Download Chapter 9

Chapter 9
Jazz
What is Jazz?
► Relies
heavily on improvisation within a
certain formal structure
► Rhythmic urgency, shifting accents to weak
beats, emphasizing syncopation
► Commonly features polyrhythm (two or
more simultaneous rhythms)
The Birth of Jazz
► In
and around the New Orleans area in 19th
century
► Brass bands, spirituals, and blues form the
roots of jazz music
► In its early stages, jazz was called “novelty”
or “minstrel” music
► Highlights the skill and inventiveness of its
performers, particularly with improvisation
► “stride” piano style built on steady rhythmic
bass line in left hand (influence of ragtime)
“Jelly Roll” Morton
► Ferdinand
“Jelly Roll” Morton
► Pianist and bandleader
► Perfected New Orleans Dixieland jazz style
 Simultaneous improvisations
► “Jelly
Roll” Morton and His Red Hot Peppers
► Driving, swinging style
The Mississippi Connection
► Jazz
music began attracting non-African
American musicians along the Mississippi
River
► Small bands featuring Dixieland style
 March-like feeling and duple meter
 Trumpet, clarinet, trombone featured
 Banjos and Mandolins may be included
► Embellishing
existing melodies (usually in
call-and-response
► Derived from spirituals and work songs
Louis Armstrong
► Produced
distinct timbre with his trumpet
► Influenced countless other jazz musicians
with his improvisational style and scat
singing
 Complemented trumpet improvisations with scat
singing (He had a distinct, gravelly voice.)
► Worked
in Broadway, radio, films, recording,
etc.
► Nicknamed “Satchmo” (short for “satchel
mouth”)
Chicago and the Emergence of
Swing
► By
the time jazz reached Chicago, swing style
had developed
► Jazz style meant for dancing and entertainment
► Making duple meter sound like loose triple
meter
► Label for style and era of jazz (1935-1945)
► Fletcher Henderson enlarged jazz band and
created standard instrumentation (trumpets,
trombones, saxes, drums, piano, guitar, double
bass
The Big Band Era
► Dance
orchestras; performed in primarily
quadruple meter instead of duple
► Teens preferred jazz dances to their parents’
ballroom dances
► Benny Goodman, the “King of Swing”
 From poor Russian-Jewish family
 Founded a big band orchestra and was featured
on national radio show “Let’s Dance”
 Performed as both a jazz and classical artist on
the clarinet
► Clarinet
replaced by sax as preferred reed
instrument in jazz bands; i.e., Lester Young
32-Bar Song Form
► Improvisation
occurs in specific structure
► Adaptation of melodies from popular songs
that were 32 bars long
► Most common form is A A B A, where each
letter is 8 bars
► B section functions as a musical bridge
The Legendary Duke Ellington
► Edward
Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
► Credited with having written more music
than any composer ever
► Made jazz a sophisticated art form
► Combined own creativity and skill with that
of his band members
► Melodies generated by harmony and
rhythmic vitality
Mary Lou Williams
► Women
found it difficult to gain acceptance
in jazz during big band era
► Mary Lou Williams – pianist, composer,
arranger whose career spanned all eras of
jazz
► Played with her own band and composed
and arranged for top swing orchestras
(Ellington’s and Goodman’s)
► Composed more than 350 songs (jazz and
non-jazz)
The 1940s and Bebop
► Interest
in jazz grew after WWII
► Younger musicians wanted creativity outside of
swing; created bebop style
 Different from swing in that it was for listening, not
dancing and was a return to small ensembles (as
opposed to large swing orchestras)
 Trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie and
Saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker regarded as
pioneers of bebop
 Chromatic melodies, complex rhythms, rapid
tempos, dazzling technicality
Cool Jazz, Fusion, and Beyond
► Dissatisfaction
with bebop led to some
reviving older forms of jazz
► Some invented simpler style of jazz using
modal scales
► Trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist
Thelonious Monk leading players of modal
jazz
► Major trends in jazz following 1940s: rhythm
& blues, modal jazz, progressive (or cool)
jazz, free jazz, fusion, smooth jazz, etc.
Vocabulary
► Jazz
– a musical form
distinguished by its
reliance on improvisation
and its rhythmic urgency
► Polyrhythmic –
juxtaposing two or more
different rhythms
► Break – a measure or
two where everyone
stops playing except the
sololist
► Scat
singing – a form of
vocal improvisation on
nonsense syllables
► Swing – the special
rhythmic character that
jazz musicians add to the
music
► Bridge – a connective
part of the composition
Vocabulary, cont.
► Chromatic
–
incorporating tones
from a musical scale
consisting entirely of
half steps
► Bebop – a complex
and sophisticated
type of improvised
jazz
► Fusion
– combination
of jazz and rock
► Dorian mode – a
scale with the pattern
of whole step, half,
whole, whole, whole,
half, and whole