Jazz from the 19 th century to the present

Slavery in the New World  Africans arrived in the new world as indentured servants and slaves in the 17 th and 18 th centuries  They had to endure living under European rule  Skilled artisans, craftsmen, and farmers  Merging of two different cultures  Work Songs: Example, “Hoe, Emma, Hoe”

 Africa  Caribbean  Africian  West Indies  Latin America

European influence  Christianity  Literacy

Types of music  Secular  Field hollers, shouts, homemade instruments (such as the banjo, tambourine, washboards)  Spiritual  Both used call and response, improvisation, poly-rhythms  Many spirituals had double meanings  Race records in the 1920s promoted popular blues singers

 Slurring and blending of notes  Jazz developed sophisticated performance practices

Jim Crow Era  Segregation laws  Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”  It is believed that, “…segregation probably accelerated the development of jazz because such a large number of talented young men (and some women) went into it who might have, if society had been less racially restrictive, either played some other form of music or not played music at all.”  htm

World War I  April 16, 1917 America entered WWI  The GIs brought ragtime to France  The war paved the way for, “The Roaring Twenties  Fast living  Organized crime  Speakeasies  Vibrant jazz

The Great Depression  1929 the stock Market crashed  Jazz came to symbolize American freedom and to break down barriers that had separated Americans  Jelly Roll Morton, “Hesitation Blues”

Swing  In the mid 1930s jazz became America’s popular music  Helped the record industry grow  Dancehalls of Harlem defining music  Bands  Career musicians with a fan base  Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing”  “Swing Kids” film clip

People to know  Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing”  Louis Armstrong, “St. Louis Blues”  Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”  Duke Ellington, “Take the A Train”

WWII  December 7, 1941 America at war  “Bandsmen today are not just jazz musicians, they are soldiers of music.” Down Beat  African-American soldiers were often alienated as were young black musicians  Dizzy Gillespie experienced this alienation first hand  Dizzy Gillespie, “Salt Peanuts”

New Orleans  What is it about America and New Orleans that helped to nurture Jazz?  What makes Jazz an American form of music?  Who settled in New Orleans?

New Orleans (Continued)  People who moved from the American South to NOLA brought The Blues, Folk Music, Work Songs, Church Songs  Creole people were Classical musicians from the European Classical Tradition  West Indies and Caribbean music  African music

 Brass Bands  Parades  Religious Communities (chiefly Roman Catholic)  Voodoo  Minstrel music

 Jim Crow  Ragtime and the Blues appeared in New Orleans in the 1890s  Ragtime was spread by itinerant musicians and sheet music)  What were some reactions to Ragtime?

The Gift  Ken Burn’s, “Jazz” Documentary, “The Gift”  “The deepest human feeling…[Louis Armstrong] is the embodiment of Jazz music.” –Winton Marsalas  Phonographs and sheet music brought music to the people everywhere

The Jazz Age: After WWI  Chicago and NYC (Times Square and Harlem)  Migration to NYC  The Harlem Renaissance: Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E. DuBois

Piano  Stride Piano  Cutting Contests  James P. Johnson: pianist and writer of, “The Charleston” the tune that defined The Jazz Age

The music  Willie “The Lion” Smith  Harlem Rent Parties  Duke Ellington  The Cotton Club  Fletcher Henderson  Louis Armstrong (from New Orleans)  Benny Goodman

Art and people of the time  Freud  Picasso  Einstein

“Tell me, I forget…show me, I remember…Involve me, I understand.” -Carl Orff

Thursday’s Pentatonic Improv  Communication through music  Improvisation  Parameters and improvisation  Freedom in music  Influencing each other  Art is not created in a vacuum  How art grows and changes

Jazz at Lincoln Center  Mission Statement:  “We believe Jazz is a metaphor for Democracy. Because jazz is improvisational, it celebrates personal freedom and encourages individual expression. Because Jazz is swinging, it dedicates that freedom to finding and maintaining common ground with others. Because Jazz is rooted in The Blues, it inspires us to face adversity with persistent optimism.”

Jazz Standards  Jazz at its inception was dominated by music for dancing  Musicians felt the need to include popular music in their repertoire.  Record executives realized that it would be beneficial to promote and push certain songs 

Sheet Music and The Brill Building  Sheet music companies worked with record labels to cross promote songs and artists  Tin Pan Alley: an area of NYC where sheet music publishers and songwriters worked together from the 1890s to the 1960s.  Many popular American songs were written there  The Brill Building located at 1619 Broadway, NYC  urces/11th%20grade%20for%20website/11.5%20HO T%20Early_Days_of_Jazz.pdf

 The era where the majority of jazz standards originated  George Gershwin  Cole Porter  Richard Rodgers  Lorenz Hart  Irving Berlin  Hoagy Carmichael

George Gershwin ( )  American Composer and Pianist  Blending of Classical and Broadway Ballad style  Writer of Broadway shows, songs, an opera, movie music  His brother Ira Gershwin wrote most of the lyrics

George Gershwin  Worked in Tin Pan Alley for a music publisher “song plugger”  He played piano for 10 hours a day in a cubicle for vocalists, theatre managers, bandleaders, vaudeville entertainers to sell them sheetmusic  Recorded piano rolls

Cole Porter  Musicals:  Can Can  Anything Goes  High Society  Kiss Me Kate

Cole Porter  Born in 1891 in Indiana  Graduated from Yale in 1913 and wrote the Yale Football fight song “Yale Bulldog Song” and “Bingo Eli Yale”  Attended Harvard  Moved to Europe  Wrote music for Broadway and film

 Known for his wit and intelligence  Notable Songs:  “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)”  “Anything Goes”  “Night and Day”  “I Get a Kick Out of You”  “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”

Some Different Types of Jazz  Gypsy Jazz  New Orleans  Swing  Bebop  Cool Jazz  Free Jazz  Modal Jazz  Afro-Cuban Jazz  Jazz Funk  Punk Jazz

Gypsy Jazz  Typified in the playing of Django Reinhardt  French influences  Mussette Waltz  Romani guitarists working in Paris  Romani were of Northern Indian ancestry(left India between the 6 th and 11 th centuries) sometimes referred to as Gypsies (although believed to be a derogatory term)  Romani music + swing

 Guitar and violin are the most popular lead instruments in Gypsy Jazz  Rhythm guitar

Django Reinhardt  French guitarist/Composer  King of Gypsy Jazz  He injured his hand in a fire and was only able to play solos with the middle and index finger on his left hand  Created the “Hot Jazz Guitar” style  His nickname, “Django” means “I Awake” in Romani