THE SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (SOAP) UNIT 2 NOTES Jazz
Jazz - a uniquely American musical genre, blending musical traditions of European Americans and African Americans - utilizes European harmonic materials, and important instruments of jazz (saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, string bass) are European in origin - developed by African Americans following emancipation, and started to grow as a style of music after the turn of the century (early 1900s) - drew most strongly from the slave musical traditions that had evolved into the styles of ragtime and the blues - the term "jazz" itself was a slang word for sexual intercourse, which has been traced back to the coast of West Africa - the music itself had (and has retained) a clear link to African music traditions in that jazz is at its essence improvised (created spontaneously rather than created from directions provided by music notation) - white groups imitating black jazz groups were the first people to introduce mainstream culture to jazz and became commercially successful - this was a result of the social conditions that prevented black groups from being offered recording or television contracts in the first place - every major stage of jazz's stylistic evolution had been initiated by the innovations of African-American musicians Jazz in a Historical and Social Context - The "Birth" of Jazz in New Orleans: 1865-1917 - creoles - people of mixed race and ethnicity - creoles of color - a social class made up mostly of the offspring of white men and African-American women - they enjoyed a higher social status than black slaves
- shifting European allegiances, the steady influx of immigrants, and the development of a prosperous class of Creoles were both a result of, and a contributing factor to, the development of New Orleans as a cosmopolitan, multiethnic and racially tolerant city culture, unlike most other American cities - N.O. was a very musical city - African drums were permitted in the city (they were mostly prohibited in other parts of the southern U.S. because of their communicative power) - proliferation of instrumental bands - military bands had become very popular in France during the rule of Napoleon - N.O., a former French colony, excelled in this French band tradition - these bands, which provided music for picnics, parties, and riverboat rides, played music in the classical European manner - military bands were important to both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War - when the war ended, surplussed military instruments and instruments that had been pawned by former soldiers became plentiful, cheap, and readily available - many ex-slaves bought these brass instruments and formed their own street bands - these musicians had no formal musical training - they played march and popular tunes of the day, but in a style that reflected strong African-based and Caribbeaninfluenced musical traditions - Changes in the Status of the Creoles of Color - following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a steady stream of Southern whites moved into N.O. - the tolerant culture that had characterized the city for almost a century began to give way to the racism of other American cities at the time - this escalated into a racist backlash following the Civil War - as segregation and prejudice grew, Creoles lost their mid-level social status and took on the lowest social status held by the ex-slaves
- Creole musicians began playing more frequently with ex-slave musicians - it was through this merging of the European traditions of harmony and instrumental performance from the highly sophisticated, classically trained Creole musicians with the Caribbean influences of the African-based traditions of blues, field hollers and work songs from the ex-slaves that jazz was born - many Creole musicians helped shape the new jazz forms (Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton was one of the most popular and influential) - the basic instrumentation of the N.O. jazz ensemble: rhythm section = string bass and drums; melodic section = 2 brass instruments (cornet, trumpet, or trombone) and 2 reed instruments (clarinet, and later saxophone) - this music was freer, fiercer, and more informal than previous styles, and before long, it would be called "jazz" 1920s - Migration of Jazz Out of New Orleans - Jazz in Chicago - by 1920, more than 40 top N.O. jazz musicians had moved to Chicago - Joseph "King" Oliver joined Louis Armstrong (both from N.O.) to form King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Oliver and Armstrong played duet breaks on their cornets, improvising in a fast, technically impressive, very exciting style - the popularity of their duets contributed to interest in solo improvisations and led to a general move away from the collective improvisation of the N.O. style to the solo improvisation of later styles New York and the Harlem Renaissance - jazz also spread to New York - an especially popular destination for these musicians was the city section of Harlem - a new cultural movement among blacks known as "The Harlem Renaissance" had fostered artistic achievement in literature, poetry, visual arts, and music - the most influential musicians were Fletcher Henderson and Edward "Duke" Ellington
- Henderson organized musicians in a new way: he added two saxophonists and replaced one cornettist with another saxophonist to create a "reed" section - he later added an additional trombonist and trumpeter to the brass section and increased the rhythm section to four players - by doing so, he'd replaced the earlier small band with a "big" band - Ellington - his band became very popular, and helped in the spread of jazz in the white community - he used his many talented musicians to contribute musical ideas, and he brought his pianistic style to orchestration (for example, using parallel blocks of sound that he played on the piano and voicing them for his instruments) - Earl "Fatha" Hines - helped New York become a center for developments in jazz piano - took the ragtime and stride traditions and the various blues patterns that now existed and used them as the foundation for developing a freer piano style - using a variety of left-hand bass patterns, he placed his emphasis on right-hand virtuosity displayed in fast, running scale passages The Swing Era (1930s-1940s) - the term "swing" refers to the rhythmic treatment of a piece - music that "swings" is music that makes you want to dance, clap your hands, or tap your feet - defined by a constant tempo and a strong beat - also, the "swing" music has a certain buoyancy, a rhythmic lilt that's impossible to define but is probably achieved when the musicians involved have enough technical competence and mastery of the music that they can relax and have fun - jazz that "swings" has a kind of syncopation in which notes aren't played precisely on the beat, but slightly before or after the beat (a rhythmic flexibility that's a direct descendent of West African rhythm traditions)
The First "Big Bands" - for the most part, swing was "big band" music - by the late 1920s, largely because of the influence of Fletcher Henderson, bands had expanded to 13 to 16 pieces and the instrumentation placed new emphasis on saxophones - early big swing bands were led by Luis Russell, Earl Hines, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, and Count Basie - as more whites were exposed to jazz, they began to form their own bands in imitation - 1920s: Bix Biderbecke, Paul Whiteman - 1930s: Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller - these bands of the 1930s became extraordinarily popular and achieved huge financial success - with the exception of bands led by Duke Ellington and Count Basie, most black bands made very little money and found it difficult to survive - although white bands played an important role encouraging mainstream acceptance of jazz and they created many outstanding recordings, they actually had little direct influence on jazz's stylistic development Vocal Jazz - jazz singing developed separate musical practices than instrumental jazz - singing is linked to words, and these words are the lyrics that comprise the verses and choruses of a song - the first jazz singers were the legendary blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith - in the late 1920s, they began to incorporate a certain "jazz" sense in their blues singing - rather than improvising on a theme, these singers would improvise over every word of the song, subtly infusing it with a personal style that shaped both the music and the sense of the word in something which came to be known as jazz phrasing
- Billie Holiday - also known as "Lady Day" - the greatest, most influential of the new jazz singers - began singing in New York in the late 1920s, continued to record and perform in the 1930s-1940s - her conception of jazz phrasing and her ability to affect audiences influenced a large number of jazz and pop singers (her best-selling song was "Strange Fruit," written about the lynching of African Americans) - Other Jazz Singers - Ella Fitzgerald - sang with Chick Webb's band - Sarah Vaughan - sang with Earl Hines and Billy Eckstein (1st of the big-voiced male band singers to achieve wide popularity) - other well-known male singers: Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing Bebop: 1940s-1950s - "bebop" or "bop" was a new style of jazz that began in New York in the early 1940s - musicians who helped create the style included Charlie "Bird" Parker and Coleman Hawkins (sax), John "Dizzy" Gillespie (trumpet), Thelonious Monk (piano), Kenny Clarke (drums) - How was bebop different from swing? 1) rhythm became much freer and more complex than swing - accents now placed on the 2nd and 4th beats instead of the "normal" 1st and 3rd beats emphasized in swing/dance music 2) more complex chord structures were now used - also, half-tone shifts were now common (e.g., harmonic progression from F to F#) 3) musical texture was much denser (all musicians played many more notes) 4) bands became smaller - quintet was common lineup (piano, sax, trumpet, bass, drums)
5) new roles for the musicians (bass maintained beat and played melodic lines, piano played sparser, lighter lines) 6) a new standard format for songs was created: song starts with a melody, followed by improvisations on the harmonic structure that underlined that melody in a typical order: reed solo, trumpet solo, piano solo, bass or drum solo, then concluding with a restatement of the melody - "trading fours" was also common - technique in which instruments would alternate four measures of improvisation - "quoting" - inserting brief passages from easily recognizable tunes into their improvisations Vocal Jazz: Scat and Vocalese - emerged during the shift from swing to bop - scat uses the voice as an instrument to produce sounds rather than to sing words - usually done in a fast, playful manner - invented by trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong (said that one night he began to do it because he'd forgotten lyrics to a song) - the concept of using the voice to create sounds that contribute to the overall rhythmic and musical texture was a common African tradition - vocalese - singers took a melody and wrote stream-of-consciousness words to it - Why didn't bebop ever achieve the same level of popularity as swing? - partly because it wasn't recorded much, but mostly because it wasn't very accessible music - it was music for musicians rather than for dancing/entertainment - it was intellectually/artistically sophisticated, didn't provide the steady rhythm and recognizable melody music requires to appeal to a general audience
- by the 1950s -1960s, bebop gave way to variations which became "modern" jazz, most important of which were cool jazz and hard bop Cool Jazz - main person responsible for its development was Miles Davis, and trumpeter and contributor to bebop - in 1948, he augmented his band with extra reed and brass instruments - rather than improvise, the ensemble played music that was carefully written out to produce a light, sparse, "cool" style of music (recorded the album "Birth of the Cool" in 1949) - "cool" style was expanded by several white musicians - Dave Brubeck - jazz pianist whose classical background led him to incorporate variations like odd time signatures that contributed a high art, academic quality to cool jazz ("Take Five" and "Blue Rondo A La Turk" are two of his most popular pieces) Hard Bop - developed as a reaction to "cool" jazz - many felt that this Europeanized, accessible music had lost its "soul," and they wanted to revitalize the music and give it the hard edge it had had in its early years - hard bop emerged in New York in the mid 1950s - drummer Art Blakey (and his band The Jazz Messengers) and pianist Horace Silver were the two strongest proponents of hard bop - the music was characterized by strong, solid percussion and impressive, virtuosic solo work - several singers during the 1940s-1950s sang in their own jazz style or a jazzinfluenced style that "crossed-over" into the popular arena (Nat "King" Cole, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett)
Miles Davis' Kind of Blue - in 1959, trumpeter Miles Davis' quintet recorded a landmark album that would go on to become the best-selling jazz album of all time - What is revolutionary about this recording? - to provide the basic context of improvisation, Davis used modes over the chord, thus shifting the emphasis away from the harmonic context (which had become standard in bebop) to a melodic context- this shift laid the foundation for John Coltrane (tenor sax) to emphasize melody in his songs and also paved the way for the extreme melody-based improvisations in free jazz - the music on Kind of Blue is considered by many to be the best example of a new sub-genre known as modal jazz "Free" Jazz - initiated by saxophonist Ornette Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry with their album, Free Jazz, in 1960 - this was a 36.5-minute uninterrupted recording of two completely independent jazz quartets playing simultaneously against each other - this new jazz style presented musical ideas that were a radical break from the jazz that had preceded it: 1. an expanded sense of form replaced the traditional, basic song forms; 2. free, meter-less rhythm replaced the strong rhythmic sense of preceding jazz styles; 3. atonality (absence of a tonal center and a harmonic framework) and use of nonconventional scales replaced the sophisticated, highly structured harmonic language of chords; 4. improvisations based on emotional impulses/spiritual inspirations replaced improvisation on a conventional melody - Coleman and Cherry opened the door for a flourishing avant-garde (experimental) musical scene, which included pianist Cecil Taylor and saxophonist John Coltrane
- in the 1960s, the avant-garde movement in jazz became strongly linked to the situation of blacks in general - jazz was conscientiously reclaimed by blacks and became both highly political and highly emotional - it was seen as an expression of uniquely black feeling, especially intense anger, which white players could imitate, but not honestly create - this new jazz was consequently not easy to listen to: it was challenging musically and emotionally, and it demanded a level of concentration and attention from its audience that was far removed from the earlier, easy entertainment of swing bands - by the late 1970s, free/avant-garde jazz had given way to music that was more accessible and philosophical, but its core characteristics - freedom from the limits of of traditional form, harmony, and rhythm along with intense emotion - continued to influence more mainstream jazz Fusion - a term applied in the late 1960s to a new kind of music that integrated elements of jazz and rock music - Miles Davis recorded a number of influential albums in this style in the late 1960s/early 1970s - on Miles in the Sky, pianist Herbie Hancock played electric piano, and on Filles de Kilmanjaro, there was the use of rock rhythms and a heavy beat - one of the most influential of Davis' fusion recordings was 1970's Grammy-winning Bitches Brew, in which numerous electric instruments were played in place of the acoustic instruments of traditional jazz - these albums showed that it was possible to use rock musical idioms in a way that was more sensitive and complex - the first fusion group to achieve significant popular success was Blood, Sweat, and Tears, a band that formed in 1968 - they inspired other fusion groups such as Tower of Power, Chicago, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Return to Forever
- two most important keyboardists in fusion: Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock - Chick Corea - played with Miles Davis and numerous other jazz artists - became a successful bandleader in his own right - formed the exciting fusion group Return to Forever - Herbie Hancock - also played with Miles Davis, and formed the highly successful funk-fusion group called The Headhunters - artists such as Sting, Joni Mitchell, and Pat Metheny continued fusion efforts into the 1980s - in the 1970s, some musicians began to fuse jazz with classical music (jazz pianist Keith Jarrett used classical composition techniques in his jazz pieces, and flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione recorded songs with a large orchestra playing in a jazz style - Classicism - in the 1980s/1990s, there appeared to be a rejection of loud, amplified fusion efforts and a renewed interest in earlier jazz styles (a return to the "classic" jazz of the past) - Natalie Cole - the daughter of Nat King Cole, she released the enormously popular album Unforgettable in 1991 - on it, she sang the jazz standards made famous by her father - Wynton Marsalis - trumpeter who became one of the most important contemporary jazz artists of the 1990s - he attempted to recapture the clean harmonies and crisp technique of prior jazz greats - as a result of classicism, the careers of many older jazz musicians were revitalized (e.g., pianist/vocalist Shirley Horn and saxophonist Joe Henderson)
- "Smooth Jazz" - one of the most commercially successful forms of jazz - musicians of this style concentrate on producing polished, unobtrusive recordings that combine technology with live performance (artists include Boney James, Keiko Matsui, and Kenny G) - "Contemporary Jazz" - closely related to "Smooth Jazz" - more variety and a significant amount of improvisation and interaction between live musicians (artists include Spyro Gyra, The Rippingtons, and the Pat Metheny Group) - "Acid Jazz" - style that emerged in European dance clubs in the late 1980s - musicians combined samples of jazz recordings with a variety of other music genres such as funk, soul, and hip-hop - the goal was to use jazz tracks as the basis to create dance music - Chris Bangs - important contributor to Acid Jazz - created and produced other artists - Us3 - British acid jazz group whose 1991 hit single, "Cantaloop", sampled the jazz song "Cantaloupe Island" by Herbie Hancock
SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (SOAP) UNIT 2: JAZZ VIDEO QUESTIONS: JAZZ EPISODE 1: GUMBO 1. According to Wynton Marsalis, what is the real power and innovation of jazz? 2. Jazz is forever changing, but nearly always rooted in. 3. What were the remarkable men and women who created jazz able to do that most people can only dream of? 4. In which U.S. city was jazz born? 5. With which ancestors did the Creoles of Color identify? 6. On the surface, minstrelsy seems simply to reinforce. 7. Despite its overt racism, the minstrel show was a blend of, knockabout comedy, and. 8. Following Reconstruction, every aspect of daily life for African Americans became. 9. What would be America s most popular music for the next quarter of a century? 10. Like the sacred music of the black Baptist Church, the was filled with call-and-response, shouts, moans, exaltations, and signifyin. 11. What U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1896 would govern life in the American South for nearly 60 years?
12. What was different about the trumpet/cornet player Buddy Bolden? 13. Which piano player effortlessly blended ragtime, minstrelsy, and the blues? 14. What instrument did Sidney Bechet teach himself? 15. When World War I began in 1914, what was still America s most popular music? 16. What was it about the popular music coming out of Tin Pan Alley that bothered the white middle class? 17. What would Nick LaRocca insist until the day he died?
SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (SOAP) UNIT 2: JAZZ VIDEO QUESTIONS: JAZZ EPISODE 3: OUR LANGAUGE 1., and then, brought jazz to locations so remote that no band could reach them. 2. For the first time, improvising and would take center stage. 3. would make a series of astonishing recordings that would change all of American music forever. 4. What event occurred in his life that caused the unintentional invention of scat singing? 5. Describe Bessie Smith s confrontation with the KKK in North Carolina. 6. What was the first African American recording company? 7. Bix Biderbecke was the first of the white musicians who had. 8. What adjectives describe his cornet playing style? 9. Why was Sidney Bechet jailed in Paris?
10. Which clarinetist would go on to become the most popular musician in America? 11. Which singer, known by some as the mother of us all, proved that it was possible for black singers to appeal to every kind of audience? 12. Which New Orleans jazz musician would rehearse his men for hours until they got each song exactly how he wanted it? 13. What was the most celebrated of Harlem s speakeasies in the 1920s? 14. Who became the club s headlining bandleader? 15. He once told an interviewer, I am not playing jazz; I am trying to play. 16. What three things did Louis Armstrong bring to jazz that had not previously existed? 1. 2. 3. 17. What song, recorded by Armstrong in 1928, was a perfect reflection of the country in the moments before the Great Depression and would establish him as the first greatest solo genius of jazz?
SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (SOAP) UNIT 2: JAZZ VIDEO QUESTIONS JAZZ EPISODE 7: DEDICATED TO CHAOS 1. During World War II, jazz would become a symbol of in a world threatened by and tyranny. 2. What instrument did Charlie Parker play? 3. What did Dizzy Gillespie play? 4. What was Parker s nickname? 5. During WWII, what was still America s most popular music? 6. Why did companies stop making jukeboxes and musical instruments during the war? 7. Which bandleader helped sell war bonds? 8. Which arranger/composer helped elevate this bandleader s music to a new level? 9. What new tactic did Nazi propagandists use starting in 1942? 10. Whose saxophone playing was shocking in the mid 1940s?
SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (SOAP) UNIT 2: JAZZ VIDEO QUESTIONS: JAZZ - EPISODE 9: THE ADVENTURE 1. In 1955, who blended jazz and blues with the sacred music of the sanctified church? 2. His brand of music became known as. 3. What did sax player Sonny Rollins do to get himself off drugs? 4. What was Duke Ellington s best selling album? 5. What musical idea did trumpeter Miles Davis learn from pianist Thelonious Monk? 6. According to Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis music appeals to the and speaks to the, but on the other hand he. 7. saw herself as a musician rather than a singer. 8. Why did Louis Armstrong cancel his goodwill tour of the Soviet Union? 9. Generations of future jazz stars would get their start or hone their skills with drummer and bandleader. 10. By the mid 1950s, who was the highest paid musician in jazz?
11. What happened to him one night outside the New York club where he was playing? 12. What album focused on playing simple scales (modes) rather than the complicated chord progressions that had characterized bebop, and is the best-selling jazz album of all time? 13. John Coltrane became an inspiration to a whole generation of. 14. Who said, Jazz must be free? 15. What album would provoke a debate about the definition of jazz that has never ended? EPISODE 10: A MASTERPIECE BY MIDNIGHT 16. The song Fables of Faubus, written by bassist, was a protest song against the segregationist governor of Arkansas. 17. Which avant-garde pianist was influenced by both classical and jazz music? 18. Who insisted that jazz could speak to the people s souls, and could help to heal a corrupt and tortured world? 19. Which pianist began playing with Miles Davis is the mid 1960s? 20. Name two ways in which Davis music began to change in 1969? 1) 2) 21. The result of these changes was called. 22. According to saxophonist Joshua Redman, what types of music are being fused with jazz today?