WAYNE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
MUS 112-40 Introduction to Jazz
Fall, 2015-2016
Tuesday/Thursday 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
SJAFB Library Bldg.
Instructor Information
Instructor: Dr. Joseph Hodges
Telephone Numbers: (252) 523-9093 (H) (252) 527-8591 Ext 2379 (O)
Office Hours: 8-9:30 a.m.
E-Mail Address: jmhodges@waynecc.edu
jhodges@lenoir.k12.nc.us
FAX Number:
(252) 527-9014
Dr. Hodges’ Playlist
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVilO
s2j2UbIxOcAxOUPzqfMniAaHM3db
12. The 1950s: Cool Jazz and Hard Bop
Miles Davis, “Venus de Milo”
• Nine-time Grammy Award winner Miles Davis
was a major force in the jazz world, as both a
trumpet player and a bandleader. Instrumental in
the development of jazz, Miles Davis is
considered one of the top musicians of his era.
Born in Illinois in 1926, he traveled at age 18 to
New York City to pursue music. Throughout his
life, he was at the helm of a changing concept of
jazz. Winner of nine Grammy awards, Miles Davis
died on September 28, 1991 from respiratory
distress in Santa Monica, California.
• The son of a prosperous dental surgeon and a music
teacher, Miles Davis was born Miles Dewey Davis III on
May 26, 1926, in Alton, Illinois. Davis grew up in a
supportive middle-class household, where he was
introduced by his father to the trumpet at age 13.
Davis quickly developed a talent for playing the
trumpet under the private tutelage of Elwood
Buchanan, a friend of his father who directed a music
school. Buchanan emphasized playing the trumpet
without vibrato, which was contrary to the common
style used by trumpeters such as Louis Armstrong, and
which would come to influence and help develop the
Miles Davis style.
• Davis played professionally while in high
school. When he was 17 years old, Davis was
invited by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker to
join them onstage when the famed musicians
realized they needed a trumpet player to
replace a sick bandmate. Soon after, in 1944,
Davis left Illinois for New York, where he
would soon enroll at the Juilliard School
(known at the time as the Institute of Musical
Art).
• While taking courses at Juilliard, Davis sought
out Charlie Parker and, after Parker joined
him, began to play at Harlem nightclubs.
During the gigs, he met several musicians
whom he would eventually play with and form
the basis for bebop, a fast, improvisational
style of jazz instrumental that defined the
modern jazz era.
•
•
Modern Jazz Quartet, “Vendome”
ianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke first came together
as the rhythm section of the 1946 Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra and they had occasional features that gave the
overworked brass players a well-deserved rest. They next came together in 1951, recording as the Milt Jackson
Quartet. In 1952, with Percy Heath taking Brown's place, the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) became a permanent
group. Other than Connie Kay succeeding Clarke in 1955, the band's personnel was set. In the early days Jackson
and Lewis both were equally responsible for the group's musical direction but the pianist eventually took over
as musical director. The MJQ has long displayed John Lewis' musical vision, making jazz seem respectable by
occasionally interacting with classical ensembles and playing concerts at prestigious venues, but always leaving
plenty of space for bluesy and swinging improvising. Their repertoire, in addition to including veteran bop and
swing pieces, introduced such originals as Lewis' "Django" and Jackson's "Bags' Groove." The group recorded for
Prestige (1952-55), Atlantic (1956-74), Verve (1957), United Artists (1959) and Apple (1967-69) and, in addition
to the many quartet outings, they welcomed such guests as Jimmy Giuffre, Sonny Rollins, the Beaux Arts String
Quartet, a symphony orchestra conducted by Gunther Schuller, singer Diahann Carroll (on one piece), Laurindo
Almeida, a big band and the Swingle Singers. Although the musicians all had opportunities to pursue individual
projects, in 1974 Milt Jackson, tired of the constant touring and the limitations set on his improvising and he
quit the group, causing The MJQ to have a final tour and break up. In 1981 Jackson relented and the Modern
Jazz Quartet (which has recorded further albums for Pablo and Atlantic) became active again although on a
more part-time basis. Connie Kay's health began to fade in the early '90s (Mickey Roker often filled in for him)
and after his death in 2001, Albert "Tootie" Heath became his replacement.
• Horace Silver, “Song for My Father”
• From the perspective of the 21st century, it is clear that few jazz musicians
had a greater impact on the contemporary mainstream than Horace Silver.
The hard bop style that Silver pioneered in the '50s is now dominant,
played not only by holdovers from an earlier generation, but also by
fuzzy-cheeked musicians who had yet to be born when the music fell out
of critical favor in the '60s and '70s.
• Silver's earliest musical influence was the Cape Verdean folk music he
heard from his Portuguese-born father. Later, after he had begun playing
piano and saxophone as a high schooler, Silver came under the spell of
blues singers and boogie-woogie pianists, as well as boppers like
Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In 1950, Stan Getz played a concert in
Hartford, Connecticut, with a pickup rhythm section that included Silver,
drummer Walter Bolden, and bassist Joe Calloway. So impressed was
Getz, he hired the whole trio. Silver had been saving his money to move
to New York anyway; his hiring by Getz sealed the deal.
Clifford Brown, “A Night in Tunisia”
•
•
Clifford Brown's death in a car accident at the age of 25 was one of the great tragedies in jazz
history. Already ranking with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis as one of the top trumpeters in jazz,
Brownie was still improving in 1956. Plus he was a clean liver and was not even driving; the upand-coming pianist Richie Powell and his wife (who was driving) also perished in the crash.
Clifford Brown accomplished a great deal in the short time he had. He started on trumpet when
he was 15, and by 1948 was playing regularly in Philadelphia. Fats Navarro, who was his main
influence, encouraged Brown, as did Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. After a year at Maryland
State University, he was in a serious car accident in June 1950 that put him out of action for a
year. In 1952, Brown made his recording debut with Chris Powell's Blue Flames (an R&B group).
The following year, he spent some time with Tadd Dameron, and from August to December was
with Lionel Hampton's band, touring Europe and leading some recording sessions. In early 1954,
he recorded some brilliant solos at Birdland with Art Blakey's quintet (a band that directly
preceded the Jazz Messengers) and by mid-year had formed a quintet with Max Roach.
Considered one of the premiere hard bop bands, the group lasted until Brown's death, featuring
Harold Land (and later Sonny Rollins) on tenor and recording several superb sets for Emarcy. Just
hours before his death, Brownie appeared at a Philadelphia jam session that was miraculously
recorded, and played some of the finest music of his short life.
• Clifford Brown had a fat warm tone, a bop-ish style quite
reminiscent of the equally ill-fated Fats Navarro, and a
mature improvising approach; he was as inventive on
melodic ballads as he was on rapid jams. Amazingly
enough, a filmed appearance of him playing two songs in
1955 on a Soupy Sales variety show turned up after being
lost for 40 years, the only known footage of the great
trumpeter. Fortunately, virtually all of his recordings are
currently available, including his Prestige dates (in the OJC
series), his work for Blue Note and Pacific Jazz (on a fourCD set), and his many Emarcy sessions (reissued on a
magnificent ten-disc set). But the one to pick up first is
Columbia's The Beginning and the End, which has Brown's
first and last recordings.
Sonny Rollins, “I’m an Old Cowhand”
• Sonny Rollins will go down in history as not only the single most
enduring tenor saxophonist of the bebop and hard bop era, but also as
one of the greatest contemporary jazz saxophonists of them all. His fluid
and harmonically innovative ideas, effortless manner, and easily
identifiable and accessible sound have influenced generations of
performers, but have also fueled the notion that mainstream jazz music
can be widely enjoyed, recognized, and proliferated. Born Theodore
Walter Rollins in New York City on September 7, 1930, he had an older
brother who played violin. At age nine he took up piano lessons but
discontinued them, took up the alto saxophone in high school, and
switched to tenor after high school, doing local engagements. In 1948 he
recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then Bud Powell and Fats Navarro,
and his first composition, "Audubon," was recorded by J.J. Johnson.
Soon thereafter, Rollins made the rounds quickly with groups led by Tadd
Dameron, Chicago drummer Ike Day, and Miles Davis in 1951, followed
by his own recordings with Kenny Drew, Kenny Dorham, and Thelonious
Monk.
• n 1956 Rollins made his biggest move, joining the famous ensemble of
Max Roach and Clifford Brown, then formed his own legendary pianoless
trio with bassist Wilbur Ware or Donald Bailey and drummer Elvin Jones
or Pete La Roca in 1957, doing recorded sessions at the Village Vanguard.
Awards came from DownBeat and Playboy magazines, and recordings
were done mainly for the Prestige and Riverside labels, but also for
Verve, Blue Note, Columbia, and Contemporary Records, all coinciding
with the steadily rising star of Rollins. Pivotal albums such as Tenor
Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus (with longstanding
partner Tommy Flanagan), and Way Out West (with Ray Brown and
Shelly Manne), and collaborations with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Clark
Terry, and Sonny Clark firmly established Rollins as a bona fide superstar.
He also acquired the nickname "Newk" for his facial resemblance to
Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.
• But between 1959 and 1961 he sought a less superficial, more spiritual
path to the rat race society of the times, visiting Japan and India, studying
yoga and Zen. He left the music business until 1962, when he returned
with the groundbreaking and in many ways revolutionary recording The
Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall for the RCA Victor/Bluebird label. Rollins
struck up a working relationship with trumpeter Don Cherry; did a
handful of innovative LPs for the RCA Victor, MGM/Metro Jazz, and
Impulse! labels; did one record with his hero Coleman Hawkins; and left
the scene again in 1968. By 1971 he came back with a renewed sense of
vigor and pride, and put out a string of successful records for the
Milestone label that bridged the gap between the contemporary and
fusion jazz of the time, the most memorable being his live date from the
1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, The Cutting Edge. Merging jazz with
calypso, light funk, and post-bop, the career of Rollins not only was
revived, but thrived from then onward. He was a member of the touring
Milestone Jazz Stars in 1978 with McCoy Tyner and Ron Carter, and
gained momentum as a touring headliner and festival showstopper.
10. Rhythm in Transition