What is Jazz Music

What is Jazz MusicA style of music, native to America, characterized by a strong but flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns and, more recently, a highly sophisticated harmonic idiomA musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.

Characteristics of Jazz Music

Blue note (also "worried" note) is a note thatfor expressive purposesis sung or played at a slightly different pitch than standard. Typically the alteration is a between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies among performers and genres.

Syncopation involves a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected which make part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is a general term for "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur.

A "swing note" or "shuffle note" is a performance practice, mainly in jazz-influenced music, in which some notes with equal written time values are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short..

A call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. It corresponds to the call-and-response pattern in human communication and is found as a basic element of musical form, such as verse-chorus form, in many traditionsPolyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more conflicting rhythms, that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic conflict may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhythm), or a momentary disruption. Improvisation which means the person playing is making music up as they go along. If a jazz band is playing a song, the song may have several solos where one player will improvise while the rest of the band, except for the rhythm section (such as the piano, bass, or drums), does not play.

Origin of the word JazzAs with many words that began in slang, there is no definitive etymology for jazz. However, the similarity in meaning of the earliest jazz citations to jasm, a now-obsolete slang term meaning spirit, energy, vigor and dated to 1860 in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, suggests that jasm should be considered the leading candidate for the source of jazz.

HistoryJazz started in the United States in the early 20th century. Jazz music was influenced by the music of African slaves who were taken from Africa to work in the plantations of the southern United States, such as call and response songs and blue notes. These characteristics are what developed blues, a sad song that slaves sung during their labor. These influences were indirect, through earlier musical forms such as ragtime. Jazz has musical styles from European music, as well as the brass and stringed instruments and (sometimes) the use of musical notation.or free jazz.HistoryThere have been different types of jazz through time. In the 1920s, there was New Orleans-style jazz. Dixieland jazz was also popular. In the 1930s, there was swing jazz, which was also called big band jazz. In the 1940s, bebop became a major type of jazz, with fast songs and complex harmony.[2] Large jazz bands, which are called big bands, were also popular in the 1940s. Big bands usually have 5 saxophone players, 4 or 5 trumpet players, 4 trombone players, a piano player or guitar player, an acoustic bass player, a drummer, and sometimes a singer. In the 1950s, there was hard bop jazz. In the 1960s, there was modern jazz and free jazz. In the 1970s, jazz fusion began to blend jazz music with rock music. Some jazz is still played with the same improv methods as it did at its beginning, except with modern electronic instruments.

HistoryJazz is generally thought to have begun in New Orleans, spreading to Chicago, Kansas City, New York City, and the West Coast. The blues, vocal and instrumental, was and is a vital component of jazz, which includes, roughly in order of appearance: ragtime; New Orleans or Dixieland jazz; swing; bop, or bebop; progressive, or cool, jazz; neo-bop, or hard-bop; third stream; mainstream modern; Latin-jazz; jazz-rock; and avant-garde or free jazz.

History

Basing his songs on traditional blues, W. C. Handy greatly increased the popularity of the idiom. Important vocal blues stylists include Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly , Lightnin' Sam Hopkins, Robert Johnson , Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, Bertha (Chippie) Hill, Bessie Smith , Billie Holiday Dinah Washington, and Muddy Waters

Forms of Jazz

BluesRagtimeNew Orleans JazzSwingNew Orleans JazzSwingBopProgressive Jazz

BluesThe heart of jazz, the blues is a musical form now standardized as 12 bars, based on the tonic, dominant, and subdominant chords. The "blue notes" are the flatted third and seventh. A statement is made in the first four bars, repeated (sometimes with slight variation) in the next four, and answered or commented on in the last four. In vocal blues the lyrics are earthy and direct and are mostly concerned with basic human problemslove and sex, poverty, and death. The tempo may vary, and the mood ranges from total despair to cynicism and satire.

RagtimeThe earliest form of jazz to exert a wide appeal, ragtime was basically a piano style emphasizing syncopation and polyrhythm. Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin were major composers and performers of ragtime. From about 1893 to the beginning of World War I this music was popularized through sheet music and player-piano rolls. In the early 1970s, ragtime, particularly Joplin's works, had a popular revival. RagtimeThe earliest form of jazz to exert a wide appeal, ragtime was basically a piano style emphasizing syncopation and polyrhythm. Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin were major composers and performers of ragtime. From about 1893 to the beginning of World War I this music was popularized through sheet music and player-piano rolls. In the early 1970s, ragtime, particularly Joplin's works, had a popular revival.

New Orleans JazzNew Orleans, or Dixieland, jazz is played by small bands usually made up of cornet or trumpet, clarinet, trombone, and a rhythm section that includes bass, drums, guitar, and sometimes piano. When the band marched, as it often did in the early days, the piano and bass were omitted and a tuba was used. The three lead instruments provide a contrapuntal melody above the steady beat of the rhythm, and individualities of intonation and phrasing, with frequent use of vibrato and glissando, give the music its warm and highly personal quality. The music ranged from funeral dirges to the exuberant songs of Mardi Gras.

SwingOriginating in Kansas City and Harlem in the late 1920s and becoming a national craze, swing was marked by the substitution of orchestration for improvisation and a rhythm that falls between the beats. The average big band had about 15 members (five reeds, five brass, piano, bass, and drums) and could generate overwhelming volume or evince the most subtle articulations. BopThe vigor of the music notwithstanding, a revolt against the confining nature of the harmony, melody, and rhythm of swing arose in Kansas City and Harlem in the 1930s and reached fruition in the mid-40s. The new music, called "bebop" or "rebop" (later shortened to "bop"), was rejected at first by many critics. Bop was characterized by the flatted fifth, a more elaborate rhythmic structure, and a harmonic rather than melodic focus.

Progressive JazzAfter beginning in New York City, progressive, or cool, jazz developed primarily on the West Coast in the late 1940s and early 50s. Intense yet ironically relaxed tonal sonorities are the major characteristic of this jazz form, while the melodic line is less convoluted than in bop. Lester Young's style was fundamental to the music of the cool saxophonists

Joplin is considered the foremost composer of ragtime music. Many of his compositions, including Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer, were published and sold across the country. Ragtime, although based on European classical music, led to the development of the style known as stride piano, one of the first forms of jazz.

2. Charles Buddy Bolden (1877-1931) Trumpeter Buddy Bolden is credited with bringing a loose, raw approach to instrumental jazz with his loud tone and emphasis on improvisation. He infused ragtime with the blues and black church music, and organized ensembles consisting of brass instruments and clarinets, changing the way jazz composers tended to orchestrate their music.

3. Joe King Oliver (1885-1938) Best known as a bandleader, King Oliver was also Louis Armstrongs teacher, and was responsible for launching Armstrongs career by featuring him in his band. Oliver played with many of the great musicians of early jazz, including Jelly Roll Morton. He famously turned down a regular gig at New Yorks Cotton Club in 1927 that was snatched up instead by Duke Ellington, and which subsequently helped Ellington rise to fame

4. Nick LaRocca (1889-1961) Cornetist and trumpeter LaRocca was the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band (later changed to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band), which made the first jazz recordings in 1917. The group consisted of drums, piano, trombone, cornet, and clarinet, and their first cut was called Livery Stable Blues

6. James P. Johnson (1891-1955) Growing up listening to Scott Joplins rags, James P. Johnson was one of the originators of the stride piano style. His music, which used most of the conventions of ragtime, also included improvisation and elements of the blues, two aspects that were widely influential in the development of jazz.

7. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) With his unique lyrical approach to the trumpet, Armstrong changed the face of jazz, shifting the focus from collective improvisation to personal expression through soloing. He was also a singer with a distinctive voice, and had a knack for scat singing. Throughout his career, he never lost the ability to appeal to a wide audience, and because of his celebrity and his lovable persona, he was selected by the U.S. State Department to represent his country as a musical ambassador, promoting jazz on international tours.