African American Musicians in American Popular Culture

Presented by:Ryan TarjanyiJasen Dodds

Diversity/Black History Month

• Age Group: High School

Objective

• Teach students about African-Americans’ contribution to the first real “American Music”.

• Teach students about the rich cultural heritage of this art form.

Materials Needed

• Attention Span

• Notebook/ writing implement

Activity

• Ask students the question, what is jazz?– Have students tell you the first thing that

comes to their mind when you ask this question.

Different Styles of Jazz

• Early Jazz (Dixieland)Time period: Cir. 1900-1928

• The Swing EraTime Period:1920-1935 Beginning of swing bands

1935-1945 The Swing Era

• BebopTime period: 1940 - 1955

• CoolTime Period: 1950 - 1955

• The Return to the Hot: Hard Bop and Funky JazzTime period: 1951-1958

• Post Bebop Straight-Ahead • Time Period: 1959 to present

• Style characteristics and performance practices:

• Complex harmony, melody, and rhythm • Forms became increasingly complex, asymmetrical, and unpredictable • Expanded use of different time signatures • Expanded scale vocabulary • Required great technical skill and facility • A small group music • Tune sources included the following:

– blues – I Got Rhythm tunes – original tunes (contrafacts and others) – modal tunes – jazz tunes

• Important players in this style include Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, George Russell, Cannonball Adderley, and numerous others.

• The Breakthrough Year into the Contemporary Period: 1959 – 1959 was the year in which a number of major events in jazz

history took place, among them the following: – The arrival of Ornette Coleman, one of the founding fathers of free jazz, on the

East Coast at the Lenox School of Jazz; also the year of his heralded and controversial opening at the Five Spot in New York City

– The release of Miles Davis' groundbreaking and influential album Kind of Blue – The awakening of interest in Latin and Latin-derived music, primarily due to these

1959 events: – The film Black Orpheus, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa,

reached America – The first major album in the bossa nova style, Chege de Saudade by Joao

Gilberto, was recorded. – The term "bossa nova" was first used, in the song "Desafinado" – Sketches of Spain, a collaboration between Gil Evans and Miles Davis, was

recorded. This was Miles' most popular album in the 1960s.– This high level of interest in Latin music opened the door for explorations into

other ethnic music, resulting in experimentation with the elements of the music of India and Africa (among others)

• Ethnic Jazz • Time Period: 1959 to present

Style characteristics and performance practices: • Draws heavily on the identifiable musical characteristics of other ethnic

musics

• Utilizes the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic characteristics of other ethnic musics

• Uses the compositions of other ethnic musics

• Makes use of the instruments, instrumental concepts, and often the musical philosophy of other ethnic musics

Activity

• Have students listen to several different recordings spanning the different styles and decades of jazz.

• Have students verbalize what sounds different about each.

Activity

• Have Students select a famous recording, listen to it and then write a few paragraphs describing what they heard.

Activity

• Have students write a report on the life of a famous jazz musician.

Activity

• For extra credit encourage a student to transcribe an improvised solo from one of the recordings we listened to. To do this, the student will listen to the performer and then write down note-for-note what the performer is playing.

Five Websites

• http://www.monkinstitute.com/

• http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/

• http://www.iaje.org/

• http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/jazz/

• http://www.apassion4jazz.net/