Jazz

Shortly after the War of 1812 From New Orleans, LA Instruments included trumpets,

trombones, clarinets, saxophones, and drums

A mixture of traditional ethnic music, gospel, blues, ragtime, classical (from Creole musicians)

Jazz – a musical form distinguished by its reliance on improvisation and its rhythmic urgency

Polyrhythmic – juxtaposing two or more different rhythms

Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, and Earl Hines set norms on “stride piano”

Ferdinand Morton – 1885-1941 Perfected Dixieland Jazz – small

ensemble, one of each instrument, blend of simultaneous improvisation

“Black Bottom Stomp” Break – a measure or two where

everyone stops playing except the soloist

Scat singing – a form of vocal improvisation on nonsense syllables (Ella Fitzgerald)

1898-1991 From New Orleans Trumpet, vocals Nicknamed – “Satchmo”

With style of “hot jazz” sizes of band expanded

“Hotter than That” – Lil Hardin

New style of jazz (1930s)– swing – the special rhythmic character that jazz musicians give to the music

Fletcher Henderson developed swing style and expanded jazz ensembles to compliment the style

Brass section – 3 trumpets, 2 trombones Reed section – 3 or 4 saxes (double

clarinets) Rhythm section – drums, piano, guitar

and double bass Henderson Stomp – trading fours

Mid 1930s, music was primarily for listening, not dancing

Benny Goodman – clarinetist, Russian-Jewish immigrant family, “King of Swing”, first/only major jazz artist to have a parallel career in classical music

Lester Young – played tenor sax, ushered the transition from clarinet to sax

32 bar form – AABA form, standard jazz form

Bridge – a connective part of a composition

Duke Ellington – one of the most important American composers, wrote over 2000 pieces, “It Don’t Mean a Thing” – sung by Ella Fitzgerald, “Cotton Tail”

Chromatic – incorporating tones from a musical scale consisting entirely of half steps

Mary Lou Williams – popular female composer, Zodiac Suite (Gemini)

Bebop – a complex and sophisticated type of improvised jazz, for listening rather than dancing

Smaller ensemble than big band/swing, more freedom to improvise

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie – trumpet Charlie “Yardbird” Parker – alto sax

Made melodies more chromatic, harmonies and rhythms became more complex, rapid tempos and dazzling technical displays

“Shaw Nuff” by Gillespie and Parker

1950s – return to Dixieland and Ragtime styles, developed new styles “rhythm and blues” and “modal jazz”

Dorian Mode – a scale with the pattern of WHWWWHW

Miles Davis – pioneer of modal jazz, “So What”

Thelonious Monk – “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”

1960s/70s – “free jazz”, similar to modal jazz, just more complex

Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Quincy Jones – pushed new style of “fusion” – combination of jazz and rock

“Birdland” - fusion “So Danco Samba” - Latin “I Got You” - blues