 M.Socrative.com – Room  Question: 1. Name the THREE events that we talked about yesterday, that will directly affect visual art, music, dance, and drama this period. I’m going to call people up to my desk that are taking their test today. You can sit at your seats in here and take it – please put it on my desk when you’re done.

Jazz and the Rest

 Undoubtedly the most significant African American contribution to American music (and a unique American contribution to the world) is jazz  Jazz began near the turn of the century and from there went through many changes and forms  Jazz includes many sophisticated and complicated styles, but all of them feature improvisation

 Jazz harmonies are very different from anything we’ve heard before. Even now, jazz harmonies are very identifiable.  They were influenced by the harmonies of Impressionist music – dissonant, but not tense Debussy like – somewhat relaxing (blues) Stravinsky influences will come in a later style called “free jazz.”

 Key element of jazz - improvisation  Where earlier music was the “composer’s medium” where the performer’s primary goal was to play a composition as it was written, jazz is characterized as a product of group creativity, interaction, and collaboration.  The performer interprets a tune in an individual way – compositions are never performed the same way twice.

 The origins of jazz are poorly documented  The blues started around 1890, but was poorly documented due in part to racial discrimination with the American society Civil Rights movements don’t come until the 60s…  Newspapers and magazines began to report about blues music in the Deep South at the start of the 20 th century  The word “jazz” first appeared in 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune

 Considered to come from… Impressionist Music (harmonies only) Slave Songs Church Hymns African Influences (rhythm)

 Jazz is mostly an African American form of music, but white musicians were intrigued.  The first white jazz musicians appear in the early 1920s in the Midwestern US.

 Blues – jazz’s earliest form  Went back to the rhythmic music of the slaves  Started in the deep south  Consisted of a repeated line, with a second concluding line (AAB)  It’s music of oppression, feeling “blue”

 The singer improvised freely, with limited melodic range (sounded like a holler in a field)  Slurred between major and minor (mostly dissonant)

 The 12-Bar Blues  Twelve measure progression of chords (repeated over and over in a blues tune)  Evident in almost EVERY blues song that exist!

 The term “the blues” refers to melancholy and sadness  Hart Wand’s “Dallas Blues” became the first copyrighted blues composition (1912)

 Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative  The singer voiced his/her “personal woes in a world of harsh reality”  There are few characteristics common to all blues music because the genre took shape from its individuals

 Lyrics would often relate to troubles experienced within African American society.  Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Rising High Water Blues” (1927) tells about the Great Mississippi Flood Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Rising High Water Blues” “Backwater rising, southern peoples can’t make no time. I said, backwater rising, southern peoples can’t make no time. And I can’t get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine.”

 Lyrics could also, though less often, be humorous and raunchy as well.  Big Joe Turner’s “Rebecca” Big Joe Turner’s “Rebecca” “Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me. Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me. It may be sending you baby, but it’s worrying the hell out of me.”

 , born in Chattanooga TN  Evoked an emotional quality that instruments tried to imitate  Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, and was a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists

 By age 9, Bessie lost both her mother and father, and was under the care of her older sister.  To earn money, her and her brother would perform on the streets – she sang and danced while her brother played guitar

 She eventually started singing in chorus lines, and took on a recording career in Philadelphia  She was the highest paid black entertainer of the time

 In 1923, she was signed by Columbia Records  She made 160 different recordings for Columbia, accompanied by the finest musicians of the time  Her career was cut short due to the depression – it nearly put the recording industry out of business

 Bessie Smith – Downhearted Blues Bessie Smith – Downhearted Blues  Bessie Smith (Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, 1929) Jazz Legend - YouTube Bessie Smith (Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, 1929) Jazz Legend - YouTube

 At approximately the same time came ragtime – a piano style with a strict two-part form  The abolition of slavery led to new opportunities for the education of freed African Americans  Segregation limited employment opportunities, so several found employment in the entertainment industry Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels as ragtime developed

 Began as dance music in the red-light districts of African American communities in St. Louis and New Orleans years before getting published  It was a modification of the march – simply with additional polyrhythms (from African music)  Very syncopated

 Scott Joplin: “King of Ragtime”  Most popular hits: “Maple Leaf Rag” & “The Entertainer”  Maple Leaf Rag Played by Scott Joplin – YouTube Maple Leaf Rag Played by Scott Joplin – YouTube  Ragtime Piano : SCOTT JOPLIN. " The Entertainer " (1902) - YouTube Ragtime Piano : SCOTT JOPLIN. " The Entertainer " (1902) - YouTube

 Scott Joplin got the Maple Leaf Rag published in  Ragtime fell out of popularity around 1917 (bigger bands took over) In the 40s, big bands brought ragtime back

 The music of New Orleans had a huge effect on early jazz  New Orleans Early Jazz = Dixieland  Many jazz performers were regulars in the “red-light district” known as “Storyville” Performing in brothels and bars

 The style combined brass band marches, ragtimes, and blues, with polyphonic improvisation  The Dixieland sound is created when one instrument (usually trumpet) plays the melody, and the other lead instruments improvise around it

 The basic instruments of jazz originally came from the marching bands performing at various events around town: brass and reeds Trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and a rhythm section (guitar/banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums) No saxophone yet  Small bands that mixed self-taught and well educated African American musicians

 Groups traveled across the Deep South as parts of traveling shows (took jazz to the Western and northern cities)  One performer who toured with these groups was Jelly Roll Morton From Storyville – started touring in 1904 Travelled to Chicago and New York

 Jelly Roll Morton’s “Jelly Roll Blues,” which he composed in 1905, was the first jazz arrangement (jazz piece for full jazz band) published in 1915  Introduced more musicians to this style  Original Jelly Roll Blues by Jelly Roll Morton Original Jelly Roll Blues by Jelly Roll Morton

 Swing, invented by Jelly Roll Morton, was the most important, and enduring African-based rhythmic technique used in jazz.  “Swing your 8 th eighth notes” (Long-short, instead of even)  You have to “feel” it; abandoned the “stiffness” of ragtime

 The Original Dixieland Jazz Band made the music’s first recordings in 1917  Their “Livery Stable Blues” became the earliest released jazz record 

 In 1918, James Reese Europe’s “Hellfighters” infantry band took ragtime and Dixieland to jazz to Europe during World War I 

 Jazz in New Orleans helped black children escape poverty.  Jazz musicians would teach younger children how to play

 10 minutes short