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Jazz
Roots of jazz and American “pop”
- African-American/Slave songs
- English folk songs
The Blues
- major form of black music until Dixieland
- lead to the birth of jazz
JazzMajor movements:
(after the blues & ragtime)
•New Orleans/Dixieland
•Swing (big band swing)
•Bebop
•Hard Bop
•Cool/Third Stream
•Free Jazz
•Funk/Electronic/Fusion
Dixieland
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band - Made first series of recordings by an all black group
- collective improvisation
- introduced world to Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) - Played Cornet and sang (invented scatting)
- After 1930, performed more swing
- Many jazz scholars dismiss this period
Swing
Big band swing (1930’s & 40’s) - First began as dance music
- At first, all black or all white groups
Benny Goodman (1909-1986) - Benny Goodman famous for both jazz and classical
- had one of the first highly respected big bands
- began to break the racial barrier
Swing
Duke Ellington (1899-1974) - pianist and brilliant orchestrator
- sound effects, orchestral instruments, & technically sound musicians
- interest in third stream composition (suites)
- copyrighted 952 compositions
Count Basie (1904-1984) - pianist, more interested in swinging “hard”
- all African-American band from Harlem
Swing
Billie Holiday - very bluesy, thought of singing “too slow”Ella Fitzgerald - known for great technique, improvisation, and refining scatting
By the end of WWII, big bands fell out of popularity - mostly for financial reasons - gave way to a rise in small groups
BebopStyle: more complicated (and faster) melodies, more complicated harmonies, called for virtuosic techniques
Charlie Parker (1920-1955) - saxophonist
“Dizzy” Gillespie (1917-1993) - trumpeter
First time jazz musicians began to be respected as legitimate
Hard BopStyle: “Straight ahead and funky”
After Bird’s death: blues popular again
Cool/Third Stream
Cool – less aggressive than bop, laid back - slower melodies, instruments in their mid ranges
Miles Davis (1926-1991) – trumpet - distinct sound: quiet, with use of mute
- 3 major periods:
cool, modal, electric
- “Birth of the Cool”- First cool album,
major reaction against bebop
Cool/Third Stream
Third Stream – mixture of jazz and classical - First appeared in big bands
- in jazz, an attempt to create a sophisticated and respected style
- Gil Evans, arranger, pushed Miles Davis down this path during his cool period
- “Sketches of Spain” & “Porgy and Bess”
Cool/Third Stream
Miles Davis (1926-1991) - Modal Jazz - focus on writing new songs (not show tunes) - fewer chords, sometimes repeated bass lines
1950’s Quintet
- Most famous album was “Kind of Blue”
- Simpler than previous jazz albums
1960’s Quintet - introduced Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter & Tony Williams
Cool/Third Stream
Dave Brubeck (1920-) – pianist - Dave Brubeck Quartet
- Recorded “Time Out”
- Exploration of odd meters
Charles Mingus (1922-1979) – Bassist - Transition from third stream to free jazz
Free Jazz
Style: Collective improvisation, emphasis on ensemble (not soloist + Accompaniment), “all traditional musical rules are open to question”
Ornette Coleman (1930-) - saxophonist (sometimes plastic)
- at first, not taken seriously
- 1959, recorded “The Shape of Jazz to Come”
- First avant-garde jazz album
- No Chord Structure (no pianist!)
Free Jazz
John Coltrane (1926-1967) - saxophonist
- Got his start with Miles Davis
- different from other “Cool” jazz musicians:
intense sound, well developed technique
- Formed his own quartet, recorded “A Love Supreme”
- a four movement suite mixing third stream & free jazz
- Programmatic work about God
Electronic/Fusion
Miles Davis - after Coltrane’s death, decided to break away from “Cool” jazz
- formed groups with multiple electric keyboards & electric bass
Most famous album is “Bitches Brew”
- (Also the first Electric Jazz album)
- mixed rock and funk rhythm section with avant-garde instrumental parts
Electronic/Fusion
Herbie Hancock (1940-) - After “Bitch’s Brew” (last recording w/ Miles), formed his own electronic group
- Eventually became interested in funk music
- recorded “Headhunters”
- Based soley on funk music
- Continued to explore pop music:
- “Future Shock” & “Future2Future”
Electronic/FusionChick Corea (1941-) - many influences (jazz, classical, funk, latin)
- formed the Elektric Band (introduced Dave Weckl)
Weather Report - Joe Zawinul & Wayne Shorter
- introduced Jaco Pastorius
Pat Metheny (1954-) - Electric guitarist
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - Béla Fleck (banjo), Victor Wooten (bass)
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