Jazz

Jazz

1. What Is Jazz and where did it come from?

   • ~Jazz is a type of music that developed in the USA in the early 20th century. Its a fusion of African and European traditions that came from the music of the newly-freed slaves.
   • It started off as Dixieland Jazz in New Orleans in the early 1900's
   • In 1920, Jazz spread to Chicago. It was the era of of the prohibition (alcohol was banned). Illegal bars often had jazz bands playing and so jazz started getting a bad reputation.
   • In the 1930's and 40's swing music became popular and from there developed into bebop which included lots of improvisation and complex harmonies.

2. Dixieland Jazz

   • Dixieland Jazz came from New Orleans at the start of the 20th century.
   • It is a mixture of brass band marches, ragtime and blues.
   • It was performed at brothels and bars - these were the only places black musicians were allowed to perform due to segregation.
   • The tune would be shared between a few different instruments, mainly trumpet trombone and clarinet. It's POLYPHONIC.
     • An example of this is the 'Basin Street Blues', made in 1928 by Louis Armstrong. He performed each verse differently, one verse being a simple tune and the others - improvisations of it. The band also copies him in a call and response section, through musical dialogue.

3. Instruments

   • Trumpet, Trombone, Clarinet, Saxophones on the front row play improvised solos.
   • Piano, Guitar, Drums and a Double Bass in the rhythm section
   • Big Bands are made up of Saxophones, Trumpets, Trombones and a rhythm section. The Sax section has Alto, Tenor and baritone Saxophones and sometimes clarinets. Some Big Bands have a singer too.
   • A typical Big Band would have 5 Saxophones, 4 Trumpets, 4 Trombones, and a 4 piece rhythm section. (Piano, Bass, Guitar, and Drums)

4. How Is Jazz played?

   • Early Jazz was based on a 12 bar blues - a 12 bar chord sequence that is still used today in some pop songs
   • The Chords were played by the rhythm section and the front row would improvise over them.
   • Jazz musicians use call and response and blue notes -key features of Jazz and blues. Blue notes are flattened 3rds, 7ths and sometimes 5ths of a major scale.

5. Improvisation

   • Improvisation is when a soloist makes up music on the spot.
   • If a band is playing 12 bar blues, the soloist knows which notes fit over the chords.
   • The improvised nature of Jazz means the same piece can be played in different ways - depending on the interpretation of it.
   • Some jazz singers use scat- a type of improvised singing with nonsense words and syllables.

6. How was Jazz taught?

   • In early Jazz, the music wasn't written down.
   • There was lots of interaction between the soloist and the band like call and response - the soloist would play a phrase and the band would answer it.
   • The Band would follow the band leader, like Louis Armstrong for example.