JAZZ

LOUIS 'SATCHMO' ARMSTRON

HISTORY OF JAZZ

The roots of jazz are a mixture of mainly West Africa rhythms, religious music, blues and work songs. The religious music featuring spirituals and improvised gospel songs. The blues with an influence from European cultures. The work songs were developed by black slaves on the cotton plantations. All these various kind of music melted into jazz eventually. That is why jazz music has so much feeling in it.

The history of jazz is fascinating and intriguing.

In the 19th century the black American still sang their songs and dance from back home, being homesick. However, they also were influenced by all other music around them which they heard from bands, circuses, theatres, cabarets and dance halls.

Jazz music is emotional, cerebral, foot-tapping, melodic, esoteric, harmonically rich, spontaneous, disciplined, hot and cool.

In the 20th century it became sophisticated and went into a huge range of styles. What started in the South and North America it is now played all over the world.

The main base in Jazz is the strong rhythms and the drummer maintains a steady beat. The saxophones, trumpets and other instruments play much variation. The melody is disrupted and delayed or accenting the beat which gives it the characteristic of a jazzy feels of the music.

The mixture of African and European scales gives jazz music special blue notes. This is achieved with flattened third and seventh degrees of an ordinary major scale. this sound gives it almost an 'Arabic' or 'eastern' characteristic.

The fascination about traditional jazz is the improvisation which means making music up as you go along. This improvisation is only played within certain musical rules and not randomly. Jazz improvisation is between random of notes and a special structure.

SIDNEY BECHET

FAMOUS JAZZ MUSICIANS

The New Orleans Jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet was of mixed race of French and African. Creoles often schooled in European music but also kept the African tradition.

Another famous jazz musician was Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong who changes jazz improvisation from being played by a number musician to a solo. He was the first popular musician and male jazz singer.

FATS WALLER

Fats Waller was a classical trained musician and he played ragtime music on his piano. Most known are 'Honeysuckle Rose' and 'Ain't Misbehavin'.

To begin with, Jazz was an instrumental music but later there became great Jazz-singers famous such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to name just two.

It is and can be played on a number and choice of instruments. However, the Jazz bands play an established selection. A rhythm section which consists of bass, piano and drums. Then there is a lead section of saxophones, trumpets and flutes. The front-line or lead plays the melody and sometimes plays solo. The rhythm section provides the background and enables the soloists to improvise.

RAGTIME
Towards the end of 19th century Jazz started to take on shape. In the South the black population having a traditional music of Africa and the European and American folk culture started to mix. The ragtime music started to be popular and played on pianos with a military style two- or four-time strictly. This was written down in a European classical tradition and played in jazz style.

JOE 'KING OLIVER 
DIXIELAND SYNOPADORS

DIXIE

New Orleans was the birthplace of the Dixie. Although it was another style of jazz which was influenced by the French and Spanish population. The New Orleans style became the first popular style of jazz. The marching rhythm played by drums, banjo and tuba or string-bass with the front-line instruments improvising. This improvising emphasises the New Orleans' jazz. Many musicians made their name with it; such as King Oliver's Dixieland Syncopators, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton.

Chicago was well-known for Jazz artists and Jazz musicians in the 1920 and New Orleans developed its own style.

In the 1930 bands became bigger and played songs and ballads to a wide audience. It was called swing style-rhythm which is four-to-the-bar beat. The music was arranged and written down. Famous swing bands were Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

CHARLES PARKER

By 1940 the musician started to move away from the middle-of-the-road swing bands. The alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Thelonius Monk started the bebop which gave plenty of chance to improvise. Many of the old jazz players rejected it but it developed into the modern jazz. In the nightclub 'Minton Playhouse' the jazz musicians were allowed free rein which helped them to develop their own style.

At the end of '40s the trumpeter Miles, Davis, pianist Billevans, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and bariton saxophonist Gerry Mulligan established the cool jazz.

In the '50s bebop players like John Coltrane, Horace Silver and Sonny Rollins began to improvise at a neck-breaking speed and it became known as the hard bop.

In the '60s free jazz became popular with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and double bassist Charles Mingus. The music ignored rules of rhythm and harmony and it sounded like a racket. John Coltans a talented, influential musicians exhilarated with the freedom.

In the '70s with the electric instruments and sythesizers jazz-rock was established and Mile Davies and Herbie Hancock became famous.

In the '80s the jazz fusion was developed by the Brecker Brothers, guitarists Pat Metheny and John Scofield.

With all due respect to these talented musicians but it never reaches the true sound of the jazz of the South in which there was a soul and heart in it. These people played from their heart and with instruments, mostly home-made, which have a warm sound; an electric instrument will never have.