Music of the World

Lecture 23
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American Jazz

at about time when Schoenberg and Stravinsky were changing the language of music in Europe, a new musical style called jazz was being developed in the US" it was created created by musicians, predominantly African Americans, performing in the streets, bars, brothels, and dance halls of New Orleans and other southern cities" Jazz can be described generally as music rooted in improvisation and characterized by syncopated rhythm, a steady beat, and distinctive tone colors and performance techniques
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American Jazz

the exact date when jazz started was unknown" because this new music existed only in performance, not musical notation" also, very little jazz was captured on recordings before 1923, and none at all before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded in 1917" since its beginnings, jazz has developed a rich variety of substyles such as New Orleans style (or Dixieland), swing, bebop, cool jazz, free jazz, and jazz rock

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American Jazz

outstanding gures as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis" impact has been enormous and worldwide, affecting not only many kinds of popular music but the music of such composers as Maurice Ravel, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, and Aaron Copland

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American Jazz

for a long time, jazz was basically music for dancing" since the 1940s, many newer jazz styles have been intended for listening" now we are likely to hear jazz in a concert hall or college classroom as in a bar or nightclub

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American Jazz

Jazz styles: 1900-1950"

early jazz blended elements from many musical cultures, including west African, American, and European." Most American slaves originally came from west Africa, an area that today includes Ghana, Nigeria, and several other countries" West African elements that inuenced jazz include its emphasis on improvisation, drumming, percussive sounds, and complex rhythms
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American Jazz

another feature of jazz that was probably derived from west Africa is known as call and response! in jazz, call and response occurs when a voice is answered by an instrument, or when one instrument (or group of instruments) is answered by another instrument (or groups)" in America, blacks developed a rich body of music that became a vital source for jazz" this music included work songs, spirituals, gospel hymns, and such dances as the cakewalk" much of this music was never written down and is now lost
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American Jazz

black music inuenced and was inuenced by the music of white America, which included hymns, popular songs, folk tunes, dances, marches, and piano pieces" 19th century American and European musical traditions provided melodies, harmonies, and forms that became elements in the background of jazz

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American Jazz

one major source of jazz was the American band tradition" bands- both black and white- played an important role in American life during the late 19th century and the early 20th" virtually every village had its band and bandstand" bands performed at picnics, parades, political rallies, dances, and carnivals" many of the instruments used in marching bandstrumpets, cornet, trombone, tuba, clarinet, and rumswere also used in early jazz bands
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American Jazz

elements of jazz"

tone color"

jazz is generally played by a small group of three to eight players, or by a big band of ten to fteen" the backbone of a jazz ensemble is its rhythm section, usually made up of piano, plucked double bass, percussion, and sometimes banjo or guitar" which maintains the beat, adds rhythmic interest, and provides supporting harmonies
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American Jazz

the main solo instruments of jazz include the cornet, trumpet, saxophone, piano, clarinet, vibraphone, and trombone" jazz emphasizes brasses, woodwinds, and percussion rather than the bowed strings that dominate symphonic music" brass players produce a wide variety of tone colors by using different mutes and muting techniques

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American Jazz

improvisation"

at the heart of jazz lies improvisation" jazz musicians create a special electricity as they simultaneously create and perform, making decisions at lightning speed" not all jazz is improvised, and most contains both improvised and composed sections" yet it is improvisation that contributes most to the freshness and spontaneity of jazz" jazz improvisation is usually in theme-and-variations form
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American Jazz

the theme is often a popular song melody made up of 32 bars, or measures" the improviser varies this original melody by adding embellishments and changing its pitches and rhythms" often, jazz improvisations are based not on a melody but on a harmonic pattern, or series of chords" this harmonic pattern will be repeated over and over while the improviser creates melodies above it

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American Jazz

in jazz, each statement of the basic harmonic pattern or melody is called a chorus! e.g. a jazz performance that is based on a 32-bar melody might be outlined as follows"

chorus 1 (32 bars) Theme" chorus 2 (32 bars) Variation 1" chorus 3 (32 bars) Variation 2" chorus 4 (32 bars) Variation 3" chorus 5 (32 bars) Theme
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American Jazz

Rhythm, melody and harmony"

syncopation and rhythmic swing are two of the most distinctive features of jazz" in most jazz styles, the beat is provided by the percussionist and by the bass player" usually four beats to the bar" accents often come on the weak beats 1 2 3 4 many kinds of syncopated rhythms result when accented notes come between the beats
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Autumn Leavess lead sheet

Eric Claptons Autumn Leaves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQlFOX0YKlQ

American Jazz

Ragtime"

a style of composed piano music that ourished from the 1890s to about 1915" developed primarily by African American pianists who traveled in the midwest and south playing in saloons and dance halls" not long after it originated, ragtime became a nationally popular style that reached millions of people, both black and white, through sheet music, player pianos, ragtime songs, and arrangements for dance and marching bands
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American Jazz

ragtime piano music is generally in duple meter 2/4 and is performed at a moderate march tempo" pianists right hand plays a highly syncopated melody, while the left hand steadily maintains the beat with an oom-pah accompaniment" a ragtime piece usually consists of several melodies that are similar in character" it takes such forms as AA BB A CC DD or introductionAA BB CC DD EE" although the forms of ragtime are derived from European marches and dances, its rhythms are rooted in African American folk music
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American Jazz

the acknowledged king of ragtime was Scott Joplin (1868-1917)" a composer and pianist whose father had been a slave" his most famous piano pieces include Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer" in 1909, Joplin settled in New York City, where he spent the last years of his life" a bleak period for him: his health was poor, and he was unsuccessful in his desperate attempts to get a professional production of his opera Treemonisha (1911)
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Scott Joplins Entertainer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPmruHc4S9Q

American Jazz

Blues"

among the most important foundations of jazz is a type of music known as blues" the term refers both to a form of vocal and instrumental music and to a style of performance" blues grew out of African American folk music, such as work songs, spirituals, and the eld hollers of slaves" exactly when blues originated is uncertain, but by around the 1890s it was sung in rural areas of the south" the original country blues usually performed with guitar accompaniment, was not standardised in form or style
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American Jazz

from 1920s to the 1950s, Chicago became a blues center because many African American blues singers and instrumentalists had migrated there from the south in the decades after WWI" the 1940s saw the emergence in Chicago of a new, highly energetic blues style, sometimes called urban blues, that derived from earlier blues but used electric guitar and amplication" one of the best-known performers of urban blues was Muddy Waters (1915-1983), who had a distinctive style of moaning and shouting
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American Jazz

vocal blues is intensely personal, often containing sexual references and dealing with the pain of betrayal, desertion, and unrequited love" the lyrics consist of several 3-line stanzas, each in the same poetic and musical form" the rst line is sung and then repeated to roughly the same melodic phrase (a a), the third line has a different melodic phrase and text (b) " e.g. Bessie Smiths Lost Your Head Blues! a: I was with you, baby, when you didnt have a dime" a: I was with you, baby, when you didnt have a dime" b: Now since you got a lot of money, you have thrown a good gal down
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American Jazz

a blues stanza is set to a harmonic framework that is usually 12 bars in length" this harmonic pattern, known as 12-bar blues, involves only three basic chords: tonic (I), subdominant (IV), and dominant (V)" each stanza of the text is sung to the same series of chords, although other chords may be inserted between the primary chords of the 12-bar blues form" music is almost always in quadruple meter 4/4

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American Jazz

blues singers have a special style of performance involving bent notes, and vocal scoops and slides" their melodies contain many blues notes, which are produced by slightly lowering or atting the third, fth, and seventh tones of a major scale" blues rhythm is also very exible" performers often sing or play around the beat, accenting notes either just before or after it

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Bessie Smiths Lost Your Head Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYsGYWQT690

American Jazz

New Orleans Style"

from about 1900-1917, jazz developed in a number of American cities, but the major center was New Orleans" the home of such important jazz musicians as Ferdinand jelly Roll Morton, Joseph King Oliver, and Louis Armstrong" around the turn of the century, New Orleans was a major port and a thriving cultural and commercial center with a cosmopolitan character" its diverse population included people of African, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Italian, and Cuban ancestry
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American Jazz

band music- including early jazz- was heard at picnics, parades, and political meeting and in dance halls" African American bands often played jazz during funeral processions" the main home of early jazz was Storyville, a red-light district of brothels, gambling joins, saloons, and dance halls" these establishments often employed a piano player or small band" Storyville provided not only employment but an atmosphere in which musicians felt free to improvise" when Storyville was closed down in 1917 on orders of the Navy Department, many jazz musicians left New Orleans" the center of jazz soon shifted to Chicago, Kansas City and New York
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American Jazz

Jazz in New Orleans style was typically played by a small group of ve to eight players" the melodic instruments, or front line, included the cornet, clarinet, and trombone" the front-line players would improvise several contrasting melodic line at once, producing a kind of polyphonic texture" this collective improvisation was the most distinctive feature of New Orleans jazz

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American Jazz

New Orleans jazz was usually based on a march or church melody, a ragtime piece, a popular song, or 12-bar blues" sometimes there were brief unaccompanied solos, called breaks" the bands performance might begin with an introduction and end with a brief coda, or tag

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Louis Armstrong and His Hot Fives Hotter Than That

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV5J24we_dQ

Louis Armstrongs What a Wonderful World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM

American Jazz

Swing"

a new jazz style called swing developed in the 1920s and ourished from 1935 to 1945" a decade nicknamed the swing era" swing was played mainly by big bands, whose powerful sound could ll the large dance halls and ballrooms that mushroomed across the country" there were hundreds of name bands, both black and white, like those of Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman etc.
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American Jazz

the typical swing band had about fourteen or fteen musicians grouped into three sections: saxophones (3-5 players), brass instruments (3-4 each of trumpet and trombone), and rhythm (piano, percussion, guitar, and bass)" a band of this size needed music that was more composed than improvised and was also arranged, or notated in written-out parts for each musician to read" with swing, the arranger became an important gure in jazz
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American Jazz

in a swing band, melodies were often performed by entire sections, either in unison or in harmony" thus, in ensemble playing, it was usually necessary to rely on arrangements instead of improvising" what solo improvisations there were tended to be restricted in length" the main melody was frequently accompanied by saxophones playing sustained chords, or by saxophones and brass instrument playing short, repeated phrase called riffs! arrangers often used a rapid alternation of brass and sax riffs to create tension and excitement
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American Jazz

not only was the swing band larger and more dependent on arrangements than the New Orleans" the saxophone also became one of the most important solo instruments during the swing era" the harmonic vocabulary of swing was richer and more varied than that of earlier jazz, but its forms were essentially the same

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Duke Ellingtons Take the A Train

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY

American Jazz

Bebop (or bop)"

the early 1940s saw the development of bebop, a complex style of music usually for small jazz groups consisting of four to six players" in part, bebop was a rebellion by creative improvisers against the commercialism and written arrangements of swing bands" the new music was meant for attentive listening, not dancing, and its sophisticated harmonies and unpredictable rhythms bewildered many listeners" bop performers were a special in group who sometimes drove other jazz musicians from the bandstand by using complex melodies and unusual chord progressions
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American Jazz

a typical bebop group might include a saxophone and a trumpet supported by a rhythm section of piano, bass and percussion" the role of rhythm instruments in bebop was different from that in earlier jazz" the beat, often extremely fast, was marked not by the snare drum or bass drum, but mainly by the pizzicato bass and ride cymbal" the drummer also supplied irregular accents, sometimes played with such power that they are called bombs" similarly, the pianists left hand no longer helped emphasize the basic pulse but joined with the right hand to play complex chords at irregular intervals
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American Jazz

the new style may well have gotten its name from a vocalization of the two fast notes (be-bop) that often end phrases" the melodic phrases themselves were often varied and irregular in length" a two- or three-note fragment would be followed by a melodic unit lasting several bars" and the harmonies of bop were as complex as its rhythms" performers often built melodies on chords consisting of ve to seven notes rather than on the three- or fournote chords used in earlier jazz
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Charlie Parkers Koko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ZajJd-1kY

American Jazz

jazz styles since 1950"

there have been many innovations and new directions in jazz" the range of styles is wider than before" but as new styles proliferate, older jazz- from Dixieland to bebop- remains very much alive

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American Jazz

free jazz"

until about 1960, jazz improvisations tended to be quite regular in form" i.e. improvised variations kept the length and chord structure of the original theme, even if they abandoned the original melody" during the 1960s, some musicians broke from this tradition and created free jazz, a style that was note based on regular forms or established chord patterns

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American Jazz

John Coltrane (1926-1967)"

extremely inuential as an improviser, tenor and soprano saxophonist, and composer" his tone was large, intense, and equally powerful in all registers" he could play higher than the normal top range of his instrument, and his arpeggios were ung at such lightning speed that they became sheets of sound" his style evolved steadily from the late 1950s, when he worked with Miles Davis, to his death at age forth in 1967
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John Coltranes A Love Supreme (1965)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pi5ZJZ07ME