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JAZZ
An Introduction
JAZZ
• Music of individual expression whose main
characteristics are improvisation and swing rhythm.
• This music developed alongside the blues during the
1st half of the 20th century.
• Originally from New Orleans and Southern cities,
moved its way north into Chicago around 1920.
JAZZ
• Rooted in African rhythms
• However, many other elements come from European
classical music.
JAZZ
West African Elements
• Polyrhythms-multiple rhythms
going on at the same time
• Syncopated-weak beats are accented
• Call and Response-leader sings a
phrase (call) and another
performer or group of musicians
answers (response).
• Tonal Quality-type of sounds
produced by the singer
European Elements
• Harmonies-chord voicings and
progressions
• Instrumentation-trumpet, clarinet,
saxophone, tuba, piano,
contrabass, and so on.
• Song Forms
RAGTIME
• Arrived a few decades after
slavery was abolished
• Style that combined marching
music with ragged, Africaninfluenced syncopation
• Born in saloons in St. Louis and
spread throughout the Midwest
and beyond.
• Best known composer was Scott
Joplin.
• “Maple Leaf Rag” started the
craze for this style.
BLUES
• Another important influence in the development of Jazz.
• Style supposedly grew out of the field hollers that African
laborers sung as they worked before and after the Civil War.
• In the early 1900s, bluesmen began to play these songs for
entertainment at dances and juke joints in the Mississippi
Delta.
• Blues songs were based on a repeating 12-measure structure
that also became basic to most jazz music.
• Blues Music used a special scale called the pentatonic scale (five
notes). In the pentatonic scale, the third note is flatted which
we call the blue note.
• This blue note is essential not just in Blues Music but also in
Jazz.
“SWEET HOME CHICAGO”
Great Example of Blues….recorded by Robert Johnson
ACTIVITY 1
1. From what part of the world did jazz’s rhythmic roots
originate, and how did they get to America?
2. What is a notable feature of these rhythms?
3. What is call and response?
4. Where do the harmonies in jazz come from?
5. Who was the most famous ragtime composer, and what is one
of his greatest hits?
6. What is the basic structure in blues music?
7. What is a blue note?
ACTIVITY 1-ANSWERS
1. From what part of the world did jazz’s rhythmic roots
originate, and how did they get to America?
West Africa, through slavery
2. What is a notable feature of these rhythms?
Syncopation, the emphasis of weak beats
3. What is call and response?
A technique in which a leader sings a phrase (call) and
another performer(s) answers (response)
3. Where do the harmonies in jazz come from?
European Classical Music
ACTIVITY 1-ANSWERS
5. Who was the most famous ragtime composer, and what is one
of his greatest hits?
Scott Joplin; “Maple Leaf Rag”
6. What is the basic structure in blues music?
A 12-Measure Form
7. What is a blue note?
Third note of the pentatonic scale that gives music a
bluesy quality
TRADITIONAL JAZZ
•
•
•
•
•
Born in New Orleans
New Orleans was more hospitable to African Americans than other parts
of the South.
Before the Civil War, slaves did live in New Orleans, but they were also
allowed to gather to play their music in a field called Congo Square.
Also, before the Civil War, New Orleans had a large Creole population
Creole-people of French and Spanish descent, some of whom also had a
mix of European and African ancestry. Creoles enjoyed great prosperity.
After the Civil War, freed slaves from all over the South moved to New
Orleans and brought their musical forms-like blues and work songs-with
them.
CONGO SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS
Sketch of slaves to share music in Congo Square
PRESENT DAY CONGO SQUARE,
NEW ORLEANS
STORYVILLE DISTRICT
•
•
•
•
Storyville
In the 1890s, many musicians
were able to find work in a very
seedy section of New Orleans
called the Storyville District.
This is where ragtime started.
One of the most notable
musicians to emerge from
Storyville was Buddy Bolden.
Bolden was known for his soulful
sound and how he improvised
melodies.
OTHER EARLY JAZZ MUSICIANS
•
•
•
•
Joe “King” Oliver
Successor to Bolden, played trumpet
Collective Improvisation-2 or more instrumentalists make things
up together on the spot
“Kid” Ory
Trombonist
Johnny Dodds
Clarinetist
• In 1917 Storyville closed and both went on tour and
introduced Jazz outside of New Orleans.
THE TWENTIES
• Jazz now becomes incredibly popular in big cities like New York and
Chicago.
• Decade is given the nickname The Jazz Age.
• 1923-considered the first landmark jazz recording Dippermouth Blues by
King Oliver and his Creole Band including a young musician named Louis
Armstrong.
JELLY ROLL MORTON
• Boasts that he “invented” Jazz.
• His piece “Jelly Roll Blues” was the first jazz composition to be published
in 1915, but he was not the inventor!
• He is, however, regarded as the first great jazz pianist and composer.
ACTIVITY 2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In what city was jazz born?
What are two (2) of the cultures that merged in that city?
What is Creole?
What section of the city hosted the development of jazz?
Who was the first big jazz musicians to emerge from that section,
and what instrument did he play?
6. Where did jazz become popular outside of New Orleans in the
early 1920s?
7. What was the first landmark jazz recording, and who was the
leader?
ACTIVITY 2-ANSWERS
1.
2.
3.
4.
In what city was jazz born?
New Orleands, LA
What are two (2) of the cultures that merged in that city?
French and Spanish
What is Creole?
New Orleans citizen of Spanish or French descent and possibly
mixed European and African ancestry
What section of the city hosted the development of jazz?
Storyville-a section for adult entertainment
ACTIVITY 2-ANSWERS
4. Who was the first big jazz musicians to emerge from that section, and
what instrument did he play?
Buddy Bolden-cornet/trumpet
5. Where did jazz become popular outside of New Orleans in the early
1920s?
In cities like New York and Chicago
6. What was the first landmark jazz recording, and who was the leader?
“Dippermouth Blues”, King Oliver