All That Jazz: History Courtesy of library.thinkquest.org Beginnings: 1890-1932 Jazz Music emerged as a recognizable musical form around the turn of the 20the century. The roots of jazz, however, extend backward over several centuries. Jazz music represents the "synthesis of many cultural influences...that was achieved through the institution of slavery." Jazz music combines elements of African music with elements of Western European music. African music differs from European music both technically and sociologically. Technically, African rhythms are more complex than those used in Western European Music. Often, several drummers would play at the same time weaving a complex rhythm known as polyrhythms. Sociologically, African society emphasized mass participation in musical performances to a far greater extent than European society did. In an African performance, there would be a leader, drummers, and possibly other instrumentalists. The audience would often participate by clapping in time and shouting a response to phrases sung by the musicians. Slaves in the New World used these "response-cries" in their work routines and social and religious activities. White Americans called them "field hollers. Jazz musicians would later apply the term "call-response" to these plantation songs. Western European Music also influenced the development of jazz. European harmonies from church hymns, folk songs, dances, military marches and airs, and classical compositions all affected the development of jazz. Essentially Africa's principal contribution to jazz was rhythm, Europe's was harmony, and both helped to furnish melody; It was African Americans, however, who combined the three to produce jazz. The earliest "jazz bands" took root around New Orleans. Among these bands were those led by Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton. These bands played a style of music that would come to be known as Dixieland. Dixieland bands included cornets (or trumpets), clarinets, "tailgate" trombones, tubas, banjos, and drums. Smaller Dixieland bands developed to play in small bars and bordellos that existed in the seamier parts of New Orleans. In these bands, a string bass or a piano would often replace the tuba.
The essence of Dixieland lies in its use of "collective improvisation". Collective improvisation uses the three lead instruments, usually the horns, to improvise contrapuntal melodies above a steady beat from the rhythm section. Within the improvisation, the players would follow certain patterns and formulas in order to produce the "Dixieland sound." Although each instrument would be playing a slightly different melody, they would all blend harmonically. If you would like to learn more about the "early jazz" style go to "early jazz" in the interactive education section. One of the most important early jazz bands was The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. They made the first ever jazz recordings! Some of the most important "early jazz" artists were Joe Oliver, Bix Biederbecke, Louis Armstrong, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, and Fats Waller. Jazz began to "swing" as musicians began to adopt swing eighths, the string bass, high hat cymbals, and a looser, more rhythmic feeling. This change occurred gradually starting in the twenties with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, and continued into the 40's. Bands of ten musicians or more played a lot of the music that came out of this period. Because of this, the swing era is also often known as the big band era. Some big bands didn't include a lot of improvisation. Other big bands such as that of Count Basie placed great emphasis on improvisation. Jazz music had been played as a form as entertainment since its inception. During the swing era, jazz music developed into tremendous dance music craze. Jazz groups seldom performed just for listening. Swing dancing was an extremely popular past time. During this era, jazz achieved wide popular appeal. One of Count Basie's recordings, One O clock Jump, sold over a million copies. The Swing Era: 1932-1944 The beginnings of the swing era can be traced to developments of larger bands by Fletcher Henderson in New York, and Bennie Moten in Kansas City. Fletcher Henderson along with his brother Horace and with Don Redman created the pattern for swing arrangements. Henderson helped establish the independent use of trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and rhythm sections with the use of soloists. A swing score generally has specific notes for each instrument to play in every measure. Then the music arranger decides which measures will be used for solo improvisation. The score is then taken to a music copyist who extracts the individual parts for the various instruments.
When the depression hit the U.S. in 1929, the entire music business suddenly failed. Some players, such as Benny Goodman were able to find employment in staff radio jobs. Others, such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington left the United States for Europe. Some jazz authorities believe that the swing era was launched in 1934 when Benny Goodman left the radio business to form his own band. However, by 1934 Duke Ellington as well as Fletcher Henderson had already formed large swing bands that played in the Kansas City area. Swing bands started to play a large part in people's lives in the late 30's as people tried to shake off the depression by dancing. Large ballrooms were extremely common and therefore large bands were needed. Bands of the swing era produced a much fuller sound than the sound produced by earlier Dixieland jazz bands. This resulted from the use of two to three times as many players. Because there were more players, swing music was organized in a homophonic construction. This resulted in the music sounding less complex and more organized in its effect. Block chords used by swing bands are a prime example of homophonic construction. The swing era is dominated by the big bands that played to huge audiences during this period. Two of the largest big bands were Count Basie's and Duke Ellington's. Benny Goodman also led several influential swing bands. Within the big bands, there were also many distinguished soloists. Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins were two extremely talented saxophone players who became well renowned for their improvisational prowess. Ella Fitzgerald wowed crowds with her silky smooth voice and upbeat scat singing. The Bop Era: 1942-1958 Bop, also known as bebop or rebop is a form of jazz that was created as a revolt against the restrictions on creative freedom that were typical of the big bands of the swing era. In many of the big bands, the solos were typically very short. This upset many soloists, as there wasn't room for experimentation. Bebop was a natural response to this. Most bebop players turned to small combos where there was a lot more room for innovative improvisation. There is no defining moment when bop was born. Rather, many unrelated events helped with the birth of bop. Bop developed in many locals including Kansas City and St. Louis. It solidified as a jazz form in New York in the early 1940's. Bop first made its appearances in the playing of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk. These three musicians played together and refined a very complex kind of music.
Bebop improvisations are composed mostly of eighth-note and sixteenth-note figures, which seem jumpy and include many twists and turns of melody. Also, it often includes large intervals between notes and abrupt changes of direction with regards to the melody. Bebop musicians based their improvisation around chord changes rather than just embellishing a melody. Often they enriched a piece by adding chords to the chord progression. This is known as substitution. Sometimes they would also alter the existing chords of a piece by flatting the 5 of the chord, or adding the 9 and 13 to the chord. This added to the complexity of bebop improvisation. One popular method of writing bebop tunes, utilized by Charlie Parker and many others, was to take the chord changes from an existing piece and write or improvise a new melody over those changes. This allowed a rhythm section to play a tune that they might have never heard before. Bebop was not nearly as popular as swing had been. There are several explanations for this fact. One explanation is that bop music was a lot more complicated than swing and therefore made it a hard music for the public to appreciate. Where as swing musicians pieces would sound the same in concert as in recordings a bop musician might never play a piece the same way twice. Another argument is that bop lacked popularity because there weren't that many bop singers. The argument is that people relate more to music with lyrics. Related to this argument is the fact that swing was popular dance music while bop was not. All this resulted in the fact that when Charlie Parker died in 1955 he was nowhere near as well known as Benny Goodman or Duke Ellington. In the long run, however, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, the three main figures in bop played a very significant part in the development of jazz. Cool Jazz: 1953-1969 Just as bebop was a response to the limits of the swing era, cool jazz was a response to the complexities of bebop jazz. In the "cool era, jazz musicians moved jazz closer to classical music. Much more emphasis was placed on arrangement and composition rather than complex improvised solos. The term "cool" was actually invented by record companies and journalists. Musicians of this era disliked any labeling of their music and especially this one as they thought that it made out that their style of music was boring. One of the defining elements of cool jazz was the different tone quality that musicians aimed for. The tonal qualities of cool jazz can be described as calm, subdued, soft, or light. One of the most obvious tonal differences in this era from the eras preceding it was the use of a much more delicate attack. Cool players also played with little or no vibrato. Unlike bop musicians who utilized the whole range of the instrument
and often focused on the extremes of the instrument, cool jazz musicians tended to use the middle registers. Cool jazz ensembles were usually composed of three to eight players. These ensembles often utilized instruments that had not previously been used in jazz ensembles. These instruments included the flute, the French horn, the oboe, and the cello. Another important instrument that worked its way into jazz was the flugelhorn. Miles Davis, one of the leaders of the swing movement, used the flugelhorn quite often. In addition to introducing new instruments to jazz, the cool era also introduced new formats for compositions and new meter signatures. Musicians no longer only played in 4/4 or 2/4 time. Meters such as 3/4, 5/4, and 9/4 became more common. Some musicians even adopted some classical forms such as rondos and fugues. These musicians moved even closer to traditional classical music and their type of jazz has been categorized as "third-stream music." Some important artists of the cool era, and beyond, include Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus. New Trends Following the trend of experimentation that was so evident with bebop and cool jazz, jazz musicians continued to experiment with new forms and new sounds. Their experimentation evolved into several different forms of jazz including free jazz, acid jazz, and avant-garde jazz. It is hard to call this period any one particular name. Hard bop and free jazz styles were part of the new trends in jazz that developed from 1959 to 1970. The hard bop style obtained its name because it was more driving and less relaxed than cool jazz. In addition, hard bop was also called funky due to its rollicking, rhythmic feeling. The funky style had many ties to gospel music and during the period was often called soul. Funky was a style that utilized highly rhythmical melodies and less complex harmonies than were used during the preceding era. Musicians created a style that can be described as happy or lacking tension. Funky jazz used bop elements, but they were much simplified. The playing style of funky jazz musicians stands in strong contrast to the measured and controlled expression of cool jazz artists. Funky jazz borrowed elements from the African American churches of the day. The scale used in funky jazz was very similar to the scale, which had been used in early blues and had been refined through its use in church music. The predominance of blues notes during this period resulted in many players actually playing pieces in minor keys. Important artists
in the genre included Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderly. The other style of music that developed during this period was free jazz. Free form jazz developed as a conscious effort to break away from its musical predecessors. The main difference between free jazz and what had come before was that free jazz efforts operate in a medium that is not defined by the same harmonic and rhythmic forms used by earlier jazz styles. The essence of free form jazz is that it doesn't use a strict structure for playing a piece and improvising. Rather it allows the musicians to react to one another during their performance. In a sense, artists in a free jazz performance talk to one another through their instruments. With free jazz, the finished song was important, but so was the way in which it was created. Free form jazz, out of all jazz genres, proves to be the most spontaneous and thus include the most improvisation. Two very important members of the free jazz movement were John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. Today, jazz is alive and well. Pop groups such as Squirrel Nut Zippers have helped jazz reenter the main pop scene. Many artists continue the tradition left to them by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and John Coltrane. As jazz musicians of the 90's have looked back to the heroes of the past, particularly from the bop era, a new generation of jazz stars has emerged. Many of these artists aren't interested in creating a new genre of jazz, but rather they want to support a revival of an earlier jazz era. The main difference between the current jazz stars and those of yesteryear are that today's jazz stars are mainly the trained at formal music schools such as Berkelee. Some of today's stars include Joshua Redman, Terrance Blanchard, and Joe Lovano. One of the most influential jazz musicians today, and a leader in the jazz world through his work at the Lincoln center, is Wynton Marsalis.