Bradley N. Litwin Programs for Younger Audiences photo by Jody Kolodzey Ragtime Jazz Stride Blues A Program & Residency Guide For: Presenters, Teachers, Administrators, Parents & Children Bradley N. Litwin Programs for Younger Audiences Ragtime Jazz Stride Blues Information for Presenters, Teachers, Administrators, Parents & Children Table of Contents: 3. Why is this music important? 3. Curriculum Connections 6. The Historical Context 8. Sample Topics & Questions for Classroom Workshops 9. Activity Suggestions 10. Audience Expectations 11. About Bradley N. Litwin 12. What Kids Would Like To Know About Bradley N. Litwin 13. Repertoire Highlights 14. Online Music Listings 15. Historical Writers & Performers 16. Bibliography 16. Online Resource Links 17. Available Funding This document is available as a PDF download at www.jujubee.com/edguide 2 Bradley N. Litwin Programs for Younger Audiences This guide is intended for educational presenters, teachers, administrators, parents and children who will host or attend my presentations. If you have any questions about this material, please feel free to give me a call or email: 215.224.9534 [email protected]. Q. Why are Blues, Ragtime and Jazz music important? In short, they are a common thread that binds much of our shared culture. The unlikely story of these primal art forms is a wide-open window through which we can explore our social heritage, community and historical connections, and celebrate the African- American contribution to mainstream culture. “Roots” music is the basis of much of American popular music, including Blues, Jazz, Rock & Roll, Country, Western, Gospel, Soul, Disco, Rap, Hip Hop and R&B. All these musical styles rely on the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic components of earlier musical genres. Examining these connections provides a wonderfully novel vehicle for presenting a number of subject areas, including: history, geography, science, mathematics, English and, of course, music, itself. For educators, Litwin’s programs offer interactive, fun, interdisciplinary ways to approach all kinds of subject matter, while addressing the academic arts curriculum requirements, specifically mandated by the state of Pennsylvania. Residencies are tailored to dovetail with current, school, grade-level, or class specific curricula. The following schedule of activities represents an example ten day program: Day 1: Concert - A general repertoire survey of Blues, Ragtime and Jazz music, from the early 1900s to the late 1930s, including a cursory discussion of roots origins and musical idiosyncrasies, interspersed throughout the presentation Day 2: Arrival Of The Back Beat, Interactive Lecture/Demonstration, Part I - the emergence of African American rhythms from the 1880s - 1900, including interactive exploration of beat stresses in field hollers, call & response, folk songs, rural blues, and ragtime Day 3: The Back Beat Comes To The Front, Interactive Lecture/Demonstration Part II - the black Diaspora of the mid 1910s, the convergence of technology, race records, radio, vaudeville, and the emergence of jazz. Day 4: The Beat Goes On, Interactive Lecture/Demonstration Part III - biographies, anecdotes, demonstrations, images and recordings from legendary performers of the 1920s and 1930s Day 5: Discovering Blues Poetry: Part I - the poetry in blues lyrics are examined, including structure, meter, stress, symbolism through signifying, etc. A blues lyric is 3 Bradley N. Litwin Programs for Younger Audiences composed by the class. Start of student assignment: create their own blues lyric for next class. Day 6: Discovering Blues Poetry: Part II - writing assignments are reviewed and discussed. Chord and melodic concepts are demonstrated and explored: identifying the lyrical mood, use of minor and major keys set mood, how melodic tension and release sets the listener’s expectation. Day 7: Blues Poetry & Composition: Part III - selected student lyrics are put to music for group to sing-along. Students perform their works for one and other. Discussion of what makes a successful or compelling song. Day 8: Visual Expressions, Part I: An examination of "Modern" objects and images, from Art Neuveau, Art Deco and Bauhaus, discussed in context with "The Jazz Age." Sheets of various blues and jazz song lyrics are distributed, from which students select verses that suggest strong visual ideas. Selected verses are cut out into strips or other interesting shapes. Day 9: Visual Expressions, Part II: Music-inspired Imagery is explored through the making of a poster. Art materials, paint, paper, colored pencils, collage cuttings, etc, are juxtaposed with song lyric snippets, to create thought provoking visual works. If time permits, a multimedia presentation is made by panning a video camera across the mounted, finished works, while the playing of resource music enhances the nuance of each image. Day 10: Connections: Students will have been assigned to bring in examples of their favorite music for comparison between: hip hop, rap, soul, rock, country & western, etc and the roots music from which all these current forms inherited the African-American legacy. An open discussion is lead to gather student and teacher feedback, followed by a short, farewell artist's performance. Evaluation Process The overall success of such residencies may be gauged in several ways. Children almost always respond positively to this type of music with body movement and interactions with one and other, including: singing, dancing, hand-clapping, singing-along, ham bone, etc. The enthusiasm with which students participate is a strong indicator of cognitive involvement. Each exercise is designed to entice students a little deeper into the process of music making, while fostering global cognitive development. The combination of lyrics and music with images offers a powerful experience for students who are strong visual learners, and the resulting artifacts can provide positive reinforcement. Finally, in the last class, a strong indication of success is demonstrated by the students’ ability to draw comparisons and connections from current to past musical forms. 4 Bradley N. Litwin Programs for Younger Audiences Additional Activities: Music – All Grades: Jazz improvisation is explored through a combination of vocal and rhythmic exercises, including: hand clapping patterns, melody variations, call & response schemes, harmonic reinforcement, etc. The class is organized into groups, given parts of a chorus to sing in sequence. Further exercises include improvised soloing with a back-up chorus. Geography – Primary School: The class is asked to locate states on a map of the U.S. from which Mr. Litwin identifies Blues and Jazz artists who were born there, playing examples of their work. Mathematics – Primary & Middle School: A formal understanding of the structure of music begins with an examination of the basic elements of rhythm, tempo, and tonality. All of these areas involve mathematic concepts, including: arithmetic, diagrams and symbols, fractions, time, logic, etc. Exploration of these topics through a Blues and Jazz performance is a novel vehicle for promoting the practical importance, as well as the recreational value, of math skills. History – Middle School: We discuss the role of rhythmic expression and communication in African cultures, and its subsequent prohibition by American slave masters. Despite this, strong rhythms remained pervasive in everyday life; expressed in field hollers, work gang chants and religious songs. In class, these rhythms are retraced through interactive demonstration, progressing from early to more contemporary forms. Science & History – Middle & High School: Advances in technology, combined with historic happenstance, contributed to the creative development and widespread popularization of this music. A timeline can be assembled, illustrating the emergence of the cotton gin, player piano rolls, digital technology, the phonograph, broadcast radio, improvements in recording apparatus, the dust bowl, mass production, etc. in juxtaposition with the evolution of popular music. Music Students – Middle & High School: Mr. Litwin discusses several technical ways to define or recognize Blues and Jazz. Instantly recognizable musical elements of these forms are the legacy of early and contemporary African and African-American innovation and influence, including: the back beat, syncopated rhythms, pentatonic melodies, use of b7, b5, 9, 11, etc. Visual Arts – All Ages Truly, endless possibilities present themselves for painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, etc., eliciting students’ impressions of performance and repertoire. Possible activities: drawing/painting class, using Mr. Litwin as a live, performing model; creation of collages or montages, mixing song lyrics as graphic elements with other visual components; building assemblages or exhibits of Art Deco, early Modernist, and Bauhaus period inspired works, in juxtaposition with a performance of period music, etc. 5 Bradley N. Litwin Programs for Younger Audiences The Historical Context – background for educators Until emancipation of the slaves in 1863, on top of every other human indignity, much of African-born culture endured extraordinarily harsh repression, including those traditions in which drumming played a central role. With the thirteenth amendment, the pent up emotions of an entire race began to find outward release, expression practically unknown for two hundred years. It was bound to have a profound impact on most all who would