At the Jazz Band Ball - Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Presentation by Adam Lee If you would like to have a similar presentation done at your event, or if you have questions about the presentation, contact Adam at: [email protected] Echoes of Harlem - Duke Ellington A look at the musical figures A Geographical Look and the historical and political factors that drove the four at Jazz and Swing great jazz cities. Buddy Bolden’s Blues aka I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say - Jelly Roll Morton New Orleans The Birthplace of Jazz ❖ Slaves in the early 19th century are allowed to create music in New Orleans at certain times and under certain conditions, in contrast to many other parts of the slaveholding south, which creates a culture of music and allows African musical traditions to survive. ❖ New Orleans was a major southern port with a large number of immigrants and travelers from Europe and the Caribbean creating a heterogenous society that brought their own traditions with them, and blended them together in New Orleans. ❖ Jazz is born in New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century or possibly the last decade of the 19th century depending on how you define jazz. It evolves from brass band marches adding ragtime syncopations and improvisation over chord changes. ❖ It is commonly believed by everyone except Jelly Roll Morton, that the first jazz musician was Buddy Bolden. There are no known recordings of Bolden. Bolden was institutionalized in 1906 and died in 1931, forgotten. (Yanow) ❖ Jell Roll Morton claimed to have created jazz but he was widely considered a blowhard. A musically gifted blowhard, but a blowhard none the less. ❖ Key musicians from the Birth of Jazz: ❖ In the 20s New Orleans musicians begin to move out of New Orleans to explore opportunities in other cities. ❖ Jelly Roll Morton - Grandpa’s Spelling ❖ King Oliver - Dippermouth Blues ❖ Kid Ory & Johnny Dodds - Gatemouth ❖ Sidney Bechet - Wild Cat Blues ❖ They carry their style to other musicians who start to adopt the form and make recordings in places that have more availability of technology. ❖ Available technology limits the kinds of music that we have access to today, and may play a factor in what we currently believe are stylistic factors. ❖ Acoustic recordings were done by placing a large collecting horn at one end of a room which carved a recording groove in a wax cylinder. The instruments were placed at differing distances from the horn depending on how well they transmitted sound to the recording. ❖ This cylinder was poor at collecting the sound from sharp percussion and bass instruments, so these instruments are diminished in presence in early recordings. ❖ Guitar and String bass were too quiet to be picked up over the other instruments, so banjo and tuba were used instead. ❖ In the 20s these limitations are overcome by electronic recording methods, leading to the rise of… At the Jazz Band Ball - Original Dixieland Jazz Band Chicago Jazz becomes a phenomenon ❖ The Original Dixieland Jazz Band: While originally a New Orleans band, they were brought to Chicago to perform regularly in 1916 , and then went to New York to record, pressing the first commercial jazz recording in 1917 ❖ An all white band, this reflects on the realities of the era. Although there were many more African-American bands performing during this time, their recording opportunities were, at this moment, limited. ❖ The members of this band would demonstrate considerable racist tendencies. Leader Nick LaRocca is quoted: Our music is strictly white man’s music…My contention is that the Negroes learned to play this rhythm and music from the whites…The Negro did not play any kind of music equal to white men at any time. ❖ Louis Armstrong: Undoubtably the single most important person in the formation of Jazz, Louis Armstrong comes from New Orleans. ❖ Started playing Cornet seriously at the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs. ❖ Joined the King Oliver Band in Chicago in 1922. ❖ Was the foreman of the extended solo change in jazz. ❖ Was the driving force in swinging the rhythm, a quality he brought to New York when he went to play with the Fletcher Henderson Band in 1924. ❖ Muskrat Ramble - Louis Armstrong ❖ Other key Chicago players: ❖ Earl Hines - Piano (with Louis) - A Monday Date ❖ Benny Goodman - Clarinet (wait for New York) ❖ Eddie Condon - Guitar/Banjo - Lets’s Swing it ❖ Bud Freeman - Saxophone – Copenhagen ❖ Austin High Gang Take the A-Train - Duke Ellington (Billy New York City Strayhorn comp.) Jazz grows up ❖ New York City is the center of the entertainment world then as now. Performers and artists would come to New York in order to “make it.” All the major recording studios were based in New York, as well as many of the most well paying and prestigious live performance venues such as the Alhambra Ballroom; the Roseland Ballroom The Savoy Ballroom; and the crown jewel of them all, The Cotton Club* *unless you were a swing dancer, then of course you knew where the real best place was. ❖ Classic Big Bands: ❖ New York City is the centerpiece for the swing era. All the great swing bands were either from New York City, or based there for extended stays. ❖ Duke Ellington - ❖ Harry James - ❖ Don’t Get Around Much ❖ Music Makers Anymore ❖ Artie Shaw - ❖ Chick Webb - ❖ The Grabtown Grapple ❖ Let’s Get Together ❖ Cab Calloway - ❖ Benny Goodman - ❖ Are You Hep to the Jive ❖ Let’s Dance ❖ Jimmie Lunceford - ❖ The Dorsey Brothers - ❖ For Dancers Only ❖ I Can’t Get Mississippi Out of my Mind ❖ Racial Integration: ❖ The big band leaders were so influential during this time that they were able to write their own tickets for who they played with. ❖ Of particular note was Benny Goodman, who would refuse to play at some places if they raised issues about who he was playing with. (Goodman’s bands were integrated featuring African-American players such as Charlie Christian, Lionel Hampton, and Teddy Wilson) ❖ The public acceptance by such high profile celebrities of integrated groups led to a considerably breakdown of previous racial barriers. Vine St. Boogie - Jay McShann Kansas City Jazz becomes a man ❖ Kansas City is about as close to the dead center of the United States as you can get. In the early part of the 20th century it was a major transportation hub. All (rail)roads led to Kansas City. ❖ The mayor of Kansas City, Tom Pendergast, essentially ignored prohibition, creating a culture of permissiveness and an economy that made the club owners very happy and rich, and they passed that on to the musicians. ❖ Count Basie and Buck Clayton both wrote in their autobiographies about playing regularly to crowds of three thousand or more. ❖ The central location made the movement of musicians and musical cultures very easy and common and the fusion of southern and eastern blues and jazz created a very unique and rhythmic music form. Swing at heart, but steeped in the blues. ❖ Kansas City notables: ❖ Bennie Moten - ❖ George E. Lee - ❖ Moten Swing ❖ Ruff Scufflin’ ❖ Count Basie & Lester ❖ Andy Kirk & Mary Lou Young - Williams - ❖ Jumpin’ at the ❖ Mary’s Idea Woodside ❖ Jay McShan &Charlie ❖ Harlan Leonard - Parker - ❖ I Don’t Want to Set ❖ Swingmatism the World on Fire Sources ❖ Basie, W. & Murray, A. (2002) Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography Of Count Basie. Da Capo Press. USA ❖ Bergreen, L (1997). Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway Books. ❖ Brown, J. R. (2004). A Concise History of Jazz. Mel Bay Publications. ❖ Clayton, B. Buck (1987) Clayton’s Jazz World. Oxford University Press, USA ❖ Driggs, F. & Haddix, C. (2006) Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop--A History. Oxford University Press, USA ❖ Kirk, A. & Lee. A (1989) Twenty Years on Wheels. Bayou Press, UK ❖ Pearson, N. (1987) Goin’ to Kansas City. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL. ❖ Schapiro N. & Hentoff N. Ed. (1955) Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, Dover Publications, NY. ❖ Schuller, Gunther. (1989) The Swing Era. Oxford University Press. ❖ Yanow, S. (2005) Jazz: A Regional Exploration (Greenwood Guides to American Roots Music) Greenwood.

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