Jazz HistoryProf. David LarsenPart 1
What is jazz?America's first art Music. A combination of
marches, spirituals, the blues, and folk music; jazz is an
amalgamation of American Culture. Created in the American South
during the height of Jim Crow segregation laws, jazz became a world
wide phenomenon that changed all Western Music.
What is Jazz?Jazz is an American Musical Art Form known for high
degrees of virtuosic instrumental performance, improvisation, and
personal expression.Jazz began as a pop culture idiom, but attained
a high degree of musical sophistication and a place in the permeant
core of western music.Much like classical music is studied at
Universities. Jazz many has high level scholars, composers, and
performers.
What is Jazz?Jazz is a diverse musical genre that contains many
sub-genres including bop, hard bop, trad. jazz, fusion, latin, and
many more.Jazz is an evolving art form that tends to consume and
utilize elements of other art forms. Many artists today mix jazz
with punk, rock, hip-hop, and ska.Inversely, Jazz changed the
landscape of music in many other genres, prompting great composers
like Claude Debussy and George Gershwin to write music in a Jazz
Style.
What is Jazz?Jazz has also become part of the worlds lexicon of
music. It can be found in virtually every country on the globe and
is very popular in places like Japan, France, and Germany.After the
advent of Jazz, virtually all musical art forms embraced its style
and performance practices, which led to a world wide acceptance of
improvisation and new instruments like saxophone, drum set, and
electric guitar.
What is Jazz?Things that Jazz is not:A music that belongs to a
specific "Race"Jazz music was developed by a "culture" of people in
the American South. Probably in the predominately Black, Creole,
and Colored neighborhoods of New Orleans, LA.These different groups
of individuals, forced to live near each other by racist practices
in the south, brought many musical experiences together to form a
new form of musical expression.
What is Jazz?Remember: "Race" is a scientific term to categorize
a person by physical traits. "Culture" is a term for the art,
language, and morals that a group of people create.A "Culture" can
be created by any number of races together or separately.
What does Jazz sound like?
What is Jazz?Terms to know about Jazz:Timbre (Pronounced
"Tamber") is quality of sound. The way an instrument sounds, often
described with words like "dark", "light", "heavy", "soft". The
reason why a trumpet sounds different than a saxophone. Timbre has
no accepted scale, so the values are purely subjective.
What is Jazz?Terms to know about Jazz:Texture: in contrast with
timbre, texture is the combination of many different sounds to
create a complete musical piece. Texture can refer to both musical
instruments and specific musical techniques like "double time",
"ballad", or "rock".
What is Jazz?Terms to know about Jazz:Ensemble: a group of
instruments or voices performing together.Wind Instruments: any
instruments that require a person to blow air into them to play.
The slang term is "horns".Rhythm Sections: piano, drum, bass,
guitar or other instruments used to accompany music.
What is Jazz?Terms to know about Jazz:Pitch: pitch is the actual
sound you hear, measured in Hertz. This is a scientific unit and is
measured precisely. It is used to tune and regulate
instruments.Note: a note is the name given to a pitch by musicians.
Note names use letters of the alphabet, A B C D E F G. Each time a
musician plays this series of notes, the letter names repeat, but
the pitch continues to change with each new note.
What is Jazz?Terms to know about Jazz:Chord Changes: or simply
"Changes", are the underlying harmony to a piece of music. This is
not specific to jazz.Chord: is two or more pitches played
simultaneously. In Western Music these chords are generally found
stacked in "thirds", know as Tertian Harmony.
What is Jazz?Terms to know about Jazz:Melody: the melody of a
piece is the recognizable tune. It is generally written by a
composer and is fairly unchanged from performance to
performance.Improvisation: is the act of creating or altering a
melody during performance. With no specific rules, improvisation is
a very broad term.
In ReviewTerms to know:Timbre: Quality of soundTexture:
Combination of soundsEnsemble: Group of instruments or voicesWind
Instruments: Instrument played with airRhythm Section: Piano, bass,
drums and or guitar
In ReviewTerms to know:Pitch: Sound measured in HertzNote: Name
given to a pitchChord: Two or more pitches at onceChord Changes:
The harmony of a pieceMelody: The recognizable tune of a
songImprovisation: The act of creating a melody on demand
Straighten Up and Fly RightNat "King" ColeNat "King" ColeThe
Unforgettable Nat King Cole (1999
Remaster)2008-06-24T07:00:[email protected] Compilation (P) 2000
Capitol Records, Inc.. All rights reserved. Unauthorized
reproduction is a violation of applicable laws. Manufactured by
Capitol Catalog,2009-02-26 05:15:46Unforgettable Nat King Cole
(1999 Remaster)
