Jazz study guide

Chapter 1: Listening to Jazz

I. An OverviewA. How Jazz came to be1. Grew from heartfelt expressions of American slaves, then to music of the church, then to the dance hall, American academy, and finally the concert stage. 2. Came from different artists experimenting3. Needs the rich African oral tradition of the Negro slave culture and European musical tradition of schooling practicesB. Elements of Jazz1. African singing2. European instruments3. White and black church music4. Songs of Tin Pan Alley5. Roaring Twenties Marching bands6. Hopelessness of slavery7. Religious fervor of the Great AwakeningII. What to Listen for in JazzA. Sounds Associated with Jazz1. Instrumentation: the instruments that are being played2. Rhythm section: drums or piano that keep the rhythm of the music3. Vibrato: growls, bends, slurs4. Chord: two or more notes that compliment each otherB. Improvisation and Composition1. Jazz idiom: Expression in jazz that are results from African American musicians interjecting African music into European music2. How the music is played is more important than how it is composed3. Was criticized as illegitimate and dangerous4. Jazz composition can be balances between improvisation and compositiona. Most composed composition is completely notated and performer is expected to play exactly as written. Example: Member of trumpet section of big swing band play his partb. Performer may play melody that is accurate reflection of notation but in distinctive interpretive style by bending notes, adding vibrato, altering the rhythm, and so on. Example: Blues singer interpreting familiar melodyc. Performer makes so many changes in the melody that it is barely recognizable. Example: Swing soloists often made use of this type of improvisation Usually not written down, only created by performerd. Performer plays over the chords of a song, but not try to include given melody at all melody created by performere. Performer may create entire musical performance without any reference to musical melodyf. Performers can improvise collectively to create new musical performances5. Improvisation: Composing on the spot6. Duke Ellington was the guy that found the right balance between improvisation and compositionC. Rhythm Syncopation1. Emphasis on rhythm2. Jazz was considered primarily dance music3. Steady, unbroken beat is necessary for developing emotional pitch4. Syncopation: rhythmic treatment which places accents between the basic beats in the music(1) Responsible to great extent for the swing feelD. Syncopation and Swing1. Accents: Stronger notes that make the notes stand out2. Delayed notes and accents give the performance swing3. Swing is considered by many to be an essential ingredient in jazzE. Form1. Describes the overall structure of a musical composition 2. Phrases: musical section that makes up a form3. Repetition: presentation of the same musical material in tow or more parts of a composition4. Contrast: introduction of different musical materialIII. Listening Guide: A. Melody:1. Parts with jazz interpretation2. Parts improvised3. All parts improvised4. Uses blue tones5. Ornamented melodyB. Tempo1. Slow2. Moderate3. Fast4. Extremely FastC. Meter1. 2/4 2. 3. 4/4D. Rhythm / Style1. Ballad2. Medium Swing3. Fast Swing4. Latin5. Bossa Nova6. Shuffle SwingE. Harmony1. Relaxed (not complex)2. Slow moving3. Uses IV to I (funky)4. Tense (comples)5. Fast chord progressions6. ModalF. Texture1. Vertical (homophonic, harmonic)2. Horizontal (polyphonic, melodic)3. BothG. Instrumental Color (Solo spots)1. Banjo2. Clarinet3. Cornet (trumpet)4. Guitar5. Percussion6. Piano7. Saxophone8. String bass9. TromboneH. Form1. 12 bar blues2. AABA3. ABAB4. FreeI. Size / type1. Small (one or two players with rhythm section)2. Chamber ensemble (three or more with no doubling)3. Large, with sectionsJ. Mood: 1. Frantic, driing2. Happy3. Low Key, understatement4. Rough, aggressive5. Soulful6. Sweet, calm, smooth7. DetachedK. Jazz style1. Dixieland2. Swing3. Bop4. Cool5. Hard bop6. Third stream7. Free8. Fusion (Jazz/rock)9. Latin10. Neoclassical

Chapter 2: Jazz Heritages

I. African and European InfluencesA. Early contributions of jazz was not recognized1. One race was white and the other was black and together they created jazz2. Western tradition is predominantly literate and reflects interest in its performance practice3. African tradition works through an expressive language typical of the oral traditionII. Interpretation and ContentA. European and African cultures interacted to create new music1. Offered different resources that generated new way of arranging musical elements2. Learned different ways of expressively performing themB. Jazz1. Hybrid of musical traditions2. Blend of musical elements3. Western musicians like to write and notate their musicIII. African InfluencesA. Music was the form of expression in the life of Africans1. Everything was done to the rhythm of music2. Passed down by word of mouth from one generation to the nextB. Most activities were accompanied by pulse and beating of drums1. Served as one fundamental means of coordinating movements and aided hunting parties2. African slaves were brought from Africa to America which became mixed with the new cultural contextC. African Rhythms1. Emphases on rhythma. Religion is very important in the cultures of Africansb. African religions are greatly oriented toward ritual forms of expressionc. African rituals have always involved dancing2. Moorish conquesta. Spain was once conquered by Moors from North Africab. Slaves in America heard something from their past in particular branch of European musicc. Changed music of Spain, Portugal, and southern FranceD. Call and Response1. This pattern can be traced directly to African tribal tradtions2. Ritual in which a leader shouted a cry to which a group responded3. Trading Fours: two improvising instrumentalists play solo parts on alternating four bars4. Responding to each others musical thoughtsIV. European InfluencesA. Vocab1. Diatonic Scale and chromatic scales are used from European composers2. Harmonic: sense of harmony - Africans had pitches in their drums and reeds, but this is like pitch and harmony that came from Europeans3. African Americans wanted to sing gospel music and work songs to imitate the rich European melody and harmony4. European music could not compare with Africans oral sonority and the rhythmic vitality of their musicV. African Americans in the Early ColoniesA. Latin planters were not concerned with activities of slaves as long as their work were done1. British Protestants tried to convert slaves to Christianity2. Slaves had to hide pagan musicB. Field Hollers (Cries)1. Functional music used for work, love, war, ceremonies, or communication2. Slaves could not talk while working, but singing was permitted3. Communicated with each other by field cries, something that whites could not understand4. Something constantly used in jazz(1) Bending of a note simply over exaggerating use of slide or slur(2) Could bend down up to different tone or pitch(3) Not available in European musicC. Work Songs1. Sung without instrumental accompaniment and were associated with monotonous task2. Sprinkled with grunts and groans inspired by physical effort3. Later became distinguishing feature of both vocal and instrumental jazz4. Contribution of work song to jazz was the emphasis on rhythm and meterD. Minstrels1. Dan Emmett formed group of white actors called Dan Emmetts Virginia Minstrels2. Performed European folk songs3. Minstrelsy was going to become most popular form of American stage music4. Traveling minstrels shows were main form of entertainment for both races5. Cakewalk was popular dance that was featured at minstrel shows6. It was the first dance to cross over from African American culture to mainstream white societyE. Creole Music1. Creoles were people with Negro and French or Spanish ancestry2. They were ostracized from white society and joined the African Americans3. Had the rights and privileges of whites, which included conservatory training for musicians4. They had the musical training along with being raised in the improvised oral tradition of African Americans5. Contributed harmonic and formal structure to early jazz music6. Congo Square: large field in New Orleans where slaves were allowed to gather on Sunday to sing, dance and play their drums(1) Gave this original African music a place to be heard(2) Where it can be influence and be influenced by European musicF. Marching Bands1. After Civil War, African Americans were able to make instruments and buy pawned and instruments2. Marching bands began to influence their music3. Every secret society or fraternity had a band4. Early jazz players started their careers in such bands, playing marches, polkas, quadrilles5. Marching band started to play for funerals(1) First they would only play drum beats(2) Then after the burying, they played a merrier tune, like when the saints go marching in(3) Traditional funeral music was for mourning, and then the more rhythmic music signified that the departed was going to a happier place a cause for rejoiceing6. Marching Bands usually consists of cornet, trombone, clarinet, tuba, banjo and drums7. Buddy Bolden first leaders of a jazz marching bandVI. Religious MusicA. Spirituals1. Church was a central contributor2. Much of musical content are taken from white spiritual tradition3. In 1800, America had a religious mass movement known as the Great Awakening4. Spirituals: hymns with a beat created by Protestant African American slaves on America soil5. Liturgical: rhythmic emphasis to biblical music taught to them6. European influence of more melody and harmony than on rhythm7. Call and Response pattern in spirituals8. Contributed development of the popular song and to vocal jazz(1) As well as forms and techniques of European art music and conserved the traditional characteristics of African tribal influences9. Slave Songs of the United StatesB. Gospel1. Thomas A. Dorsey was inspired by gospel singers, he devoted his life to composition and singing of gospel music2. His 500 gospel song became popular and he became known as The Father of Gospel Music3. By 1940, gospel music became popular that these professionals went on tours4. Gospel song have techniques used by individual soloists5. Spirituals contained symbolic references to the railways or rivers that led to freedom or to heaven. 6. Polyphonic: voice lines that were invented independently of each other(1) Carried over to Dixieland music and was later employed in more contemporary jazz styles(2) Makes use of two ore more melodies that work well together but seem independent of each other7. Homophonic: singing a harmonizing melody to an existing melody(1) Both melodies are essentially the same only at different pitchesC. Mahalia Jackson and The African American Church1. Started to express Gospel music as an art form(1) Only sang songs that she believed served her religious feelings(2) Became one of the most stirring, most sought after singers in the world(3) She died of heart disease on January 27, 1972

Chapter 3: The Blues

I. The OriginA. African and European music began to merge1. Slave sang sad songs about suffering2. Singing was in unison3. No chords or form4. During reconstruction, slaves could perform their music more openly, then blues began to take on more specific formB. Blues started1. With three vocal phrases (AAB)2. With 8 musical measures (4 beats)3. Each song varied between 8, 12, and 16 measures most popular was 12II. Blue NotesA. Blue tonalities: Was influenced from Western Europeans pentatonic scales (Lower the 3rd and 7th)1. There are no keys on piano that correspond to blue tonalities or blue notes so pianists play these two keys at the same time2. Flatted fifth (Lowering the 5th note in the scale)III. Field and Prison HollersA. Work Song that had solo hollers or cries that were used to make calls across open fields1. Traced back to West African groups2. Holler meant social interactions3. Some hollers were wordless but full of expressions and feelingsB. Hollers associated with songs sung by prison inmates1. Contributed to the type of vocalizations now associated with blues singingC. Nobody considered bending notes on instruments1. Before field cry with bending of notes2. Blue tonalities and note bending can be heard by early jazz brass bands3. Blue notes heard in work songs, spirituals and styles of jazzD. Embouchure (Mouth position) can change the pitch slightly1. Slight adjustments could create pitch that falls between two notes on the piano2. Out of tune-ness helped create that blue note feelingIV. Blues LyricsA. Iambic Pentameter1. Blues meter2. Has 5 accented syllables that alternate unaccented syllables3. Fill ins: areas with strains, filled in by an instrumentalist4. Breaks: fill ins grew longer so that soloists can soloV. Country and Urban BluesA. Blues migrated to cities like Chicago1. Robert Johnson unique vocalizations2. City Blues more rhythmic, more crisp than country blues3. Blues singers accompanied themselves on guitar when urban usedmore elaborate accompanimentB. Ledbelly was discovered on a prison 1. Learned 12 string guitar and since he was from prison, he knew work songsVI. Big Bill BroonzyA. Transition figure in the development of urban (city) blues1. Fiddle player who learned guitar2. Showed ranges of his personal style3. Influenced many othersVII. Tin Pan AlleyA. Printed outlet for music1. Sheet music industry2. Important song publishers were located in such cities as New York City, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee and San Francisco3. Union Square of New York City became center of largest concentration of song publishersVIII. Singing the BluesA. Blues Singers1. Bessie Smith2. Ethel WatersIX. Contemporary BluesA. Tradition all on its own1. Still undergoing development2. Blues references in work of Miles Davis, john Scofield, Mike Stern and Michael Brekcker

Chapter 4: Piano Styles: Ragtime to Boogie Woogie

I. The Birth of RagtimeA. Ragtime Music1. Considered to be outside of jazz tradition2. It is completely composed before performed3. Pianists not used in Dixieland bands (which evolved from marching bands)(1) Developed a solo style of playing4. Piano player had to learn how to play full band sound5. Left hand was used to play both bass notes and chords and right had free for syncopated melodic lines6. Extreme difficulty cause academic piano players to oppose ragtime7. Played on offbeats (2nd and 4th beats)8. Ragtime players were employed at fairs and carnivalsB. Scott Joplin1. Most prolific ragtime music2. Maple Leaf RagC. Jelly Roll Morton1. Ferdinand de Menthe2. Best known ragtime piano player3. Claims that he originated jazz4. Performed with variety of bands5. Established many bands6. He was an arranger: Person who put music together for bandsII. Ragtime and Dixieland mergeA. Dixieland and ragtime began to merge when piano players began to play with other instrumentsB. Melodic concept of rags was changeC. Rhythmic accentuation to the rags was carried into Dixieland1. Rhythm of bands changed from four four to two fourIII. Ragtime Lives OnA. Tack piano: piano that is altered to sound much older than it is so ragtime sounds more authentic1. Put thumbtacks in the felts of piano2. Frequently heard on piano but can be heard in band musicB. People played ragtime more quickly and aggressively that the normal tempo became slow and relaxedC. Stride playing became more popularIV. Boogie WoogieA. Piano style that was important to development of jazz1. Self descriptive2. Feeling created by playing eight beats to the bar3. Came into prominence during economic crisis Great Depression4. Fully style of piano playingB. Ostinato Bass1. Ostinato: a melodic figure that recurs throughout the music2. Structural device that helps hold a piece together3. Always the bass4. Walking bass: outlines the chores in a melodic fashion5. Measure is 8 over 46. Main feature is the rhythmic virtuosity7. Left hand and right hand have to work hard and it almost sounds like two distinct pianistsC. The Players1. Had European influences2. Some musicians couldnt read music so they just developed their own style by listening instead(1) Peat Johnson was boogie woogie pianist in Kansas City D. Origin1. Was developed from guitar technique used in mining , logging, and turpentine campsE. Later Developments1. Left hand rhythm developed into shuffle rhythm which was later used by swing groups and imports the energy and eight beats to the bar feel2. Rhythm and blues artists used in early rock3. Boogie woogie can also be found in original swing period in the dance centerV. Stride PianoA. Not bound by original construction of rags1. NO longer compelled to play alone2. So in order to play with big bands, they needed to change their style3. They need to play across the whole keyboard for the FULL band sound4. They played popular tunes of the day 5. Faster and much more drive than relaxed ragtime playersB. James P. Johnson and Fats Waller1. Considered to be father of stride piano - Johnson2. Fats Waller was a student of Johnson C. Art Tatum1. The best surely the most versatile piano player in history o of jazz2. Stride was one of his favorites3. Usually played alone4. Almost completely blindD. Later Stride Pianists1. Basie and Ellington went into authentic stride piano during improvisation

Chapter 5: Early New Orleans and Chicago Style Jazz

I. Early New Orleans StyleA. New OrleansB. The Oral TraditionC. StoryvilleD. Instrumental ObligationsE. The KingF. Sidney BechetG. Out of New OrleansII. Louis Armstrong (1901 1971)III. Chicago Style (The 1920s)A. The Roaring TwentiesB. The New Orleans and Chicago Styles1. Chicago2. Bix BeiderbeckeIV. Later Developments

Chapter 6: Swing

I. Beginnings of the Swing EraII. Jazz ArrangementsA. Fletcher HendersonIII. New YorkA. Chick WebbB. Jimmie LuncefordC. Duke EllingtonIV. Kansas CityA. Mary Lou WilliamsB. Count BasieV. Southwest Bands Early BasieVI. Swing Becomes AcceptedA. Paul WhitemanVII. The Swing BandsA. Glenn MillerVIII. Big Band SoloistsA. Benny GoodmanB. Coleman HawkinsC. Lester YoungD. Charlie ChristianIX. Swing SingersA. Billie HolidayB. Ella FitzgeraldX. Swing CombosXI. The Demise of Swing

Chapter 7: Duke Ellington

I. Washington to New YorkII. The Cotton ClubIII. TouringIV. The Swing PeriodV. Billy StrayhornVI. New AdditionsA. Jimmy BlantonB. Ben WebsterVII. Johnny HodgesVIII. A Period of TransitionIX. Late EllingtonX. Individual and Group ExpressionXI. InnovationsXII. Repertoire

Chapter 8: BopI. The Shift to BopII. The Developing Mainstream and the Jazz CanonIII. Bop ArrangingIV. Musical ExpansionV. The Bop Rhythm SectionVI. The PerformersA. Roy Eldridge and Dizzy GillespieB. Charlie ParkerC. Bud PowellD. Thelonious MonkE. J.J. JohnsonVII. Bop and Progressive Big BandsA. Billy EcksteinB. Stan KentonC. Gillespies Bop BandVIII. Swing to CubopIX. The Mambo and Cubop