Jazz

My band is my instrument.
Duke Ellington
 ROOTS OF JAZZ
• Early jazz blended elements form
many musical cultures, including west
African, American, and European.

• Most American slaves originally came

from west Africa, an area today
includes Ghana, Nigeria, and several
other countries.
 ROOTS OF JAZZ
• West African elements that influenced
jazz include its emphasis on
improvisation, drumming, percussion
from west Africa is known as CALL
and RESPONSE.

• In much west African vocal music, a

soloist phrases are repeatedly
answered by a chorus.
 ROOTS OF JAZZ
• The call and response pattern of jazz
was derived more directly from African
American church services in which
the congregation responds vocally to
the preacher’s “call”.
• In America, blacks developed a rich
body of music that became a vital
source for jazz.
• This music included work songs,
spirituals, gospel hymns and such
dances as the cakewalk.
CALL AND RESPONSE
• In Jazz, CALL and RESPONSE
occurs when a voice is answered by
an instrument or when one
instrument (or group of instruments)
is answered by another instrument
( or group)
IMPORTANT TERMS: Featured Styles:
1. Jazz
1. Ragtime
2. Call and Response
3. Rhythm Section 2. Blues
4. Improvisation 3. New Orleans Style
5. Bar ( Dixieland)
6. Chorus 4. Swing
7. Swing
5. Bebop
8. 12- bar blues
9. Subdominant 6. Cool Jazz
10. Front line 7. Free Jazz
11. Break 8. Jazz Rock( Fusion)
12. Tag
13. Scat singing
14. Swing Band
15. Riff
IMPORTANT STYLE FEATURES

TONE COLOR
• The distinctive sound of jazz is easy to
recognize, but hard to describe
• Features a small combo of 3 to 8 players, or a
big band of 10-15
• The rhythm section usually consists of piano,
plucked double bass, and percussion
• A banjo or guitar may be added
• Main solo instrument- Cornet, trumpet,
saxophone, piano, clarinet, vibraphone, and
trombone
IMPORTANT STYLE FEATURES

TONE COLOR
• Jazz emphasizes brasses, woodwinds, and
percussion rather than bowed strings

• Brass instruments may use variety of mutes.

IMPORTANT STYLE FEATURES
IMPROVISATION
• Jazz typically contains improvised and
composed sections
• Lies at the heart of jazz, and adds freshness
and spontaneity
• Based on a melody and a harmonic pattern
• Based on harmonic pattern feature a series of
chords that repeat over an dover while the
improviser creates melodies above it
• Usually include solos by various members of
the ensemble.
• Several musicians improvise melodies
 IMPROVISATION
• The theme is often a popular song
melody made up of 32 bars, or
measures.
• The improviser varies this original melody
by adding embellishments and changing
its pitches and rhythms.
• Some improvised variations are similar to
the original theme, but others are so
different that the tune may be difficult to
recognize.
 IMPROVISATION
• In jazz, each statement of the basic
harmonic pattern or melody is called
CHORUS.
• For example, a jazz performance that is
based on a 32-bar melody might be
outlined as follows:
Chorus 1 (32 bars) Theme
Chorus 2 (32 bars) Variation 1
Chorus 3 (32 bars) Variation 2
Chorus 4 (32 bars) Variation 3
Chorus 5 (32 bars) Theme
• In addition, there may be sections of
collective improvisation, during which
several musicians make up different
melodies simultaneously .
• Their music is held together by the
underlying series of chords which is
repeated throughout the performance.
• Collective improvisation was typical of
Dixieland jazz in New Orleans.
• Most recorder jazz performance were
about 3 minutes in length
IMPORTANT STYLE FEATURES
RHYTHM, MELODY, HARMONY

• Jazz harmonies use chord

progression like those of the
traditional tonal system, but the
vocabulary has become increasingly
complex, sophisticated, and
chromatic.
• Jazz harmonies may use chords of 3-
6 notes
IMPORTANT STYLE FEATURES
RHYTHM, MELODY, HARMONY
• Syncopation and rhythmic swing are
distinctive features of jazz.
• Usually has steady, strong beat, with four
beats to the bar. Accents often come on
weak beats or between beats.
• Jazz melodies often use a major scale in
which the third, fifth, and seventh notes are
lowered, or flatted, as in vocal blues
• Jazz melodies are Flexible in pitch and
rhythm
 RHYTHM SECTION
• The backbone of a jazz ensemble is its
RHYTHM SECTION , usually made up
of piano, plucked double bass,
percussion, and sometimes- Banjo or
guitar, which maintains the beat, adds
rhythmic interest, and provides
supporting harmonies.
• Modern percussionist produce a variety
of sounds from several drums and
cymbals, using sticks, mallets, wire
brushes and bare hands
 RHYTHM SECTION
• The main solo instruments of jazz include
the cornet, trumpet, saxophone (
soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), piano,
clarinet, vibraphone, and trombone.
• Jazz emphasizes brasses, woodwinds,
and percussion rather that the bowed
strings that dominated symphonic music.
• Brass players produce a wide variety of
tone colors by using different mutes and
muting techniques.
 RHYTHM SECTION

• For example, a full ensemble might be

followed by a trumpet solo and then by a
clarinet solo or a duet for saxophone and
trumpet.
Trombone Cornet

Trumpet
Saxophone Clarinet

Vibranophone
IMPORTANT STYLE FEATURES
TEXTURE

• Jazz textures may be monophonic,

homophonic, polyphonic, or
heterophonic
 PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

• Jazz often combines a mixture of solo

and ensemble sections.
• In contrast to “classical” musicians,
jazz performers aim for individuality of
sound and tone color
• Instrumentalists attempt to match the
personal quality of singing.
 PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

• Performers sometimes “bend” tones

or use a distinctive type of vibrato.
• Transitions between two consecutive
tones often include pitch inflections
described as bends, smears/slurs,
scoops, falloffs/cuts, or shakes
• Some contemporary jazz performers
try to emulate the styles of great
performers
 FEATURED PERFORMERS

1. Scott Joplin ( 1868-1917)

2. Bessie Smith( 1894-1937)
3. King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band
4. Louis Armstrong(1901-1971) and His
Hot Five
5. Duke Ellington( 1899-1974) and his
Famous Orchestra
6. Charlie Parker (1920-1955)
7. Miles Davis ( 1926- 1991)
 Jazz
Styles
1900-1950
 FEATURED STYLES
-RAGTIME-
• It is a style of composed piano music that
flourished from the 1890’s to about 1915.
• It was developed primarily by African
American pianist who traveled in the
Midwest and south playing in saloons
and dance halls.
• Ragtime piano music is generally in
duple meter 2/4 and is performed at a
moderate march tempo.
 FEATURED STYLES
-RAGTIME-
• A ragtime piece usually consists of
several melodies that are similar in
character.
• It takes such forms as AA BB A CC DD or
introduction-AA BB CC DD EE.
• Although the forms of ragtime are derived
from European marches and dances, its
rhythms are rooted in African American
folk music.
FEATURED STYLES
-RAGTIME-
 Scott Joplin
• Best known ragtime composer
• Father of Ragtime/King of Ragtime is
Primarily uses a solo piano
• Most famous piano pieces:
1. Maple Leaf Rag
2. The Entertainer

Maple Leaf Rag

- named after the saloon in
Sedalia, Missouri, where he
worked as a pianist.
- 3 minutes, AA BB A CC DD form
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-

• Among the most important foundations

of jazz is a type of music known as
blues.
• form of vocal and instrumental music
and to a style of performance.
• Blues grew out of African American folk
music, such as work songs, spirituals,
and the field hollers of slaves.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-
• Exactly when blues originated is
uncertain, but by around the 1890’s it
was sung in rural areas of the south.
• Gained popularity through the
publication of Memphis Blues( 1912)and
St. Louis Blues (1914), by W.C. Handy
(1873-1958).
• Original country blues-performed with
guitar
• Not standardized in form and style
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-
• During the 1920’s, blues became a
national craze among African American.
• From the 1920’s to the 1950’s, Chicago
became a blues center because many
African decades after WW1.
• Urban blues- highly energetic blues style
that derived form earlier blues but used
electric guitar and amplification.
• One of the best known performers-
Muddy Waters ( 1915-1983)
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES
• Vocal blues is intensely personal, often
containing sexual references and dealing
with the pain of betrayal, desertion, and
unrequited love.
• The lyrics consist of several 3 line stanzas,
each in the same poetic and musical form.
• The first line is sung and then repeated to
roughly the same melodic phrase (a a’); the
third line has a different melodic phrase and
text (b)
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES
• Here is stanza 4 Bessie Smith’ s Lost Your
Head Blues;

a; I’m going to leave baby, ain’t going to say goodbye.

b; I’m going to leave baby, ain’t going to say goodbye.
b; But I’ll write you and tell you the reason why.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-

• A blues stanza is set to a harmonic

framework that is usually 12 bars in
length.

• This harmonic pattern, known as 12-bar

blues, involves only three basic chords:
tonic (I), subdominant (IV) and dominant
(V).
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-

• Twelve-bar blues is divided into three

phrases, each of which is 4 bars long.

• The soloist typically takes only about 2

bars to sing a line.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-
• The subdominant is the triad based on
the fourth note – fa- of the scale.

• The specific ordering of these chords

can be outlined as follows: tonic (4
bars)- subdominant (2 bars)- tonic ( 2
bars)-dominant (2 bars)- tonic (2 bars).
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-
• Here is how the 3-line stanza is set to
this chord progression:
Line 1 (a) Line 2 (a) Line 3(b)
Bars 1234 5 678 9 10 11 12
Chords I IV I V I

• Each stanza of the text is sung to the same series

of chords, although other chords may be inserted
between the primary chords of the 12 –bar blues
from outlined above.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-
• Blues singer have a special style of
performance involving “ bent” notes, and
vocal scoops and slides.
• Their melodies- both composed and
improvised- contain many “blue” notes,
which are produced by slightly lowering
or flatting the third, fifth, and seventh
tones of a major scale.
• Blues rhythm is also flexible.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-

• Singers either repeat the same basic

melody for each stanza or improvise
new melodies to reflect the changing
moods of the lyrics.
• The music is almost always in
quadruple meter 4/4, and so each bar
contains 4 beats.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES-

• Music in this 12 –bar form can be

happy or sad, fast or slow, and in a
wide range of styles.
• Bessie Smith’s Lost your Head Blues
(1926)
- Well known example of blues form and
performance style.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES
Bessie Smith
• Known as the “ empress of the blues”
• Most famous blues singer of the 1920’s
• Lost your head Blues- is well-known example
of blues form and performance style.
• The lyrics express the feelings of a woman
who plans to leave her man because she’s “
been treated wrong”
• Each of the five poems stanzas is set to 12
bar blues pattern
FEATURED STYLES
-BLUES
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• Was typically played by a small group of
five to eight performers.
• New Orleans Jazz was usually based
on a march or church melody,.
• As new Orleans style evolved during the
1920’s, mainly in Chicago-solo playing
came to be emphasized more than
collective improvisation.
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• The melodic instruments, or front line,
included the cornet (or trumpet), clarinet,
and trombone.
• The front-line player would improvise
several contrasting melodic lines at once,
producing a kind of polyphonic texture.
• This collective improvisation was the
most distinctive feature of New Orleans
jazz.
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• The front-line instruments were
supported by a rhythm sections that
clearly marked the beat and provided a
harmonic foundation over which the
soloist could improvise.
• This section usually included drums,
chordal instruments ( banjo, guitar,
piano), and a single-line low instrument (
plucked bass or tuba).
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• Based on a march or church melody, a
ragtime piece, a popular song, or 12-bar
blues.
• Well known associated with this style:
-When the saints go marching in
-oh, Didn’t he ramble?
• One or more choruses of collective
improvisation generally occurred at the
beginning and end of a piece.
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• In between, individual players were
featured in improvised solos,
accompanied by the rhythm section or by
the whole band.

• Sometimes there were brief

unaccompanied solos, called Breaks.
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-

• The band’s performance might begin

with an introduction and end with a brief
coda, or tag.
• Dippermouth Blues (1923), by King
Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band- a fine
example of New Orleans jazz
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• The climax of Dippermouth Blues is Joe
“ king” Oliver’s muted cornet solo (in
choruses 6 to 8), heard against a
background of improvisation by the other
instruments.
• Oliver’s solo, with its “blue” notes and
swinging syncopations, was widely
imitated by other jazz musicians.
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• Louis Armstrong- both trumpeter and a
singer, had a worldwide impact on jazz.
• Armstrong was one of the greatest jazz
improvisers; he was able to invent
extraordinary solos and to transforms
even ordinary tunes into swinging
melodies through changes of rhythm
and pitch.
• Hello Dolly! – hit recording/ his greatest
popular success
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
Louis Armstrong
• Armstrong also popularized scat
singing, vocalization of a melodic line
with nonsense syllables.
• (scatting is the use of words and non-
sense words)
• His gravel-throated voice was not
conventionally “beautiful”, but it conveyed
the same jazz feeling as his trumpet
playing
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
Hotter Than That (1927)
• An outstanding performance by Louis
Armstrong and His Hot Five.
• Based on a tune written by Lillian Hardin
Armstrong, who was Armstrong’s wife
and the pianist of the band.
• The emphasis is on improvisatory solos,
based on the harmonic structure of the
32-bar tune Hotter Than That
 FEATURED STYLES
-NEW ORLEANS STYLE-
• At the middle and end of each chorus
there is a brief unaccompanied solo, a
break.
• Armstrong’s vocal melody( chorus 3),
the call and response between voice
and guitar in the interlude following
chorus 3, and the dissonant guitar chord
that gives Hotter Than That an
unusual, inconclusive ending.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING
• A new jazz style called Swing
developed in the 1920’s and flourished
from 1935 to 1945, a decade nicknamed
the “ swing era”.
• It was played mainly by big bands,
whose powerful sound could fill the
large dance halls and ballrooms that
mushroomed across the country,
particularly after the prohibition in 1933.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING
• Syncopation and rhythmic swing are two of
the most distinctive features of jazz.
• We say that jazz performers SWING when
they combine a steady beat with a feeling of
lilt, precision, and relaxed vitality.
• They are usually four beats to the bar.
• Accents often come on the weak beats: 1-2-
3-4.
• Many kinds of syncopated rhythms result
when accented notes come between the
beats.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING
• The typical Swing band had about fourteen
or fifteen musicians grouped into three
sections: saxophones ( three to five players,
some doubling on clarinet), Brass
instruments ( three or four each of trumpet
and trombone), and rhythm (piano,
percussion, guitar, and bass).
• A band of this size needed music that was
more composed than improvised and was
also arranged, or notated in written-out
parts for each musician to read.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING
• In a swing band, melodies were often
performed by entire sections, either in unison or
in harmony.
• The main melody was frequently accompanied
by a saxophones playing sustained chords, or
by saxophones and brass instruments playing
short, repeated phrases called riffs.
• Arrangers often used a rapid alternation of brass
an sax riffs to create tension and excitement.
• Each band took pride in the distinctiveness of
its sound, which it owed to its arrangers as well
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING-
• There were hundreds of “name” bands-
both black and white like of Duke
Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller,
Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman “
King of Swing”.
• Some bands includes leading musicians
as the saxophonist and singers.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING-
• Swing became a truly popular music,
reaching millions of people.
• Benny Goodman- The king of Swing
• Benny Goodman’s band, for example ,was
heard coast to coast on a weekly radio show
called Let’s Dance. The kind of music once
associated with honky-tonks and brothels
had achieved a new respectability,
symbolized by Benny Goodman’s historic
jazz concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING-
• Brings the “swing
beat” national
attention in 1935.
• Played the
Clarinet
• Nicknamed “King
of Swing”
• Benny Goodman
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING-
• Edward Kennedy “ Duke Ellington” was
perhaps the most important swing-band
composer, arranger, and conductor; he
certainly ranks among the leading
figures in the history of jazz.
• Ellington’s music- sometimes created in
collaboration with his arranger Billy
Strayhorn-is a product of constant
experimentation and improvisation.
 FEATURED STYLES
-SWING-
• Edward Kennedy “ Duke Ellington” was
perhaps the most important swing-band
composer, arranger, and conductor; he
certainly ranks among the leading
figures in the history of jazz.
• Ellington’s works are richer in harmony
and more varied in form than those of his
contemporaries
• Koko, Harlem Air Shaft, In a Mellotone
(collection of classic jazz)
 FEATURED STYLES
-BEBOP or BOP
• a complex style of music usually for small
jazz groups consisting of four to six
players.
• In part, Bebop was a rebellion by creative
improvisers against the commercialism
and written arrangements of swing bands.
• For attentive listening, not dancing and its
sophisticated harmonies and
unpredictable rhythms/difficult to play
bewildered many listeners.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BEBOP-
• Designed for improvisation
• Rarely written down
• Named for one of the non-sense
words from scatting.
• Bebop performers also
differentiated themselves by their
goatees, berets, and special “hip”
language.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BEBOP-
• The bebop center during the early
1940’s was a club in Harlem called
Minton’s Playhouse, where young
innovators- like the alto saxophonist
Charlie Parker, the Trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie (1917-1993), and the pianist
Thelonious Monk ( 1917- 1982)- came
to participate in jam sessions.
 FEATURED STYLES
-BEBOP-
Charlie Parker
-towering figure among bebop musicians
and one of the greatest of all jazz
improvisers.
-became prominent musician despite
severe personal problems, including drug
addiction, alcoholism, ulcers, and
emotional illness.
-1950, his playing declined
 FEATURED STYLES
-BEBOP-

Koko (1945) , by Charlie Parker

- Improvisatory genius are both illustrated

-based the melody on the harmonies of
the popular song Cherokee (1938), a big-
band standard in the swing era.
 FEATURED STYLES
Jazz Styles since 1950
• Since 1950, there has been an
expansion in the musical resources
used in jazz.
• New meters, rhythms, harmonies,
forms and tone color has been
explored.
1. Cool Jazz
2. Free Jazz
3. Jazz Rock
 FEATURED STYLES
-Cool Jazz-

• A jazz style emerged that was related

to bop but was far calmer and more
relaxed in Character.
• Contrast to the “hot” jazz
• Longer than bebop
 FEATURED STYLES
-Cool Jazz-
• Lester Young - leader of cool jazz
movement and Stan Getz: Tenor
Saxophonist
• Lennie Tristano- pianist
• Miles Davis- a trumpeter and
bandleader who started out as a bebop
musician and was also an important
figure in jazz throughout the 1960’s.
 FEATURED STYLES
-Cool Jazz-
• Boblicity- finest works in cool jazz
- by Miles Davis and the
arranger Gil Evans (included in
The Smithsonian Collection of
Classic Jazz.
• Scored for unusual ensemble of nine different
instruments: trumpet, trombone, French horn,
tuba, alto and baritone saxophones, piano,
bass and drums.
 FEATURED STYLES
-Cool Jazz-
• used instruments that were new to jazz;
Oboe, French Horn, Flute, and cello
• The smooth, mellow, blended sound of
this ensemble is typical of cool jazz.

Boblicity 1949, by Miles Davis

 FEATURED STYLES
-Cool Jazz-
Oboe French Horn
 FEATURED STYLES
-Free Jazz-
• Style that was not based on regular forms
or established chord patterns.
• Ornette Coleman- An alto Saxophonist and
major composer of free jazz
• Coleman assembled eight musicians to
improvise individually and collectively with
almost no guidelines of melody, form, or
harmony.
• Compared to chance music- John Cage
 FEATURED STYLES
-Free Jazz-
• One example is Lonely Woman, included in
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
• Coleman develops melodic and rhythmic
ideas from the theme.
• In many of his performances, a steady beat
and tempo are emphasized much less than
in earlier jazz, and his bass and percussion
players are given more melodic and
rhythmic freedom.
 FEATURED STYLES
-Free Jazz-
• John Coltrane- another musician searching
for rhythmic and harmonic freedom during
the 1960’s
-extremely influential as an improviser,
tenor and soprano saxophonist, and
composer.
-A Love Supreme- his work with back-
ground of 2-3 chords
 FEATURED STYLES
-Jazz Rock (fusion)
• Combining the jazz musician’s improvisatory
approach with rock rhythms and tone colors.
• Includes acoustic wind and brass
instruments along synthesizers and electric
piano, guitar, and bass.
• The percussion is larger than the earlier
jazz.
• Features of jazz rock are the melodic role of
the electric bass and the insistent repetition
of rhythmic figures.
 FEATURED STYLES
-Jazz Rock (fusion)

• A major figure in the development of fushion

was the trumpeter Miles Davis, whose
album of 1969 In a Silent Way and Bitches
Brew pointed the way to much of the music
of the next decade.
• Miles Runs the Voodoo Down- is from the Miles
Davis album Bitches Brew, one of the early
milestones of jazz jock (fushion).
 Contemporary Jazz
1990-Today
• Main reasons is selling records
• Many styles of the past are still
being played today.
• The future of jazz is worked out right
now
 Important Facts
• 1913 James Reese Europe records
ragtime with first all black ensemble.

• 1917 Original Dixieland Jazz Band

records first jazz record.

• Miles Davis would change the face of

jazz 3 different times (Cool, Hard Bop,
Fusion).

• 1935 Microphone is invented

 Important Facts
• 1913 James Reese Europe records
ragtime with first all black ensemble.

• 1917 Original Dixieland Jazz Band

records first jazz record.

• Miles Davis would change the face of

jazz 3 different times (Cool, Hard Bop,
Fusion).

• 1935 Microphone is invented

 Important Facts
• The invention of RCA Victor Talking
Machine
 Miles Davis

James Reese Europe

Ella Fitzgerald
 John Coltrane Jelly Roll Morton
Billie Holiday

Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Kid Ory
THE END…..

The reporter
THANK
YOU
VERY
MUCH!
Lanie T.
Baday