Jazz

1. Jazz In the Beginning…..

2. Where Did it Begin? Why? Ideas were “thrown into a pot” and the result was JAZZ! Add slavery, European music notation, The American Civil War, the “call and response”, Christian Church practices and you get JAZZ!

3. Where Did it Begin? Why? • After the Civil War there was a multitude of brass band instruments and used for parades, dances, funerals, etc. • New Orleans holds the title of “Birthplace of Jazz.” • Playing music to and from the cemetery is a custom still in practice today. To honor the dead.

4. New Orleans It is probable that forms of jazz were popping up in other areas of the US by African-Americans but it was done the best in New Orleans. New Orleans gave blacks more freedom then in other parts of the U.S.

5. Ragtime • Known as “ragged time.” • Developed from the formal structures of marching music • Largely played by black pianists who mainly played in brothels of American cities. • Scott Joplin was Ragtimes “leading light.”

6. Scott Joplin • Born after the Civil War 1867 or 1868. He died in 1917. • King of Ragtime • Born in Texas but moved to St. Louis, MO • Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer • Suffered from syphillis and got dementia. • Music was “discovered” and used for the movie “The Hustler” in the 1970’s.

7. Buddy Bolden • Adapted the ragtime rhythm for his band • Credited with the beginning of Jazz • “Funky Butt” earliest use of funk

8. Early Jazz Names • King Oliver-cornet • Johnny Dodds-Clarinet • Jimmie Noone-clarinet • Sidney Bichet (creole)-soprano sax • Freddie Keppard-cornet • Buddie Pettit • Kid Ory- trombone • Jelly Roll Morton

9. Jelly Roll Morton • Most flamboyant and egotistical. The Little Richard of Jazz • Tapping out 4 to the bar • Creoles would “jazz” up rags and blues

10. Storyville/Congo Square • Storyville was the “red light” district of New Orleans and since it was where most piano players played in brothels. • The Dept. of The Navy closed down Storyville (illegally). • Congo Square was the center for blacks (slaves) on Sundays. Much music making occurred.

11. First Jazz Recording • Feb. 26, 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. • 5 white musicians led by cornet player Nick Larocca

12. Jazz In Society • The center of jazz has shifted from New Orleans to Chicago, Kansas City, and New York. • Today there isn’t a Jazz center and there are more sub genres of jazz, much like popular music today. • Jazz has changed with the times…dance bands to concerts. • Today you can go to the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

13. Blues • Vocal and instrumental music. • Blues grew out of African American folk music…work songs, spirituals • Blues music is intensely personal. • Twelve bar blues. 3 basic chord tones I IV and V

14. Jazz Styles • 6 Styles

15. New Orleans Style • Developed in New Orleans • Dixieland • Improvisation by all members of band • Cornet, clarinet, trombone, drummer, piano, banjo or guitar.

16. Dixieland Band

17. New Orleans Jazz • Based on a march or church melody…”O When The Saints Go Marching In.” • Solos are called “Breaks.” Gave the other musicians a break.

18. Louis Armstrong

19. Louis Armstrong • 1901 to 1971 New Orleans. • Born in one of the poorest sections of town. • His father abandoned Louis and his mother shortly after his birth. • His mother often turned to prostitution to support her and her son and often left Louis with his maternal grandmother. • Was arrested at the age of eleven on New years Eve for firing a gun. • Deemed a juvenile delinquent and placed in the Colored Waif’s Home

20. Armstrong • Louis learned how to play the cornet and fell in love with music. • At 17 he started playing in dive bars and this exposure got him to playing with various bands throughout New Orleans. He was quickly developing a good reputation. • He replaced the great Joe “King” Oliver in Kid Ory’s Band. • Armstrong adopted a 3 year old boy named Clarence whose mother died at childbirth. The boy was mentally disabled due to a head injury. Armstrong took care of him for his entire life.

21. Armstrong • Left New Orleans to join King Oliver’s Band in Chicago. • Louis was a trumpet virtuoso and was considered one of the top jazz trumpet players from the 1920’s until his death. • He had a small combo called “The Hot Five” and the “Hot Seven.” • Also was called to play in NY with the top big band, Fletcher Henderson. • Armstrong was THE jazz Ambassador all over the world and loved by all!

22. Jazz Tone Color • Backbone of Jazz is the Rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar and piano). Maintains the beat, adds rhythmic interest and supporting harmony. • Main solo instruments – trumpet, sax, piano, clarinet, vibes, trombone. • Specific tones used in jazz to give jazz a different “color.” • Bend notes, vibrato, scoops, falls, etc

23. Improvisation • This is the heart of Jazz! • Simultaneously create and perform at lightning speed. • Improvisation is usually a theme and a variation of the theme. • Some jazz improvisations are based on a harmonic pattern, repeated over and over again.

24. Swing • Developed in the 1920’s and flourished from 1935 to 1945. “Swing Era.” • Typical Swing Band had around 15 musicians. Sax, trombone, trumpet and rhythm section. • Melodies often performed by entire sections • Riffs – repeated phrases. • Produced hundreds of name bands

25. Fletcher Henderson • Born 1897. Died 1952 • The most prolific black composer and band leader • Born in Georgia, his father was the principal of a school. Henderson attended Atlanta University and went to Columbia University and majored in Chemistry (Masters degree). • His arrangements were used, not only for his band but also by, Paul Whiteman. • Louis Armstrong joined his band (1924) and Henderson’s arrangements became even better. • He joined up with Benny Goodman as an arranger and helped Benny become “The King of Swing.”

26. Fletcher Henderson

27. Duke Ellington • Duke Ellington was born April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C. A major figure in the history of jazz music, his career spanned more than half a century, during which time he composed thousands of songs for the stage, screen and contemporary songbook. He created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in Western music and continued to play what he called "American Music" until shortly before his death in 1974.

28. Duke Ellington • His parents were musically talented and middle class in Washington, D.C. • Attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY • He formed a band and found musicians with unique talent. Bubber Miley, who used a plunger to make the "wa-wa" sound, and Joe Nanton, who gave the world his trombone "growl." • It was Ellington's sense of musical drama that made him stand out. His blend of melodies, rhythms and subtle sonic movements gave audiences a new experience—complex yet accessible jazz that made the heart swing.

29. Ellington • At the age of 19, Ellington married Edna Thompson, who had been his girlfriend since high school, and soon after their marriage, she gave birth to their only child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington. • On May 24, 1974, at the age of 75, Duke Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia. His last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered." More than 12,000 people attended his funeral. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

30. Benny Goodman • For a kid who liked jazz, Chicago was a great town to grow up in. Musicians had begun working their way north from New Orleans about the turn of the century, and by the early 1920s giants like "Jellyroll" Morton, Sidney Bechet, "King" Oliver and Louis Armstrong were playing in Chicago and making history.

31. Benny Goodman • Started playing with the Ben Pollack Band at 16 years old. Prior to that he played in a band with the great trumpet player BixBiederbecke. • Goodman played with Pollack's band for the next four years. His earliest recording was made with Pollack, but he was also recording under his own name in Chicago and New York, where the band had migrated from the west coast. In 1929, when he was just 20, Benny struck out on his own to become a typical New York freelance musician, playing studio dates, leading a pit orchestra, making himself a seasoned professional.

32. Goodman • Benny heard that NBC was looking for three bands to rotate on a new Saturday night broadcast to be called "Let's Dance," a phrase that has been associated with the Goodman band ever since. One band on the show was to be sweet, one Latin, and the third hot. The Goodman band was hot enough to get the job, but not hot enough to satisfy Benny. He brought in Gene Krupa on drums. Fletcher Henderson began writing the arrangements - arrangements that still sound fresh more than a half century later. And the band rehearsed endlessly to achieve the precise tempos, section playing and phrasing that ushered in a new era in American music. There was only one word that could describe this band's style adequately: Swing.

33. Benny Goodman • On January 16, 1938, Sol Hurok, the most prestigious impresario in America, booked the Benny Goodman band into Carnegie Hall. For generations Carnegie Hall had been the nation's greatest temple of musical art, home of the New York Philharmonic and scene of every important artist's debut (even if they had played in a hundred other concert halls first). • So this was a debut not only for Benny Goodman but for jazz. Though many others followed him to Carnegie Hall, there has never been another concert with such an impact. It even made his "classical" Carnegie Hall debut more newsworthy a few years later when Benny returned there to launch his second career, as a soloist with major symphony orchestras and chamber groups.

34. Goodman • Benny Goodman was indisputably the King of Swing - the title was invented by Gene Krupa - and he reigned as such thereafter until his death in 1986 at age 77. Over the years he played with the greatest figures in jazz: Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Mildred Bailey, Bessie Smith and countless others. Many of those who played with him as sidemen later achieved fame as leaders of their own bands, as soloists, or even as movie or TV actors - Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton to name a few. A list of Benny's hits would fill a book.

35. Glen Miller • Born March 1, 1904 and Missing In Action December 15, 1944. • Moved to Colorado with parents and attended University at Colorado at Boulder • Played early on with Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman in shows in NYC. • Landed a trombone position with Ben Pollack’s Band • Was a trombonist and arranger for The Dorsey Brothers Band

36. Miller • His unique sound was by using a lead clarinet with 4 saxes. • "You'll notice today some bands use the same trick on every introduction; others repeat the same musical phrase as a modulation into a vocal ... We're fortunate in that our style doesn't limit us to stereotyped intros, modulations, first choruses, endings or even trick rhythms. The fifth sax, playing clarinet most of the time, lets you know whose band you're listening to. And that's about all there is to it."

37. Miller • In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Miller decided to join the war effort. At 38, Miller was too old to be drafted, and first volunteered for the Navy but was told that they did not need his services.[73] Miller then wrote to Army Brigadier General Charles Young. He persuaded the United States Army to accept him so he could, in his own words, "be placed In charge of a modernized Army band.“ • There are three theories about his disappearance and one that seems more likely is “shot down by friendly fire.”

38. Other Big Band Leaders and Musicians • Tommy/Jimmy Dorsey • Harry James • Lionel Hampton • Jimmy Lunceford • Bennie Moten • Chick Webb • Earl Hines • Cab Calloway • Woody Herman • Stan Kenton • Artie Shaw

39. The Big Band Singers • Frank Sinatra • Dick Haymes • Peggy Lee • Mel Torme • Sarah Vaughn • Ella Fitzgerald • Dinah Shore • Rosemary Clooney • Anita O’Day

40. Be Bop • “Bop is no love child of jazz. Bop is entirely separate and apart. It’s just music. It’s trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes.” – Charlie Parker • Radical overhaul of rhythm and harmony

41. Who Is Responsible? • Although most think it is Charlie Parker that originated Bebop more people can say it was Count Basie tenor sax player Lester Young. • Parker and Dizzy Gillespie though forever changed the sound of jazz in a manner never experienced before. • Following Dizzy and Bird was Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clark, Miles Davis and many others

42. Progressive Big Bands • After WWII the big band and swing became “what was,” and led to smaller combos. However some big bands headed another direction. • The reason to see a big band wasn’t dancing anymore, it was for the music. • Stan Kenton was determined to make jazz a concert setting. Kenton was followed by Woody Herman, Claude Thornhill, Maynard Ferguson and Buddy Rich. • Kenton introduced the mellophoniums to the big band

43. Chet Baker • Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornistand singer. In the 1950s, Baker earned much attention and critical praise, particularly for albums featuring his vocals, such as Chet Baker Sings. • Worked with Bird • West Coast Jazz influence.

44. Saved Jazz – Hard Bop • Art Blakey and His Jazz Messengers. • Dexter Gordon • Miles Davis • Horace Silver • Sonny Rollins • John Coltrane • Philly Jo Jones • Clifford Brown