JOURNEY THROUGH JAZZ Study Guide
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MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 JOURNEY THROUGH JAZZ Study Guide OVERVIEW Journey Through Jazz presents an overview of America’s truly indigenous musical art form— Jazz. Three well respected musicians playing bass, drums, and saxophone demonstrate and discuss the evolution of jazz from its origins in African culture to today’s jazz fusion, in a live, interactive presentation before a student audience. This live “jam” session starts with the musicians eliciting requests from the students in the form of emotions and feelings. The musicians demonstrate these emotions by playing them on their instruments to prove that jazz speaks directly to them on a strictly emotional level, bypassing any preconceived and prejudicial notions about jazz. The musicians directly engage their enthusiastic young audience as they demonstrate and relate the concepts and components of jazz to everyday life, discussing music as emotion, goal setting, problem solving, improvisation, seeking happiness and success. The musicians perform and discuss Ragtime, Blues, Dixieland, Swing, Bebop, Cool Jazz, Post Bebop, Avant Garde, Fusion, and International Influences. Contextual references to geography, history, mathematics, cultural and social events, help students gain a deeper insight and broader perspective on how and why jazz changed the world. ©2019 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 1 MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 CALL AND RESPONSE One of the most basic components of jazz is Call and Response. In African society, messages were transmitted from village to village by a town drummer. The drummers would communicate by talking back and forth with different rhythmic patterns. Call and Response is also used vocally by having a person or group echo back what the caller chants or sings, often interjecting something new. Jazz musicians have used call-and-response technique with rhythms and pitches from the very beginning. RAGTIME Ragtime was born in the South and was popular between 1895 and 1919. It got its name from its characteristic trait of syncopated or “ragged” rhythm. It was influenced by the march style popularized by John Philip Sousa and polyrhythms from African music. In Ragtime the piano played the dominant role, and the music was usually written out rather than improvised. Many piano rolls for mechanical pianos were manufactured during this period featuring the music of Scott Joplin, known as “the King of Ragtime,” whose most popular pieces were Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. He grew up in a musical family in Texarkana, Texas, and in his short life composed 44 ragtime pieces, a ragtime ballet, and 2 operas. Another famous ragtime pianist and composer was Jelly Roll Morton, who began his career in New Orleans and later traveled to Chicago and New York to become an early jazz bandleader. Ragtime piano featured syncopated melodies in the treble with a stride bass, a rhythmic and harmonic technique of leaping between low bass notes and chords an octave higher. Ragtime’s syncopated rhythms and long multi-sectioned compositions are features that still exist in jazz today. ©2019 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 2 MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 BLUES Blues is a musical genre that began in the rural Deep South after the Civil War in the 1870s, and later spread to Chicago and the urban North, where it influenced early jazz. Its roots were African-American work songs, spirituals, field hollers, shouts, chants, and simple ballads. Early blues singers usually sang alone, accompanied by a guitar. The blues style is characterized by a call-and-response pattern, and a melody based on a major scale which includes “worried” bluesy notes (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths). A blues song usually has a 12-bar AAB form, and a simple, repeated harmonic progression of 1, IV, V, and V7 chords. Blues was born out of hardship and sorrow, with deeply personal lyrics about hard times, betrayal, loss, and loneliness. But not all blues songs are sad: some celebrated rowdy good times too, laced with resilience and ironic humor. NOTABLE BLUES MUSICIANS Singer - Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter Singer, Songwriter, Guitar – Memphis Minnie, Son House, Charley Patton, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Piano - Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Harmonica – Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Harmonica, Accordion, Piano, Mandolin, Violin – Lead Belly (sometimes spelled Leadbelly, but he preferred Lead Belly) Singer, Songwriter, Band Leader, Organ, Piano, Guitar, Cornet, Trumpet – W. C. Handy ©2019 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 3 MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 DIXIELAND Dixieland was born in New Orleans around 1900, and had its roots in the traditional marching band, ragtime, blues, and gospel music. Dixieland bands usually consisted of a cornet, clarinet, trombone, piano, drums and sometimes a tuba, banjo, or bass. In this style, collective improvisation—a type of musical conversation among the melody instruments—plays a major part. Like a 3-way “call and response,” the first voice (usually the cornet or trumpet) states the melodic theme, answered in turn by the clarinet and trombone, which embellishes and elaborates on the melody. In addition to collectively improvising on the melody, the clarinet harmonizes in thirds or sixth, and the trombone plays simple auxiliary bass parts called “tailgating,” sliding from note to note. The piano, banjo, tuba, and bass provide harmonic and rhythmic support, and the drums usually play straight 4 beats per measure without drastic accents, true to the marching band tradition of Dixieland. Solos are infrequent and take the form of modified melodic interpretations in 2 or 4-bar phrases. Dixieland is a rollicking, jubilant, feel-good music of celebration, whether in Mardi Gras parades or jazz funeral parades, which you can still witness in New Orleans today. Chicago Dixieland of the 1920s differs from its New Orleans counterpart. In the Chicago band a saxophone was often added, a guitar might be substituted for a banjo, a trumpet for a cornet, and a bass for a tuba. With more instruments, solos became more important than in the ensemble sound of the New Orleans collective improvisational style. Added instruments also contributed to a more complex and hard-driving sound than the “let the good times roll” New Orleans band. Like the hustle-bustle of busy city life, Chicago Dixieland tempos got faster than in the slower-paced South, rhythm sections began to accent beats 2 and 4 in each measure, and the dominant rhythmic figure was the driving dotted eighth and sixteenth note pattern. ©2019 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 4 MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 NOTABLE NEW ORLEANS DIXIELAND MUSICIANS Cornet - Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong Trombone - Kid Ory Soprano Saxophone - Sidney Bechet Clarinet - Johnny Dodds Drums - Baby Dodds Piano - Lil Hardin Armstrong, Fate Marable CHICAGO DIXIELAND MUSICIANS Cornet - Bix Biederbecke, Louis Armstrong Trumpet - Jimmy McPartland, Louis Armstrong Trombone - Miff Mole Saxophone - Frankie Trumbauer Clarinet - Pee Wee Russell Guitar - Eddie Condon Piano - Joe Sullivan Drums - Dave Tough ©2019 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 5 MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 SWING The Swing Era in the 1930s and 40s was when jazz enjoyed its greatest popularity. Big Bands, popularized by recordings, radio, and nightclubs, inspired Americans to dance, and “swing” dancing became the rage. During this era of strict racial segregation, jazz led the way to integration. Benny Goodman integrated his performing ensembles and band as early as 1935. Typical swing bands consisted of 3 to 5 saxophones, 2 to 5 trumpets, 1 to 4 trombones, a rhythm section, and usually a vocalist. The drummer used a high hat for keeping time and a ride cymbal for additional time keeping and power. More emphasis was placed on ensemble playing, replacing the collective improvisation and contrapuntal interplay of Dixieland. Articulation became smoother and more relaxed, and the triplet eighth note feeling replaced the dotted eighth note rhythm of Dixieland, which gave the music its more lilting “swing.” The use of block harmonies and varied textures and timbres are a hallmark of this smooth, more controlled style, and white musicians placed an emphasis on reading music exactly as written rather than improvisation. NOTABLE BANDS & MUSICIANS Bands - Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Glenn Miller Trumpet - Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry, Snooky Young, Conte Condoli, Bunny Berrigan, Harry James Saxophone - Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Chuck Berry, Charlie Barnett, Vido Musso, Georgie Auld, Johnny Hodges, Marshall Royal, Benny Carter, Jimmy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry Carney Trombone - Tommy Dorsey, Dickie Wells, Tyree Glenn, Trummy Young, Bill Harris Piano - Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Mel Powell, Joe Bushkin Bass - Jimmy Blanton, Oscar Pettiford, Eddie Safranski, Arnold Fishkin ©2019 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 6 MUSICAL JOURNEY DVD Journey Through Jazz Item No. 5781 Drums - Jo Jones, Sid Catlett, Chick Webb, Sonny Greer, Cozy Cole, Gene Krupa, Louie Bellson, Buddy Rich BEBOP Bebop developed in the early to mid 40s and was a musical reaction to the status quo of the Big Band era. Musicians wanted more of a challenge and more space for individual expression. Bebop is usually performed in a small combo setting, most often a quintet. The use of vibraphone and the flute became more prevalent and the clarinet started to fade away. Music was characterized by faster tempos, rapid chord changes, more complex harmony and rhythms, frequent changes of key, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation.