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Introduction.........................................................5 1. The Roots of Jazz..................................................7 2. Early Jazz...........................................................13 3. The Swing Era....................................................17 4. The Bebop Era....................................................23 5. Fifties and Sixties Jazz.......................................27 6. Modern Jazz......................................................31
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Many definitions for the style of music, “jazz” have failed for being too restrictive or too inclusive. When asked to define jazz, the icon Louis Armstrong supposedly replied, “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.” Although jazz exists in a wide variety of styles, it is frequently defined as having complex syncopated rhythms and deliberate distortions of sound by instruments including the trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, bass, piano, and drum set.
Jazz’s most defining feature is that its partly planned and partly spontaneous. During improvisation, musicians play “in the moment,” inventing their own unique phrases in response to the music played before them. Improvisation in jazz is raw-- it not only expresses the impulsive musical and emotional drives of the musician at the exact moment of performance, but creates a musical dialogue between each player-- an ongoing, spur-of-the-moment conversation. Because jazz is so complex and ever changing, it may not appeal to every person in its every form. Jazz listeners can learn to appreciate the genre’s wide-range, yet often, through many hours exploring the genre, discover their own favorite style of jazz. Even those new to jazz will find a style among the many they admire most.
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Jazz, although essentially American-made, originates from African and European musical traditions.
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Despite the fact that we consider jazz such a wide-ranging American genre today, its origins can be traced back to two cultures: African and European. What makes jazz so unique is that it is essentially a blend of certain elements from each culture’s musical traditions. African music came to America as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century when Africans were forcefully uprooted and brought to the New World to become slaves. On large Southern plantations, African Americans sought to preserve their heritage by continuing their African musical traditions. Their music had significant social and religious functions, raising the spirit and creating a bond
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between the slave families as they worked endlessly in fields. Because they could not easily write their music down, it was passed orally and could be improvised slightly from person to person-- a feature which would become prominent in jazz music. Their music also consisted of other jazz-like elements, including syncopation (unexpected emphasis on weaker notes within a melody), a dominating presence of percussion that keeps a steady pulse throughout a song, and a practice of call-andresponse (a procedure in which one voice sings a line and a group of voices follow in response).
Eventually, music rooted in African tradition began to take on European traditions, particularly in the form of instrumentation. The instruments of early jazz were nearly all European, including the front line instruments such as trumpets and clarinets which played a song’s melody, and rhythm instruments such as the piano, string bass, or drums. Despite the fact that rhythm was an essential part of African music, the instruments that make up the jazz drum set originate from the typical European marching band. Early jazz also consisted of European form, or basic layout of the music, particularly in having symmetrical sections of music that eventually come to a harmonic closure.
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As many African Americans converted to Christianity in the late 1700s, African American music in the form of hymns and spirituals developed in churches. Many religious songs came to use blue notes, or pitches that are slightly lower or flatter than the notes in the natural scale. After the Emancipation of slavery, African Americans used blues music as a means of expressing not only their sadness and uncertainty when reflecting on their history, but also their new optimism as free citizens at last. In the 1890s, a new style of music associated with black piano players known as “Ragtime” gained nationwide popularity. It was the first time a specifically black musical genre had dominated American culture. At the center of ragtime’s popularity was the composer Scott Joplin, who wrote hit songs such as “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer.” Another composer, Irving Berlin, although not strictly a ragtime songwriter, wrote other popular songs incorporating ragtime style such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Although ragtime consisted of straighter rhythms and less improvisation, over time the style incorporated more syncopation and other elements were added to until ragtime was ransformed into a form of early jazz.
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Bessie Smith
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The 1920s saw rise to an spread of the blues, particularly out of areas in Mississippi and Texas, where the earliest recordings of the blues were made. The most famous of these recordings featured the singer, Bessie Smith, a young woman whose rich and powerful voice used loose phrasing, slight delays, and embellishments to give a “free” style to songs such as “Down-Hearted Blues” or “Gulf Coast Blues.” After the 1920s, the rise of the blues and the decline of ragtime led to the breakthrough of jazz as the preeminent musical genre in the United States for the next two decades.
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Jazz became the United States’ mainstream musical genre in the 1920s, emerging from cities such as New Orleans, Chicago, and New York.
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Jazz became mainstream music in the early 1920s and was supposedly born out of the city of New Orleans. Pioneers in the genre, both black and white, developed a style unique to New Orleans called “Dixieland jazz,” characterized by elements such as a driving rhythm and features of collective improvisation-- a moment in a piece when all members of a band improvise simultaneously. Many New Orleans groups and individuals became nationally popular, such as “King” Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and pianist and composer-arranger “Jelly Roll” Morton. One New Orleans musician, a student of King Oliver, would become one of the most well known jazz figures of all time: cornetist Louis Armstrong. Although Armstrong played in many groups throughout his life, he also held a long-lasting solo career playing the cornet and singing and became an internationally famous entertainer, even appearing in Hollywood films, protesting
segregation during the civil rights movement, and becoming a U.S. ambassador during the Cold War. He is well known for his unique style and supreme talent, particularly his three-octave range, terminal vibrato, or or a vibrating “movement” of tone at the end of a sustained note, and ingenious improvisational ability. Armstrong held a Top 10 record every decade from 1920s to the 1960s, including records for early songs such as “Ain’t Misbehavin,’” and later hits such as “Hello, Dolly”. As sound recording technology improved in quality, jazz was more frequently recorded. In 1917, what is considered the first jazz record was produced with white cornetist Nick LaRocca, and his group the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The recording helped increase the band’s popularity so much so that the group may have been considered the first musical celebrities, covered by the media and idolized by fans.
Louis Armstrong
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“King” Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band
Jazz also grew out of Chicago, home to another famous cornet player, Bix Beiderbecke, and New York, the location of the Harlem Renaissance-- a period of artistic activity among African Americans. New York also saw the rise of an early jazz style known as stride piano, an energized and more bluesy type of ragtime made famous by the talents of pianists, “Fats” Waller and Art Tatum. Several white musicians and composers also contributed to the jazz genre, including Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin. Both men composed jazz that was suitable for performance in a concert hall. Eventually, jazz performance evolved from small band groups of five to seven players to larger groups known as “Big Bands” featuring sections of each instrument type. Although it is debated when or where Big Bands originally developed, Fletcher Henderson is considered one of the first big band leaders, followed by Duke Ellington, who developed a unique group that performed for many years at Harlem’s Cotton Club. These early bands acted as segways towards the next era of jazz, the Swing Era.
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From 1935 to 1945, America’s most popular music was swing-characterized by Big Bands and their exceptional bandleaders.
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From about 1935 to 1945, the style of swing jazz dominated popular music across the United States. In the 1930s, more people had greater access to music due to the increasing affordability of radios and the film industry’s increasing production of “talking pictures.� This new style saw the rise of Big Bands-- ensemble groups using several musicians in each of four instrumental sections: trumpets, trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and other reed instruments, and a rhythm section, including piano, guitar, bass, and drums. It was important that the members of the band blended well together while individual musicians shone during their improvised solo sections. The role of rhythm section transformed during the Swing Era, particularly
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in the bass, which provided a rhythmic underpinning for a piece, and in the drum set, which expanded to include a hi-hat-- two symbols stacked face-to-face. Big Bands played in large halls where listeners could dance the lindy hop and other dance styles to the up-tempo numbers. The most popular of these large ensembles played hits and frequently would compete against each other to create unique arrangements of the same songs. While many bands, both black and white, contributed to the swing era, the bands of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington are perhaps three of the most important bands of the era.
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Duke Ellington, one of the world’s most distinguished jazz artists and recipient of numerous honors, held a long career in jazz writing original songs and arranging compositions. After playing for years in the Cotton Club in New York, Ellington toured the world and performed in Carnegie Hall, playing with his exceptional band songs that have become jazz standards, including one of their themes, “Take the ‘A’ Train.
Benny Goodman Orchestra
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Count Basie Orchestra
Basie’s band, formed in 1935 and held together until Basie’s death in 1984, gained a reputation for being able to play swing with an incredible drive that was propelled by Basie’s unique solos at the piano. Benny Goodman, the so-called “King of Swing” and hardworking perfectionist, formed the first important big band featuring both black and white performers that performed live. He played for the radio series, Let’s Dance in 1934 and found that by playing his “hotter,” more upbeat songs later in the evening, he could reach listeners on the West Coast while maintaining his East Coast listeners. Goodman set the jazz clarinet style in the swing era, so much so that the clarinet lost its popularity in jazz after his tough act to follow. The Swing Era also saw the rise of artists admired for their superior skills in their instrument, such as Jack Teargarden on the trombone and Roy Eldridge on the trumpet. Vocalist Billie Holiday became one of the most celebrated performers for her sense of back phrasing-- intentional delays of note entrances-- and pitch. Despite her difficult personal life, Holiday managed to perform with many jazz groups and recordings, excelling in dark, somber ballads. Although the style of swing persevered for many years, a new style vastly different, Bebop, would come to replace swing in the mid-1940s.
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Jack Teargarden
Roy Eldridge
Billie Holiday
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In the mid-1940s, jazz evolved into a new style and moved jazz performance from large dance halls to smaller, more intimate jazz clubs.
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What we consider today as the “modern jazz” era began in the mid-1940s with bebop- a style that greatly contrasts swing and essentially rejects many of swing’s conventions. Bebop is characterized by “heads,” or original melodies played in the beginning of a song and repeated again at the end, and reharmonization, or insertion of different chords into a standard composition to allow for more improvisation opportunities. Bebop musicians played in smaller groups performing in jazz clubs rather than dance halls, placing a general de-emphasis on dancing due to the style’s less articulated rhythmic pulse. Because bebop groups and musicians played more frequently in smaller venues and for listening purposes, bebop also featured less emphasis on commercial success. Although it excited newer, younger musicians, it confused and offended many older musicians who could not comprehend the new direction of jazz. Charlie “Bird” Parker, considered one of the greatest saxophonists in jazz, has an influence on the genre similar to that of Louis Armstrong. As a young man in New York, Parker developed his sophisticated style of expeditious runs and harmonic sense and eventually began recording professionally in Kansas. He eventually returned to New York to perform in underground jam sessions, worked closely with another musician, “Dizzy” Gillespie, and gained wide acclaim for his performances that demonstrated what would become trademarks of the bebop style, particularly his performances at the jazz club in New York named for him, Birdland. Although his continuous substance abuse and poor life choices unfortunately led to an early death at thirty-four years old, Parker was able to leave a lasting legacy.
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Charlie “Bird” Parker
“Dizzy” Gillespie
The musician, composer, and arranger, “Dizzy” Gillespie gained considerable popularity while working with Parker, although they eventually split. While developing his unique improvisational technique on the trumpet, Gillespie also wrote several jazz standards such as “Groovin’ High” and “A Night in Tunisia,” a song that incorporated new, Latinstyle rhythms. His “hipster” stage persona combined with his contributions to bebop made him one of the more commercial performers of the era. Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk brought the bebop techniques of Parker and Gillespie to the piano. Powell, known for his fiery personality and quick lines in his right hand, made him one of the founders of modern piano jazz, while Monk developed a style that many considered strange and filled with awkward silences and dissonant, clashing pitches. Monk wrote several ballads such as “‘Round Midnight” that introduced listeners to a minimalist quality that would become increasingly popular in Thelonious Monk
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In 1950s and 60s, jazz branched off into several different styles, including cool jazz, hard bop, and avant-garde.
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In the 1950s, it became necessary for one speaking of jazz to specify which kind, as jazz had come to develop many new branches. After the transformation of jazz to the bebop style in the 1940s, 1950s jazz musicians embraced a philosophy that jazz as a genre was continuously evolving. Two new trends, cool jazz and hard bop (or funky jazz) were associated with several progressive musicians. Miles Davis, a trumpeter who produced a series of recordings which would later be released in a collection known as Birth of the Cool was one of the most influential artists in the style of cool jazz. He used elements such as restraint, space between notes, lyricism, and focus in the middle register to develop the style. Eventually Miles Davis also came to have a strong influence in other styles over four decades- testing out
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hard bop, fusion jazz, and modern jazz up to the 1980s. Despite his struggle with a heroin addiction and a reputation for being uncooperative, Davis became a sort of a cult figure and led the way for further exploration in many jazz areas. The 1950s was a significant decade for jazz vocalists who characterized in styles containing loose phrasing, blues inflections, and back phrasing. Ella Fitzgerald, another jazz artist with a decades-long career, had an extraordinary range of pitch and a talent in scat singing that led her to work with many other influential jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, and Louis Armstrong. Sarah Williams, Joe Williams, and Frank Sinatra also dominated the vocal scene in 1950s jazz.
Miles Davis
John Coltrane Quartet
The 1960s gave rise to jazz known as avant-garde, a style controversial for its rejection of traditional jazz aspects besides the use of improvisation. Avantgarde or “free� jazz frequently abandoned a steady pulse or a harmonic structure, allowed rhythm instruments to partake in collective improvisation rather than keep a beat, and incorporated new and unusual instrumental sounds, such as wails and shrieks. Alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman helped the new type of jazz become noticed, despite his music’s initial unpopularity due to its lack of harmonic accompaniment by an instrument such as the piano. John Coltrane also contributed to free jazz, developing the use of a modern jazz quartet. Avant-garde also had an impact on the 1960s civil rights movement, promoting black activism through the performances of Archie Shepp, Max Roach, and other musicians.
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Jazz today esists in many different styles, although modern some modern jazz musicians have chose to return to traditional jazz.
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After the 1960s, jazz further developed through the incorporation of other musical elements such rock, soul, and funk. The new and modern jazz-rock and jazz-funk styles were characterized by simpler progressions and especially the use of electric and electronic instruments, such as the electric bass, piano, guitar, and synthesizers, and of electronic effects. As electronic equipment was developed and became less expensive in the 1970s, it became easier to use and was more frequently included. Popular jazz-rock groups including the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Weather Report emerged in the early seventies and gained a great deal of commercial success. The commercialization of fusion jazz, although beneficial for the groups, was detrimental to the genre, as record companies began to place greater amounts of pressure on musicians for catchy yet simple, sellable music.
High School Band at the Essentially Ellington Competition
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Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition
The 1980s saw a return to classic jazz and its elements before the bebop era. Jazz traditionalist Wynton Marsalis incorporated early jazz elements into his original songs in the late 1980s and 1990s, seeking inspiration from the talents of Duke Ellington. Musicians after the 1980s began to perform again older jazz standards and to produce compilation compact discs of older jazz artists. Jazz pedagogy, or the teaching of jazz and jazz improvisation, also began to grow as a part of musical curriculum in colleges and music programs, with newly published books containing practice methods to accompany it. Several jazz band competitions are now held each year, such as the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition. Jazz has also transformed while adjusting to new technologies and ideas. Radio stations featuring jazz have enabled jazz to reach an almostpop status and have contributed to the genre’s entrance into the mass market of music.
Wynton Marsalis
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Marion McPartland
Modern jazz has seen a greater participation of women-- a change in a genre that, throughout its history, has been dominated by men. One female jazz pianist, Marion McPartland, held a jazz radio show on National Public Radio for nearly 40 years until her death in 2013. Although jazz is not as prominent in mainstream music as it was about fifty years ago, as a genre, it has not yet disappeared altogether. Jazz elements are continuously emerging in music of other genres, including pop, rhythm and blues, rap, rock and electronic rock. As indicated in its history, jazz as a genre is constantly evolving and expanding into new styles. Likely, it will continue to transform in the future.
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