Transcript Popular Styles in Jazz since the Swing Era

Popular Styles in Jazz since
the Swing Era
Chapter 9
Introduction
• Jazz musicians began to experiment with
more complex, often less danceable
rhythms
• Because this new brand of music was
more difficult, if not impossible to dance to,
the mainstream public lost interest and
jazz became a “high art”
Bebop
• Named after scat syllables
• Pioneered by John “Dizzy” Gillespie and
Charlie Parker
Dizzy Gillespie
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1917
trumpet
born South Carolina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvIXze
DLpMw
Charlie Parker
• 1920
• Saxophone
• Born Kansas City
• Both moved to New York and formed a
quintet together
• Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gilliespie- Koko
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okrNwE
6GI70
Characteristics of Bebop
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Smaller ensembles
Music became more abstract
Tempos sped up or slowed down
Too fast/slow to dance to
More interesting chord progressions and
modulations
• Melodies were usually complex lines made
of eighth notes
Popular Styles in Jazz since the
Swing Era
Birth of Cool Jazz
Claude Thornhill leader of
Claude Thornhill Orchestra
• Gil Evans + Gerry Mulligan - arrangers
• Frequently used French horns and tuba
• Miles Davis was recruited to lead the band
Miles Davis 1926
• Trumpet
• Released The Birth of the Cool – met with
little popular appeal at first but has turned
out to be a tremendously influential album
• Video 25 minutes
long http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq
o3DRwlFO4
The Miles Davis Quintet
• 00:00 to 10:40- So What (composed by Miles
Davis from the album Kind Of Blue)
• Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra
• 10:41 tp 14:04 - The Duke (composed by Dave
Brubeck from the album Miles Ahead)
• 14:05 to 19:57 - Blues For Pablo (composed by
Gil Evans from the album Miles Ahead)
• 19:58 to 24:21 - New Rhumba (composed by
Ahmad Jamal from the album Miles Ahead)
Characteristics of Cool Jazz
• Lighter tone quality
• Cool, detached sound quality
• Cool Jazz turned out to be a hit with
college-age youth in the early 1950’s
• it combined a soft unimposing sound with
intellectual content
• allowed the consumer to contemplate it
deeply or relegate it to the background
without it being overwhelming
• because of this it found its way into coffee
shops and bars near college campuses
Dave Brubeck - 1920
• Piano
• Formed the Dave Brubeck quartet in 1951
• Gained popularity by playing college
campuses
• Two of his best known songs are in odd
time signatures
• Take Five http://youtu.be/y9aG3wUrfrE
Popular Styles in Jazz since the
Swing Era
Bossa Nova
Bossa Nova
• means new beat
• Pioneered by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto –
they released their first album together in 1963
• Combination of Brazilian music and Jazz
• Specifically a combination of a slow samba and
the complex chord progressions of bebop
• Brazilian music combines cultural roots of
Portuguese, African and native South American
inhabitants
Characteristics of bossa nova
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Lyrics are sophisticated and romantic
Tempo and rhythmic feel is danceable
Complex chord progressions
Light tonal quality
The Girl from Ipanema (Gilberto and Getz)
http://youtu.be/UJkxFhFRFDA
Popular Styles in Jazz since the
Swing Era
Jazz Fusion, Free Jazz and
Smooth Jazz
Jazz Fusion
• Blend of jazz and rock
• Notable practitioners
• Herbie Hancock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ASTMFNh4
• Miles Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrPQKH9n0bk
• Josef Zawinul - “In A Silent Way”
http://youtu.be/SqyepMYvUac
Free Jazz
• Sounds dissonant and rambling to the
average listener
• Spontaneous improvising
• Little or no regard for prescribed form,
melody or chords
• Notable practitioner
• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone - 1926
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1xe7F
DsQWY
Smooth Jazz
• Soothing, romantic and classy
• Notable practitioners
• David Sanborn – saxophone – 1945
http://youtu.be/lsq5eWCRz0U
• Kenny Gorelick – soprano saxophone – 1956
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUWy7XAOB
NM
• George Benson – guitar – 1943
http://youtu.be/5QjTK0pL1go
• Commercial music - has kept jazz alive to the
larger public