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.

While Improvisation is a characteristic of nearly all jazz, it’s a serious musical skill that has been around for centuries. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven were legendary for their improvisational ability and it will probably be a useful talent for as long as music is around.

An improvised melody will not usually sound structured or 'worked out' in the sense of a motivically derived melody, but will have a lot of creative rhythmic twists and changes. Jazz musicians spend a great deal of time practicing melodic phrases and thinking through substitute chords so that in an inspired performing situation, they will be able to spontaneously produce ornate runs, countermelodies, etc. that will contribute to a creative performance (and a memorable one).

Total improvisation can be a rewarding challenge for a small group of musicians but an unqualified disaster for large groups, even good ones. One style of jazz, specifically big band music generally has written out arrangements for the main sections of instruments that directs the members of a particular instrumental section to play the same musical lines. In the spirit of jazz, there will still usually be room for an improvised solo in each arrangementv.

A jazz melody is often very easy to distinguish because of the fluid, almost stream-of- consciousness feel. Very much like an emotional prayer where the speaker lets his or her emotions take over, a jazz melody or solo will often do the same thingvi.

II. SYNCOPATION is a rhythmic device when important notes of a melody (or rhythm) emphasize a weak beat.

Traditional European music generally has a clearly defined set of strong beats and weak beats. In a meter of four, the first and the third beats of a measure will usually be emphasized (ONE two THREE four, etc.) through the use of rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic elements. Syncopation accents normally unaccented beats (one TWO three FOUR is one kind of syncopation. Another type of syncopation is to emphasize notes between the beats. The term "off beat" is used to describe something unusual—this saying may be derived from jazz.

Syncopation and other complex rhythmic elements such as polymeters (the effect of more than one meter) are important elements in most styles of jazz

III. UNRESOLVED DISSONANCE. As noted earlier, in traditional music theory, a dissonant harmony tends to sound unstable and will usually move (resolve) to a stable sounding consonant harmony. Much of jazz's emotional impact comes from the pattern of deliberately using dissonance as a strong structural point in the harmonic progression. There is an English idiom occasionally used, "a sour note in the occasion", suggesting that all was not right. Jazz deliberately uses those “sour notes” without bothering to resolve them.

Jazz melody lines will often have a "wailing" or “crying” quality, creating an unresolved dissonance with the accompaniment.

Often in a discussion about jazz, the term blues is used; a word that has also crept into English in general.

In non-musical conversation, "blues" is used to describe a melancholy feeling; in the musical context, it means much the same thing. A song described as “blusey” will generally create a lot of dissonance with the harmony, be at a slow tempo and have the crying/wailing quality described abovevii. It will also usually be rhythmically flexible with a strong sense of rubato.

In a technical sense, the word "blue" describes some distinct musical mechanics. Without getting too detailed here, the traditional scale (set of notes in a composition) contains seven different notes. This set is used to create the melody and the predominant harmonies.

If you take the set of notes that belong in a major scale (which most people say sounds positive or happy), drop three of them down a half step, you will get a minor scale (which strikes most people as somber or depressing). The term "blue notes" describes those notes that make the difference between a major scale and a minor scale. With voices and instruments capable of the bending notes, sometimes the note is only slightly flatted rather than a full half-step.

In the spirit of spontaneity, the performer will often make small changes in the music which can alter the entire emotional effect of the composition. Those changes are called 'blue notes'. The minor scale melody of the blue notes will often be performed against the major scale harmony, creating the dissonance noted above.

Illustration 2: Differences between major scale (which sounds happy/positive to most people) and a mior scale (which often sounds sad/negative)

TYPES/ERA OF JAZZ

RAGTIME

One of the first popular styles associated with jazz is the piano music known as ragtime. Some historians consider it “pre-jazz” rather than true jazz. Regardless, it is an important foundation of the style.

One of ragtime's dominant characteristics is a steady, regular in the left hand accompanying a syncopated melody in the right hand. Most often associated with the composer Scott Joplin, its popularity was revived in the early 1970's, thanks in part to the movie The Sting. Ragtime's peak of popularity was around 1900. Ragtime influenced a number of European composers including Debussy and Ravel.

DIXIELAND Dixieland is a musical style associated with New Orleans, evolving in the early 20th century. In the absence of hard evidence (including recordings), it is thought that Dixieland is very similar to the first music that would earn the label “jazz”.

Dixieland is usually fast and lively, performed by small ensembles whose members generally improvise very complex polyphonic musical lines that fit together remarkably well. Louis Armstrong ("Satchmo") is its best known performer. Al Hirt and Pete Fountain are also known for their Dixieland music. This style is commonly heard at annual Mardi Gras celebrations.

One of the difficulties in trying to characterize jazz is the fact that there were many regional styles happening in the United States, each with similarities but with their own regional “dialect”. Although not associated with the New Orleans style, pianist Fats Waller was a contemporary with the birth of Dixieland, representing a New York dialect to the jazz of that particular era. Red Nichols was another famous New York musician of the era.

Around the same time, a slightly different dialect of jazz grew up around Chicago musicians, also being among the first of its kind to be recorded. Some of these musicians included Mezz Mezzrow, Gene Krupa, and Mugsy Spanier.

It should also be noted that while jazz styles have moved onward, Dixieland is still an active musical genre—musicians still compose and perform in this style.

SWING/BIG BAND

Swing, also called Big Band Music, began to appear in the 1930s. It hit its peak of popularity during World War II and the rest of the decade of the 1940s. Distinguished from other types of jazz by its written-out arrangements, it still featured opportunities for improvisation during individual solos. With multiple instruments of the same type playing on a part, some of the groups were fairly large, numbering as much as two dozen.

Many of these performers were white musicians and this was the first (and only) type of jazz to become widely popular. Swing was specifically styled to encourage dancing; this boosted its popularity even more.

It is also notable that during an era of segregation in the US, a number of these courageous white musicians—Benny Goodman, for one—began to hire and feature black musicians in their bands. Big bands would usually include sections of trumpets, trombones and saxophones along with a rhythm section (bass, piano, guitar, drums) and often a singer or two. Many Big Bands took advantage of the medium of recording and radio and developed a following of millions of listeners. Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnett, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, etc. are some of the more well known bandleaders of this era.

Again, while jazz styles have moved onward, Swing remains active musical genre— musicians still compose and perform in this style. A very popular swing revival, exemplified by rockabilly guitarist Brian Setzer, began in the 1990s.

BEBOP

Originating in the 1940s, we begin to hear a movement walking away from the extroverted style of swing. Bebop (also known as “bop”) is a style of jazz usually performed by smaller ensembles, and was music performer-centric. It was not meant for dancing. Bebop can be described as being more complex, abstract, detached, and intellectual. In addition it was often adventurously dissonant.

Contrary to its first impression on a listener, its aloof and sedate exterior hides a very impassioned musical message. Some of the most famous bop musicians include Charlie Parker ("Bird"), Thelonius Monk, Dizzie Gillespie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Dexter Gordon (who appeared in the 1986 movie "Round Midnight"). Bop's popularity peaked in the early 1940's and 1950's.

At the same time, another dialect of jazz was growing up on the West Coast, sometimes described as "West Coast Cool", or often “Cool Jazz.” Dave Brubeck is the most famous composer of this type. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis moved toward this style in the 1950s. His album “Kind of Blue” (which includes John Coltrane, Bill Evans and others) is typically ranked as one of the finest jazz albums of all time—and is still currently the best selling jazz album to date.

While jazz styles have moved onward, Bebop is still an active musical genre— musicians still compose and perform in this style.

FUSION

In many key ways, rock owes a great debt to jazz, incorporating its bluesy style, its dissonance, and its sense of improvisation (not to mention its sub-genre known as rhythm and blues). In the 1960s, rock returned some of the favor in the style of jazz known as “Fusion”. Trumpeter Miles Davis is credited with being the innovator of the style citing James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix as influences.

Fusion is a distillation of elements of rock and jazz. One of the distinguishing elements of fusion is the use of amplified/electronic instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, and synthesizers.

Fusion’s meters are often very complex and rapidly changing. While a lot of elements of rock and fusion are similar, it is very easy to tell which one is which just by listening to the drummer.

Although it is often associated with jazz-rock bands such as Chicago or Blood Sweat and Tears, the music of Herbie Hancock, Spyro Gyra, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Weather Report, and John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra) is most representative of fusion and true modern jazz.

THIRD STREAM

While it seems logical that jazz and rock would get together, it is probably just as inevitable that Classical music and jazz would combine into a hybrid genre. Less influential and having a much shorter active lifespan than Rock or Fusion, the genre known as Third Stream has had significant musical impact.

Like big band, third stream music generally involves a mix of written out music and improvisation.

Jazz influenced Classical music has a history that goes back to the early 20th century. The symphonic compositions of George Gershwin (Rhapsody In Blue, Concerto in F, etc.) are certainly not improvisational, but have rhythms, harmonies and dissonances that clearly come from jazz. Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, and Aaron Copland are three composers who wrote early 20th century works that have unmistakable jazz elements. William Russo, Gunther Schuller, and Charles Mingus are three musicians/composers associated with third stream music.

Miles Davis and Charles Mingus are two traditional jazz performers who released albums with third stream characteristics. Again, not specifically third stream, there is a large body of music by Duke Ellington that works very well in symphonic arrangements.

BLUES AND BEYOND While the origins and history of jazz are closely tied to urban parts of the United States, a parallel genre of music evolved in more rural areas with many similar characteristics.

Blues can be instrumental (the chord structure known as 12 bar blues is a foundation for hundreds of rock songs as well as endless jams by bands), but the genre is principally known for being based around the voice. The style is characterized by a free, wailing vocal style that creates a lot of unresolved dissonances with the harmony. Many of these songs adopt a typical call and response structure, characteristic of African-American work songs and field hollers.

In common idiom, “having the blues” means to be depressed or sad from events. Lyrics often talk about troubles of lifeviii. Many others describe difficult situations with a great deal of humor.

Influences include European folk music as well as an improvisatory style, syncopation, and blue notes from jazz (and before that, African-Americans in the Southern US). Much classic blues tends to be vocal rather than instrumental.

A side note related to the topic of Blues—Rhythm and Blues, often called simply R & B, is a style of music that is essentially composed in two layers. The first part is played by the drums, bass, piano, rhythm guitars, etc. and contains a steady foundation. That part is the rhythm (the 'R').

The other layer is the melody—a bluesy, wailing melody, giving the 'B' blues part of R & B. Voices and saxophones are excellent candidates for this style. A harmonica or lead guitarist liberally bending notes will do as well.

In the history of rock, the importance of R & B cannot be overstated. Along with other early foundations of Rock and Roll, much of Chuck Berry's music is rhythm and blues. However, that's only just the beginning. Among the bands who took great pride in their R & B performances in the early 1960's were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page of the Yardbirds (and later Led Zeppelin) have been heavily influenced by blues and R & B.

Later musicians who have continued in the tradition of the blues include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Roy Buchanan, and child prodigy/virtuoso guitarist Joe Bonamassa. Illustration 3: OK, if music can "improvise" and constantly change, so can visual art. A mobile by Alexander Calder. . . that is dynamic art rather than static art

JAZZ AND AMERICAN CULTURE—A DOCUMENT

H.CON.RES 57

Passed by the 100th Congress of the United States of America Introduced by the Honorable John Conyers Jr.

Whereas, jazz has achieved preeminence throughout the world as an indigenous American music and art form, bringing to this country and the world a uniquely American musical synthesis and culture through the African-American experience and

1. makes evident to the world an outstanding artistic model of individual expression and democratic cooperation within the creative process, thus fulfilling the highest ideals and aspirations of our republic, 2. is a unifying force, bridging cultural, religious, ethnic and age differences in our diverse society,

3. is a true music of the people, finding its inspiration in the cultures and most personal experiences of the diverse peoples that constitute our Nation,

4. has evolved into a multifaceted art form which continues to birth and nurture new stylistic idioms and cultural fusions,

5. has had an historic, pervasive and continuing influence on other genres of music both here and abroad, and

6. has become a true international language adopted by musicians around the world as a music best able to express contemporary realities from a personal perspective;

Whereas, this great American musical art form has not yet been properly recognized nor accorded the institutional status commensurate with its value and importance;

Whereas, it is important for the youth of America to recognize and understand jazz as a significant part of their cultural and intellectual heritage;

Whereas, in as much as there exists no effective national infrastructure to support and preserve jazz;

Whereas, documentation and archival support required by such a great art form has yet to be systematically applied to the jazz field; and

Whereas, it is now in the best interest of the national welfare and all of our citizens to preserve and celebrate this unique art form;

Now, therefore be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that it is the sense of the Congress that jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.

Passed by the House of Representatives September 23, 1987 Passed by the Senate December 4, 1987 i Some linguists and musicologists have pointed out parallels between the rhythms, accents, and phrasing of a composer’s spoken language and those found in his music. ii In a way, this battle was still being fought with in the 1940s when American born and educated Leonard Bernstein became the first non-European conductor to head a major American orchestra. iii And maybe even a bit sooner than the afterlife. Some scholars examining the lyrics of spiritual and other songs have concluded that they contain hidden meanings – relating to giving slaves clues on how to escape via the Underground Railroad. The song Follow the Drinking Gourd is thought to refer to the constellation the Big Dipper as a reminder of how to head due north. iv Perhaps a similarity to Impressionist painters doing something a camera could not; live musicians doing something a gramophone could not—certainly something different every time the music is performed. v Classical concerti generally have a section called a cadenza where the orchestra will pause and the soloist—theoretically—will improvise on the themes of the composer (today, most cadenzas are carefully prepared prior to the concert, leaving little to chance). In jazz performances, the backing ensmemble will usually continue to play while the soloist will improvise. Not infrequently, the length of these sections is flexible and may be spontaneously extended. vi This is a good time to remind ourselves that throughout recorded history (and all evidence points to going back even further), religion and music have been tightly intertwined. vii Often with a humorous take on the situation. viii A rusty old joke is that when you play a blues record backwards you get out of jail, your wife comes back to you, and your dog comes back to life.