16 - Jazz, America's Classical Music

Historical Events of 1910 to 1955

1. World War I
2. Increase in Immigration from Eastern Europe
3. Women’s Suffrage (right to vote)
4. Prohibition and It's Repeal
5. Radio, offers access to entertainment in the home
6. Broadway Musicals (musical theater)
7. Stock Market Crash and Great Depression
8. New Deal (Franklin Roosevelt, President)
9. Industrialization and Return of Prosperity
10. World War II on Two Fronts, Europe and Pacific
11. Peacetime Prosperity
12. Korean Conflict
13. Nuclear Arms Raise and Cold War
14. Birth of Rock-n-Roll

Ragtime

1. Sounds like marches for piano
2. In 2/4 meter
3. Catchy melodies
4. Two rhythm patterns
1. steady beat in left hand (bass and chords)
2. syncopated rhythms in right hand
3. (melody and supporting harmonies)
5. Joplin: “Maple Leaf Rag”

Blues

1. Texts about personal hardships
2. Musical features
1. a a b form in 12 measures
2. Established progression of chords
3. Strophic with several verses
4. Instruments sometimes adds “breaks” in lines
3. Bessie Smith, Empress of Blues: “St. Louis Blues”

Beginnings of Jazz

1. Jazz had a variety of ancestors - blues, ragtime, etc.
2. Was not written down, improvised
3. First appeared in New Orleans funeral bands
4. Moved “up the river” to St. Louis and Chicago and then New York by 1920's

Elements of Jazz

1. Treatment of Melody - is done with sense of freedom
2. Interesting Harmony - in general, rapid movement of other parts
3. Heavy Use of Syncopated Rhythm - emphasis occurring off the beat
4. Interesting Timber (tones) - mixture of tones, muted trumpets, saxophones
5. Form (verse/chorus)
6. Improvisation (requires an understanding of techniques to compose and perform at the same time)

Types of Jazz

1. Dixieland
2. Boogie-woogie (jazz for piano)
3. Swing (written and improvised for use in a large band)

Types of Swing

1. Sweet Swing
1. No Improvisation
2. Rhythms only lightly “swung”
3. Not considered “true” jazz by many connoisseurs.
4. Artists
1. Guy Lombardo
2. Lawrence Welk
2. Hot Swing
1. Improvisation Featured
2. Heavy Swing Style
3. Sophisticated Arrangements
4. Artists
1. Benny Goodman
2. Duke Ellington
3. Count Basie
4. Stan Kenton

Benny Goodman (King of Swing)

1. Clarinet soloist
2. Brought Jazz to Carnegie Hall in a 1938 concert
3. Goodman’s bands launched the careers of many
4. During an era of segregation, he led one of a well-known, racially-integrated jazz band

Duke Ellington

1. Composer, pianist, and big-band leader.
2. Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical.
3. Career spanned more than 50 years
4. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards.
5. Received a Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1999.
6. Called his music "American Music" rather than jazz.

Glenn Miller

1. Most popular big band of the “swing era”
2. Unique sound of clarinet on melody doubled by sax and three saxes in harmony
3. Born: March 1, 1904
4. Disappeared and presumed dead: Dec 15, 1942

Post-World War II

1. Jazz begins to change
2. No longer restricted to:
   • New Orleans
   • Chicago
   • Swing
3. New forms emerge, a sense of yearning for new experiences (a part of forgetting the time of war).

Bebop

1. Jazz Combo Instrumentation
2. Imaginative/clever use of chords
3. Virtuosic
   • Complex
   • Intense
   • Fast tempos
4. Grew from Jam Sessions
5. Artists
   • Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet
   • Thelonious Monk, piano
   • Kenny Clark, drums
   • Charlie Parker, sax

Cool Jazz

1. Name taken from Miles Davis’ album:  The Birth of the Cool (1949)
2. Compared to Bebop
1. Softer
2. More Relaxed
3. More Accessible (easier to understand for most people)
3. Artists
   • Miles Davis (early works)
   • Modern Jazz Quartet
   • Dave Brubeck
   • Gerry Mulligan
   • Stan Getz
   • Chet Baker

Smooth Jazz

1. Less Intense
2. Easy Listening
3. Artists
   • David Sanborn
   • Kenny G
   • George Benson
   • Grover Washington Jr.

Prof. Songer

JCTC - Downtown