Music 308: History of Jazz

Tuesdays-Thursdays 1:00-2:20
Professor Peter Winkler
 About This Course

This is a category “K” (American Pluralism)
course.
•  A central issue: The roots of Jazz are Afro-American
•  But many of the people who financially profit the
most from Jazz have been white
•  If you’re uncomfortable talking about racial politics,
you may not like this course
This is an upper-division course
•  Music courses are not easy!
•  Intensive Reading and Listening Assignments
•  Three Quizzes, a Midterm and a Final
•  Two 5-page papers
•  Plan to spend 6 - 12 hours per week
–  (3 in class; 3-9 listening, reading, writing, reviewing)
 Prerequisites

•  Understanding of basics of music
•  1 college-level music course (e.g. MUS 101, 119,
105-106) or equivalent
•  You need a secure understanding of such basics as:
–  meter, rhythmic notation
–  the nature of harmony and melody
–  the elements of musical form
•  You will be asked to follow written music examples
•  You will be expected to identify recorded excerpts
on the quizzes and exams
•  You will be expected to analyse the music (form,
musical details) in essays
•  We'll take your musical experience & training into
account when grading essays.
•  More will be expected of trained musicians!
 Attendance and Class
Participation
•  Attendance is NOT OPTIONAL
•  Counts 20% of final grade (more than any exam or paper)
•  Don’t come to class late and don’t leave early.
•  If you’re not here when attendance is taken, you will be
marked absent
•  If you leave early without an excuse, you will be marked
absent
•  Written e-mail required for excused absence
•  Written in-class assignments (not for grade, but must be
handed in.)
•  Class discussion encouraged; questions always welcome
•  NO TEXTING, FACEBOOK, etc! Cell phones OFF!
•  You will be graded on your participation
 Reading
TEXTBOOK:
•  Ted Gioia The History of Jazz, Oxford, 1998
SUPPLEMENTARY READING (required):
•  Robert Walser Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz
History
–  Rich source of insight into cultural, social, and
economic history of Jazz,
–  writing by many of the musicians themselves
–  Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, others
Additional Readings (on Blackboard website)
•  This week’s assignment (required):
–  Lewis Porter et al. "Listening to Jazz" from Jazz from
Its Origins to the Present (p. 449-459)
 Course Work
Exams
•  Three quizzes, based on listening CD's
–  Mostly identifying music heard in previous units
–  Also a few questions about course content

•  Midterm and Final. See schedule in Syllabus

Papers
•  Two 5-page papers. See Syllabus
–  1. musical analysis of a jazz performance
–  2. research paper on cultural, social, or
economic issues
 Blackboard Website
–  If you are registered, you should have access
–  Copies of all handouts and assignments
–  Lecture notes posted after lectures
–  Listening assignments (mp3 format)
•  If your browser doesn’t support streaming from
Blackboard, you may need to download them
–  PC: Right click; Mac: Control click
–  choose "Download linked file" or "Save Link As..."
or "Save Target As..." depending on browser.
–  Supplementary reading (pdf format)
–  Exam and quiz scores
 Grading
Attendance, in-class writing,
20%
participation

3 Listening Quizzes (@ 7%) 21%

2 Papers (@ 14 %) 28%
1 Midterm 14%
Final 17%
–  Disabilities?
•  Please read statement in syllabus
–  Academic Honesty: Do your own work!
•  Cheating on Exams will be severely
punished
•  Sources in essays must be correctly
attributed (citations, bibliographies).
•  Quoting other people without attributing
source is plagiarism. This is an academic
crime.
 Music 308 Staff
•  Peter Winkler, Professor
–  3307 Staller
–  Office Hours: after class Tuesday & Thursday
–  Email: peter.winkler@stonybrook.edu
–  Composer, Pianist
–  Research in Popular Music, Jazz, Folk Music
–  42 years at Stony Brook!
•  Chris Howard, Teaching Assistant
–  0104 Staller
–  Email: cahoward@sbcglobal.net
–  Office hours TBA
–  Percussionist and drummer extraordinare!
 Getting Acquainted:
In-Class Assignment #1

•  Will be collected and read, but not graded

•  Please take 10 minutes to tell us about
your musical background and tastes
•  This information will help us get to know
you
•  It will also help us in evaluating your work.
 What is Jazz?

What’s wrong with that question?
–  Louis Armstrong:
“If you have to ask, you’ll never know.”
–  Pigeonhole categories are for marketing
purposes; not aesthetics
–  Several kinds of definitions:
•  Historical origins
•  Traditions
•  Musical elements
–  Jazz as a practice rather than a product
–  Better questions:
•  “What do Jazz Musicians Do?”
•  “What do Jazz audiences do?”
 Jazz is rooted in Afro-American
performance traditions
–  Sound (timbre):
•  Voice-like growls, bends, slides, vibrato
•  Emphasis on developing a unique “voice”
–  Rhythmic feel:
•  Syncopated and Polyrhythmic
–  Syncopation: a deliberate upsetting of the normal
pattern of accents; accents shifted to weak
beats.
–  Polyrhythm: simultaneous sounding of two or
more independent rhythms.
•  “Swing”
–  sense of momentum created by push and pull
over the constant underlying beat
 Musical Elements of Jazz
–  Most jazz performance based on a repeated
chord progression ("chord changes")
•  Both performers and listeners need to hear
that progression
–  Improvisation
•  Not unique to Jazz
•  Not always present
•  Differently defined in different contexts
•  Not “creating something from nothing” or
“playing just what you feel”
•  A skilled discipline rooted in tradition and
practice
 The Blues Form
–  A chord progression every Jazz musician knows
–  Description in the Porter reading is too complicated.
–  Basic structure: 12 bars, with these structural
chords
•  4 bars: I - I
•  4 bars: IV - I
•  4 bars: V - I
–  Other chords can fill in the basic chord progression
–  Once through this 12-bar form = one chorus
–  We will learn to sing the "blues bass line" song!
 Jelly Roll Morton: Mamie’s
Blues
Historical background:
Recorded at the Library of
Congress, late 1930's
Morton interviewed by
ethnomusicologist Alan
Lomax
Reminiscing about New
Orleans at the turn of
the century
First blues he ever heard
We'll learn more about him
in coming weeks


 Classic “AAB” Lyric Form:
CHORUS I:
•  (A) I stood on a corner; both feet was dripping wet
I (IV) I
•  (A') Stood on a corner; both feet was dripping wet
IV I
•  (B) I asked every man I met
V I
CHORUS II:

•  (A) Can’t give me a dollar, give me a lousy dime
I (V) I
•  (A') If you can’t give me a dollar, give me a lousy dime
IV I
•  (B) Just to feed that hungry man of mine
V I
 Characteristics of performance
–  Morton fills in the progression with extra chords
–  Blue notes in his vocals
•  Standard definition:
–  note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch ("flatted")
–  notes "in the cracks" of the scale as played on piano
–  most common: 3rd, 5th, or 7th of the scale
•  Leaves out the important point:
–  the pitch often changes as the note is sung or played
–  glides upwards or downwards
–  Listen to Morton at ½ speed
–  3-part polyrhythm between 2 hands of piano and
voice
•  Piano left hand plays a Latin kind of rhythm
•  Right hand pulls against the rhythm:
–  sometimes on the beat, sometimes syncopated
•  Morton's vocal "floats" over the beat, but synchonized

 Ma Rainey: “Bad Luck Blues” (1923)

–  First recording by a pioneer of
the blues
–  Each line Ma sings is answered
by a fill from Tommy Ladnier
(trumpet)
–  = “call and response”
–  Listen for blue notes,
syncopation, the quality of
swing
–  (Ladnier is playing double time)
–  Can you follow the notated
example?
“Bad Luck Blues” Ma Rainey, Tommy
Ladnier. 2nd chorus, notated.
 Technical Terms we have used
today:
–  Blues form
–  Blue note
–  Chord progression (chord “changes”)
–  Chorus
–  Call and Response
–  Double time
–  Polyrhythm
–  Syncopation
–  Swing
•  We'll review and discuss these terms
further in coming classes