Music Jazz Conference Notes
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SWING Definition of style “ There was a time, from 1935–1946, when teenagers and young adults danced to jazz- orientated bands. When jazz orchestras dominated pop charts and when influential clarinettists were household names. This was the swing era. ” — Scott Yanow, Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 1-904041-96-5. The swing era (also frequently referred to as the "big band era") was the period of time (around 1935– 1946) when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though this was its most popular period, the music had actually been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_era Characteristics of style A typical song played in Swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind, brass. During the swing era, string and/or vocals sections were also common. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect at any one time varied depending on the arrangement, the band, the song, and the band-leader. The most common style consisted of having a soloist take center stage, and improvise a solo within the framework of his bandmates playing support. As a song progressed, multiple soloists would be expected to take over and individually improvise their own part; however, it was not unusual to have two or three band members improvising at any one time. Many of the songs during the swing era were selections from the Great American Songbook. The music of the swing era is often regarded as one of the most influential precursors to traditional pop music, as it helped popularize many American "standards." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_music#1935-1946:_The_Swing_Era Most influential band leaders & examples of famous tunes Count Basie – One O’Clock Jump Duke Ellington – C-Jam Blues Benny Goodman – Fascinating Rhythm Glenn Miller – In The Mood Comparison of styles: Duke Ellington Orchestra and Count Basie Orchestra: Duke Ellington Orchestra Count Basie Orchestra Leader is pianist; Leader is pianist; Experimental approach to timbre, using a lot of Much less experimental approach to timbre, doubling on woodwinds (flutes, clarinets) and using natural sounds of instruments most of the mutes on brass (plunger & harmon); time; Creative & extended arrangements; Less creative approach, but writes extended / longer arrangements; Big Band instrumentation, often doubling, but Standard Big Band instrumentation, occasional often no guitar; doubling, often guitar; Sometimes features vocalists; More often features vocalists; Not a straight ahead Swing sound; Very straight ahead Swing sound; Improvisation is important. Improvisation is important. Terms from the Swing Era Big Band A type of musical ensemble that originated in the United States and is associated with Jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments of between 12 to 25 musicians. A standard 17-piece instrumentation evolved in the Big Bands, for which many commercial arrangements are available. This instrumentation consists of five saxophones (most often two altos, two tenors, and one baritone), four trumpets, four trombones (often including one bass trombone) and a four-piece rhythm section (composed of drums, acoustic bass or electric bass, piano and guitar). Riff In various popular music styles, riff refers to a brief, relaxed phrase repeated over changing melodies. It may serve as a refrain or melodic figure, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instruments that form the basis or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs can be as simple as a tenor saxophone honking a simple, catchy rhythmic figure, or as complex as the riff-based variations in the head arrangements played by the Count Basie Orchestra. Hits Short, single notes (often harmonised) played by brass and/or saxophone sections as background figures, especially during solos or melodies. Swing A "swing note" or "shuffle note" is a performance practice, mainly in jazz-influenced music, in (rhythm) which quaver notes are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short. In the swing era, swing meant accented triplets (shuffle rhythm), suitable for dancing. With the development of bebop and later jazz styles independent of dancing, the term was used for far more general timings. Walking A walking bass is a style of bass accompaniment or line, common in baroque music and jazz, Bass which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement. Thus walking bass lines generally consist of unsyncopated notes of equal value, usually quarter notes. Walking bass lines use a mixture of scale tones, arpeggios, chromatic runs, and passing tones to outline the chord progression of a song or tune, often with a melodic shape that alternately rises and falls in pitch over several bars. To add variety to a walking bassline, bassists periodically interpolate various fills, such as playing scale or arpeggio fragments in swung eighth notes, plucking muted percussive grace notes (either one grace note or a "raked" sequence of two or three grace notes), or holding notes for two, three, or four beats. BEBOP Definition of style Bebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop Characteristics of style Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers. The music itself seemed jarringly different to the ears of the public, who were used to the bouncy, organized, danceable tunes of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller during the swing era. Instead, bebop appeared to sound racing, nervous, erratic, and often fragmented. But to jazz musicians and jazz music lovers, bebop was an exciting and beautiful revolution in the art of jazz. While swing music tended to feature orchestrated big band arrangements, bebop music highlighted improvisation. Typically, a theme (a "head," often the main melody of a pop or jazz standard of the swing era) would be presented together at the beginning and the end of each piece, with improvisational solos based on the chords of the tune. Thus, the majority of a song in bebop style would be improvisation, the only threads holding the work together being the underlying harmonies played by the rhythm section. Sometimes improvisation included references to the original melody or to other well-known melodic lines ("quotes" or "riffs"). Sometimes they were entirely original, spontaneous melodies from start to finish. Chord progressions for bebop tunes were often taken directly from popular swing-era songs and reused with a new and more complex melody, forming new compositions. This practice was already well- established in earlier jazz, but came to be central to the bebop style. The style made use of several relatively common chord progressions, such as blues (at base, I-IV- V, but infused with II-V motion) and 'rhythm changes' (I-VI-II-V, the chords to the 1930s pop standard "I Got Rhythm"). Late bop also moved towards extended forms that represented a departure from pop and show tunes. Bebop musicians also employed several harmonic devices not typical of previous jazz. Complicated harmonic substitutions for more basic chords became commonplace. These substitutions often emphasized certain dissonant intervals such as the flat ninth, sharp ninth, or the sharp eleventh/tritone. This unprecedented harmonic development which took place in bebop is often traced back to a transcendent moment experienced by Charlie Parker while performing "Cherokee" at Clark Monroe's Uptown House, New York, in early 1942. As described by Parker: I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used, ... and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes. I couldn't play it I was working over "Cherokee," and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. It came alive. The classic Bebop combo consisted of saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, and piano. This was a format used (and popularized) by both Charlie Parker (alto sax) and Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet) in their 1940s groups and recordings, sometimes augmented by an extra saxophonist or guitar (electric or acoustic), occasionally adding other horns (often a trombone), or other strings (usually violin) or dropping an instrument and leaving only a quartet. Although only one part of a rich jazz tradition, Bebop music continues to be played regularly throughout the world. Trends in improvisation since its era have changed from its harmonically-tethered style, but the capacity to improvise over a complex sequence of altered chords is a fundamental part of any jazz education. A few of the most influential artists of Bebop Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet) Charlie Parker (alto sax) Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell (piano) Kenny Clarke, Max Roach (drums) A few examples of famous Bebop tunes Ko Ko (Charlie Parker) Bloomdido (Charlie Parker) Straight, No Chaser (Thelonious Monk) A Night In Tunisia (Dizzy Gillespie) Terms from the Bebop Era Bombs Dropping bombs is a bebop drumming technique developed and popularized by jazz drummer Kenny Clarke in the 1940s in which a drummer plays spontaneous, accented hits on the snare drum or the bass drum. Tritone In music theory, the tritone is strictly defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones. For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adjacent whole tones F–G, G–A, and A–B.