Music Jazz Booklet
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AQA Music A level Area of Study 5: Jazz NAME: TEACHER: 1 Contents Page Contents Page number What you will be studying 3 Jazz Timeline and background 4 Louis Armstrong 8 Duke Ellington 15 Charlie Parker 26 Miles Davis 33 Pat Metheny 37 Gwilym Simcock 40 Essay Questions 43 Vocabulary 44 2 You will be studying these named artists: Artists Pieces Louis Armstrong St. Louis Blues (1925, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith) Muskrat Ramble (1926, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five) West End Blues (1928, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five) Stardust (1931, Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra) Duke Ellington The Mooche (1928, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra) Black and Tan (1929, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra) Ko-Ko (1940, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra) Come Sunday from Black, Brown and Beige (1943) Charlie Parker Ko-Ko (1945, Charlie Parker’s Reboppers) A Night in Tunisia (1946, Charlie Parker Septet) Bird of Paradise (1947, Charlie Parker Quintet) Bird Gets the Worm (1947, Charlie Parker All Stars) Miles Davis So What, from Kind of Blue (1959) Shhh, from In a Silent Way (1969) Pat Metheny (Cross the) Heartland, from American Garage (1979) Are you Going with Me?, from Offramp (1982) Gwilym Simcock Almost Moment, from Perception (2007) These are the Good Days, from Good Days at Schloss Elamau (2014) What you need to know: Context about the artist and the era(s) in which they were influential and the effect of audience, time and place on how the set works were created, developed and performed Typical musical features of that artist and their era – their purpose and why each era is different Musical analysis of the pieces listed for use in your exam How to analyse unfamiliar pieces from these genres Relevant musical vocabulary and terminology for the set works (see back of pack) 3 Jazz Timeline 1960’s 1980’s- current 1940’s- 1950’s 1920’s 1930’s 1940’s 1960’s- 1980’s 1870’s – 1910’s 1910-20’s St. Louis Blues Come Sunday So What (1959) Stardust (1931) (1925) (1943) Shhh (1969) Heartland Muskrat Ko-Ko (1940) Ko-Ko (1979) Bare you going Ramble (1926) (1945) with me? (1982) West End Blues A Night in Almost Moment (1928) Tunisia (1946) (2007) Bird of Paradise The Mooche (1928) (1947) 4 These are the Black and Bird Gets the Good Days Tan (1929) Worm (1947) (2014) What is jazz? So what is this thing called jazz? Like so many musical terms, it is very difficult to create a watertight definition in a single sentence, or even a paragraph. Three aspects can be discerned from the tradition of jazz: A musical tradition developed by African Americans in the early 20th century A view of music-making that places creativity more in the realm of performance than composition A compositional style characterised by certain sophisticated rhythmic, harmonic and melodic features that have evolved from the blues These three strands are interconnected and have led to a diverse musical realm. Defining jazz today is similar to the ‘duck test’ (if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck). If it sounds like jazz and feels like jazz, it’s probably jazz. It is worth emphasising ‘feel’: ‘jazzers’ talk about ‘feel’ far more than other musicians; it is a shortcut to referencing the character of the rhythmic groove and harmonic palette of the music, which in turn informs the melodic detail (which may well be the improvised result of how the music is making the musician feel). It is now over a hundred years since jazz was first heard. Among the landmarks in its history are: 1895 The first known ragtime composition: ‘Harlem Rag’ by Tommy Turpin 1899 Scott Joplin publishes ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ which sells over 100,000 copies Duke Ellington born 1901 Louis Armstrong born 1914 Pianist WC Handy composes ‘St Louis Blues’ 1917 The Original Dixieland Jass Band make the first jazz recording ‘Livery Stable Blues’ 1920 Charlie Parker born 1922 Fats Waller and Count Basie both make their first recordings 1924 First performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue 1925 Louis Armstrong makes first recording with his group. The Hot Five. The following year he was big hit with ‘Heebie Jeebies’ in which scat singing is pioneered 1926 Miles Davis born 1927 Duke Ellington takes up residency at the Cotton Club in Harlem and increases his band from six to eleven players 1932 Duke Ellington records ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’ 1935 Ella Fitzgerald makes her first recordings 1939 Glenn Miller records ‘In the Mood’ 1941 Charlie Parker begins participating in the famous Minton’s playhouse jam sessions where bebop is created 5 1943 Duke Ellington’s Orchestra performs Black, Brown and Beige at the Carnegie Hall 1944 Miles Davis starts studies at the Julliard School, decides he can learn more from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and the New York jazz scene, and promptly leaves. 1945 Dizzy Gillespie records ‘Be-bop’ and tours Los Angeles with Charlie Parker, establishing interest in bebop. 1946 Charlie Parker and Miles Davis record ‘Ornithology’ 1950 Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk record together 1954 Pat Metheny born 1955 Charlie Parker dies 1958 Birth of Bossa Nova with João Gilberto’s album Chega de Saudade 1959 Miles Davis records Kind of Blue, one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time Dave Brubeck’s Quartet records Take Five 1960 Ornette Coleman releases the album Free Jazz 1963 Astrud Gilberto records ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ featuring Stan Getz 1964 Miles Davis Quintet records ‘My Funny Valentine’ 1967 Herbie Hancock introduces electric piano to jazz in Miles Davis’ group 1970 Keith Jarrett joins Miles Davis’ group on electric organ 1971 Louis Armstrong dies 1973 Herbie Hancock records jazz-rock fusion album Headhunters 1974 Duke Ellington dies 1975 Pat Metheny records first album Bright Sized Life 1978 The Pat Metheny Group is formed 1980 Miles Davis, coming out of retirement, records The Man with the Horn influenced by funk and rock 1981 Gwilym Simcock born 1983 Wynton Marsalis wins both jazz and classical Grammy awards in the same year 1987 The Pat Metheny Group record the Brazilian-influenced album Still Life (Talking) 1991 Miles Davis dies. His final album Doo-Bop featuring rap is released posthumously the following year 1993 Canadian jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall releases debut album Stepping Out 1998 Pat Metheny and bassist Charlie Haden win Grammy for duet album Beyond the Missouri Sky 2007 Gwilym Simcock records first album Perception. 6 Jazz Harmony Part of the great appeal of jazz is its piquant, spicy harmony. Chords are often more complex with various options for additional notes to the three notes of a standard triad. These are often signified by a combination of letter name (the root of the chord) and numbers (representing intervals above the root note). For example: The default additions assume a flattened (minor) 7th: This means that a chord with a major 7th has to be signified either by ‘maj’ or ‘∆’: Where the 3rd (and therefore the whole chord) is minor, the most common chord notation is: The 5th can also be flattened, most commonly in the chord of the half diminished 7th: The full diminished 7th: On the more complex chords (11th and 13th) it is usual to omit some of the lower notes in the chord: for instance, the 3rd is often omitted in a chord of the 11th. Task: Work out the chords required in this progression: 7 Louis Armstrong – Context Louis Armstrong was an American trumpeter and singer who significantly contribute to the Blues, Dixieland and swing eras of jazz. Louis Armstrong is one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz. The grandson of slaves, he was born into a poor family in Louisiana in 1901 and grew up in poverty, spending much of his free time listening to bands in the brothels and dance halls. Most notable among these was the bandleader and cornet player Joe ‘King’ Oliver. He did not have a formal musical education background and was best known for his improvising on trumpet and scat singing. In a racially punitive society, Armstrong developed his trumpet skills playing in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs. Later he played in brass bands and then on the riverboats on the River Mississippi in Fate Marable’s Band, an experience he later described as being his university. Here he learned to read music and became one of the first musicians to be featured in extended trumpet solos. This gave him the opportunity to inject his own charismatic personality into performances which can be heard not just in his unique trumpet sound, but also as a vocalist. Armstrong’s personality is almost as famous as his music – he was a great entertainer and hugely charismatic. This earnt him respect and privileges in American at a time when being black meant having a restricted lifestyle. His reticent to speak out about race also earnt him some disapproval from other black American artists. In 1922 Armstrong left New Orleans for the thriving city of Chicago. Here he founded his band, The Hot Five, in 1925; in addition to Armstrong’s trumpet, this included clarinet (Johnny Dodds), trombone (Kid Ory), banjo (Johnny St. Cyr) and piano (his wife, Lil). The addition of tuba and drums sometimes led to a ‘Hot Seven’. Among the group’s early recordings are ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ and ‘Hotter than that’ which both feature prominent Armstrong solos, the latter both on trumpet and with scat singing.