Transcript listen! - Moodle

Chapter 23:
Music in America:
Jazz and Beyond
Jazz: The First
Fifty Years
Key Terms
Jazz
Improvisation
Breaks
Syncopation
Rhythm section
Beat syncopation
Ragtime
Blues
Twelve-bar blues
Gospel music
New Orleans jazz
Collective
improvisation
“Jamming”
Big bands
Swing
Sidemen
Conga
Jazz:
The First Fifty Years
America’s most distinctive (& perhaps
greatest) contribution to the arts
• Preserved by means of sound recording
• Grew up among black musicians c. 1910
Jazz is a special performance style
• Whether based on blues, popular songs, etc.
Improvisation is a key feature
• A kind of impromptu variation procedure
• Altering the tune, adding ornaments & breaks
Syncopation is also essential
Jazz Syncopation (1)
Syncopation = accenting beats that are
normally unaccented
• one two THREE one TWO three
A common feature in Western music
• Used much more frequently in jazz
Two rhythmic levels in jazz
• Strict emphasis on meter by the rhythm section
(piano, bass, drums)
• Complex syncopation by melody instruments
(trumpet, clarinet, trombone, saxophone, etc.)
Jazz Syncopation (2)
Jazz futher developed beat syncopation
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Derived from African drumming
Found in earlier African American music
Accents are moved just a bit ahead of the beat
In other words, they anticipate the beat
If done in the right way, the music swings
Ragtime
A syncopated style of piano playing
• Developed by black musicians
Music resembled march music
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Left hand played strictly on the beat
But right hand played crisp syncopations
“To rag” = to play in a syncopated style
“Ragging” evolved into jazz syncopation
Rags enormously popular in early 1900s
• Both sheet music & piano rolls sold well
• Many popular songs used “raggy” rhythms
Scott Joplin
(1868-1917)
The leading rag composer
• Son of an ex-slave, grew up in Texarkana
• Pianist & band musician in the midwest
His rags stand out for their elegance
• The Entertainer, Solace: A Mexican Serenade
Maple Leaf Rag is his most famous work
• Published in 1899, soon sold a million copies
Unable to break into cultivated music
• Moved to New York in 1907
• His opera Treemonisha was unsuccessful
The Blues (1)
African American folk song genre
• Subject is often loneliness, trouble, depression
• Often expressed with humor, banter, hope, &
resilience
• An essential expression of African American
experience
The blues emerged c. 1900
• Has evolved through many stages
• Was a major influence on jazz
• A major force in American music ever since
The Blues (2)
12-bar blues the most common variety
• A blues melody has three 4-bar phrases
• Melody repeats with each new stanza
Two lines of poetry in each stanza
• First line is repeated for Phrase 2
• Follows a a b rhyme scheme
• Blues singers often improvise the words
Composed blues can be more complex
• W. C. Handy’s famous St. Louis Blues
The Blues (3)
Blues provided powerfully emotional
patterns for jazz improvisation
• Jazz musicians were influenced by blues
melodies & bass lines,
• Often used 12-bar blues chord progressions
Blues also provided a sound model
• Blues singers bend pitches, rough up the tone
• Jazz players imitated these qualities, taking on
a more human, vocal quality
• Listen as Armstrong imitates Wallace in his
breaks between her phrases
Sippie Wallace, “If You Ever
Been Down” Blues (1)
Wallace a legendary early blues singer
• An accomplished singer, pianist, & songwriter
• Known for raw, unvarnished, emotional singing
• Known equally for gospel music & the blues
In this blues she sings & plays the piano
• Accompanied by trumpet & clarinet – the great
Louis Armstrong & Artie Starks
Four stanzas overall
• Instrumental chorus between 1st & last two
stanzas played by Armstrong
Sippie Wallace, “If You Ever
Been Down” Blues (2)
Frequent instrumental breaks
• Trumpet & clarinet answer her “call” in
between phrases of vocal melody
• Armstrong’s rich, vocal tone quality echoes &
complements the singer
Sippie Wallace, “If You Ever
Been Down” Blues (3)
Armstrong’s improvisation stands out
• He doesn’t play Wallace’s melody note for note
• He improvises around the melody & bass
• Wonderful ability to enliven blues rhythms
Moments of three-part jazz polyphony
• All three performers improvise simultaneously
• A taste of the collective improvisation typical of
New Orleans Jazz
New Orleans Jazz (1)
New Orleans 1st important jazz center
• Performers developed wonderfully imaginative,
individual performance styles
• Louis Armstrong its 1st great virtuoso
Local entertainment for black audiences
• Informal, low-budget, & somewhat casual
• Small bands of six to eight players
• Three melody instruments – trumpet, clarinet,
& saxophone
• Rhythm section might include piano, banjo,
bass, tuba, & drums
New Orleans Jazz (2)
Collective improvisation, or “jamming”
• Simultaneous improvisation within fixed roles
• Melodic spurts for trumpet, running passages
for clarinet, forceful slides for trombone
• Resulting nonimitative polyphony was a
hallmark of early jazz
Recordings crucial in the spread of jazz
• Discs could only hold 3 minutes per side
• “Race record” labels targeted black audience
• Attracted many white listeners as well
Louis Armstrong (1)
(1901-1971)
The first great jazz virtuoso
• Learned cornet at juvenile delinquents’ home
• Played anywhere he could – riverboats, clubs,
dance halls, opera houses, etc.
Gradually rose to prominence
• First with King Oliver & Fletcher Henderson
• Landmark 1920s recordings with his own band
The most exciting artist of his day!
• Known for power & beauty of trumpet tone,
sophisticated, swinging rhythms, & imaginative
“breaks” & variations
Louis Armstrong (2)
(1901-1971)
Helped popularize big band jazz in 1930s
• Became a nationally beloved star
• Appeared in nearly 20 movies
• Sent on innumerable international tours by the
State Department – “Ambassador Satch”
Enjoyed enormous commercial success
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Audiences came to hear Satchmo, not jazz
He drifted away from his jazz roots
Final hit record was Hello, Dolly!
But he was always one of the greatest living
trumpet players
Swing (1)
Jazz became popular music in 1930s
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Larger audience led to larger bands
New style known as big-band jazz or swing
Big bands of 10 to 25 players common
Too big for older collective improvisation
Emphasis now on written arrangements
• Improvisation limited to a few solo spots
• A loss of spontaneity resulted
• Arrangers compensated for this with varied
tone colors & instrumental effects
• They frequently contrasted reeds & brass
Swing (2)
Jazz was a fairly small black operation
• But with success came white musicians &
managers
• White bands saw the greatest commercial
success – Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, etc.
• Authentic jazz was often watered down for
growing white audiences
The best big bands were still black
• Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb,
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington (1)
(1899-1974)
America’s greatest jazz composer
• Started as jazz band pianist, soon formed his
own bands & learned arranging
• Unique as a bandleader-composer-arranger
Formed one of the great big bands
Regulars at Harlem’s Cotton Club in 1930s
Toured all over the world
Great loyalty between Duke & his sidemen
Individual strengths of sidemen were part &
parcel of Duke’s arrangements
• Many of them also wrote music for the band
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Duke Ellington (2)
(1899-1974)
High standards of innovation, stylishness
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Combined instrumental colors in unique ways
The band never “went commercial”
Wrote many great, hard-swinging charts
Also wrote long, symphonic-style jazz works,
movie scores, ballet, opera, etc.
Wrote series of Sacred Concerts in 1960s
Received Presidential Medal of Freedom
1930-1950 recordings are Duke’s major legacy
Mood Indigo, Harlem Airshaft, Concerto for
Cootie, Ko-Ko, Black, Brown, and Beige
Ellington, Conga Brava
Written by Ellington & sideman Juan Tizol
• The conga is an Afro-Cuban dance
• Borrows a characteristic Latin American beat
• Unusual a a b song form heard three times, but
never the same twice
• 1st chorus – a on valve trombone (Tizol) with
Latin beat, b uses contrasting jazz beat
• 2nd chorus – dazzling free improvisation by
Ben Webster on tenor sax
• 3rd chorus – full band with wild syncopations
• Coda – a only, same as beginning
Ragtime Overview
Late 1890s-1918, peak popularity 1910-15
For solo piano
Left hand keeps beat – “oom-pah” pattern
Syncopated right hand melody
Form – contrasting 16-bar sections
• AAB BAC C D D
Scott Joplin, “Maple Leaf Rag”
Blues Overview
Began shortly before 1900
Improvised vocal music
• Evolved from slow chants or laments, field
hollers, later taken up by instruments
Blue notes from African scale tunings
Pitch bending by voice & instruments
Usually based on 12-bar blues form
• Three 4-bar phrases; a a b poetic structure
• Chord progression: I – – – IV – I – V (IV) I –
Sippie Wallace, “If You Ever Been Down”
New Orleans Jazz Overview
Began in early 1900s
• By 1920 many New Orleans players in Chicago
Small combo – trumpet, clarinet, trombone
• Rhythm section – banjo, tuba, drums; later
piano, bass, drums
Four beats to the bar with syncopation
Improv based on rag or blues tunes
• Collective improv – nonimitative polyphony
Sippie Wallace, “If You Ever Been Down”
Swing Overview
1930-45 – when jazz was popular music
“Big band” jazz arose with dance bands
• Swing rhythms give lilt, forward momentum
• Resulting beat syncopation very sophisticated
3-4 trumpets, 4-5 saxes, 3-4 trombones
• Rhythm section – piano, guitar, bass, drums
Arrangements with brief solo improv
• Reeds often pitted against brass
• Based on pop songs (32-bar AABA) or blues
Duke Ellington, Conga brava