.
– You will make a timeline of this history.
• List and Examples of important artists and
their music.
• Jazz music vocabulary.
• Online resources.
What is jazz?
A. is musical conversation
•
Jazz is musical
conversation: a partly
planned and partly
spontaneous musical
dialogue among the
musicians who are
performing it.
B. is a music of the present moment
• While performing (or practicing),
jazz musicians utilize the
inspiration of the moment, their
knowledge of music theory, life
experience, social, political, and
economic surroundings, technical
savvy on their instruments, and,
especially, all the music
(particularly jazz and blues) they
have ever heard that has
influenced them (even the most
avant-garde jazz artists reflect, in
some way, the music of their
musical forefathers). Jazz is a
music of the present moment,
anchored lovingly and
respectfully in the past.
C. is a newcomer
• Jazz is a newcomer to
music -- unlike
symphonic music, folk
music, opera, Eastern
music, etc., jazz is only a
century old.
D. was born out of the Black
experience in America
• Jazz was born out of the
Black experience in
America, basically fusing
African and European
musical traditions. Evolving
from slave work songs,
spirituals (religious Black
American folk songs), blues,
brass band music, and
ragtime (a rhythmically
sophisticated piano style),
jazz first appeared in the
culturally diverse city of
New Orleans in the early
1900s.
E. is embraced worldwide
• African Americans
devised the major
elements of jazz in its
formative years and were
the primary pioneers of
stylistic changes in later
decades. Today, jazz is
performed, innovated,
and listened to by people
all over the world from
virtually every ethnicity,
religion, and culture.
F. is its own unique art form
• Jazz has influenced and
been influenced by other
musics: rock, rap, country,
funk, Latin, classical, blues,
gospel, African, Eastern,
pop, folk, hip-hop, etc., etc7.
Jazz, while extremely
diverse and all
encompassing, is, however,
its own unique art form. It is
more about the waythe
music is played rather
than what is played (more
on this later).
G. is relatively complex
•
As far as musics go, jazz is relatively
complex; there are many musical,
technical, intellectual, and emotional
elements happening simultaneously
(more on this later). Jazz makes far
more demands on the listener than
do most popular styles which are
fundamentally simpler than jazz,
requiring less from the listener. The
more one knows about jazz (i.e., how
to listen, its history, evolution of its
styles, key players, forms, relationship
to American history and culture,
etc.), the more one can appreciate
and enjoy it, even possibly gaining
insight into his/her humanity via
aesthetic experience -- jazz’s ultimate
goal.
H. is about feeling
• Although complicated,
the core of jazz is about
feeling, not intellectual
definition.
Jazz Timeline
Ragtime - (1896-1917)
•Ragtime was the direct precursor to jazz.
•Primarily a solo piano style incorporated military march like steady time in
the left hand and syncopated (i.e., “ragged”)
melodies in the right .
•Ragtime reflected both African and European
musical traditions
1. African
1.
2.
3.
complex right-hand syncopation derived
from polyrhythms (several different rhythms
played simultaneously)
ragtime was developed and first played
primarily by African Americans and was a
source of pride to African American
composers, musicians, and listeners
the most prominent ragtime composer in
history was Scott Joplin
2. European
1.
2.
3.
4.
Listen
the piano itself was of European origin
written musical notation
left-hand march beat
standard European chord progressions
Early Jazz/ Classic Jazz (Dixieland) 1
•
New Orleans - considered the
birthplace of jazz – why there?
– New Orleans was a seaport city
– New Orleans had a liberal atmosphere
– long-standing tradition of music and
entertainment
– Storyville (a district of New Orleans)
provided places for pre-jazz and early
jazz groups to perform: houses of
prostitution, cabarets, saloons, dance
halls, etc. (1897-1917)
– reinterpretation of the 14th
Amendment to justify segregation - The
14th amendment was originally written
to abolish segregation, however
lawmakers found ways around the rules
which forced Creoles and African
American groups to live in the same
areas, therefore in a way further forcing
African and European ideas together.
Early Jazz/ Classic Jazz (Dixieland) 2
•
The music
–
–
typical instrumentation: trumpet or cornet, clarinet,
trombone, piano, tuba or string bass, banjo, drums
each instrument has an assigned role (carry-over from
the brass bands)
–
everybody plays all the time except for the solos which
occur in during the break
–
–
–
–
–
•
Most important musicians of this style…
–
–
–
–
Listen, Listen, Listen
collective improvisation, i.e., everyone is improvising
at the same time (very little, if any, written music)
simple harmonies (simple chords)
improvisation based on embellishing the melody
usually learned by ear (not by reading music)
dramatic effects proliferate: slides, trills,
vibrato, mutes (e.g., bathroom plunger mute for wahwah effect); influenced by vocal tradition
King Oliver
Louis Armstrong
Jelly Roll Morton
Bix Beiderbecke
Swing/Big Band 1
•
•
•
In the 1930’s, jazz reached new levels of
sophistication in the Swing Era, reflecting
America’s need for self-esteem following the
Great Depression.
Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double
bass and drums as the anchor for a lead
section of brass instruments such as
trumpets and trombones, woodwinds
including saxophones and clarinets, and
sometimes stringed instruments such
as violin and guitar, medium to fast tempos,
and a "lilting" swing time rhythm. The name
swing came from the phrase ‘swing feel’
where the emphasis is on the off–beat or
weaker pulse in the music.
The World War II era witnessed rapid
changes in American tastes as well as
logistics of making music (e.g., the decline of
large ensembles in favor of the jazz combo
was, in part, due to economic and social
reasons).
Swing/Big Band 2
Size
Swing differs from Dixieland
The typical big band had (has) four sections
1.
more use of written arrangements
1.
sax section: generally five saxophones (two altos, two
tenors, and one baritone); saxophonists usually also
played clarinet
2.
wider range of compositional styles; fewer ragtime-like
tunes
2.
trumpet section: generally four trumpets
3.
more solo improvisation, less collective improvisation
3.
trombone section: generally four trombones10
4.
more use of string bass, less use of tuba
4.
rhythm section: generally four pieces: piano, bass, guitar,
drums
5.
more use of guitar, no banjo
Look Up More
6.
saxophone is the predominant instrument (replacing
trumpet and clarinet)
Swing/Big Band 3
• Big names in Swing
1. Benny Goodman – first interracial-band
leader- Listen, Listen
2. Duke Ellington – Listen, Listen
3. Count Basie - Listen
4. Art Tatum - Listen
5. Coleman Hawkins
6. Lester Young
The Demise of Swing 1
• World War II
–
–
–
–
–
the draft
bands raided each other
transportation was difficult
midnight curfews
20% amusement tax for clubs that included dancing
• Restrictive musical formats
– extremely restricted solo opportunities in big band swing (solos had to be
short)
– overworked harmonic formulae (i.e., the same basic chord progressions were
used over and over)
– lack of creativity - stereotyped rhythms and rhythm sections
– general lack of surprise in any given musical circumstance; jazz had fallen into
a rut
– by the early 40’s, with the exception of a few, most big bands sounded
stylistically alike
The Demise of Swing 2
• Recording ban
– July, 1942 - November, 1943
– in response to increased use of recorded music on the radio and in jukeboxes
and the threat this posed to live working musicians, the American Federation
of Musicians (i.e., the musicians union) ordered a ban on all instrumental
recording by union members
• Racism
– African American musicians were usually paid less than their European
American counterparts
– African Americans had to contend with the most oppressive manifestations of
racial prejudice and segregation; even the black jazz stars featured with name
white bands were subjected to the most demeaning indignities
– in general, most African American jazz musicians became increasingly
disenchanted with swing music the more they watched their innovations
capitalized on by European Americans; they wanted to create their “own”
music, a music that was too difficult, too virtuosic, and too hip for their white
counterparts (a music that was not for dancing but for listening--a true African
American ART form)
Bebop – Art Music 1
• Music for listening – not
entertainment. Musicians
considered themselves
artists.
• primarily a small group
music, usually a quintet:
trumpet, saxophone,
piano, bass, and drums
• designed for
improvisation, not
elaborate arrangements
• virtuosic music; very
difficult to play
• trimmed down”
arrangements - rarely
written, mostly just
discussed
– few introductions, endings,
interludes, backgrounds,
etc.
– instead of complex
arrangements, bebop
utilized complex heads
(melodies)
Bebop 2
• Basic Structure
– first chorus: head played in unison
– middle choruses: improvised solos;
each player in turn improvises for
as many choruses as desired
– trading fours or eights (optional):
keeping the form, each musician
improvises for four bars in
alternation with the drums (e.g.,
saxophone for four bars, drums for
four bars, trumpet for four bars,
drums for four bars, piano for four
bars, drums for four bars, etc.)
Basically, swapping four bar
phrases.
– last chorus: head in unison
Listen, Listen, Listen
Bebop 3
• the music is instrumental
in nature
– big range (very low to very
high notes)
– rhythmically complex
– extremely difficult to sing
– when sung, singers would
“scat sing” (i.e., sing as if
they were a jazz
instrumentalist using
nonsense syllables instead
of lyrics for their
improvisations; play "How
High the Moon," Ella
Fitzgerald
Bebop Musicians
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Dizzy Gillespie
Charlie Parker
Thelonius Monk
Bud Powell
Wes Montgomery
Max Roach
Art Blakey
Charles Mingus
So many more…