Popular Styles in Jazz since the Swing Era

Chapter 9

Introduction

• Jazz musicians began to experiment with more complex, often less danceable rhythms

• Because this new brand of music was more difficult, if not impossible to dance to, the mainstream public lost interest and jazz became a “high art”

Bebop

• Named after scat syllables

• Pioneered by John “Dizzy” Gillespie and Charlie Parker

Dizzy Gillespie

• 1917

• trumpet

• born South Carolina

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvIXzeDLpMw

Charlie Parker

• 1920

• Saxophone

• Born Kansas City

• Both moved to New York and formed a quintet together

Characteristics of Bebop

• Smaller ensembles

• Music became more abstract

• Tempos sped up or slowed down

• Too fast/slow to dance to

• More interesting chord progressions and modulations

• Melodies were usually complex lines made of eighth notes

• Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gilliespie- Koko

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okrNwE6GI70 

Popular Styles in Jazz since the Swing Era

Birth of Cool Jazz

Claude Thornhill leader of Claude Thornhill Orchestra

• Gil Evans + Gerry Mulligan - arrangers

• Frequently used French horns and tuba

• Miles Davis was recruited to lead the band

Miles Davis 1926

• Trumpet

• Released The Birth of the Cool – met with little popular appeal at first but has turned out to be a tremendously influential album

• Video 25 minutes long  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqo3DRwlFO4

The Miles Davis Quintet

• 00:00 to 10:40 - So What (composed by Miles Davis from the album Kind Of Blue)

• Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra• 10:41 tp 14:04 - The Duke (composed by Dave

Brubeck from the album Miles Ahead)• 14:05 to 19:57 - Blues For Pablo (composed by

Gil Evans from the album Miles Ahead)• 19:58 to 24:21 - New Rhumba (composed by

Ahmad Jamal from the album Miles Ahead)

Characteristics of Cool Jazz

• Lighter tone quality

• Cool, detached sound quality

• Cool Jazz turned out to be a hit with college-age youth in the early 1950’s

• it combined a soft unimposing sound with intellectual content

• allowed the consumer to contemplate it deeply or relegate it to the background without it being overwhelming

• because of this it found its way into coffee shops and bars near college campuses

Dave Brubeck - 1920

• Piano

• Formed the Dave Brubeck quartet in 1951

• Gained popularity by playing college campuses

• Two of his best known songs are in odd time signatures

• Take Five http://youtu.be/y9aG3wUrfrE

Popular Styles in Jazz since the Swing Era

Bossa Nova

Bossa Nova

• means new beat• Pioneered by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto –

they released their first album together in 1963• Combination of Brazilian music and Jazz• Specifically a combination of a slow samba and

the complex chord progressions of bebop• Brazilian music combines cultural roots of

Portuguese, African and native South American inhabitants

Characteristics of bossa nova

• Lyrics are sophisticated and romantic

• Tempo and rhythmic feel is danceable

• Complex chord progressions

• Light tonal quality

• The Girl from Ipanema (Gilberto and Getz)

• http://youtu.be/UJkxFhFRFDA

    

Popular Styles in Jazz since the Swing Era

Jazz Fusion, Free Jazz and Smooth Jazz

 

Jazz Fusion

• Blend of jazz and rock• Notable practitioners• Herbie Hancock http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=p4ASTMFN-h4• Miles Davis http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=xrPQKH9n0bk• Josef Zawinul - “In A Silent Way”

http://youtu.be/SqyepMYvUac

Free Jazz

• Sounds dissonant and rambling to the average listener

• Spontaneous improvising• Little or no regard for prescribed form,

melody or chords• Notable practitioner• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone - 1926• http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=f1xe7FDsQWY

Smooth Jazz

• Soothing, romantic and classy• Notable practitioners• David Sanborn – saxophone – 1945

http://youtu.be/lsq5eWCRz0U • Kenny Gorelick – soprano saxophone – 1956

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUWy7XAOBNM

• George Benson – guitar – 1943 http://youtu.be/5QjTK0pL1go

• Commercial music - has kept jazz alive to the larger public