Jazz History

The history of Jazz music origins is attributed to the turn of the 20th century
New Orleans, although this unique, artistic medium occurred almost simultaneousl
y in other North American areas like Saint Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. Trait
s carried from West African black folk music developed in the Americas, joined w
ith European popular and light classical music of the late 19th and early 20th c
enturies, became the syncopated rhythms of Ragtime and minor chord voicings char
acteristic of the Blues.
Jazz and Blues are among America's greatest cultural achievements and exports to
the world community giving powerful voice to the American experience. Born of a
multi-hued society, it unites people across the divides of race, region and nat
ional boundaries and has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativi
ty and American identity at home and abroad.
Jazz is not the result of choosing a tune, but an ideal that is created first in
the mind, inspired by one's passion, and willed next in playing music. Its uniq
ue expression draws from life experience and human emotion as the inspiration of
the creative force, and through this discourse is chronicled the history of a p
eople. Musicians and those that follow the genre closely, can indeed be thought
of as an artistic community complete with its leaders, spokesmen, innovators, af
icionados, members, bands, supporters & fans.
Jazz Education
Music and all Art is an essential part of the "human experience." A basic unders
tanding and appreciation of Music can only serve to broaden ones character and d
eepen the connection with those around us. Today, this music is played, studied
and taught at private and public institutions all around the globe. However, as
lower budgets force public schools to cut back, private music lessons will not o
nly supplement the school, but may eventually replace it in many areas. This is
especially true for Jazz education.
Understanding theory & harmony provides the basis for improvisation, fills and s
oloing. Study improv methods and find Jazz chords, Blues chords, intervals, cade
nces, turnarounds, reharmonization, tritone substitution and transposing keys.
Interact the virtual piano chords to see
ngs, seventh chords and piano scales, or
hord progressions, the circle of fifths,
tarists will find shapes for basic barre
s with the virtual guitar chords.

variations of piano chords, chord voici

study the charts about scale degrees, c
or to find scales and common modes. Gui
chords, open positions and root voicing

Study piano lessons, theory and composition at the San Diego music studio, or fr
om your home or office via computer with online piano lessons. Get instruction w
ith standards or tunes found in the public domain.
"From hard rhythms of Be-bop, the mellow harmonies of Cool, to atonal forays of
Free & the Straight Ahead delivery of Modern... it's all Jazz." - D C DowDell
Newport Beach Jazz Party
The 17th Annual Newport Beach Jazz Party promises to be a stellar event once aga
in.
Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival
The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho has become an acclai
med event.
A Great Day in Harlem photo and film
Legendary gathering of 57 great Jazz musicians now known as A Great Day in Harle
m.

Jazz Music HistoryJazz Milestones

1895 to 2015
Noteworthy dates and events in evolution of Jazz music history.
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History of the Sax
Aldolphe Sax
Adolphe Sax: the story of the Saxophone
The saxophone is known as a single-reed musical instrument that is a staple in J
azz bands. Considered to be newer than other musical instruments in terms of its
music history, the saxophone was invented by Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax.
Adolphe Sax was born on Nov. 6, 1814 in Dinant, Belgium. His father, Charles, wa
s a maker of musical instruments who made several changes to the design of the h
orn himself. During his youth, Adolphe studied the clarinet and flute at Brussel
's Conservatory. His father's passion for creating musical instruments influence
d him greatly and he began plans of improving the tone of the bass clarinet. Wha
t he came up with was a single-reed instrument constructed from metal that has a
conical bore and overblows at the octave.
1841: Adolphe Sax first showed his creation (a C bass saxophone) to the composer
Hector Berlioz. The great composer was impressed by the uniqueness and versatil
ity of the instrument.
1842: Adolphe Sax went to Paris. On June 12, Hector Berlioz published an article
in the Paris magazine "Journal des Debats" describing the saxophone.

1844: Adolphe Sax reveals his creation to the public through the Paris Industria
l Exhibition. On February 3 of that same year, Adolphe's good friend Hector Berl
ioz conducts a concert featuring his choral work. Hector's choral work arrangeme
nt is called Chant Sacre and it featured the saxophone. In December, the saxopho
ne had its orchestral debut at the Paris Conservatory through the opera "Last Ki
ng of Juda" by Georges Kastner.
1845: French military bands during this time used oboes, bassoons, and french ho
rns, but Adoplhe replaced these with the Bb and Eb saxhorns. During this time he
also developed the saxotromba family, valved brass instruments with narrower bo
re than the saxhorns, though they survived only briefly.
1846: Adolphe Sax obtained patent for his saxophones that had 14 variations. Amo
ng them are: E flat sopranino, F sopranino, B flat soprano, C soprano, E flat al
to, F alto, B flat tenor, C tenor, E flat baritone, B flat bass, C bass, E flat
contrabass and F contrabass.
1847: On February 14 in Paris, a saxophone school was created. It was set up at
"Gymnase Musical," a military band school.
1853 to 1858: Sax suffered from lip cancer during this time but made a full reco
very.
1858: Adolphe Sax became a professor at the Paris Conservatory.
1866: The patent for the saxophone expired and the Millereau Co. patents the sax
ophone featuring a forked F# key.
1875: Goumas patented the saxophone with a fingering similar to the clarinet's B
oehm system.
1881: Adolphe extends his original patent for the saxophone. He also made change
s to the instrument such as lengthening the bell to include Bb and A and extendi
ng the instrument's range to F# and G using the fourth octave key.
1885: The first saxophone was built in the US by Gus Buescher.
1886: The saxophone underwent changes again, the right hand C trill key was devi
sed and half-hole system for the first fingers of both hands.
1887: The predecessor of the articulated G# Evette and Schaeffer and tuning ring
was invented by the Association Des Ouvriers.
1888: The single octave key for the saxophone was invented and rollers for low E
b and C were added.
1894: Adolphe Sax died. His son, Adolphe Edouard, took over the business.
Saxhorn instruments spread rapidly throughout the world. The saxhorn valves were
accepted as state of the art and are still largely unchanged today. The advance
s made by Adolphe Sax were soon followed by the formation of the famous British
brass band movement which exclusively adopted the saxhorn range. An example is t
he Jedforest Instrumental Band which formed in 1854 within the Scottish Borders
only a decade after saxhorn models became available.
After Adolphe's death, the saxophone proceeded to undergo changes, books for the
saxophone were published and composers/musicians continued to include the sax i
n their performances. In 1914 the saxophone entered the world of Jazz. In 1928 t
he Sax factory was sold to the Henri Selmer Company. To this day many manufactur
ers of musical instruments create their own line of saxophones and it continues
to enjoy a prominent position in orchestras, concert ensembles and most Jazz ban
ds.
Free fingering chart (pdf)
"You only go around once & this ain't no rehearsal." - Henri Selmer (1858-1941)
"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum"
(The Extremes of Good and Evil)
Cicero
written by Cicero in 45 BC
1914 translation by H. Rackham
I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and prai
sing pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and exp
ound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder
of human happiness.
No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but
because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter conse

quences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursu
es or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasion
ally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleas
ure.
To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exerci
se, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault
with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, o
r one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who ar
e so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinde
d by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ens
ue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of
will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain.
These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when o
ur power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to d
o what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. Bu
t in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of
business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and anno
yances accepted.
The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of select
ion: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures
pains to avoid worse pains.
Original text in Latin
Pat Metheny
Keynote address at 2001 IAJE
"What a pleasure it is for me to be invited to talk to you all today. I feel so
proud to be a part of the Jazz community. The life that I have been able to lead
as player and composer and improviser over these years has been fantastic beyon
d anything I ever could have imagined when I first started playing"
"In a lot of ways, my own career has roughly paralleled the evolution of the IAJ
E itself. I started playing music professionally in 1968 when I was about 14, gr
owing up around the Kansas City area -- and the IAJE, of course, was founded jus
t next door over in Manhattan, Kansas at right around that same time. And it is
really just unbelievable to see a few decades down the road how it has evolved i
nto this huge worldwide organization that has done so much to further the music
and, maybe just as important, as we see here today, to foster a sense of communi
ty for all of us who are involved in the evolution and study of this wonderful w
ay of playing and thinking."
"There is no question that Jazz education is in better shape now than ever. 30 y
ears ago, in the small town that I grew up in out there, although we had an exce
llent music program developed by one of the best band directors in the state, th
ere was no Jazz band, no Jazz program at all; there weren't even any saxophones
in the marching band!"
"The fact that I can go back to Lee's Summit now, and see that they have several
ensembles available to kids that are interested, is just one of countless examp
les that can be found all over the world of the power and pervasive influence of
this movement."
"Nevertheless, as we stand here at the beginning of this new century as Jazz mus
icians, we find ourselves living in a culture that often seems to be oblivious,
if not outright hostile to musical creativity as most of us in this room would d
efine it. As millennium era musicians and educators, we find ourselves with some
major challenges ahead of us, as a community, and as individuals."
"But in spite of these challenges -- in fact, I personally believe it may wind u
p being BECAUSE of some of these very challenges, and the real pressures that th
ey will put on us to redefine ourselves, for even our very survival -- Jazz will
likely continue to thrive, although possibly in unexpected ways"
"It is Jazz's very nature to change, to develop and adapt to the circumstances o
f its environment. The evidence of this lies in the incredible diversity of musi
c and musicians that have evolved, and lived and flourished, under the wide umbr
ella of the word "Jazz" itself from the very beginning."

"Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history -- a conc
ept bigger than any single one of its partisans could ever hope to define."
"However, as a participant in the cause, retaining one's optimism can be a diffi
cult task in a culture that often appears to be indifferent to the kind of perso
nal creativity that is embodied in the quest for excellence in Jazz. As I talk t
o other musicians and other members of the larger community, it seems like I kee
p hearing these somewhat gloomy forecasts for the music's future, as the sand be
neath our feet continues to shift in these changing times -- particularly in the
last couple of years."
"But I feel that the apparent limitations of opportunity are actually deceptive.
Even though I do see certain disturbing changes taking place among the traditio
nal outlets for playing, for touring, funding for school music programs, possibl
e cuts in funding for the NEA, PBS, etc., I actually also sense that an even mor
e amazing set of potentials is just ahead of us on the not too distant horizon."
"We are on the verge of entering a world where the potential for communication i
tself is about to explode beyond almost anything we can even imagine, and Jazz i
s about nothing if not the essence of communication. On a very basic level that
is sometimes easy to forget or overlook, Jazz is actually well suited to excel i
n this new climate in many ways."
"And as long as we, the purveyors of the form, are not discouraged by the short
term growing pains that appear to be inevitable in changing times like these -and most important, as long as we keep our eyes on, and faith in, the long term
power and influence that is embodied in the very nature of the music itself and
the way that it is made -- we have the opportunity to remain engaged in the coll
ective research that is the lifeblood and unitingelement of our community: basic
ally, the pursuit of trying to play some great music, and to uplift and inform t
he spirits of the folks who would come to hear it."
"To accomplish this, we have to stay vigilant in our efforts to address that mos
t difficult task that faces each and every generation of Jazz musicians, regardl
ess of their era or stylistic bent: the task of coming up with musical goods tha
t are challenging and uncompromising, yet fully and utterly compelling to our au
diences, and even in this era of increasingly short attention spans, to CAUSE li
steners to seek out the musical universe that we are hoping to hip them to."
"And as long as we can come up with the music, music that delivers on our promis
e of giving them something that they can't find anywhere else something that enr
iches them the same way WE have all been enriched by the musicians that have inf
luenced and inspired all of US to become players and teachers and students and f
ans, then we have an excellent chance of not only surviving, but taking the musi
c to the people in a way that has historically been elusive."
"In fact, I believe there is lots of evidence that this IS happening. To me, Jaz
z has been expanding and growing and broadening, stylistically and in terms of t
he materials that it draws from as its sources, steadily since its inception. Th
e globalization of the music is now fully underway and there are endless musical
opportunities for musicians in pretty much every corner of the globe to learn a
nd address their own musical issues through the prism of the Jazz language."
"One of the great beauties in the invention of this form, of this platform, of t
his process, is Jazz's almost unlimited capacity to allow human beings to find o
ut things about themselves and the culture that they live in through the process
of reconciling their own personal experiences with the experiences of others th
rough the blessing of improvisational and organizational inspiration in sound."
"In recent years, with the centennial of this music approaching and the beginnin
g of a new century, we have spent a lot of time basking in the glory of the achi
evements of the masters in this form. Tribute records, films, reissues, reissues
of reissues, more tribute records, tribute records in tribute to other tribute
records ... you name it! There are great things about that too, even a certain c
omfort in that kind of activity, a sense of feeling more connected to the past,
a sense of genuine appreciation on all of our parts of amazing accomplishments,
and hopefully an always renewed awareness of the incredibly high standards that
have been set throughout Jazz's history. But I feel that to spend too much time
doing that can also breed a certain kind of complacency towards one of the major

elements that has historically been a primary ingredient in the success, and su
rvival, of this music."
"There is an important and consistent element in the Jazz tradition of young peo
ple coming along and molding -- reinventing -- the nature of the form itself to
fit their times and their circumstances, as only they could possibly know how to
do. Whether it was the invention and evolution of the drum set, or the impulse
to expand the forms and cadences of the popular songs of the day to accommodate
new ways of playing, or the desire to incorporate the newest folk instruments of
the time (like the electric guitar), or possibly even nowadays the wild new sou
nds that permeate an entire culture, there has often been a group of young music
ians somewhere saying "what if" to the status quo of Jazz culture -- sometimes e
ven saying stronger two word phrases than that -- but always in the name, and th
e natural spirit, of moving the music to a new place."
"Myself, I have always, and somewhat actively, resisted the mythology that says
that we all need to "return" to some kind of a safe place where the proverbial "
tradition" resides, in order for Jazz to be considered "REAL" Jazz."
"As much as I encourage and value the need to understand the roots of this music
, in the most specific and detailed ways possible, I also feel that it is worth
noting that most attempts to recreate the past in Jazz, even by musicians attemp
ting to recreate their OWN pasts, while often enjoyable, have rarely been made o
f the fabric of that elusive material that seems to be present whenever and wher
ever there are musicians who are pushing, and remaking in the likeness of their
OWN generation, the boundaries of the music."
"In this sense, I believe the form is actually somewhat unforgiving. It seems to
DEMAND, in fact, that each new generation makes peace with something specific t
hat is uniquely theirs. There is something about THAT particular negotiation tha
t informs the music with a kind of living, breathing, molecular structure than c
an never be recreated or even accurately simulated by any other means. Whether i
t is the addressing of a newly invented musical instrument technique or technolo
gy or even the reaction to something that they aren't crazy about in the previou
s generations, this is an essential element that ALL of the most successful gene
rations in Jazz have had in common; that they have sophisticatedly illuminated s
ome aspect of their culture in a way that could not be found in any other form - or at any other time -- and therefore have NATURALLY drawn an audience to it t
hat was attracted to Jazz to find out something, in return, about themselves."
IAJE Speech continued...
"Listening is the key to everything good in music." - Pat Metheny