Jazz - created from Mind Map

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What Is Jazz and where did it come from?

Dixieland Jazz

Instruments

How Is Jazz played?

Improvisation

How was Jazz taught?

~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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.