Origins of Jazz

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Origins of Jazz
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Intro to Jazz

• Jazz is a strictly American style of music
• Created by musicians who were predominantly
  African American
• Created for performing in the streets, bars,
  brothels, and dance halls in New Orleans other
  Southern cites

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What is Jazz?

• Jazz is characterized by
• Improvisation
• Syncopation
• Steady beat
• Unique tone colors and performance techniques
• Term jazz became popular in 1917

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When did Jazz get its start?

• Probably as early as 1900, but because early jazz
  did not exist in notation, its impossible to
  know when jazz was first heard
• First jazz recording was the Dixieland Jazz Band
  in 1917
• Has since developed into several styles,
  including
• New Orleans
• Swing
• Bebop
• Cool Jazz
• Free Jazz
• Jazz Rock

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Jazz and Society

• Center of jazz has shifted from New Orleans to
  Chicago, Kansas City, and New York
• No center for jazz exists today, as the music
  has spread worldwide
• Originally intended as dance music, but since the
  1940s, newer styles are intended for listening
• As likely to hear jazz in a concert hall as in a
  bar or nightclub

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Jazz as a part of musical culture

• Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall have regular
  jazz series
• Jazz Masterworks Orchestra has been founded at
  the Smithsonian National Museum of American
  History
• Colleges offer course and majors in jazz

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Roots of Jazz

• Blend of many cultures, mostly West African,
  American, and European
• West African influences include
• Improvisation
• Drumming and percussive sounds
• Complex rhythms
• Call and Response- a voice or instrument is
  answered by another voice or instrument

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Roots of Jazz

• American influences included the body of music
  developed by African Americans
• Work songs
• Spirituals
• Gospel Hymns
• Dances like the cakewalk
• Marching Band instruments were included in early
  jazz bands
• Band music helped shape the forms and rhythms of
  early jazz

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Ragtime (1890s to about 1915)

• Ragtime is a style of piano music developed by
  black pianists who played in saloons and dance
  halls
• Characterized by
• Duple meter
• Moderate tempo
• Highly syncopated right hand
• Left hand maintains steady beat with oom-pah

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Listening Maple Leaf Rag

• Composed by Scott Joplin in 1899
• One of the most famous piano rags in history and
  first piece by an African American to sell well
• March form Two sixteen measure strains, followed
  by a trio a fourth higher, than two more strains
• AABBACCDD
• This recording is from a player piano in 1916

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Blues

• Refers to both a form of vocal and instrumental
  music and style of performance
• Grew out of African American folk music
• Uncertain when blues originated, but sung in
  rural areas in the south by 1890s
• Original country blues sung with guitar
  accompaniment and no standardized form or style

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Rise of the Blues

• Form of blues began to standardize with WC
  Handys Memphis Blues(1912) and St. Louis Blues
  (1912)
• Became a national craze among African Americans
  in the 1920s
• 12 bar blues became standard form in blues music
• 1940s saw emergence of urban blues in Chicago-
  used electric guitar and amps

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12-bar Blues

• Involves only three chords Tonic (I),
  Subdominant (IV), and Dominant (V)
• Line 1 Four measures of I
• Line 2 Two measures IV, two measures I
• Line 3 Two measures of V, two measures I
• Each stanza sung or played to the same series of
  chords, though other may be inserted between the
  main ones
• Usually in Duple Meter

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Blues Vocals

• Use bent notes, scoops, slides
• Blue notes and scales used
• Produced by lowering the 3rd, 5th, and 7th of the
  scale approximately one half step
• Rhythm is flexible- often around the beat
• Jazz instrumentalists used 12-bar blues and blue
  notes as a basis for improvisation

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Listening Lost Your Head Blues

• Performed by Bessie Smith, the empress of the
  blues- most famous blues singer in the 1920s
• Each stanza is a 12-bar blues pattern
• Improvised cornet imitates the vocal lines
• Listen for the inflections in her voice-
  characteristic of jazz and blues singers
• Smith varies the pitch and rhythm of line to
  create interest and build to the end of the song