Jazz

From beginning to
bebop
What is Jazz?

Jazz includes a series of evolving musical genres taken from African-

American traditions.

It is a difficult concept to define since it incorporates many diverse

musical styles: New Orleans jazz, New York jazz, Bebop, Cool jazz,
Fusion jazz
The most characteristic aspects:

- It developed in the south-east of the USA, in the city of New Orleans

Foto mapa

- It is a style of music that was born in the African-American community, when black
music forms (influenced by African music) with Western musical traditions that came
from European immigrants:

melody and harmony European music

Rhythm and phrasing African music

- Rhythm was very important, produced by multiple

or overlapping rhythms

- call and response format (crida i resposta).

- The importance of improvisation, the process from which a
piece of music contained a melody inside an established
harmonic structure. Therefore, the excecution and version of
the piece was more important than the composition itself

- The close relationship- until the 1940s- between music

and dance
Orgins: Work-songs, spirituals, gospel songs, and the blues

Work-songs (canons de treball)

Songs that black slaves sang while working (s.XVII-1865).

The original locations were the cotton fields during harvest, the construction
sites for railways and highways, and forced labor camps

The purpose of these songs were to make the long, hard work hours more bearable
and to install a sense of teamwork.
Musically, the songs were sad and melancholy.
They used the rhythmic beats of the music to
mark their work rhythm.

In general, they followed the call and

response structure between one solist and the
rest of the workers.

When the black people worked at a distance from each other, they used animated or
languid cries called field-hollers

These songs were not written, but were passed on orally.

Spirituals

After slavery was outlawed in 1865, lthe black

community felt the need to find a God to
whom they coul tell their sins, to give thanks, to
ask for strength, Although they were legally
free, the problem of racism still existed.

The majority opf the black community in the south-

east turned to a protestant church that was less rgid
than the Catholic church, and with greater sense of
liberty.

Black spirituals were, originally, religious songs

that the black community sang in church celebrations.
The purpose of these songs were to communicate with God and enforce a sense of
community. Usually these songs carried a high level of ectasy and exaltation.

Musically:

- It used swing (balanceig) and the call and response

structure between the preacher and the rest of the church

- Many preachers sang in falsetto, which came from an

African tradition that considered it a sign of masculinity.

Gospel Songs

Gospel songs had optimistic themes, were happy and outgoing.

Popular Figures

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, the first black

group to have concerts that included black
spirituals in the US and Europe starting in
1870.

Mahalia Jackson (New Orleans, 1911 - 1971). She was

from a poor and very religious family. Her father worked
as a barber and, on Sundays, as a preacher. Throughout
her musical career, she only sang religious music, since
she consided blues and jazz to be sinful since they did
not praise God.
Blues

Blues appeared in the end of the 19th century. It derived from the work songs and field
hollers

Its main purpose was to expose everyday problems and headaches; usually those
cause by social and economic situations. It is usually described as a protest song.

foto
Ragtime

The name ragtime comes from ragged time (temps estripat).

Musically:

-It is only played by piano, completely written with no improvisation. It is a fusion of the
romantic piano music (Chopin, Liszt), military marches, and European polka; it islso
includes the rhythmic conception and spirit of previous black music

- The melody includes many syncopations (desplaaments de laccent rtmic) and is

combined with a simple bass rhythm

It was a widely popular style of music between 1897 and 1920, both in the US and
Europe, and its most well-known melodies were used in jazz music.
Famous figure:

Scott Joplin (Texas, 1868 - New York, 1917). Born into

a family of musicians: his father played the violin, and
his mother, the banjo. Scott Joplin considered his works
to be more of a classical style than as contemporary
entertainment.

His songs Maple leaf rag and The entertainer were

the most popular and were featured in the movie The
sing (El cop).
The beginnings: New Orleans (1900-1920)

New Orleans is a port city (at the mouth of the Mississippi) with many jobs with exports
and imports. Many black people came to live there to find work that required little
experience

New Orleans has been ruled by many different countries:

From its beginnings in 1718 until 1762 it was French.
From 1762 to 1800 it was under Spanish rule.
From 1800 to 1803 it was returned to France.

In 1803, the US bought the city and the rest of Louisiana from Napoleon.

For this reason, there is a huge mixture of races and cultures in New Orleans.
Within the black population, there were many different
communities:

The creoles: blacks that came from the mixture of French-

colonial culture. They were not descendents of freed slaves
and felt more French than anything else.

The African-Americans. Descendents from slaves with a

huge ties to African culture.

The tension that existed between the two communities

brought the necessity to create distinct ways of expressions
that were original and authentic.
The large musical traditions from New Orleans were shown in
many ways:

- Street parades were important during cultural and political

activities in the city. There were many rivalries between marching
bands, and when two met on the same corner, they would try to
play louder than the other.

- Funerals, where a band would accompany the family to the burial playing slow and
sad music and, after the burial was over, they would come back playing marches and
upbeat music
 Musically, the style of New Orleans included:

- Bands of 6 to 9 musicians

- The trumpet played the melody, the clarinet improvised, and the trombone played the
wer harmony (with many glissandos)

- The drums marked the rhythm

- They would play ragtime, blues, or famous marches

The huge success of this type of music began to interest white musicians. Dixieland
music (Terra del Sud), is the name given to bands from the South with white musicians.

The most famous group of the kind was called the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
In WWI, NewOrleans was converted into a military port. This
brought a lot of tension between the black inhabitants, and the
white soldiers

In 1917, Storyville (the region where many blacks lived) was

closed due to the danger it brought to the troops moral. The
bars, dance halls and brothels all closed leaving many musicians
without work.

This brought about a migration to Chicago, where many

musicians went to further change the style of Jazz
The style of Chicago (1920-1930)

The style of Chicago began in the South Side, a

neighborhood where many of the musicians from
New Orleans came to live.

Although still played by predominantly black

musicians, more white musicians began to have
interest in Jazz.

The emergence of the first record companies

and radio stations helped make Jazz popular
not only in the US, but in Europe as well.
Musically the style of Chicago was very similar to that of
New Orleans but with a few changes:

- The bands consisted of 10-12 musicians and played in

a more stable way without a lot of movement:

In the rhythm section:

The contrabass replaced the tuba
The piano and guitar manitained the harmony
The drum section grew

Within the melody:

the trumpet, clarinet and trombone continued to
be popular, but the saxophone was becoming more
popular

- The harmonies were more refined

- Soloists were beginning to be more important than the

band as a collective
In 1925, it became obvious that many Mafia members
were trying to control Chicago

In 1929, Senator Dennen, proposed the cleaning of

the morals of the city. A Dry Law was created, and
police began to crack down on nightclubs that sold
alcohol. Many clubs closed, and Chicagos nightlife
began to disappear.

People had less money due to problems with Wall

Street, and began to listen to jazz on the radio or on
records instead of spending money going out.

This caused a second migration to New York City.

Louis Armstrong Satchmo (1898 or 1900 - 1971)

My father didnt have time to teach me anything, he was too

busy chasing women!

Trumpet player, singer and composer. Armstrong was

born in New Orleans to a poor family. His mother was a
prostitute, so he was raised by his grandmother.

One night in 1913, Armstrong was thrown into jail for

firing shots into the air. In juvenile detention, he first
learned how to play the cornet. He taught himself how
to play, which led to him having his own personal style,
and a cronic problem with his mouth from not
correctly playing the instrument

In 1915 he left the facility, and started playing

throughout New Orleans.
In 1922, he ws invited by Joe King Oliver to play in
his band in Chicago. A year later he married the
pianist from the group, Lil Hardin and in 1925 he
formed his first group the Hot Five, which later
became the Hot Seven . This was the golden age
of Louis Armstrong as a trumpet player.
In 1929, he decided to leave to New York and play
as a soloist with many popular orchestras. He also
participated in many concerts, made a few movies,
and little by little, became a grand showman that
would stand out for his singing (mainly his voice).
From 1947 until his death in 1971, Armstrong was
accompanied by a group called the All Stars, that
revived the music from New Orleans. This period
was when he became most popular
Musically, Louis Armstrong is known for:

-Expressively playing the trumpet, often using vibrato

-His use of swing rhythm and his solos

- for being the creator of scat (singing without saying anything

New York (1930-1945)
The era of Swing: big bands and popular soloists

In 1935, New York became the center for Jazz

The Race Records (records of black music) and the

radio continued to play jazz until the 1930s, when Swing
became the most popular style of music.

More musicians in each band led to the evolution of the

big bands

Swing can be understood as a lifestyle and, more than

anything else, Swing is dance!
 Famous Figures:

In the world of big bands...

The big band of Edward Duke Ellington

A famous pianist, composer and arranger. From 1927
to 1931 he was widely popular. Amongst all of his
different styles, his jungle style, was the most
popular. In it, he used a wide range of instruments
from the jungle.
Billie Holiday Lady Day (1915 1959)

My mother and father were just a pair of kids when they got married. He was 18, she
was 16, and I was already 3.

Billie Holiday had a sad childhood and adolescence. When

she was 13, she moved to New York to become a
prostitute. She was arrested and put in prison for 4 months.

When she left, she applied to be a ballerina, but was

always rejected. However, one company asked her to sing,
and she was given a contract.

In 1933 a producer from Columbia Records discovered her

at Monettes Club. This gave her many opportunities at
jazz clubs and bars.
Starting in 1935 she became very successful, and began
to sing with many orchestras and had concerts all over the
US. Around 1942 she became addicted to alcohol and
drugs, and her health and voice began to suffer.

In 1947 she was arrested for possession of heroine, and

spent 9 months in jail. From this moment on, it was
impossible for Billie Holiday to live a normal life: she was
forbidden entry at any club in New York that served
alcohol, she was constantly monitered by police, and any
mistake would send her to prison...
In 1952 she began a detox program and was signed to
Verve Records for 5 years. She toured in Europa
(1954), participated in various TV programs and i
acted in many sessions with the famous Jazz At The
Philarmonic (JATP).

Billie Holiday died in New York, July 17th of 1959,

three and a half months after the death of Lester
Young, who gave her the nickname, Lady Day and
who was her musical confident.
Bebop (1945...)

Starting in 1945, a group of young musicians with a strong musical background bgan to
start a new style of Jazz in New York. Their intention was to look for new alternatives
to the contemporary commercial forms of jazz. In other words they wanted to In
order to recover the most authentic essence of jazz- improvisation and simple
musical structures.
According to Dizzy Gillespie, one of the creators of the new style, bebop was an
onomatopeia that the musicians of this new jazz used to indicate an end of a
musical phrase. In addition to the name, bopers developed a whole new personal
style: they were well-dressed, wearing dark glasses and usually, a beret.
Charlie Bird Parker (1920 1955) Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)
Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City and began to play music when he was little.
When he was 17, he was already playing the saxophone professionally and was
married, but was also a drug addict.

Dizzy Gillespie was the youngest of nine siblings in a wealthy family. His parents paid
for him to have formal music lessons, and he quickly caught the attention of famous and
important musicians.

In 1942 the two met for the first time in the club Savoy Ballroom in New York. Here,
they would play together for the first time, starting the new style of jazz.
In 1945 Parker and Gillespie, together with other supporting musicians, became the first
to play the new style of jazz called bebop. Their popularity with the public ranged from
extreme admiration to a loathing and cold hatred. It seemed everyone had an opinion
about these two! Things would quickly change...

In 1946, Parker didnt arrive with the rest of the

group at an airport, making Dizzy mad enough
to form his own group.

Parker would continue to perform, but his drug

addiction became a huge problem. After
setting his mattress on fire in a hotel room, he
was placed in a mental facility. There, he
received help for his drug addiction.

In 1947, he left the hospital and formed a new

quintet, but this project didnt last, as the other
musicians left him for not being professional.
Parker continued to perform, but he wasnt able to
beat his drug addiction. After his daughters death,
he began to use more frequently. In 1955, he died
of a heart attack.
 Dizzy Gillespie, however, would continue his musical career for
decades.

Starting in 1948, he began to incorporate more latin rhythms into his

music. He would also travel to Africa and different Latin American
countries (mainly Cuba) to perform, and would be named a Cultural
Ambassador for the United States!

Although he was not as creative as Charlie Parker,

Dizzy would become even more famous due to his
outgoing personality, good humor, and professional
attitude. This also helped Bebop become a famous
style of music.

In 1993, Dizzy died after a long battle with many

cardiac illnesses.
And after bebop...

After Bebop, many avantguard styles of jazz appeared. However, none have had the
same impact as earlier jazz movements. Most of these styles are still played throughout
the US and the world today. They include:

Cool-jazz (1950): a slower, calmer form of jazz. It was

created to be opposite of the Bebop movement. The most
famous musician from this period is Miles Davis, a trumpet
player.

Free-jazz (1960): became famous for not using any form of

harmonies or any pre-determined format. John Coltrane is
a famous musician from this period

Fusion (1970): a style that incorporated music and

influences from rock, flamenco and electronic music