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Chapter 27 – an Introduction to Jazz

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Chapter 27 – an Introduction to Jazz Chapter 27 – An Introduction to Jazz Illustration 1: Relics of two jazz greats; Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet with a painting of singer Ella Fitzgerald (painted by singer Tony Bennett) It often takes some time for the musical language of a country to find its distinct national voice. Many European countries can trace their history and cultural tradition back centuries, if not longer. That cultural tradition is the source of their unique musical dialects and a rich resource for composers, writers, and other artists. For someone from Austria, Mozart and Schubert are not just another couple of composers—their music is an integral voice and logical outcome of the history and tradition, the government; a voice that has been distinctly shaped by its own history and one that tells its own storyi. As we saw in the late Romantic era, the movement of Nationalism incorporated these stories. Logically, the distinct voice of the music of the United States was late in arriving. First, the country became a discrete national entity only in the late 1700s. Second, the culture has always been described as a “melting pot” (e pluribus unum – “out of many, one), drawing influences from numerous waves of immigrants. That's good for those seeking refuge, not so good for a national musical style to develop quickly. We begin to find evidence of a national voice forming in the middle to late 1800s. One of the first major musicians to recognize it was Czechoslovakian composer Antonin Dvorak when he visited the United States in the 1890s. Dvorak made the prediction that when the American culture stopped trying to walk in the footsteps of European music and listened to its own homegrown voices, it would develop its own unique and powerful styleii. The music that formed, that speaks with a clear American accent, became known as “jazz”. If there was any specific time or place that represents the birthplace of jazz, it would be in the cotton fields of pre-Civil War America. This very powerful and emotionally rich expression was the musical language of the slaves who found music to be one of the only available outlets of expression. Being torn from their families, bought and sold as personal property, considered by many whites to not even have a soul represents a tragic low in the human condition and American history. As many of the slaves never had the chance to learn to read and write, they developed an oral tradition and turned inward to express their emotions and finding at least a small refuge in the most basic of all sounds —music. The earliest roots of the style grew from an oral tradition. Any precise documentation for the earliest types of jazz is quite sparse, as few bothered (or were able) to notate any of it and the recording machine was decades away from being of any practical help--the first recordings of it were made around 1917 (The Original Dixieland Jass [sic] Band).Many white musicians—who owned the recording equipment—were not inclined to record the black musicians who were creating and refining this style. From written and verbal accounts (and a tradition that survived until someone was later able to notate it) we do know that many of slaves would often engage in "field hollers" and "ring shouts" (a kind of call and response of a musical phrase going on between several workers), "work songs" (often a very simple song, very repetitive, sung during tedious tasks the slaves had to perform), and "spirituals", hymn-like songs such as Swing-Low Sweet Chariot, Wade in the Water that gave some hope for justice in the after-lifeiii. The characteristics of these musical practices as well as the intense emotion released in the music became the foundations for jazz. Jazz, like the country which spawned it, is also a musical melting pot that picked up many influences as it evolved. It got elements of its rhythmic complexity from its African roots. European "Classical" music provided its basis for harmony, in addition to the march rhythms and forms found in a lot of early jazz. Over the remainder of the 1900s, jazz continued to absorb elements from many different sources, including rock, and Indian music. Jazz has heavily influenced the genres of rock, funk, rap, and disco, among others. Of the musical contributions the United States has made to the world, jazz is easily the most far-reaching and influential of them all. Jazz and its many stylistic elements has permeated film music, Broadway, and television music. It has always had a very devoted following in many foreign countries, especially the Soviet Union in the Cold War era. Many jazz fanatics behind the Iron Curtain went through personal hardships and even endangered themselves to listen to it. THE CLASSICAL WORLD EMBRACES JAZZ Czech composer Antonin Dvorak recognized the roots of jazz as something that had great musical potential, suggesting that we stop trying to imitate Europeans and focus on our own sound. A few decades later French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel were among the first "classical" composers to be personally influenced by it and incorporate it into their own compositions. "Golliwog's Cakewalk" from Debussy's piano suite "The Children's Corner is an example of ragtime. The slow movement of Ravel's violin sonata is entitled "Blues"; while it will never be confused with real blues, there is an unmistakable homage to the music Ravel heard during a stay in the US in 1928 as well as what he heard in clubs in Paris. Many modern “classical” composers found a great deal of inspiration in jazz. Aaron Copland composed a piano concerto subtitled "Jazz Concerto". Stravinsky composed his "Ebony Concerto" for band leader and jazz clarinetist Woody Herman. As far as music historians can tell, the first jazz ensembles consisted of small performing groups performing in a style very similar to what we now know as Dixieland. Having little use for the symphony orchestra and its polished and detailed sound, jazz grew into a more informal, more spontaneous style of music--audience participation in the form of applause after solos included. Instruments that are commonly used in jazz include the trumpet, the trombone, clarinet, piano, bass, drums, guitar, and tuba. Perhaps the single- most important jazz instrument, though, is the saxophone with its ability to bend pitches, growl, wail, and produce a wide variety of vibrato effects—very clearly following the lead of the human voice. Many listeners have observed that behind the exuberance of much folk music they can hear the sadness of hard times and a need to find refuge in the common communication of music. As long as we know, it seems to be comforting to join one's voice with others sharing the same troubles; it is not hard to find similarities in the voice pitch and rhythm patterns of someone delivering an emotional prayer. If this is indeed true, it becomes immediately clear why jazz is often very dissonant, often profoundly sad, and almost always highly emotionally charged. In the "classical" music of the early 20th century, there were many musical experiments that were performed. Most of these are very hard for the average listener to identify with and absorb. One of these new musical styles is an exception. George Gershwin's serious music is an almost singlehanded new style, as radical as anything that came along, but yet extraordinarily easy and enjoyable to listen to. His secret weapon? Gershwin borrowed heavily from jazz. Jazz is such an important part of our history that it is sometimes said that "Jazz is America's classical music." Jazz holds a place in our own national tradition similar to the way the music of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, etc. is embedded in Viennese tradition. GENERAL STYLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS What most people lump under the single heading of jazz is really many diverse styles. Like any "living" medium it has constantly evolved and changed to reflect its surroundings which recently have included extensive use of electronics. Unlike classical concerts, live jazz performances will often have the musicians tailoring a performance to the individual situation or their moodiv. The foundations of jazz are as eclectic as the century in which it was created. European musical harmonies and forms (many important jazz composers were influenced by Impressionism), American blues, ethnic music from Asia and Latin America, rock, avant garde electronics, were all cheerfully incorporated into it—which is something one should expect from a living, breathing genre of music. As noted above, there is a very wide variety of instruments that have also found a home in jazz—a typical classic jazz ensemble might include at least one piano, trumpet, clarinet, string bass, banjo, tuba, guitar, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, or drums. Violin, synthesizer, flute, oboe, French horn, etc. are also not complete strangers to jazz. However, one cannot just look at the instrumentation of a group and decide if they are a jazz band or not. There are three general characteristics that bind the disparate musical styles of jazz together, but these alone do not make jazz. A performance could have all of these characteristics and not be considered jazz. By the same token, a composition could contain only one or two of these and very distinctly fall into the category of jazz. Perhaps that's why one musician, when asked to describe jazz, merely answered, "Jazz is a feeling". I. IMPROVISATION describes spontaneity in the performance of music. This can be in the form of a solo melody line that is slightly embellished on the spot or composed during the performance; it can be a spontaneous arrangement of a pre-existing piece of music; it could even include making up the whole piece of music.
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