1. Chapter 9
Jazz

2. What is Jazz?
Relies heavily on improvisation within a certain formal structure
Rhythmic urgency, shifting accents to weak beats, emphasizing syncopation
Commonly features polyrhythm (two or more simultaneous rhythms)

3. The Birth of Jazz In and around the New Orleans area in 19th century
Brass bands, spirituals, and blues form the roots of jazz music
In its early stages, jazz was called “novelty” or “minstrel” music
Highlights the skill and inventiveness of its performers, particularly with improvisation
“stride” piano style built on steady rhythmic bass line in left hand (influence of ragtime)

4. “Jelly Roll” Morton Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton
Pianist and bandleader
Perfected New Orleans Dixieland jazz style
Simultaneous improvisations
“Jelly Roll” Morton and His Red Hot Peppers
Driving, swinging style

5. The Mississippi Connection
Jazz music began attracting non-African American musicians along the Mississippi River
Small bands featuring Dixieland style
March-like feeling and duple meter
Trumpet, clarinet, trombone featured
Banjos and Mandolins may be included
Embellishing existing melodies (usually in call-and-response
Derived from spirituals and work songs

6. Louis Armstrong Produced distinct timbre with his trumpet
Influenced countless other jazz musicians with his improvisational style and scat singing
Complemented trumpet improvisations with scat singing (He had a distinct, gravelly voice.)
Worked in Broadway, radio, films, recording, etc.
Nicknamed “Satchmo” (short for “satchel mouth”)

7. Chicago and the Emergence of Swing
By the time jazz reached Chicago, swing style had developed
Jazz style meant for dancing and entertainment
Making duple meter sound like loose triple meter
Label for style and era of jazz ( )
Fletcher Henderson enlarged jazz band and created standard instrumentation (trumpets, trombones, saxes, drums, piano, guitar, double bass

8. The Big Band Era
Dance orchestras; performed in primarily quadruple meter instead of duple
Teens preferred jazz dances to their parents’ ballroom dances
Benny Goodman, the “King of Swing”
From poor Russian-Jewish family
Founded a big band orchestra and was featured on national radio show “Let’s Dance”
Performed as both a jazz and classical artist on the clarinet
Clarinet replaced by sax as preferred reed instrument in jazz bands; i.e., Lester Young

9. 32-Bar Song Form Improvisation occurs in specific structure
Adaptation of melodies from popular songs that were 32 bars long
Most common form is A A B A, where each letter is 8 bars
B section functions as a musical bridge

10. The Legendary Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
Credited with having written more music than any composer ever
Made jazz a sophisticated art form
Combined own creativity and skill with that of his band members
Melodies generated by harmony and rhythmic vitality

11. Mary Lou Williams
Women found it difficult to gain acceptance in jazz during big band era
Mary Lou Williams – pianist, composer, arranger whose career spanned all eras of jazz
Played with her own band and composed and arranged for top swing orchestras (Ellington’s and Goodman’s)
Composed more than 350 songs (jazz and non-jazz)

12. The 1940s and Bebop Interest in jazz grew after WWII
Younger musicians wanted creativity outside of swing; created bebop style
Different from swing in that it was for listening, not dancing and was a return to small ensembles (as opposed to large swing orchestras)
Trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie and Saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker regarded as pioneers of bebop
Chromatic melodies, complex rhythms, rapid tempos, dazzling technicality

13. Cool Jazz, Fusion, and Beyond
Dissatisfaction with bebop led to some reviving older forms of jazz
Some invented simpler style of jazz using modal scales
Trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk leading players of modal jazz
Major trends in jazz following 1940s: rhythm & blues, modal jazz, progressive (or cool) jazz, free jazz, fusion, smooth jazz, etc.

14. Vocabulary
Jazz – a musical form distinguished by its reliance on improvisation and its rhythmic urgency
Polyrhythmic – juxtaposing two or more different rhythms
Break – a measure or two where everyone stops playing except the sololist
Scat singing – a form of vocal improvisation on nonsense syllables
Swing – the special rhythmic character that jazz musicians add to the music
Bridge – a connective part of the composition

15. Vocabulary, cont.
Chromatic – incorporating tones from a musical scale consisting entirely of half steps
Bebop – a complex and sophisticated type of improvised jazz
Fusion – combination of jazz and rock
Dorian mode – a scale with the pattern of whole step, half, whole, whole, whole, half, and whole