Week 1: Elements of Jazz to Early Jazz

The two "theories" regarding the birth of jazz in New Orleans around the turn of the century:

1. the sociological "uptown/downtown" theory 2. the developmental "generational" theory

breaks

A solo break in jazz occurs when the rhythm section (piano, bass, drums) stops playing behind a soloist for a brief period, usually two or four bars leading into the soloist's first improvised solo chorus (at which point the rhythm section resumes playing).

Standard Tunes

All jazz musicians know the same 100-200 standard jazz tunes (called "standards") in the same keys.

The Roaring 20's

Early jazz of the 1920's was viewed as both the soundtrack for and a symptom of a particularly unsettled period in our history known as the The Roaring 20's (a.k.a. the Jazz Age), a time between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression when the United States experienced rapid industrialization and unprecedented economic growth. Accompanying this was a loosening of morals, spurred on by a widespread flouting of the newly enacted Prohibition legislation, and a general feeling of unease brought on by rapid and extreme change.

Steady tempo

It is assumed that no matter what anyone plays, or even if all instruments stop playing, the music will neither speed up nor slow down.

Standard order of performance

Most jazz tunes follow a consistent order of parts. A tune often begins with an introduction (though this is optional). Then the melody of the tune (called the head) is played once or twice. Then a string of solos are played by each instrument in turn. solos follow a particular order: horns (saxophone and trumpet) solo first, then piano, bass, and drums in that order. Not every instrument plays a solo on every tune. If an instrument chooses not to play a solo, the next instrument would take its turn. After the last instrument takes a solo the head is played again (once or twice), and the tune may end after the last head, or there may be an actual ending section. This standard order of performance diagram: Intro (opt.) - Head (1 or 2X) - Solos: horn(s), piano, bass, drums - Head (1 or 2X) - Ending (opt.)

Chicago and New York Jazz

New Orleans was an important center for the early development of jazz. As many African Americans migrated from the Deep South to northern cities after World War I (including many New Orleans jazz musicians), the epicenter of the music shifted to cities like Chicago and New York in the 1920's.

Drums Role

Provides swing and helps to provide the pulse by playing the ride rhythm (sounds like "long-long-SHORT-long-long-SHORT-long etc.) on the ride cymbal. Helps to inspire the soloist (and other members of the rhythm section) by playing chatter (constant undercurrent of syncopated accents) on the snare drum, kicks and prods (louder chatter) on the snare and toms, and dropping bombs (loud, explosive accents) on the bass drum. Provides a variety of sounds by hitting various parts of the drumset with various implements (sticks, brushes, mallets, etc.) to "color" the sound of the entire group. Plays solos.

Piano Role

Provides the chords in an irregular, syncopated rhythm with both hands, called comping. This also helps to provide swing. Helps to inspire the soloist by varying the notes of the chords and sometimes substituting new chords. When playing a solo, the pianist improvises a melodic part with the right hand while continuing to comp with the left hand.

Bass Role

Provides the pulse (beat) by playing 1 note per beat, called walking bass. Helps to provide swing by occasionally playing quick extra notes between the beats (syncopation). Outlines the chords by choosing pitches from the notes of the accompanying chords. Plays melodic solos.

Collective improvisation - early jazz

The front line horns often played their parts together in a (seemingly) improvised manner in which no one instrument appeared to be in the spotlight. The rhythm instruments generally remained in an accompaniment role.

12-bar blues

The map is 12 bars long

Standard Maps

There are two standard maps that have been used for dozens of jazz tunes. All tunes written using each map have the same chord changes 1. 12 bar blues 2. 32-bar AABA "Rhythm" Change

32-bar AABA "Rhythm" Changes

This map is 32 bars long, and consists of 4 8-bar sections. The first two 8-bar sections have the same melody and chords, the third section has a different melody and pattern of chords, and the fourth 8-bar section has the same melody and chords as the first two. The chord changes for the whole map were taken from the song "I Got Rhythm."

Strict adherence to the chord changes (map)

Tunes that jazz musicians play almost always have a particular pattern of chords derived from the melody (map). A typical performance of a jazz tune will consist of many repetitions of this chord pattern (choruses). When an instrument takes a solo, the other instruments play following the map over and over again, until the soloist decides to end his/her solo. It is assumed that the map will always be strictly adhered to: chords may be added, subtracted, or substituted following the rules of music theory, but the essential harmonic framework will not be altered, and bars or sections will not be added to or subtracted from the map. Moreover, each soloist will end his/her solo and the next soloist will begin his/her solo at the end of the map or the beginning of the next repetition of the map.

Syncopation

a rhythm which is accented in an unusual or unexpected place. 2 specific definitions: 1) a rhythm with accents which fall between the beats. 2) as a rhythm with accents on a normally weak beat. Normally weak beat: it's the opposite of a normally strong beat! In a meter of 4, the normally strong beats are 1 and 3, thus the normally weak beats are 2 and 4. In almost every style of rock music, the snare drum plays a strong accent on the 2nd. and 4th. beats (called the backbeat).

As jazz developed and evolved during the first two decades of the 20th. century, what emerged?

a typical instrumentation and methods of organiztion emerged. Front line Rythm

Blue Notes

actual pitches which exist between the pitches of the European chromatic scale. AKA an "imprecise" (in European terms) way of singing or playing certain pitches, rather than specific pitches These blue notes can be "slurred" or "slid" up to or down from. This is what the term "bent" note refers to, as well as the actual "bending" of a string done by every rock and blues guitarist to achieve the same effect. It can be done on almost any instrument (except piano), and by the voice

Rhythm - early jazz

bass/tuba - plays on 1st. & 3rd. beats ("2-beat") banjo/guitar - strums chords on all four beats piano - chords on the beat, stride style, "flowery" embellishments drums - independent line, "military" patterns, can echo lead

Louis Armstrong

began his career in New Orleans in the 'teens moved to Chicago to play with King Oliver in the early 20's struck out on his own playing with other important bandleaders and leading his own groups later on in the 20's fronted his own very successful big bands and small groups in the 30's and 40's became an international star of stage, screen, and radio, and became an international goodwill ambassador in the 1950's. he died in 1971 as one of America's best-loved entertainers.

Roots of Jazz

can be traced back to both Africa and Europe (and possibly the Carribean), and to styles of music created by Americans from both those continents.

Most early jazz tunes contained the following parts, in varying proportions:

collective improvisation pre-arranged ensemble passages breaks stop-time solo + back-up

Front line - early jazz

cornet/trumpet - plays lead or melody clarinet - plays multi-noted part that "weaves" above and below the cornet trombone - plays simple, low-pitches/few notes, slides ("smears")

Articulation

how a note is played. Sliding up to a note, "falling off" a note, "cracking" a note, adding roughness to a note are all examples of articulation.

Ostinato

is a regularly repeated musical phrase.

A measure or bar

is a repeated groups of beats (a group of 4 beats if the music is in a meter of 4). It gives us a way to measure the relative length of a piece of music or of a section of a piece.

Melody

is a succession of notes played one after another, as opposed to a chord, which is the simultaneous sounding of three or more notes. Certain instruments (saxophone, trumpet, flute, and the human voice) are only capable of playing melodies, while other instruments (piano, guitar, and banjo) are capable of playing melodies and chords. By applying the rules of music theory, a pattern of accompanying chords can usually be derived from a given melody.

Meter

is the organization of the beat into groups of a consistent number, groups of 3, 4, or 5. This number usually remains consistent throughout a piece, and is determined by subtle accents placed on notes played by instruments which tend to fall on the first beat of every group (i.e., if the instruments accent notes played on every fifth beat, the music will be in a meter of 4 and we will tend to count it ONE-2-3-4, ONE-2-3-4, ONE-2-3-4, etc.). Most jazz tunes are in a meter of 4.

Beat

is the pulse underlying or implied by the music there isn't always an instrument actually playing the beat. It's more like the beat is created by the music. In the most common style of jazz, the bass plays the beat.

Tempo

is the speed of the basic pulse or beat measured in beats per minute usually correlated to how fast or slow the music appears to be moving through time ("fast" music = fast tempo, "slow" music = slow tempo).

Jazz in it's early formative years

less a new style of music and more as a new way of playing existing styles such as ragtime, blues, marches, and light classical pieces, utilizing techniques, instrumentation, and methods of organization derived from both African and European musical traditions. This probably occurred in a number of places in the U.S. during the period 1890-1920, but certainly occured most dramatically in New Orleans.

Antiphony

literally, sound-against-sound is created when music is divided into two (or more) alternating parts where one part seems to be asking a musical question (or providing a "call") while the other part(s) are providing the answer (or the response).

Louis Armstrong's Recordings

made a series of recordings in the late 20's (the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens) recordings re-defined the direction of jazz and established Armstrong as the most exciting/ technically advanced soloist of his time. Instead of relying heavily on collective improvisation as an ordering principle, his music featured soloists improvising in the spotlight while other instruments accompanied, with himself as the featured soloist. This was the direction jazz would take for the next 80 years!

the developmental "generational" theory

more exciting, rougher, improvised music played by a new younger generation of musicians replaced more formal styles of playing in response to the popularity of new dance styles and ragtime

New Oreleans

prominent in any account of the birth of jazz. The multi-ethnic population (and the varied musical influences it brought) + an environment in which music was omnipresent coupled with a generally hedonistic attitude which supported dancing, drinking, and other forms of "partying" (a hold-over of the city's origins as a French colony) created fertile ground for the development of a new style of music. Much of this character is evident even in present-day New Orleans, especially as compared to New England.

Rythm

sound in time how a long a particular sound lasts It has nothing to do with pitch, type of instrument or how loud it is

Armstrong's solo style

technique - including range and timbre melodic ability - including creativity, logic, sense of drama rhythmic ability - including creativity and "naturalness" resulting in a "modern" sense of swing.

Pitch

the "highness" or "lowness" of a sound, determined by its frequency of vibration.

Stop time

the band punctuates unison accents behind a soloist.

the sociological "uptown/downtown" theory

the mixing of Creoles of Color (French/Black ancestry) with African-Americans due to segregationist Jim Crow laws imposed by the white minority

Timbre or Tone

the particular quality or nature of a musical sound. We use words such as light, heavy, dark, smooth, rough, hot, cold, clean, and distorted to describe timbre.

Ragtime's Relationship to Jazz

the rhythm of ragtime is "stricter, more vertical," as opposed to jazz's "looser and more fluid" rhythm, created by the use of "swinging eighth notes."

Jazz Mathematical Formula

the two theories are not mutually exclusive and work well together. Jazz = (Creoles [European elements]+ African Americans [African elements]) x demand for new music European elements = form, harmony, instruments, technical virtuosity African elements = syncopation, sliding/slurred pitches, blue notes, tonal effects Improvisation can be seen as both a European and an African element.

pre-arranged ensemble passages

where many instruments play the same or complimentary parts

Solo + Back Up

where one instrument improvises alone in the spotlight with rhythm instruments accompanying