The Jazz Age - 1920

1
The Jazz Age - 1920sAmericas most original
music

• Originated New Orleans, Louisiana
• Definition Complex, exciting African rhythms
  combined with European music to form a new,
  unique sound.
• Instruments Horns (saxophone), piano
• History
• Late 1800s Former slaves from West Africa
  influenced by music from French and Spainish
  settlers create a new sound.

2

• History (continued)
• African rhythms French Spainish
• Spirituals Folk songs
• Work Songs Dances Marches
• 1900 African Americans cannot read music -
  Southern Black Musicians played as they feltas
  the spirit moved them.
• 1920 Brass Bands in New Orleans
• Blacks expressing their newfound freedom
• Played at carnivals, holidays, picnics, funerals

3

• History continued
• 1920s Jazz Bands Dance Halls
• Big name black musicians played swinging, free
  and easy feeling.
• Oliver
• Armstrong
• Ellington
• Big Bands
• Younger musicians learned from the masters
• Traveled to Northern cities (Chicago, NYC, and
  the West Coast)
• Jazz heard on the radio, recordings

4

• History continued
• Dance Halls (Public)
• common people enjoy night out
• the Shimmy, the Charleston, the Foxtrot
• NYC had over 600 Dance Halls - some could hold
  500 to 3000 dancers.
• 1930s 40s
• Jazz evolved - highly entertaining.
• Syncopated (begin a tone on an unaccented beat
  and continuing to the next accented beat)
• Complex, hard to play, sometimes confusing to
  listen to.