Jazz Music: A History of Its Evolution and Influential Artists, Lecture notes of World Music

Download Jazz Music: A History of Its Evolution and Influential Artists and more Lecture notes World Music in PDF only on Docsity! Jazz is a music genre that started in the early 1900's or earlier, within the African-American communities of the Southern United States. It combines African rhythms and European harmony to create a new African American art form. It combines blues, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and dance. Jazz also has elements from popular music especially, in its early days, from American popular music. As the music developed and spread around the world it has split into many styles: New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s on down through Afro-Cuban jazz, West Coast jazz, ska jazz, cool jazz, avant-garde jazz, soul jazz, Latin jazz in various forms, smooth jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, jazz funk, acid jazz, and other ways of playing the music. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Armstrong defined what it was to play jazz. Like almost all early jazz musicians, Louis was from New Orleans. He was from a very poor family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve. He loved music and his favorite artist was Joe "King" Oliver. When he was older King Oliver gave him his first real cornet, and even gave him lessons. In 1922 Louis joined Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. His playing in the band soon made him very well known. By 1925 he formed his own band, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven. There recordings are considered jazz classics and are some of the greatest of all time. Louis Armstrong would record and play music for the rest of his life. His influence on jazz and American culture makes him one of the most important American artists ever. Miles Davis (1926-1991) is the most famous jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. His record debut came in 1946. Miles soon became a major figure of jazz. He changed the directions of jazz several times, recording albums such as "Birth Of The Cool" (1949) which started the cool-jazz era, "Milestones" (1953), "Kind Of Blue" (1959) which was the beginning of modal jazz, orchestral jazz masterpieces such as "Porgy And Bess" (1958) and "Sketches Of Spain" (1961)." He was the first jazz musician of the 1960's to use rock rhythms, and this changed both jazz and rock music forever. From the bebop jazz he first played with saxophonist Charlie Parker to the wah-wah sounds he played to keep up with Jimi Hendrix, Davis was one of the greatest musicians of all-time. Thelonious Monk (1917 – 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is one of the greatest jazz musicians in American music. Monk had a unique piano style and wrote many jazz standards, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, even though he only wrote about 70. His music has unusual harmonies and melodic twists. His style was not appreciated at first, but he is now thought to be one of the all time great figures in jazz. He was known for his unique style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also known to stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. He is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time, after Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Duke Ellington, and before Wynton Marsalis. Dave Brubeck (1920 –2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer best known for helping create cool jazz. He wrote a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck used many styles in his music, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. His music is known for using unusual time signatures over different rhythms, meters, and tonalities. His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, wrote the saxophone melody for the Dave Brubeck Quartet's best remembered piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic on one of the top-selling jazz albums, Time Out. He was also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and wrote soundtracks for television such as Mr. Broadway and the animated miniseries This Is America, Charlie Brown. Groundbreaking pianist, organist, composer and bandleader, Count Basie led one of the most successful bands in history. For 50 years the Count Basie Orchestra, an incredibly popular group of musicians who included players like Lester Young, Sweets Edison, Buck Clayton and Joe Williams, maintained a reputation of one of the most swingin’ and hardhittin’ bands in America. Winner of nine Grammy awards, Basie introduced multiple generations of listeners to the big band sound. He wrote numerous standards like “April in Paris” and “One O’Clock Jump,” which, for years, have been covered by countless other artists. Basie is also remembered by his colleagues as being considerate, modest, relaxed and enthusiastic. Without Basie’s crucial presence on the scene, popular and big band music would be drastically different, and undoubtedly less influential than it has become. “Lady Day” was perhaps the most exceptional popular music singer of the 20th century. She wrote few songs, but when she sang, she took on a deep, personal and intimate approach. Her vocal style and intonation was inspired greatly by the sound of the instruments she heard and was filled with a profound intensity. In that manner, she developed a new style, incorporating the manipulation of phrasing and tempo. Her recording of the song “Strange Fruit” is considered one of the most important songs in history, because of it’s powerful theme and topic, and because of Holiday’s powerful performance. She received multiple posthumous Grammy Hall of Fame awards and Grammy Best Historic Album awards for her work. Although her delivery may have been somewhat thin and her range fairly limited, there is no doubt that her voice was more powerful than any at the time could have hoped to be. Few can match the swingin’ sounds of Goodman’s Big Band. Benny Goodman, known as the “King of Swing,” led one of the most popular bands of the early 20th century. His 1938 concert at Carnegie hall is considered to be one of the most important live shows in American music history, as it showcased jazz’ coming to prominence as a respectable art form. Despite being a major player of big-band swing music, Goodman also helped the advancement of be-bop. Having a one of the first racially-integrated music groups and being a strong opposer of Jim Crow Laws, Goodman promoted racial-equality by not touring the Southern States. Goodman was both an important influence in popular and jazz music, as well as a prominent Civil Rights activist.