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Jazz History
Week 1 – January 10, 2007
New Orleans: Musically rich city in every cultural tradition
1891 Congo Square: Public area used by slaves to play music
 Earliest instances of African music in America
 A lot of the slaves from West Indies, Southern Baptist influences. Complex
musical mixture
 Died out in 1870 – a couple decades before jazz began
Creoles of Colour:
 People from France and Spain
 Mixed parents – typically lighter skin
 Identify more with European background than African
Minstrel Shows (1840):
 Black-faced entertainment
 Whites with burnt cork on their face parodying blacks in America
 Doing in a way that reduced African Americans to primitive music
 Used banjos, violin, tambourine
 1850s American music was incorporated
 Jim Crow: First Minstrel show hit
1865 Recognition Period:
 Enforced civil rights for the black population
 1877 white rule began again, Blacks now segregated and known as “Jim Crow”
 Creoles considered Black by law and had to join Black music scene and alter style
 Helped give birth to jazz because Creoles were more musically refined
1890s: Ragtime and the southern Baptist vocal styles of yells and moans made their way
to New Orleans and were combined, resulting in blues influenced by rhythmic make yp
of Ragtime
Storyville:
 Red Light District
 Musicians here thought to be the ones that originated jazz
Buddy Bolden:
 Thought to be the first to play jazz
 Louder, bolder, more original
 Sense of one instrumentalist standing out
 Died young in an insane asylum
Jelly Roll Morton (PIANO):
 Creole from a respectable family
 Wanted to associate with African heritage
 Played piano in Storyville
 First to write out jazz music*
 Wolverine Blues
1910:
 Jazz all over New Orleans
 Played by blacks and whites
 Musicians began leaving New Orleans and spreading jazz around America
NYC – Tin Pan Alley:
Popular songs written for dancing influence from jazz created a craze
Week 3 – January 24
1880 – 1920 People started leaving New Orleans because of increasing racial problems
Red Light District: Jazz originated…
 House parties
 Mississippi steam boats with Jazz aboard
 Railroad concerts on Sundays
 All over the city
Most important influence Ragtime had in jazz was syncopation
Ragging means adding syncopation
Freddie Keppard (Cornet):
 First to leave and spread jazz across the country in 1914
 Went to Los Angeles and started a band with other New Orleans musicians
 Settled in Chicago
 Turned down making the first jazz recording
The first jazz recording instead went to 5 WHITE New Orleans musicians by Nick
Leroco
Dixie: refers to southern states and also has negative racial connotations
Dixieland Jazz musicians usually White
King Oliver’s (Cornet) Creole Jazz Band:
 Top cornetest after Keppard left
 1918 moved to Chicago and formed his band
 Invited Louis Armstrong into his band who was only famous in New Orleans
 Chimes Blues
 Dippermouth Blues
Louis Armstrong:
 Started playing trumped in a juvenile detention camp
 1922 called up by Oliver
 His ability to improvise in individual solos and technical abilities influenced the
jazz world
 Started singing after Chicago
 After King Oliver’s he played with Sidney Bechet
 Joined Fletcher Henderson’s group in NYC
 1925 signed with Okeh records
 Formed The Hot 5 or The Hot 7 put together specifically for recording
Heebie Jeebies: First to scat
Sugar Foot Stomp
Sidney Bechet:
 Creole of colour
 One of the first to leave New Orleans and tour
The Chicago School: White musicians trying to emulate white New Orleans musicians
Bix Biederbecke (Cornet):
 Bought records and self taught cornet in Iowa - White
 Started sitting in in Chicago
 Joined group in Cincinnati called Wolverines
 Most success as traveling free lancer
 Started playing with Frankie Trumbauer (Sax) in 1925
 Elegant and softer style
Frankie’s Orchestra – Riverboat Shuffle
Harlem Renaissance: Jazz not as important as poetry and literacy but it thrived
Strive Piano Playing:
 Got big while Congo jazz was thriving
 Started at house parties - HARLEM
 Strive refers to what’s happening in the right hand
 A lot like Ragtime
 Often themes repeated in higher register
 Jazz progressed to become individual expression
Cutting Contests:


Contests between pianists to see who’s better
Opportunity to show creativity
James P Johnson: Born in NJ, often involved in cutting contests
You’ve Got to be Modernistic – Alternates between strive and ragtime
Jelly Roll Morton (PIANO):
 Creole. The First to write jazz down
 Followed improve style
 Jelly Roll Morton’s Hot Peppers
 Toured all over
 One of the first to leave New Orleans
Wolverine Blues – includes clarinet and drums halfway through
Stop-time Solo: everyone stops while someone solos
Earl Hines (Piano):
 Pittsburg
 Radio broadcasted
 Brought strive influences to Chicago
 Incorporated all different kinds of playing at once
 More embellishment in the right hand
 Most influential pianist in this era
 Played blues style/strive with Louis Armstrong’s Hot 5
Week 4 – January 31, 2007
Swing - Mid 30s-40s
Swing Influences:
Wide range of musical styles in NYC: combo jazz, musicals, ragtime
Economic Depression:
 Impacted technological advances and money people had to spend on
entertainment
 No money for recording
 Radios played what was popular in dance halls
 Stars created for the first time:
- Benny Goodman
- Not as many bands could exist
- Large bands more affordable for rich people to hire
Big Bands:
 At least 10 musicians
 Rhythm: bass, drum
 Reed: saxophone, clarinet
 Brass: trombone, trumpet
 Performed in sections
 Entire pieces written out for Big Bands
 Less improvisation
 Music to be danced to!
Sweet Bands: No improvisation, not jazz
Hot Bands: Improvisation thought of as jazz
 Singers were featured in Big Bands
Paul Whiteman (Violin):
 Classical violinist
 Believed jazz could develop into a form of classical music
 Jazz could be legitimized and mainstreamed
 He brought jazz to a white audience
 Criticized for taking jazz out of it – “Sweet Music”
 Commissioned Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
 Opened people’s eyes to jazz possibilities
 Unable to hire black musicians for bands because of venues
 Worked with Bing Crosby
 Brought in singers
Fletcher Henderson:
 Had big names in his band that went into swing
 Band had more arrangement
 Started grouping band sections, focused on what sections sounded like together
 1939 – ended his band
 Don Redman worked with him to help push Big Band style
Duke Ellington:
 The most prolific jazz composer and arranger
 Washington born with classical music training
 Sophisticated style
 Defined the Swing style – Lead a Big Band
 Turnovers in his band were rare
 1924 – moved to NYC, became known for a sweeter sound
 Sick of Sweet, wanted HOT, Caught people’s attention
 1927 – Cotton Club, Harlem NY: All white audience
 Enlarged his band – moved 4 years later and solidified his style


Duke Ellington Band very successful, distinct sound because he wrote for specific
musicians in the band
Tried to elevate jazz as an art form
DEB Member – Cootie Williams (trumpet)
 Used plunger on his trumpet
DEB Member – Ben Webster (Tenor Sax)
 First tenor sax soloist in DEB & wrote Cottontail with Gershwin’s I got rhythm
Soli: A solo for a section of instruments
Benny Goodman (Clarinet):
 Superstar of his era
 Based in NYC late 20s
 Met with John Hammen (Vanderbilt, social rights activist) and wanted to
integrate black and white musicians
 Started first trio with Teddy Wilson (piano) & Gene Kruppa (drums)
 NYC NBC radio offered him a show
 Helped him achieve national stardom
 Got Fletcher Henderson to arrange for him
 HOT player
1938 – GIG AT CARNAGIE HALL
Ft: Duke Ellington, Krupa, Jess Stacey, Harry Jones (trumpet)
 Lionel Hampton:
 Played vibraphone (new) Huge hit
 Started playing with Benny Goodman Trio
 Krupa left and Hampton took over drums – first black member
Charlie Christian: First amplified guitar swing player
Count Basie:
 Kansas City jazz
 Lighter, relaxed, often based on riffs
 Best swing rhythm section
 Well integrated, smooth
Lester Young – Tenor Sax Soloist
Comping: playing chords off the beat, sparse, moves things along
Trading Twos: trade every two bars
Django Reinhardt:
 Belgium gypsy
 Great success with Quartet du Hot Club de France

Jazz base, European influence
Week 5 – February 7, 2007
Coleman Hawkins (Tenor Sax)
 Defined tenor sax sound and brought it to mainstream
 Aggressive player
 Toured Europe – got out just before WWII
 Body & Soul
Swing Singers:
Ella Fitzgerald
 Got 7 radio spots a week with Chick Webb after tisket a tasket
 Challenged Benny Goodman for most prominent big band
Billie Holiday
 Less clear diction
 Didn’t improvise
 Sang with HOT bands
 God Bless the Child
 Without Your Love features Lester Young
Art Tatum (PIANO)
 Classically trained
 Came on the scene and blew everyone away
 Tea for Two signature tune
BEBOP
 Against popularity of swing
 Audience of serious listeners
 12 bar blues
 New melody over old chord progression
 Louis Armstrong didn’t like it
Recording companies: Verve, Guild
Charlie Parker (ALT SAX):
 Lester young influenced
 Kansas influences
 People started quoting Parker’s style
Dizzie Gillespie (TRUMPET):
 Learned from the radio
 Played Carnegie Hall
 Shaw Nuff on piano!!
Dexter Gordon (TENOR SAX):
 First Tenor Sax of Bop
 Less aggressive than Parker
 Often quotes from pop tune recordings
 Bikini – Dexter Gordon Quartet
Thelonius Monk (PIANO):
 Not about showing off with speed
 Interested in texture/clashes of sound
 Experimental spirit
 Never commercially successful
 Mysterioso – Features Mill Jackson on Vibraphone
 Straight, No Chaser
Oscar Peterson (PIANO)
 Very personable
 Born in Montreal
 Played at Carnegie Hall which started his career
 Oscar Peterson Trio = Him, Ray Brown (drums), Herb Ellis (guitar)
 Swingin’ Til the Girls Come Home
Norman Granz (Movie Editor):
 Jazz enthusiast
 Brought biggest jazz stars to play Philharmonic Hall
 Brought Jazz of the Philharmonic on American tour
 Started producing studio recordings
 1950s started Verve label – best Bebop recordings EVER
 Discovered Oscar Peterson
Week 6 – February 14, 2007
Bebop Continued….Hot & Cool Jazz
Bebop Atmosphere:
 Friendly but real competition (ex: cutting competitions in Harlem)
 Musicians need to prove themselves worthy of playing with pros
 Always the sense that someone’s the best
 Tenor Sax Duels became common, even on recordings:
 I know that you know – Dizzie Gillespie, Sonny Sitt, Sonny Rollins
Stop Time Solo: Band stops while someone solos – Sonny Rollins plays it
4 Brothers:
 3 tenor sax, 1 baritone sax,
 Stan Getz, Herbie Steward, Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloffe
 4 Brothers --Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd
Shout Chorus: everyone plays the same thing together
Trading Twos: copying what the last player did but with variations
1930:
People started playing old style traditional jazz again to go against Bebop
Kind of became “us against them”
Moldy Figs: what New jazz players called old style jazz players
1947: Louis Armstrong stopped playing Big Bands and went back to his old style
Cool Jazz (associated with West Coast):
 Similar to bop but not as frantic
 Larger ensembles
 Art of composition back in
 Sometimes unconventional instruments (French horn, tuba...)
 Less Flare
 Usually associated with white musicians
1949/50:
Miles Davis started a ninette and released 12 singles encompassing a new style.
1957: The singles were released on an album “Birth of Cool”
 Moon Dreams
 No Figs - Lenny Tristano on Piano, wrote the song
Stan Kenton Orchestra ft. Lee Konitz
 Most famous “Cool” style Big Band
 Liked to play LOUD
 My Lady
Chet Baker (Trumpet & Vocals):
 Charismatic and pretty
 Got started with Gerry Mulligen Quartet
 Solo style in ballads sparce
 Ornithology – Charlie Parker written
 Easy Living – Chet Plays on the FLUGELHORN
Bossa Nova
 Off of cool jazz
 Brazilian influence
 Latin percussion, acoustic guitar, bass, vocals
 Desifinado – Stan Getz (sax) & Charlie Byrd
Third Stream:
 Jazz pieces written for an orchestra
 Classical influence
 Modern Jazz Quartet
 Queen’s Lady – Bach imitation solo
Swingle Singers – Ward Swingle
 Jazzy Bach compositions
 Sang with scat
 No improvisation
 Jazz players hated it. Public loved it!
 Badinerie
Dave Brubeck (Piano):
 Most commercially successful “cool” jazz player
 Greatest fame with his Quartet w/ Paul Desmond (alt sax)
 Not classically trained
 Blue Rondo a la Turk