Week 3:  Jazz

Jazz is a vast musical genre born in America. It developed from the rhythms and song styles used by African Americans.  West African polyrhythmic beats utilized syncopation (rhythms played together so that part or all of the music is "off-beat").  Combined with call and response vocals, a style called "blues" originated in the American South.  Traditional blues is characterized by a simple verse repeated 2 times, with a final verse that provides the resolution both lyrically and musically.  Another form of early jazz is called "ragtime".  Ragtime is generally energetic music that is made up of heavily syncopated rhythms. Because most blues is based on a simple 3 or 4 chord progression, it was very easy for musicians to make up new melodies and harmonies during performances (improvisation) using the notes in these chords.  "Boogie Woogie" is a style of jazz that mixed blues and ragtime, usually played with two or three pianos. Over time, syncopation became looser, leading to "swing", a style that holds some beats slightly longer than others and stresses the off-beat. "Bebop" emerged from ragtime as a fast-paced music with rapid chord changes and a lot of improvisation. "Cool" jazz emerged from blues as a slower, smooth, more melodic sound. "Modal" jazz is based on notes in the harmonic scale versus the chord.  "Free" jazz is music improvised without a time signature or formal adherence to beat.   Rhythms from sub-Saharan Africa came to America by way of the Carribean, adding an Afro-Cuban influence that later developed into "latin" jazz, and the music we know today as New Orleans jazz. Contemporary jazz combines all of these sounds and is still evolving into new expression.

• Scott Joplin (1867 -1917): Scott Joplin grew up in a musical family.  He is considered the "King of Ragtime", publishing dozens of ragtime hits, a ballet -and two operas. He considered ragtime a form of classical music. Listen: Mapleleaf Rag

• Charles "Buddy" Bolden (1877-1931): Buddy Bolden was a trumpet player from New Orleans.  He performed loose, improvisational jazz that combined ragtime with blues and played with ensembles that included orchestral brass and woodwind instruments.  Listen: Buddy Bolden's Blues

• Sidney Bechet (1887-1959): Sidney Bechet was a clarinetist, saxophonist and composer.  He was one of the first jazz musicians to record solo pieces.  He pioneered a style of saxophone playing that incorporated a wide vibrato (tone oscillation) that mimicked a human voice.  Listen: Blue Horizon

• Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939): Known as the "Mother of Blues", Ma Rainey was a singer who bridged earlier vaudeville tunes with southern blues. As a teen, she won a talent show that launched her career in minstrel shows and vaudeville.  Listen: Bo-Weavil Blues

• Louis Armstrong (1901-1971): A trumpeter and vocalist, Louis Armstrong is one of the best-known jazz artists of all time.  He is credited for shifting the focus of jazz music from ensemble to solo pieces and widening the audience for jazz. He was a great improv musician and introduced "skat" singing (improvising with the human voice).  Listen: Dinah

• Dolly Jones (1902-1975): Dolly Jones was the first trumpeter to record a jazz album.  She was a pioneer for female instrumentalists in the music industry.  Listen: Swing

• Glenn Miller (1904-1945):  Glenn Miller was a "big band" arranger, composer, conductor and trombonist.  He was a prominent artist in the swing jazz movement of the 1940s . He formed the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra that entertained troops during WW II. Listen: In the Mood

• Billie Holiday (1915-1959): Billie Holiday is a vocalist and  jazz icon.  She is most known for her skillful phrasing and the distinctive texture of her voice.  Listen: Blue Moon

• Frank Sinatra (1915-1998): Frank Sinatra is still the best-known entertainer and "crooner" in the world.  He pioneered a sentimental, laid-back vocal style that would become its own sub-genre of jazz singing.  Listen: New York, New York

• Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996): Nicknamed "The First Lady of Song", Ella Fitzgerald was a skilled song interpreter and vocal improv artist. She survived the Depression singing on the streets of Harlem, NYC, where she debuted in one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater (a famous venue for African American artists).  Listen: Summertime

• Nat King Cole (1919-1965): Nat King Cole was a jazz pianist, singer and civil rights activist.  His original group The King Cole Trio was thetop-selling (and only African American) group at Capitol Records in the 1940s.  Listen: Better to Be By Yourself

• Charlie Parker (1920-1955): A saxophonist, bandleader and composer, Charlier Parker played "bebop" jazz.  He introduced different sounding chords, fast-paced chord changes and musically sophisticated improvisation into jazz.  Listen: Now's the Time

• Charles Mingus (1922-1979): Charlie Mingus was an upright bass and piano player.  His compositions combined many forms of older jazz, hymns and classical music.  His music evokes emotional depth and challenges ideas of melody and harmony.  Listen: Jump Monk

• Miles Davis (1926-1991):  Miles Davis was a trumpet player, bandleader and composer.  He is known for experimenting with and pushing the limits of various styles of jazz, including cool and modal jazz.  Listen:  Kind of Blue

• John Coltrane (1926-1967): One of the most famous jazz musicians, John Coltrane was a saxophonist who pioneered the use of modes (music based on a scale versus a chord) in jazz and the "free" jazz style.  His music contains complex play with rhythms and meter, and improvisational variations on a melody.  Listen: In A Sentimental Mood

• Harry Belafonte (1927-2023): Harry Belafonte was a singer, actor and civil rights activist.  He is most known for his "Calypso" style music that celebrated his Afro-Jamaican heritage, but he got his start singing blues and jazz with Charlie Parker and his band. Harry Belafonte was instrumental in the civil rights movement, helping to organize the 1963 March on Washington, and supporting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family financially so that Dr. King could lead the movement. He also was instrumental in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and helped organize USA-Africa, an organization of musicians dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa. Listen: Matilda

• Herbie Hancock (b.1940): Herbie Hancock is a jazz pianist most known for revolutionizing the traditional rhythm section in a jazz band to include electronic sounds and synthesizers.  His music often blends different jazz styles. Listen: Man Child

• Pat Metheny (b.1954) Pat Metheny is a guitarist and jazz composer. He is most known for composing "fusion" jazz, a style that blends sounds from other musical genres with jazz improvisation, and Latin jazz. Listen: Better Days Ahead

• Wynton Marsalis (b.1961): Currently the Artistic Director of Lincoln Center Jazz in NYC, Wyton Marsalis is a trumpet player and composer.  He has dedicated himself to teaching jazz fundamentals to young audiences, hoping to preserve jazz history and build the next generation of jazz musicians.  He composed the first jazz song to win the Pulitzer prize for music.  Listen: Timelessness

• Jason Moran (b.1975) Jason Moran is a jazz pianist who combines his music with multimedia art and theater. His compositions include combinations with other musical genres such as classical and hip hop. Listen & Watch: All of No Man's Land is Ours

• Nora Jones (b. 1979) Nora Jones is a pianist and singer-songwriter.  Her music bridges jazz with contemporary folk, country and pop. Listen: Don't Know Why