A Brief History of Jazz

1
A Brief History of Jazz

• Matthew Streit
• April 27, 2008

2
The Origins of Jazz in America

• African slaves in the American South began using
  European musical instruments in the early 19th
  century
• They incorporated their tribal musical traditions
  with European minstrel performances

3
Ragtime and Dixie Music

• Scott Joplin and others popularized Ragtime music
  in the late 19th century and early 20th century
• Along with Ragtime, southern Dixie music
  created many of the foundations for what would
  later be called Jazz

4
Swing and the Big Bands

• Jazz music became more popular in the 1920s and
  1930s with the rise of Swing music and the big
  band orchestras
• Many of Jazzs pioneers (Louis Armstrong, Duke
  Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald) were making
  influential music at this time

5
Bebop breaks the mold

• Jazzs popularity continued to grow in the 1940s,
  but a counter jazz movement (called Bebop)
  influenced what was to come later in Jazz music
• Musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
  led the Bebop movement

6
Miles Davis and Cool Jazz

• Miles Davis broke from his early Bebop days and
  started a new Jazz movement (Cool Jazz) in the
  1950s and 1960s
• This period had the peak and the start of the
  decline of Jazzs popularity (Rock n Roll was
  rising at this time)

7
Jazz moves to the fringe

• From the 1970s to today, Jazz music has lost a
  lot of its popularity
• Experimental artists like Ornette Coleman and the
  Free Jazz movement were not popular with
  mainstream listeners
• Ken Burns documentary on Jazz brought back some
  of the interest in this genre