II.
An Overview
A. How Jazz came to be
1. Grew from heartfelt expressions of American slaves, then to
music of the church, then to the dance hall, American
academy, and finally the concert stage.
2. Came from different artists experimenting
3. Needs the rich African oral tradition of the Negro slave culture
and European musical tradition of schooling practices
B. Elements of Jazz
1. African singing
2. European instruments
3. White and black church music
4. Songs of Tin Pan Alley
5. Roaring Twenties Marching bands
6. Hopelessness of slavery
7. Religious fervor of the Great Awakening
What to Listen for in Jazz
A. Sounds Associated with Jazz
1. Instrumentation: the instruments that are being played
2. Rhythm section: drums or piano that keep the rhythm of the
music
3. Vibrato: growls, bends, slurs
4. Chord: two or more notes that compliment each other
B. Improvisation and Composition
1. Jazz idiom: Expression in jazz that are results from African
American musicians interjecting African music into European
music
2. How the music is played is more important than how it is
composed
3. Was criticized as illegitimate and dangerous
4. Jazz composition can be balances between improvisation and
composition
a. Most composed composition is completely notated and
performer is expected to play exactly as written.
Example: Member of trumpet section of big swing band
play his part
b. Performer may play melody that is accurate reflection
of notation but in distinctive interpretive style by
bending notes, adding vibrato, altering the rhythm, and
so on. Example: Blues singer interpreting familiar
melody
III.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
1. 2/4
2.
3. 4/4
Rhythm / Style
1. Ballad
2. Medium Swing
3. Fast Swing
4. Latin
5. Bossa Nova
6. Shuffle Swing
Harmony
1. Relaxed (not complex)
2. Slow moving
3. Uses IV to I (funky)
4. Tense (comples)
5. Fast chord progressions
6. Modal
Texture
1. Vertical (homophonic, harmonic)
2. Horizontal (polyphonic, melodic)
3. Both
Instrumental Color (Solo spots)
1. Banjo
2. Clarinet
3. Cornet (trumpet)
4. Guitar
5. Percussion
6. Piano
7. Saxophone
8. String bass
9. Trombone
Form
1. 12 bar blues
2. AABA
3. ABAB
4. Free
Size / type
1. Small (one or two players with rhythm section)
2. Chamber ensemble (three or more with no doubling)
3. Large, with sections
Mood:
1. Frantic, driing
2. Happy
3. Low Key, understatement
4. Rough, aggressive
5. Soulful
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
II.
III.
IV.
The Origin
A. African and European music began to merge
1. Slave sang sad songs about suffering
2. Singing was in unison
3. No chords or form
4. During reconstruction, slaves could perform their music more
openly, then blues began to take on more specific form
B. Blues started
1. With three vocal phrases (AAB)
2. With 8 musical measures (4 beats)
3. Each song varied between 8, 12, and 16 measures most
popular was 12
Blue Notes
A. Blue tonalities: Was influenced from Western Europeans
pentatonic scales (Lower the 3rd and 7th)
1. There are no keys on piano that correspond to blue tonalities
or blue notes so pianists play these two keys at the same time
2. Flatted fifth (Lowering the 5th note in the scale)
Field and Prison Hollers
A. Work Song that had solo hollers or cries that were used to make
calls across open fields
1. Traced back to West African groups
2. Holler meant social interactions
3. Some hollers were wordless but full of expressions and
feelings
B. Hollers associated with songs sung by prison inmates
1. Contributed to the type of vocalizations now associated with
blues singing
C. Nobody considered bending notes on instruments
1. Before field cry with bending of notes
2. Blue tonalities and note bending can be heard by early jazz
brass bands
3. Blue notes heard in work songs, spirituals and styles of jazz
D. Embouchure (Mouth position) can change the pitch slightly
1. Slight adjustments could create pitch that falls between two
notes on the piano
2. Out of tune-ness helped create that blue note feeling
Blues Lyrics
A. Iambic Pentameter
1. Blues meter
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
II.
III.
IV.
5. Left hand was used to play both bass notes and chords and
right had free for syncopated melodic lines
6. Extreme difficulty cause academic piano players to oppose
ragtime
7. Played on offbeats (2nd and 4th beats)
8. Ragtime players were employed at fairs and carnivals
B. Scott Joplin
1. Most prolific ragtime music
2. Maple Leaf Rag
C. Jelly Roll Morton
1. Ferdinand de Menthe
2. Best known ragtime piano player
3. Claims that he originated jazz
4. Performed with variety of bands
5. Established many bands
6. He was an arranger: Person who put music together for bands
Ragtime and Dixieland merge
A. Dixieland and ragtime began to merge when piano players began
to play with other instruments
B. Melodic concept of rags was change
C. Rhythmic accentuation to the rags was carried into Dixieland
1. Rhythm of bands changed from four four to two four
Ragtime Lives On
A. Tack piano: piano that is altered to sound much older than it is so
ragtime sounds more authentic
1. Put thumbtacks in the felts of piano
2. Frequently heard on piano but can be heard in band music
B. People played ragtime more quickly and aggressively that the
normal tempo became slow and relaxed
C. Stride playing became more popular
Boogie Woogie
A. Piano style that was important to development of jazz
1. Self descriptive
2. Feeling created by playing eight beats to the bar
3. Came into prominence during economic crisis Great
Depression
4. Fully style of piano playing
B. Ostinato Bass
1. Ostinato: a melodic figure that recurs throughout the music
2. Structural device that helps hold a piece together
3. Always the bass
4. Walking bass: outlines the chores in a melodic fashion
5. Measure is 8 over 4
6. Main feature is the rhythmic virtuosity
7. Left hand and right hand have to work hard and it almost
sounds like two distinct pianists
C. The Players
1. Had European influences
2. Some musicians couldnt read music so they just developed
their own style by listening instead
(1)Peat Johnson was boogie woogie pianist in Kansas City
D. Origin
1. Was developed from guitar technique used in mining ,
logging, and turpentine camps
E. Later Developments
1. Left hand rhythm developed into shuffle rhythm which was
later used by swing groups and imports the energy and eight
beats to the bar feel
2. Rhythm and blues artists used in early rock
3. Boogie woogie can also be found in original swing period in
the dance center
Stride Piano
A. Not bound by original construction of rags
1. NO longer compelled to play alone
2. So in order to play with big bands, they needed to change
their style
3. They need to play across the whole keyboard for the FULL
band sound
4. They played popular tunes of the day
5. Faster and much more drive than relaxed ragtime players
B. James P. Johnson and Fats Waller
1. Considered to be father of stride piano - Johnson
2. Fats Waller was a student of Johnson
C. Art Tatum
1. The best surely the most versatile piano player in history o
of jazz
2. Stride was one of his favorites
3. Usually played alone
4. Almost completely blind
D. Later Stride Pianists
1. Basie and Ellington went into authentic stride piano during
improvisation
V.
II.
III.
IV.
E. The King
F. Sidney Bechet
G. Out of New Orleans
Louis Armstrong (1901 1971)
Chicago Style (The 1920s)
A. The Roaring Twenties
B. The New Orleans and Chicago Styles
1. Chicago
2. Bix Beiderbecke
Later Developments
Chapter 6: Swing
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
New Additions
A. Jimmy Blanton
B. Ben Webster
Johnny Hodges
A Period of Transition
Late Ellington
Individual and Group Expression
Innovations
Repertoire
Chapter 8: Bop
The Shift to Bop
The Developing Mainstream and the Jazz Canon
Bop Arranging
Musical Expansion
The Bop Rhythm Section
The Performers
A. Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie
B. Charlie Parker
C. Bud Powell
D. Thelonious Monk
E. J.J. Johnson
Bop and Progressive Big Bands
A. Billy Eckstein
B. Stan Kenton
C. Gillespies Bop Band
Swing to Cubop
The Mambo and Cubop