American
Jazz Music
Considered by many to be the single most important art form
to come out of the United States, jazz has spread across the
world from its birthplace in New Orleans, Louisiana. With complex
harmonies, focus on improvisation, and syncopated melodies-all
held together by high aesthetic ideals-it's not hard to understand
why. Through a more than 100-year history, jazz has passed through
many eras and had many superstars. And though they never quite
rivaled rock, country, and other popular musicians in the public
eye, jazz musicians took American music places it had never
been before.
Early History: The 1920s and Before
Jazz was born in the melting pot that was New Orleans in the
1800s, where African Americans, European Americans, French,
Spanish, English, and Native Americans mingled and mixed. The
culture of the city absorbed elements from each of these groups,
and one place this is immediately obvious is music. Musicians
of all colors played together and shared their styles, whether
the syncopated, call-and-response spiritual and blues styles
of Africans and African Americans, or the chordal harmonies
of Europeans' marches and hymns.
One of the first styles to rise to the top of this stew was
ragtime. Ragtime drew upon European marches and salon music,
but also from the syncopation and "blue" notes (flattened-scale
degrees) of African Americans. Scott Joplin codified the style
in such classics as "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer."
Early jazz musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong
got their start playing ragtime.
The early prototypes for jazz bands were European military bands.
Early jazz groups included instruments such as the clarinet,
trumpet, trombone, tuba, and drums, as well as non-band instruments
like the banjo, guitar, and piano. Something that set early
jazz apart was improvisation-either solo or as a group. This
is immediately apparent in the "hot jazz" of groups led by Kid
Ory and Joe "King" Oliver. One musician discovered by Oliver
went on to be the great jazz musician of the era, and arguably
of all time-cornettist Louis Armstrong. Swing, the lilting,
uneven feel of many jazz rhythms, is one of the more critical
elements to the jazz sound.
Swing (Big Band): 1930s to 1945
Swing, or big band jazz, developed in the late 1920s out of
the ensembles of hot jazz. These ensembles became large orchestras,
with two or more of many instruments and meticulously arranged
pieces. Bandleaders like Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher
Henderson, and Count Basie conducted groups of twenty or more
musicians. With its dance-driving rhythms, big sound, and wonderful
solo improvisation, swing quickly became the most popular music
in the United States. Jazz singers, like Billie Holiday and
Sara Vaughan, came on to the scene as well and became huge stars
with their beautiful voices and ability to scat, or vocally
improvise.
Bebop: 1940s to 1950s
Around the years of World War II, there was a real split in
the jazz community between those who adhered to swing and those
who advocated a new style called bebop. Bebop featured a scaled-down
ensemble-often with only 3 or 4 musicians-and the focus was
on the music, not necessarily on performance. Bebop was fast,
both melodically and harmonically, so that notes and chords
flew by so fast untrained listeners had difficulty keeping up.
Improvisation happened at breakneck speed, so virtuosity required
both incredible chops and intimate knowledge of the song form.
Saxophonists Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, cornettist Dizzie
Gillespie, trumpeter Miles Davis, and pianist Thelonius Monk
were a few of the important names from this period.
Cool Jazz: 1950s
Cool jazz, led by Miles Davis, followed bebop in the 1950s.
Like bebop, it featured a small ensemble, but with much slower
tempos the emphasis was on timbre and tone color. On the classic
Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, the sparse arrangements
leave room for the soloist to focus on the sound of his instrument
in ways not explored before in jazz. Hard bop, an extension
of bebop, incorporated influences from R & B (rhythm and blues)
and gospel and tried to be more accessible to audiences.
Free Jazz: 1960s
Following a decade of bebop and cool jazz, saxophonist Ornette
Coleman led a revolt of sorts in the form of "free" or "avant-garde"
jazz. Tied in part to the cultural change of the 1960s that
emphasized freedom, Coleman and others looked for more freedom
in music and moved away from rigid rules of harmony, melody,
and rhythm. In performance, the music could sound like one lengthy
improvisation, and musicians needed to listen closely to one
another to keep the music moving. Free jazz was not completely
without structure, as Coleman and others often wrote melodic
material with which to provide a kind of skeleton for the performance.
Opinion in the jazz world was mixed on this new jazz form, though
it did influence jazz musicians and styles to come.
Jazz Fusion: 1970s
Beginning in the 1970s, many jazz musicians began to look outside
of jazz for inspiration to such styles as rock, classical, and
world music. Pianists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, Miles
Davis, bassist Jaco Pastorius, and guitarist John McLaughlin
all began to mix other styles and instrumentations into their
performances and recordings in a new style that came to known
as jazz fusion. Instruments like the electric guitar, electric
bass, and synthesizer all featured prominently in this style.
Today
The jazz world today is a wide-open playing field that features
musicians and groups playing every style of jazz. Experiments
in fusion continue, such as Herbie Hancock's forays into hip-hop,
but there are many traditional jazz musicians exploring the
endless possibilities of the traditional jazz form.
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