African Roots of Popular Music

8 African Musical Characteristics #1

Call and Response (The Riff)• “Song of the Hunter” (African) • “How I Got Over” (Gospel)• “Taps Miller” (Swing Era Jazz)• “Get A Job” (Doo Wop)• “Rock Around The Clock” (Rockabilly)• “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (Motown)• “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” (Metal Roots)


Natural Scales and Blue Notes• “Aint Goin’ Down” (Blues)• “Move on Up” (Gospel)• “Driftin’ Blues” (Smooth Urban Blues)• “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (Soul)• “Black Dog” (Metal Roots)


• Layered Rhythms, Polyrhythms, Syncopation

• Untitled African Percussion• “Tumbao De Coqueta” (Cuban)• “Samba Importado” (Brazilian”• “For Once In My Life” (Soul)”• “Sex Machine” (Funk)


Percussive Approach To Sound• Untitled Halam (Senegalese 5-string)• Untitled banjo (American)• “Flying Home” (Swing Era)• “Gospel Train” (Gospel)• “Summertime” (Soul)• “The Sun Don’t Shine” (Rap)


Human Voice Important Model for Instrumental Sound

• “Strawberries” (Work Song)• Miles Davis (Jazz)• B.B. King (Blues)• “The Mooche” (Early Jazz)• “I Can’t Quit You Baby” (Metal Roots)


Music is Communal & Functional Work Songs

• “Black Betty” Leadbelly (Work Song)

• “Rosie” (Work Song)


Buzzing/Roughening of Sound• “Funeral Song” (African)

• “God Moves on the Water” (Blues)

• “Maybeline” (Early Rock)

• “Satisfaction” (British Invasion)

• “Iron Man” (Metal)


Hand Clapping• “Dance of the Witch Doctor” (African)

• “Sit Down Servant” (Gospel)

• “Shake Rattle and Roll” (R&B)

• “Discofied” (Disco)

Survival of African Musical Characteristics

v Census 1790 - 750,000 African-Americans

v 59,000 freemen

Music for Dance• From the Colonial Period• Violin is common instrument• “Negro Jig” published Scotland 1782


Military Bands

• Earliest record 1723 Nero Benson, trumpeter

• Battle of Bunker Hill 1775, Barzillai Lew, drummer/fifer among the first killed

• 1778 laws offered freedom for slaves enlisting in the Army


Religious Music

• Cotton Mather, Society of Negroes 1693

• 2nd Awakening/Great Awakening, camp meetings; “new songs with repetitive phrases”

• Ring Shout, blend of African & Christian

• Spirituals, Fisk University 1867


Slave Celebrations

• ‘Lection Day (1750-1850)

• Pinkster Day (Pentecost Sunday)

• Congo Square, New Orleans (1786-1862)


Professional Musicians

• Frank Johnson, Philadelphia, toured England 1838, presented a silver cornet by Queen Victoria

• Circus & tent show bands


Work Songs

• Preserved melodic styles (natural scales, blue notes, circumlocution, call & response)

• Allowed to survive because they were functional

• One of the roots of the Blues


Minstrel Shows• “black face” entertainment gradually grew• “Jim Crow” created by Thomas Rice 1828• 1st 1843 Virginia Minstrels (New York)• 1844 Christy Minstrels set the format• Beginning to fade by 1870• Post-war employment for African-Americans


African-American Musical Theater

• African Grove Theater 1821-28 (New York)

• 1898 African-American shows begin to appear on Broadway, 1st “Clorindy, or the Origin of the Cakewalk” ends 1910

• 1921 “Shuffle Along” began the trend again

Ragtime

African-American songs known as “Coon Songs” (1830s-),“Cakewalk” (1890s) Ragtime (1897)

Coon Songs 1830-1910Used as Required Composition for the “Ragtime Championship of the World 1900

Cakewalk

A Popular Dance, “high-steppin”

Competition: Madison Square Garden 1892

Expression “That Takes the Cake”

Cake Walk Photo 1890s

Ragtime (1897-1917)African American Piano StyleDefinition:

• Syncopated piano music• Two beats per measure, 16 measure sections• Right hand plays syncopated melody often in the

pattern: 3-3-2, 2xs faster that left hand• Left hand plays “boom-chick” (bass note-chord)• Rondo form

Classic Ragtime: Scott Joplin (1869-1917)

Term used to distinguish from “Tin Pan” alley compositionsMost famous Ragtime Composer“Maple Leaf Rag” (1900)Also wrote a ballet and 2 operasMost famous opera is “Treemonisha”

Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag

Form AABBACCDD

A - first melody

B - second melody

C - third melody

D - fourth melody

Ragtime Bands

Bands arranged piano rags

“At A Georgia Camp Meeting” (Sousa)

“Castle Cake Walk” (Europe)

James Reese Europe

Clef Club Orchestra

Chosen by Dancers Vernon & Irene Castle

WW I Conducted 369th Hellfighter’s Band, brought “jazz” to France

James Reese Europe

Vernon & Irene Castle

Classic Ragtime to Stride Piano

Classic Ragtime usually considered pre-jazz because it was written(without improvisation)Stride Piano was 1st jazz piano style began to fade in late 1930s

• Left hand “boom-chick” (bass - chord)• Right hand improvised melody

Stride Piano

James P. Johnson ‘Father of Stride”

• “Carolina Shout” (1921), often considered 1st jazz piano recording

• Also wrote classical compositions

Stride Piano

Thomas Fats Waller

Master showman• “Handful of Keys”• “Christopher• Columbus”Wrote important jazz

tunes

Stride Piano Fats Waller

Stride Piano Fats Waller

Boogie Woogie

Piano Style beginning in 1928

The term pre-dates the piano style

Left hand plays repeated pattern “Eight to the bar”

Usually in Blues Form

1st recording is Pinetop SmithJimmy Yancy

Pete Johnson 1938 Concert

Blues

A Romanticized Subject

Began to be Recognized End of 19thC.

Developed from Work Songs and (some say) Spirituals

Combined with Ragtime circa 1895 to Create Jazz

Blues Archeology

Blues Spread once it met the Music Business

1. 1902 Ma Rainey “Mother of the Blues” added Blues to her Minstrel Act

Blues Archeology

2. 1903 W. C. Handy “Father of the Blues”

First heard the blues (p. 18)

Blues Archeology

3. 1909 W. C. Handy writes“Memphis Blues”

(for mayoral race)

4. 1912 “Memphis Blues” is Published, others also publish Blues

5. 1916 First Recorded Blues

Blues Archeology

6. 1917 First Instrumental Blues Recorded, Original Dixieland Jass Band “Livery Stable Blues”

7. 1920 First African-American Recording of the Blues. Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues”

8. 1923(24) First Country Blues Recorded

Blues Styles in the 1920s

“Classic” City Blues and Country Blues

City Blues Recorded First

Country Blues developed First

“Classic” City Blues Form

12 Bars of Music

3 Basic Chords

Repetition of the First Vocal Line

“St. Louis Blues” Bessie Smith

City Blues

Is a Female Dominated Style

It was Professional Entertainment

Mamie Smith was a Theater Performer before she recorded “Crazy Blues” in 1920

Accompaniment by Piano and/or Jazz Band

Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds

City Blues Singers

Ma Rainey “Mother of the Blues”

Bessie Smith “Empress of the Blues”

Country Blues

A Male Dominated Style

Self-Accompanied on Guitar

Used “Approximately” 12 Bars of Music

Performed at Smaller Gatherings, often by Itinerant Street Performers

“Match Box Blues” Blind Lemmon Jefferson

“Revenue Man Blues” Charlie Patton

Country Blues Singers

Blind Lemon Jefferson1st country blues whose records sold well Robert Johnson, Satanic Myth1930s, the end of the country blues trend. Major influence on British rockersLeadbellyDiscovered by Lomax, influenced the Greenwich Village Folk scene

Country Blues Styles

Mississippi Delta

Piedmont

Texas

Mississippi Delta Blues

Thought to be the oldest form

Bottle Neck Guitar Style

Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson (but)

Texas Blues

Use of single line melodies

Blind Lemon Jefferson

Leadbelly

Piedmont Blues

Atlanta & Southeast

• Closer to Ragtime Guitar

• Barbecue Bob (1927-8)

• Blind Boy Fuller (19930s)

The “Classic” Blues Formvocal line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..] instrumental answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]

(chord 1)

|| — — — — || — — — — || — — — — || — — — — ||

repeat vocal line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] instrumental answer . . . . . .. . . … . . .. … ]

(chord 2) (chord 1)

|| — — — — || — — — — || — — — — || — — — — ||

vocal line #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . ] instrumental answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . ]

(chord 3) (chord 1)

|| — — — — || — — — — || — — — — || — — — — ||

“Back Water Blues” “Black Snake Moan”

Early 1930s

Country and City Blues Begin to Combine

LeRoy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

• Male

• Piano Blues & Single Line Guitar

• Polished

• “Midnight Hour Blues”

1930s Blues

Kansas City Blues Shouter, jazz based

Joe Turner, Kansas City late 1930s. 1950s was considered a Rhythm & Blues singer

Blues Shouter style was adopted by rock singers

Blues 1940s Jump Bands

Jump Bands were scaled down swing bands

Extensive riffs

Louis Jordan, major hits in the 1940.

• 9 of the top 15 were Jordan’s (1946)

• Became model for Bill Haley (used the same record producer)

• “Choo Choo Ch-Boogie

Blues Late 1940s

• Chicago Blues

• Electrified Mississippi Delta Blues

• Used Bottle Neck Style Guitar

• Chess Records (Chess Brothers)

• Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield)

Blues: Muddy Waters

Born on Plantation

Recorded Country Blues 1941 for LOC

Moved to Chicago 1946

“Hard Day Blues”

Other Chicago (Detroit) Blues

Howlin’ Wolf• From the Delta• Memphis Radio Show

John Lee Hooker, Detroit• From the Delta• Step Father played w/Charlie Patton• “Boogie Chillun”

1940s Smooth Urban Blues

Jazzy & Relaxed

Usually Piano Based

Nat King Cole, piano/singer

Ray Charles began in this style

Electric Guitar Urban Blues

1940-1950

T-Bone Walker (Texas)

• 1st recorded electric guitar blues

B. B. King (Memphis)

• Copied T-Bone’s style

“B. B. Boogie”

Education

African Roots of Popular Music