Jazz

Definition

Jazz is a musical genre that emerged from a blend of earlier African American musical forms. It developed from ragtime, blues, and spirituals in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

  • 1910s–1920s: Traditional New Orleans Jazz emerged, characterized by collective improvisation and polyphonic ensemble playing
  • 1920s: The Jazz Age saw the rise of big bands and swing music
  • 1940s: Bebop developed, bringing more complex harmonies and faster tempos
  • 1950s–1960s: Cool jazz, hard bop, and free jazz emerged
  • 1970s–Present: Jazz fusion and contemporary jazz developed, incorporating elements from other genres

Characteristics

  1. Improvisation: the spontaneous creation or variation of musical elements during performance. In the context of jazz, it’s one of the genre’s defining characteristics, allowing musicians to express themselves creatively through spontaneous melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic variations while maintaining the song’s basic structure.
  2. Syncopated rhythms: rhythmic patterns where accents or stresses occur on unexpected beats, typically on the off beats (between the main beats)
  3. Swing: the duple subdivision of each beat is performed as one long and one short duration (like playing in triplets)
  4. the use of drum kit: to enable one drummer to perform on multiple percussion instruments

New Orleans Jazz (Dixieland Jazz)

Dixieland Jazz, also known as New Orleans Jazz, is a style of jazz that emerged in New Orleans in the early 1900s.

Characteristics

  1. Features collective improvisation where multiple instruments play variations of the melody simultaneously
  2. Typically includes a front line of trumpet/cornet, clarinet, and trombone
  3. Has a rhythm section consisting of piano, banjo/guitar, bass/tuba, and drums
  4. Known for its lively, upbeat tempo and emphasis on ensemble playing
  5. Often incorporates elements of blues, ragtime, and marching band music

Listening

Kid Ory, Song of the Wanderer

A jazz tune about someone who travels far and wide, searching for their true love or home. The song expresses themes of longing, journey, and the hope of finding what one seeks.

 

Big Band

Big Band is a style of jazz ensemble and music that became popular during the Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s, when black people immigrated to northern cities (such as Chicago) after the Great Depression (1929–1939). Due to limited job opportunities for black people, black musicians formed bigger jazz bands and performed in dance halls.

Characteristics

  1. Large ensemble typically consisting of 12–25 musicians
  2. Organized into sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and rhythm section (piano, drums, bass, guitar)
  3. Known for a powerful, full sound with sophisticated arrangements, thus requiring an arranger to write out the parts for each instrument
  4. popular song form: 32 bars long, divided into four phrases (AABA)
  5. Often associated with swing music and dance halls
  6. Features both ensemble playing and individual solos; it begins with a complete statement of the song, followed by solo improvisations from individual instruments (or groups) in the band

Listening

Duke Ellington, Take the A Train

A jazz standard that celebrates the New York City subway line running from Brooklyn up to Harlem. The song was written about the A train’s route to Sugar Hill in Harlem, where Duke Ellington’s band regularly performed.

 

Artie Shaw, Begin the Beguine

A popular song about rekindling romance through dance. The beguine was a slow, romantic dance style from the French West Indies. The song describes how dancing the beguine brings back memories of a past love affair, with its enchanting melody evoking both the joy of reunion and the melancholy of lost love.

 

Bebop

Bebop is a style of jazz that emerged in the 1940s, deemed to be a more “artistic” version of jazz. It was primarily developed by musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the early 1940s. Their innovative approach transformed jazz from dance music into a more complex art form focused on virtuosic improvisation.

Characteristics

  1. Complex harmonies and chord progressions
  2. Based on fast, complicated improvisation; focus on individual virtuosic solos rather than collective improvisation

Listening

Dizzy Gillespie, Salt Peanuts

A bebop jazz standard known for its playful, fast-paced melody and scat singing of the titular phrase. It’s a quintessential bebop piece that showcases the style’s characteristic rapid-fire improvisation and complex rhythmic patterns.

 

Benny Goodman, Sing, Sing, Sing

A big band jazz instrumental composition written by Louis Prima and most famously performed by Benny Goodman and his orchestra. It’s known for its driving rhythm, prominent use of tom-toms in the drum part, and its high-energy swing style.

 

Charlie Parker, Ko-Ko

A bebop composition based on the chord changes of “Cherokee” and is considered one of the most important recordings in bebop history, showcasing Parker’s virtuosic alto saxophone playing and innovative improvisational style.

 

Cool Jazz

Cool jazz is a style that emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when white musicians brought classical music into jazz. In general, cool jazz has a more mellow sound and slower in tempo compared to the virtuosic Bebop.

Characteristics

  1. A more relaxed, subtle, and mellower sound compared to bebop
  2. Lighter tone and softer dynamics, often featuring more complex arrangements
  3. Focus on composed melodies rather than rapid improvisation
  4. Often incorporates elements of classical music, including counterpoint and formal structures
  5. Typically uses a more restrained approach to rhythm and tempo

Listening

Dave Brubeck, Take Five

One of the most famous jazz compositions in history, known for its distinctive 5/4 time signature. The instrumental piece was composed by Paul Desmond and performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It became a signature piece for the group and one of the first jazz recordings to sell over a million copies.

 

Miles Davis, Moon Dreams

A contemplative jazz ballad from Miles Davis’s influential Birth of the Cool sessions. The song features lush orchestral arrangements with a dreamy, atmospheric quality that creates a nocturnal mood, evoking the serene and mysterious nature of moonlit nights.

 

Modal Jazz

Modal jazz is a style of jazz that emerged in the late 1950s. Miles Davis’s album “Kind of Blue” (1959) is considered a landmark recording that helped establish modal jazz as a distinct style.

Characteristics

  1. Compositions based on modes (scales) rather than chord progressions
  2. Extended improvisations over simpler harmonic structures
  3. More emphasis on melody and musical space
  4. Often featuring a more meditative, exploratory quality

Listening

Miles Davis, So What

A landmark modal jazz composition that features a simple but innovative structure built around two scales. The piece opens with a distinctive bass line and is known for its minimalist, cool approach that exemplifies the modal jazz style. It was released on Miles Davis’s seminal 1959 album “Kind of Blue” and is considered one of the definitive examples of modal jazz.