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A History of Jazz Music

The 1940s ~ Bebop and Cool Jazz

The 1920s ~ Dixieland and Big Band

The 1960s ~ Free Jazz

The 1800's ~ Ragtime

-Jazz music began its history in New Orleans as a mix of different types of music.

-A Dixieland jazz band typically includes a trumpet, clarinet, trombone and perhaps a saxophone.

-Rhythm section is made up of a piano, banjo, drums, bass or tuba.

-Sometimes performed without a singer, and much of it was improvised by the band.

Example: Louis Armstrong

-One of the first variations of jazz was ragtime

-Ragtime was evolved by black American musicians in the 1890s and it was played mostly on the piano. "ragtime is a style of syncopated piano music with a beat that feels like a march". Its roots are based in the southern states of the US.

-Example: Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”

-Bebop is a complex and unconventional style of jazz that came about in the 40s.

-Bebop groups were much smaller than swing bands, which allowed each musician more chances to solo.

-The music bebop musicians played was unconventional.

-It had inconsistent phrasing, complicated melodies and odd sounds making it nearly impossible to dance to and was best enjoyed by simply sitting and listening.

-It became known as intellectual jazz.

Example: Charlie Parker's "I've Got Rhythm"

-Free jazz mainly focuses on experimentation.

-In a free jazz ensemble, the musicians all improvise at once without any type of musical framework (no melody or chord) to structure them.

-The result is a kind of like “organized chaos”

-While prominent jazz musicians appreciated this difficult style, it never gained a wide public following, as it is challenging to follow for the untrained listener.

Example: Pharoah Sanders' "Farah"

1925

1945

1900

1800

1970

The 1900s ~ The Blues

The 1950s ~ Latin and Afro-Cuban Jazz

The 1930s ~ Swing

-Like ragtime, blues was also from African American hymns and work songs born in the South.

-Blues provided the foundation for jazz along with many more of today’s musical genres, including rock and roll, country music and rhythm and blues.

Blues contains strong, emotional vocals that are accompanied by a guitar, piano or harmonica.

-In some forms of blues the trumpet or a saxophone will mimic the expression of a singer’s voice.

Example: William Christopher Handy’s “St. Louis Blues”.

-This jazz is music infused with Latin and Afro-Cuban instruments and dance rhythms.

-Latin dances (such as the bossa nova, samba and mambo) became popular in the United States around this time as well.

-Bongos, congas, timbales and cowbells were all introduced to jazz music as well.

Example: Dizzy Gillespie's "Pensavito"

-Swing music came into the picture in the 1930s and 1940s during the Great Depression and World War II.

-The music was fast, lively and fun to dance to; "it kept America’s spirits high in the face of poverty and devastation".

-The radio brought swing music into many homes and became incredibly popular.

Example artists include Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday

Jazz Music

Over the years, jazz music has maintained the same elements, for example saxophones and trumpets and easy listening singers. However, over time the sound has changed. It had become less structured and more easy going as time went on for example, free jazz. There have been historic events such as the great depression and the second world war and jazz music was there for people to listen to help them cope with the difficult times it brought.

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