Jazz Appreciation Terms

Fisk Jubilee Singers

A black a Capella group consisting of singers at the Frisk University. Began singing spirituals but sang other forms of songs.

cutting contests

A cutting contest was a musical battle between various stride piano players from the 1920s to 1940s, and to a lesser extent in improvisation contests on other jazz instruments during the swing era.

rent parties

A rent party (sometimes called a house party) is a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music.

Storyville

Created to regulate prostitution and drugs, Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1897 to 1917. Established by municipal ordinance under the New Orleans City Council, Alderman Sidney Story, a City Councilman, wrote guidelines and legislation to control prostitution within the city. Storyville did not legalize prostitution, but rather signified Storyville, a sixteen block area of the city, as the part of New Orleans that it was not illegal in. The area was originally referred to as The District, but its nickname Storyville soon caught on. It was bound by the streets of North Robertson, Iberville, Basin, and St. Louis and was found between the French Quarter and Interstate 10. It was located by a train station, making it a popular destination for travelers throughout the city, and became a centralized attraction in the heart of New Orleans. Although most of its remnants are no longer visible, the neighborhood lies in Faubourg Treme and presently, the land is utilized for housing projects.

Fate Marable

Fate Marable (2 December 1890 - 16 January 1947) was a jazz pianist and bandleader. Members of Marable's bands were expected to be able to play a wide variety of music, from hot numbers to light classics, both play by head and from sheet music, and above all to keep the dancers happy. Marable was a strict bandleader, demanding musical proficiency and rigid discipline from all his bandmembers, yet allowing them to develop their individual strong points. For instance, Louis Armstrong's gift for improvisation was recognised as such by Marable, and he allowed him to improvise his breaks rather than play them note for note.

Ma Rainey

Ma" Rainey (born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett; c. April 26, 1886 - December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues. She began performing as a young teenager (between the ages of 12 and 14), and performed under the name Ma Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. They toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group called Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in 1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings, including "Bo-weevil Blues" (1923), "Moonshine Blues" (1923), "See See Rider" (1924), "Black Bottom" (1927), and "Soon This Morning" (1927). Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a 'moaning' style of singing. Her powerful voice was never adequately captured on her records, due to her recording exclusively for Paramount, which was at the time known for its below-average recording techniques and poor shellac quality. However, Rainey's other qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings, Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Rainey recorded with Louis Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band. She continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.

Bessie Smith

Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.[1] She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists. She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues",

Manuel Perez and Lorenzo Tio

Perez: was an early New Orleans jazz cornetist and bandleader. Being a contemporary of Buddy Bolden, Perez is considered one of the originators, and was influential in crafting the early jazz and ragtime sound. Tio: a master clarinetist from New Orleans, as were his father Lorenzo Tio Sr. (1867-1908) and uncle Louis "Papa" Tio (1862-1922). Their method of playing the instrument (which involved the Albert system, a double-lip embouchure and soft reeds) was seminal in the development of the jazz solo. The three Tios helped bring classical music theory to the ragtime, blues and jazz musicians of New Orleans; Lorenzo Jr. eventually played jazz himself. Lorenzo Sr. taught "Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle. Many reed players significant in early jazz studied with Lorenzo Tio Jr., including Sidney Bechet, Barney Bigard, Johnny Dodds, Omer Simeon, Louis Cottrell, Jr., Jimmie Noone and Albert Nicholas.

collective improvisation

Simultaneous improvisation by several musicians (most often heard in early jazz and free jazz).

form

The further organization of such a measure, by repetition and variation, into a true musical phrase having a definite rhythm and duration that may be implied in melody and harmony, defined, for example, by a long final note and a breathing space.

W.C. Handy

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was an American blues composer and musician.[1] He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues". Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a regional music style with a limited audience to one of the dominant national forces in American music.Handy was an educated musician who used folk material in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from several performers.

accompaniment

a musical part that supports or partners a solo instrument, voice, or group

Creole

a person of mixed European and black descent, especially in the Caribbean.

Melody

a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying.

Vaudeville

a type of entertainment popular chiefly in the US in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance.

French Quarter

also known as the Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (La Nouvelle-Orléans in French) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the Vieux Carré ("Old Square" in English), a central square. The district is more commonly called the French Quarter today, or simply "The Quarter," related to changes in the city with American immigration after the Louisiana Purchase.[1] Most of the present-day historic buildings were constructed during the late 18th century, during the city's period of Spanish rule, and reflect Spanish colonial architecture.

Scott Joplin

an African-American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later titled The King of Ragtime. During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the Maple Leaf Rag, became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag.

James P. Johnson

an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of the stride style of jazz piano, he was one of the most important pianists who bridged the ragtime and jazz eras, and, with Jelly Roll Morton, one of the two most important catalysts in the evolution of ragtime piano into jazz. As such, he was a model for Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller. Johnson composed many hit tunes including the theme song of the Roaring Twenties, "Charleston" and "If I Could be With You One Hour Tonight" and remained the acknowledged king of New York jazz pianists through most of the 1930s. Johnson's artistry, his significance in the subsequent development of jazz piano, and his large contribution to American musical theatre, are often overlooked, and as such, he has been referred to by Reed College musicologist David Schiff, as "The Invisible Pianist".

Mamie Smith

an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress, who appeared in several films late in her career. As a vaudeville singer she performed a number of styles, including jazz and blues. She entered blues history by being the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings in 1920.

Thomas "Fats" Waller

as an American influential jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer, whose innovations to the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano, and whose best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose",

Art Tatum

as an American jazz pianist. Tatum is widely acknowledged as a virtuoso and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time,[1] and was a major influence on later generations of jazz pianists. He was hailed for the technical proficiency of his performances, which set a new standard for jazz piano virtuosity. Critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries."[2] Using self-taught fingering, including an array of two-fingered runs, he executed the pyrotechnics with meticulous accuracy and timing. His execution was all the more remarkable considering that he drank prodigious amounts of alcohol when performing,[43] yet his recordings are never sloppy. Tatum also displayed phenomenal independence of the hands and ambidexterity, which was particularly evident while improvising counterpoint.

brass band/string band

brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularly in the context of New Orleans-style brass bands), but may more correctly termed military bands, concert bands, or 'brass and reed' bands. string band is an old-time music or jazz ensemble made up mainly or solely of string instruments. String bands were popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and are among the forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass.

religious music: gospel, hymns, spirituals

gospel: is music genre in Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. hymns : a religious song or poem, typically of praise to God or a god spirituals: a religious song of a kind associated with black Christians of the southern US, and thought to derive from the combination of European hymns and African musical elements by black slaves.

syncopation

involves a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected which make part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is a general term for "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur." In other words the stress the weak beats

blues

is a musical form and genre[1] that originated in African-American communities in the "Deep South" of the United States around the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.[2] The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound. Blues as a genre possesses other characteristics such as lyrics, bass lines, and instruments.

ragtime/syncopated orchestra

is a musical genre that enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1918.[2] Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. rag was a modification of the march made popular by John Philip Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music.[5] It was usually written in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a predominant left-hand pattern of bass notes on strong beats (beats 1 and 3) and chords on weak beats (beat 2 and 4) accompanying a syncopated melody in the right hand. According to some sources the name "ragtime" may come from the "ragged or syncopated rhythm" of the right hand.[

blues notes

is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres.

call and response

is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. It corresponds to the call-and-response pattern in human communication and is found as a basic element of musical form, such as verse-chorus form, in many traditions.`

Congo Square

is an open space within Louis Armstrong Park, which is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, just across Rampart Street north of the French Quarter. The Tremé neighborhood is famous for its history of African American music. In Louisiana's French and Spanish colonial era of the 18th century, slaves were commonly allowed Sundays off from their work. They were allowed to gather in the "Place des Nègres", "Place Publique", later "Circus Square" or informally "Place Congo" at the "back of town" (across Rampart Street from the French Quarter), where the slaves would set up a market, sing, dance, and play music.

improvisation

is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians.Thus, musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on chord changes in classical music,and indeed many other kinds of music. One definition is a "performance given extempore without planning or preparation. Another definition is to "play or sing (music) extemporaneously, especially by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies in accordance with a set progression of chords."

Tin Pan Alley

is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, and a plaque (see below) on the sidewalk on 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth commemorates it. Helped Jazz

texture

is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece. Texture is often described in regard to the density, or thickness, and range, or width between lowest and highest pitches, in relative terms as well as more specifically distinguished according to the number of voices, or parts, and the relationship between these voices. The "layering" of instruments.

swing

kind of jazz generally played by a "Big Band" and characterized by a lively rhythm suitable for dancing. The bands of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller played swing.

motives and phrases

motif(singular): is a short musical idea,a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity". Phrases: a division of a composition, commonly a passage of four or eight measures, forming part of a period.

work songs

piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.

Dixieland

sometimes referred to as Hot jazz or Early Jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s. Well-known jazz standard songs from the Dixieland era, such as "Basin Street Blues" and "When the Saints Go Marching In", are known even to non-jazz fans. With its beginnings in Dixieland and Riverboat jazz, and progression to Chicago-style jazz or hot jazz as developed by Louis Armstrong and others, Chicago-style jazz or hot jazz was also a transition and combination of 2-beat to 4-beat, introducing Swing in its earliest form.

harmony

the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.

Original Dixie Land Jazz Band

the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz single ever issued.The group made the first recordings, and claimed authorship, of many jazz standards, the most famous being "Tiger Rag". In late 1917 the spelling of the band's name was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band.The band consisted of five musicians who previously had played in the Papa Jack Laine bands, a diverse and racially integrated group of musicians who played for parades, dances, and advertising in New Orleans. ODJB billed itself as the Creators of Jazz; it was the first band to record jazz commercially and to have hit recordings in the new genre. Band leader and trumpeter Nick LaRocca argued that ODJB deserved recognition as the first band to record jazz commercially and the first band to establish jazz as a musical idiom or genre.

rhythm

the systematic arrangement of musical sounds, principally according to duration and periodic stress.

Prohibition(1919)

was a nationwide Constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by "dry" crusaders movement, led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas local laws were more strict, with some states banning possession outright. Nationwide Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933.

Ethel Waters

was an African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her best-known recordings include "Dinah," "Stormy Weather," "Taking a Chance on Love," "Heat Wave," "Supper Time," "Am I Blue?" and "Cabin in the Sky," as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. She is also the first African American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962.

Charles "Buddy" Bolden

was an African-American cornetist and is regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of rag-time music, which later came to be known as jazz. Bolden played music he heard "by ear" and adapted it to his horn. In doing so, he created an exciting and novel fusion of ragtime, black sacred music, marching-band music, and rural blues. He rearranged the typical New Orleans dance band of the time to better accommodate the blues; string instruments became the rhythm section, and the front-line instruments were clarinets, trombones, and Bolden's cornet. Bolden was known for his powerful, loud, "wide open" playing style.

Eubie Blake

was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as, "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works.

minstrelsy

was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface.

Joe "King" Oliver

was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wrote many tunes still played today including "Dippermouth Blues," "Sweet Like This," "Canal Street Blues," and "Doctor Jazz." He was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong. His influence was such that Armstrong claimed, "if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today."

Bix Beiderbecke

was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. His turns on "Singin' the Blues" and "I'm Coming, Virginia" (both 1927), in particular, demonstrated an unusual purity of tone and a gift for improvisation. With these two recordings, especially, he helped to invent the jazz ballad style and hinted at what, in the 1950s, would become cool jazz. "In a Mist" (1927), one of a handful of his piano compositions and one of only two he recorded, mixed classical (Impressionist) influences with jazz syncopation. He first recorded with Midwestern jazz ensembles, The Wolverines and The Bucktown Five[1][2] in 1924, after which he played briefly for the Detroit-based Jean Goldkette Orchestra before joining Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer for an extended gig at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis. Beiderbecke and Trumbauer joined Goldkette in 1926. The band toured widely and famously played a set opposite Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City in October 1926. He made his greatest recordings in 1927 (see above). In 1928, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Detroit to join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the country: the New-York-based Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

Earl "Fatha" Hines

was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one major source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, a member of the Earl Hines big-band along with Charlie Parker, wrote, "The piano is the basis of modern harmony. This little guy came out of Chicago, Earl Hines. He changed the style of the piano. You can find the roots of Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, all the guys who came after that. If it hadn't been for Earl Hines blazing the path for the next generation to come, it's no telling where or how they would be playing now. There were individual variations but the style of ... the modern piano came from Earl Hines." Count Basie said, simply, that Earl Hines was, "The greatest piano player in the world".[3]

Sindey Bechet

was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz (beating cornetist and trumpeter Louis Armstrong to the recording studio by several months and later playing duets with Armstrong), and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist. Forceful delivery, well-constructed improvisations, and a distinctive, wide vibrato characterized Bechet's playing. Bechet's erratic temperament hampered his career, however, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim.

Louis Armstrong

was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and an influential figure in jazz music. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics). Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.

James Reese Europe

was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African-American music scene of New York City Directed the regimental band of the Hell-fighters. Played for the Castles and directed big symphonies that do not play to music conventions of the time. Proto-jazz.

"Jelly Roll" Morton/Red Hot Peppers

was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated.[2] His composition "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition, in 1915. Morton is also notable for naming and popularizing the "Spanish Tinge" (habanera rhythm and tresillo), and for writing such standards as "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the latter a tribute to New Orleans personalities from the turn of the 19th century to 20th century. Red Hot Peppers:was a recording jazz band led by Jelly Roll Morton from 1926-1930. It was a seven- or eight-piece band formed in Chicago that recorded for Victor and featured the best New Orleans-style freelance musicians available, including cornetist George Mitchell, trombonist Kid Ory, clarinetists Omer Simeon and Johnny Dodds, banjoists Johnny St. Cyr and Bud Scott, double bass player John Lindsay, and drummers Andrew Hilaire and Baby Dodds.[1] Recordings made by the group in Chicago in 1926-27, such as "Black Bottom Stomp", "Smoke-House Blues" and "Doctor Jazz" set a standard for small group jazz that is still unrivaled. Morton's skills as a composer and arranger are apparent in the structure of the pieces, which combines clarity with variety and manages to maintain a balance between ensemble and solo playing while allowing for a substantial solo from every band member. The quality of the recordings is further enhanced by the band's careful rehearsals, which were uncommon in early jazz performances. A number of Morton's best piano solos can also be heard on these recordings.

Great Migration

was the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that lasted between 1910 and 1970. Some historians differentiate between the first Great Migration (1910-1930), numbering about 1.6 million migrants who left mostly rural areas to migrate to northern industrial cities, and after a lull during the Great Depression, a Second Great Migration (1940 to 1970), in which 5 million or more people moved from the South, including many to California and other western cities. The moved up north for work and equality.

Austin High Gang

was the name given to a young group of young, white musicians from the west side of Chicago, near Austin High School, who rose to prominence as originators of the Chicago style of jazz in the 1920s. The members of the Austin High Gang were: Jimmy McPartland - cornet Dick McPartland - banjo, guitar Frank Teschemacher - clarinet Bud Freeman - tenor saxophone Jim Lanigan - string bass, tuba Dave North - piano

Theater Owner's Booking Association (TOBA)

was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s and 1930s. The theaters mostly had White owners ( Athens, Georgia's, 1909 "Morton Theater"—run by "Pinky" Monroe Morton, and now beautifully restored, being a notable exception) and collaborated in booking jazz, blues, comedians, and other performers (including the Classically trained—such as operatic soprano Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, "The Black Patti") for Black audiences.