mus 347 : lesson 2

What new jazz-influenced piano style started in Harlem in the 1920s?

stride

Bix B

Cornetist who joined a band in Chicago called the Wolverines, the first northern jazz band founded by white musicians.

king oliver

Cornetist-bandleader who used various objects to mute his instrument and formed the popular Creole Jazz Band in 1922.

Who was the most prominent innovator of jazz as a soloist's art?

Louis Armstrong

arranger

Organizes someone else's composition

sidney B

Originally a clarinetist who performed in New Orleans as a child, popularized the soprano saxophone in the U.S. and Europe.

arpeggio

Playing up and down the individual notes of a chord

clarinet

Plays a fast-moving higher pitched part called an obbligato

trumpet or cornet

Plays the melody because it is the loudest instrument

back-phrasing

Starting a phrase after the rhythm of the sheet music suggests

What bandleader presented an event in New York City in which symphonic jazz emerged?

paul whiteman

What group did Jelly Roll Morton form in 1926 that featured some of the most talented and experienced players of the day?

red hot peppers

composer

A creator of new music

Buddy Bolden

Charismatic cornetist-bandleader with a bluesy and raucous style; never recorded.

scat singing

A melody or improvisation with nonsense syllables instead of lyrics

vamp

A repeated phrase that can be looped any number of times

comping

Accompanying in a sparse, interactive fashion

two 2 feel

Bass played on beats 1 and 3 instead of walking on all four beats

Who was the first celebrity in jazz?

Buddy Bolden

terminal vibrato

Ending phrases with warbling or held notes wavering up and down

Jelly Roll

Exemplary pianist and bandleader who was an early jazz innovator, style setter and best composer-arranger of the era.

In the 1890s, Louisiana adopted Jim Crow segregation laws, but the United States Supreme Court overturned those laws.

False. The Supreme Court upheld the segregation laws in 1896, and suddenly Creoles were legally black. As the United States broke the promise of reconstruction and became a legally racist and segregated society, it inadvertently created the conditions in which jazz was born.

hot style

Fast rhythm, upbeat tempo, energetic feeling

stop time

Rhythm section punctuates distinct beats, often to accommodate a soloist's improvisation between the band's chords

groove

Sense of propulsive rhythmic "feel" or sense of "swing"

riff

Short, punchy melodic phrases

Loius Arm

Single most important figure in the development of jazz who influenced the genre equally as an instrumentalist and singer.

trombone

Slides up and down between the bass notes (tailgating)

Select the typical demand(s) of the performers for a big band.

The correct answers are to sight-read music, blend timbre, intonation, and dynamics, and perform newly composed songs and arrangement of popular tunes.

What bandleader provided music for the Roseland Ballroom to set the stage for the birth of a new jazz style called swing?

The correct answer is Fletcher Henderson. The Roseland Ballroom was the most luxurious dance venue in New York City, and by 1926, Henderson's was one of the best known jazz orchestras in New York, and he remained highly influential throughout the rest of his career.

Who is often called "the father of stride piano?"

The correct answer is James P. Johnson, the first in a lineage of jazz pianists that would include other great pianists like Fats Waller, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington, who played in or were influenced by the stride style.

What city is known for being the "birthplace" of jazz?

The correct answer is New Orleans, which was renowned for its music, dancing, loose living, and corruption. The first style of jazz was Early New Orleans Jazz (also called Dixieland).

What composition opened in the event called An Experiment in Modern Music in which symphonic jazz emerged?

The correct answer is Rhapsody in Blue. The composer of the piece, George Gershwin, played the piano part along with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.

What local white band in Chicago did Jelly Roll Morton record with in 1923?

The correct answer is The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, in what was one of the first integrated jazz recording sessions.

What was the first northern band founded by white musicians to imitate the New Orleans jazz style?

The correct answer is The Wolverines. In 1923, Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke joined the band of white musicians that called themselves The Wolverines because they admired and often played Jelly Roll Morton's composition "Wolverine Blues".

Select the musical accomplishments of Jelly Roll Morton.

The correct answer is a virtuosic pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. He possessed outstanding technical ability as a pianist and became an important bandleader. He was also a master both as a composer (creator of new music), and as an arranger (organizer of someone else's compositions). He is often considered the first great composer-arranger of the early jazz era.

Select the features of a "hot" band.

The correct answer is extroverted style, strong swing feel, more syncopation, blues influence, more solos.

Which one of the following is NOT a characteristic of early jazz?

The correct answer is guitar or banjo and piano in the front line. The guitar, banjo and piano are rhythm section instruments, while the clarinet and cornet or trumpet and trombone are in the front line instruments.

Which of the following does NOT describe Sydney Bechet?

The correct answer is he first established himself as a professional clarinetist. Whether on clarinet or soprano saxophone, Bechet's striking, quavering vibrato was one of the defining characteristics of his style.

Select the features of Bix Beiderbecke's playing style as a solo cornetist.

The correct answer is mellow timbre, melodic lyrical style, soft dynamics and a very pretty tone. Compared to Louis Armstrong's style, one could say the Beiderbecke played with a cooler aesthetic as opposed to Armstrong's red-hot, extroverted style. Despite their different musical styles, Armstrong and Beiderbecke both admired each other's playing greatly.

What statement below describes "chromatic harmonies"?

The correct answer is playing chords and scales not found in the home key of a piece. These are ambiguous sounding chords that reflect the influence of modernist classical styles on jazz in the 1920s.

How did French policies in the 1880s on race relations helped enable New Orleans to become a city of music?

The correct answer is that race relations were more relaxed than those in the British colonies. Those of mixed race had special legal and social status, and slaves and free blacks could congregate to sing, making New Orleans a city where music was everywhere.

What was the best known jazz group to emerge in Europe in 1930s?

The correct answer is the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Will Marion Cook's group with Sidney Bechet had toured Europe earlier and helped to popularize jazz. But in 1934, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, the acoustic string ensemble based in Paris, emerged as the best known group.

What allowed Jim Crow segregation laws to inadvertently create the conditions in which jazz was born in New Orleans?

The correct answer is the forced interaction between Creole and Black musicians.The Uptown Blacks contributed syncopation, improvisation, and faster rhythms, while the Downtown Creoles contributed harmony deriving from European music.

What geographical factor(s) contributed to New Orleans becoming the birthplace of jazz?

The correct answers are its proximity to the Caribbean and its location at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its location was far from east coast cities, but close enough to the Caribbean Islands and the city's Caribbean African cultural influences. Being at the mouth of the Mississippi River made New Orleans a hub for commerce and one of the largest ports in the world.

Select the features of a "sweet" band.

The correct answers are medium tempo, less syncopated, fewer solos, and melody valued above all.

Select the large ensemble jazz style(s) that developed in New York City in the 1920s.

The correct answers are symphonic jazz and swing. "Symphonic jazz" is a style that brought jazz to the concert stage through the works of composers like George Gershwin. The jazz style that would later be called "swing" was a style that shifted from syncopated dance bands to large ensembles (big bands).

Shortly after jazz spread from New Orleans to Chicago, its focus shifted to New York City. Select the reason for this shift.

The correct answers are that New York was the center of the entertainment industry, epicenter of a population boom, and center for music innovation. Although Jim Crow legislation did not apply in the north, Manhattan in the 1920s was segregated by race, class, and ethnicity.

Select the typical role(s) of the arranger for a big band.

The correct answers are that the arranger typically organizes the music for the ensemble, writes out the individual parts for the musicians, and often alternates solos with ensemble passages. Arrangers may not necessarily compose the original song or tune.

Early New Orleans Jazz featured collective improvisation, which is when all the members of the front line improvise simultaneously.

True. Collective improvisation separates Early New Orleans Jazz from ragtime and most later jazz styles. This took a lot of skill as musicians had to know the underlying chords of the song and how to interact with other players spontaneously.

Creoles were mixed race residents who considered themselves socially superior to blacks, and often worked in skilled trades and were more connected to European culture.

True. Many Creole musicians in the 1880s were classically trained, and Creole bands were often able to play at white events.

Select the feature(s) of a typical 1930's big band ensemble.

Unlike early jazz that typically had one trumpet or coronet, one trombone, and one clarinet or saxophone, a 1930's swing band typically had more than one of each frontline instrument, arranged in trumpet, trombone, and reed/woodwind sections. The big band ensemble also typically featured a rhythm section of piano, bass, drums, and guitar.

vibrato

Warbling with held notes wavering up and down

What top stride pianist was legally blind and who many consider the greatest jazz virtuoso on any instrument?

art tatum

"Head arrangements" were written big band arrangements that only called for the playing of the melody of the song but did not feature improvisation.

false

Because big bands have more frontline instruments to draw upon, collective improvisation is easier to arrange and play than in earlier jazz styles.

false

Because of the Harlem Renaissance, all nightclub and cabarets admitted black patrons.

false

Cab Calloway was the first jazz singer to popularize scat singing.

false

Jelly Roll Morton remained a resident of New Orleans throughout his entire professional career.

false

Jelly Roll Morton's arranging style featured alternating passages of collective improvisation without any breaks.

false

The Quintette du Hot Club de France two star musicians were violinist Django Reinhardt and lead guitarist Stéphane Grappelli.

false

What top stride pianist and composer of jazz classics was a student of James P. Johnson?

fats waller

What section of New York City had the largest black population?

harlem

What song performed by Louis Armstrong rose on the pop charts?

hello dolly

A band named the Original Dixieland Jass Band released the first jazz recording in 1917.

true

By 1935, swing was the dominant style of music in the United States until its decline after World War II.

true

Harlem became the focus of a cultural and intellectual movement in the 1920s called the Harlem Renaissance.

true

In our current day, a big band usually has five (5) reeds, four (4) trombones, four to five (4-5) trumpets and a rhythm section.

true

King Oliver assembled the Creole Jazz band in 1922 after he moved from New Orleans to Chicago, which included a young cornetist named Louis Armstrong.

true

Louis Armstrong helped to create the style that would later be known as big band swing.

true

Louis Armstrong usually ended his phrases with terminal vibrato.

true

Playing more than one reed instrument in a band or in a single piece is called "woodwind doubling."

true

Sydney Bechet was well loved in Europe.

true

The Quintette du Hot Club de France based in Paris was an acoustic string ensemble featuring all string instruments.

true

The word "swing" refers both to a major era of big band jazz history a way to play 8th notes.

true