The$Geography$of$Jazz - Alie Astolot 2017-2018 -...
-
Upload
phungkhanh -
Category
Documents
-
view
213 -
download
0
Transcript of The$Geography$of$Jazz - Alie Astolot 2017-2018 -...
The Geography of Jazz Instructions:
1. Go to http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/geography-‐jazz/ 2. Read the information below and notice the locations on the map 3. On a world map, locate each point with a corresponding number to the information
Influences from Abroad The story of jazz starts in the southern United States in the latter half of the 1800s, where slaves imported from Africa were put to work on plantations. Slaves maintained strong musical traditions from Sub-‐Saharan and West Africa. These traditions included call-‐and-‐response and rhythms based around frenzied drum beats of dances and ceremonies. After slavery was abolished and the African-‐American diaspora began, the traditional African music brought to the U.S. had been tinged with notes from Latin and American folk music of the South. These diverse influences melded into an entirely new sound, rich in distinctive rhythms and unusual musical scales. These traits would eventually evolve into jazz.
Wade in the Water "Wade in the Water, ”Ain't Gonna Let Nobody," and "Soon I Will be Done" are traditional spirituals, a type of Christian song created by American slaves. These spirituals are here performed by the a capella group Undefined, of Albany State University, Georgia. The spirituals in this medley address hardships endured by slaves, as well as a steadfast faith. Jazz was enormously influenced by spirituals and other music developed by African American slaves. VIDEO
Maple Leaf Rag The early origins of swing and jazz music can be heard in this early recording of Scott Joplin's famous "Maple Leaf Rag." The song became a staple of ragtime, a new musical style hallmarked by distinctive syncopated, or "ragged," rhythms, and a quick, jaunty tempo. Joplin, with the help of songs like "Maple Leaf Rag," was able to become one of the first successful African-‐American musicians following the abolition of slavery. The tune would be popular in the jazz community for many years after Joplin's death in 1917, and still stands as one of the iconic musical achievements in early jazz. VIDEO New Orleans Following the abolition of slavery, many African Americans migrated to New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans was an integral port city offering more opportunities than rural regions in the South. It was here that jazz got its start. This early jazz, known as Dixieland, was pioneered by black musicians, many either freed slaves or relatives of freed slaves. Dixieland combined traditional African rhythms, as well as earlier styles like ragtime (made famous by Scott Joplin), blues, and marches. It also included new aspects like improvisation, which remains a standard in jazz literature today. Tunes like "When the Saints Go Marching In" defined the Dixieland style, and techniques like having one instrument (usually a trumpet) play a melody while other instruments improvise around that melody harkened to the call-‐and-‐response nature of early African-‐American music. As the African-‐American diaspora continued to move out of the South, jazz moved along with it. African-‐Americans migrated into major metropolitan areas in the North and Midwest such as Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and New York City, but New Orleans still remained the beating heart of the fledgling jazz culture.
Original Dixieland One-‐Step This period recording of "Original Dixieland One-‐Step" by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (before 1917 they were known as the Original Dixieland Jass Band) typifies the kind of music that was being performed in the South during the 1910s. With its vibrant, diverse cultural atmosphere, New Orleans provided the perfect venue for bands like the Original Dixieland Jazz Band to establish jazz as a new musical idiom. VIDEO When the Saints Go Marching In Louis Armstrong is perhaps the musician most associated with New Orleans jazz. His career included swing, pop, and scat (vocalizing sounds instead of actual lyrics). Armstrong never entirely abandoned traditional Dixieland jazz, however, as evidenced by this dazzling 1961 interpretation of “When the Saints Go Marching In”—perhaps the definitive New Orleans song. VIDEO The Jazz Age By the 1920s, Prohibition (which banned the sale of alcoholic drinks in the U.S.) had resulted in speakeasies, establishments which sold contraband alcohol. Speakeasies emerged as lively venues for jazz music. This time period, known as the "Jazz Age," was both a highly influential and highly detrimental time to jazz culture. Jazz remained deeply rooted in New Orleans, with innovative performers and bandleaders like Louis Armstrong forging new ground for the genre with the addition of "scat" singing (vocalizing melodic, nonsensical words) and a shift toward solo playing. But jazz was migrating and expanding its influence. Jazz cultivated in New Orleans moved into Chicago and Kansas City with African-‐American migrants, and took on the moniker of "hot jazz." Due to jazz's reputation of being tied to speakeasies, many saw it as vulgar and immoral, and a key element of the decadent “Roaring ‘20s.” Regardless, jazz was able to persevere, and the period produced one the first jazz-‐inspired orchestral pieces, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (1924), which has become a staple of 20th-‐century classical music.
La Revue des Revues Josephine Baker may have epitomized the Jazz Age more than any other artist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker had established herself as the leading entertainer in Europe by the 1920s. Her loose-‐limbed, uninhibited singing and dancing, seen here in the 1927 French musical La Revue des Revues, exposed thousands of theater-‐goers to jazz music. VIDEO Rhapsody in Blue Rhapsody in Blue (which premiered in 1924) not only established George Gershwin as one of America's foremost musical composers, but also showed the musical community that classical and jazz music could find a synthesis. Rhapsody in Blue saw jazz becoming a significant contributor to the American musical lexicon in the eyes of "high culture." VIDEO Swing Probably the most genre-‐typifying time in jazz was the Swing Era of the 1930s and '40s, in which jazz music spread across the country, taking root in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Kansas City, Chicago, and New York City. The Swing Era meant big bands, vocal leads, and danceable music, which moved jazz away from the immoral reputation it acquired during the Jazz Age. Swing music birthed many of the "big names" known in jazz today, such as Benny Goodman, Gloria Parker (one of the first female band
leaders), William "Count" Basie, and Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. The music alienated some African-‐American crowds, as they felt the style was a departure from the roots of jazz. They were concerned with the influx of white players and bandleaders in a traditionally African-‐American genre. Regardless, swing was the most popular form of American music throughout much of the 1940s, becoming the soundtrack to the Second World War. Up to this point, jazz had almost specifically followed the African-‐American diaspora, but by the 1940s, it was slowly becoming more and more national.
It Don’t Mean a Thing Ella Fitzgerald’s flawless interpretations of both jazz and pop standards earned her the nicknames “Queen of Jazz,” and “First Lady of Song.” Although she enjoyed success in many styles, she is probably most associated with swing music. This live version of Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing)” was recorded in 1958 in Belgium. Fitzgerald is accompanied by legendary Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, whom Ellington called the “maharaja of the keyboard.” VIDEO Sing, Sing, Sing The quintessential swing piece, "Sing, Sing, Sing" is still played today by many of the world's top jazz bands. This recording from the 1937 film Hollywood Hotelfeatures bandleader and "King of Swing" Benny Goodman, as well as jazz legends Gene Krupa on drums and Harry James on trumpet. With a deep swing and fast, frenetic beats heavy on brass instruments, pieces like this encapsulated the Swing Era. VIDEO
The Jump to Europe While swing music was enthralling American audiences, a new and different type of jazz was beginning to take shape in Europe—more specifically, France. This new, guitar-‐centric, style was called Gypsy jazz, named for the Romany “Gypsies” roaming Europe who pioneered the genre. Django Reinhardt, a Romany himself, was a prolific guitarist said to have founded the genre. Using a very heavy swing, and using laid back melodic lines along with classical guitar influences to cultivate a "distinctly Parisian" feel, Gypsy jazz became the style that cemented France's jazz heritage. The jump across the ocean showed that jazz had no boundaries. Although it was uniquely American, it was not immune to transformation by other cultures. Jazz was no longer an isolated musical movement.
La Mer Distinctly French in sound and feel, "La Mer" ("Beyond the Sea") found a welcoming home in the guitar of Gypsy jazz pioneers Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. The song embodies the jazz style in France at the time, led by stringed instruments (guitar and violin) as opposed to the brass favored by many American jazz musicians. VIDEO Besame Mucho Oscar Aleman was a contemporary of Djanjo Reinhardt and fellow guitarist. While Reinhardt incorporated Romany music in his jazz style, Aleman, an Argentinian, also incorporated Latin beats and rhythms, such as tango. VIDEO
"American Music" Jazz in America was one of the most quickly evolving musical genres that anyone had ever encountered. Every ten years or so, a new style would come along, and the collective jazz conscious would shift—admiring what came before, but allowing it to retreat. At a certain point, some performers ceased calling it jazz altogether. Jazz legend Duke Ellington called it "American Music." This unique American music was going beyond traditional swing, blending jazz with “art music” (music influenced by classical themes and new, experimental performance art).
Mood Indigo Ellington's "Mood Indigo" marks a milestone in his career as a jazz composer and player. Taking elements from classical music and incorporating them into his piano playing, and by creating a uniformity in sound across all instruments, Ellington challenged the notions of what a big band jazz piece could be. VIDEO Straighten Up and Fly Right Nat “King” Cole enjoyed success as both a jazz and pop performer. Cole wrote the jazz standard “Straighten Up and Fly Right” early in his career, using syncopated rhythms and lyrics inspired by a folk tale used in a sermon by his Cole’s father, a Baptist preacher. VIDEO
Bebop Jazz was further thrust into change by the introduction of a new style that developed in the late 1940s and continued to mature into the 1960s. The style was called bebop, and was hallmarked by fast tempos, difficult music, and improvisation. Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker established themselves as leading musicians of bebop. The origins of bebop are hard to determine. Even pioneers like Thelonious Monk said that "Bebop wasn't developed in any deliberate way." Bebop was not meant to be danced to, which was a far shift from the swing style that preceded it. Bebop also stayed away form New Orleans, finding ground in urban areas like Kansas City, New York, and Los Angeles. At this point, New Orleans represented “old school” jazz. The legacy of Louis Armstrong appealed to a nostalgic crowd, while bebop moved ever-‐forward toward new, avant-‐garde territory.
Anthropology Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie fused their own respective jazz mindsets to create 1945's "Anthropology," a fast-‐paced, frenetic, hard-‐driving bebop piece that focuses on a rhythm-‐based approach to music. This was in stark contrast to the chord-‐based changes that took place in earlier jazz styles. VIDEO
'Round Midnight Thelonius Monk’s “’Round Midnight” is one of the most-‐recorded jazz song in history. The bebop classic has been interpreted by such varied jazz legends as Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sarah Vaughn, and Charlie Parker. Here the Thelonius Monk Quartet (Monk is on piano) performs an early version. VIDEO East Coast vs West Coast Jazz By the 1950s and 1960s, a cultural divide had emerged in the jazz community. Cities on the East Coast experienced a more brooding flavor of jazz, with a strong emphasis on vocalists and solo work. Both white and black musicians were a part of this movement, which came to be known as “cool jazz.” Cool jazz lacked the nervous tension of bebop and replaced it with a more laid-‐back, calm tone focused on melody. Artists like Blossom Dearie, Etta James, and Miles Davis (already steeped in bebop) were the leaders of this revolution, and recordings like Davis' Kind of Blue created a soundtrack to the movement. At the same time, West Coast jazz was coming out of California, specifically Los Angeles and San Francisco, where musicians like Chet Baker headed the scene. Dave Brubeck was often seen as the leader in West Coast jazz, and his recordings, like "Take Five," are synonymous with the style. Many criticized West Coast jazz for its focus on white performers, and it was often confused with cool jazz in metropolitan areas like New York. The clash in style furthered jazz's evolution in America, though, and showed that the art was moving across the country and setting up shop in areas where it didn't have the capacity just decades before.
Jeru Miles Davis’ The Birth of the Cool is the best-‐selling jazz album of all time. “Jeru,” a track from the album, demonstrates one of the ways cool jazz broke from bebop: the horn section’s consistent harmony. "I wanted the instruments to sound like human voices singing,” Davis said of the tune. VIDEO
Take Five Written by saxophonist Paul Desmond and first performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1959, "Take Five" stands as one of the touchstones of jazz in the 20th century. The distinctive 5/4 time signature, relaxed feel, and that memorable melody all added up to a masterpiece that typified jazz during this time. VIDEO
Latin Jazz Just as the Great Migration of African-‐Americans spread jazz around the country, a different migration infused jazz with new cultural flavors in the late 1950s and 1960s. The growing Cuban and Latin American population in cities like New York brought with it its own interpretations of jazz, influenced heavily by quick beats, flamenco-‐style guitar, and heavy use of horns. Tito Puente, a percussionist and bandleader, said of Latin jazz, "We play jazz with the Latin touch, that's all, you know." Jazz worked its way all the way down to Brazil, where Afro-‐Brazilian jazz (based around samba and bossa nova) became a staple. Stan Getz and his breakthrough "Girl from Ipanema" represented the genre’s calm, bossa nova sound. Around this time, Dixieland jazz began to make a comeback, with both American and international audiences. The influence of New Orleans legend Louis Armstrong could still be felt as the style did well commercially, but was paid little attention by critics who saw it is "old-‐fashioned."
New Arrival Tito Puente, a New York native, drew on the syncopated rhythms familiar from his Puerto Rican heritage to become El Rey de los Timbales (the king of the timbales, a type of shallow drum). Puente and other Latin jazz legends are featured in the documentary Calle 54, from which this performance of “New Arrival” is taken. VIDEO
The Girl from Ipanema Combining Portuguese and English lyrics and a laid-‐back guitar and saxophone duet, "The Girl from Ipanema" features classic bossa nova textures and the relaxed feel that came naturally to the cool jazz scene. Stan Getz, João Gilberto, and Astrud Gilberto's famous version of the song still gets radio airplay today, and may be the most covered song in the history of pop music. VIDEO
Jazz is International By the late 1970s and early 1980s, jazz had become global. No longer was it a solely American institution, or even a Western Hemisphere institution. Jazz was international, and took hold in many different countries. Jazz found influences in Asian and European music, and became popular throughout Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and many other regions. That isn't to say that jazz lost its identity—quite the opposite. Jazz began to be identified by where it was played, a trait that defines the genre today. Jazz in New Orleans has a totally different sound than jazz in Sweden. That is the magic of the genre, that it can be so global, yet so local.
Azerbaijani Jazz Jazz is now more international than it has ever been. Jazz's reach has stretched as far as Azerbaijan and other nations of the former Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has a rich jazz tradition, dating as far back as the 1920s, and the music has flourished so much that Baku, Azerbaijan's capital city, has become the jazz center of Central Asia. Jazz in Azerbaijan uses a mix of traditional and locally specific instruments, such as small accordions known as garmons (which can be seen in the video) and various types of traditional drums, to create its unique sound. VIDEO
Green Kalahari Cape jazz is a thriving style that has its roots in the South African city of Cape Town. Abdullah Ibrahim was driven out of his native Cape Town by the injustices of apartheid in the 1960s, although his music still draws on both the melancholy and vibrancy of South Africa. VIDEO Our Music In 1987, the U.S. Congress passed a bill defining jazz as a unique form of American music. The resolution stated that "...jazz is...designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated." Jazz is important. In many ways, jazz tells not only a story of music, but a story of place. Few cultural artifacts have been as influenced by place as jazz, and that facet of jazz history and performance is what makes the genre so interesting. Look through the history of jazz and you will invariably see the history of the people who played it. By mapping the geography of jazz, we can see how it’s not only an indicator of our culture, but rather an indicator of our history. What is jazz? Louis Armstrong, the grandfather of jazz himself, sums it up quite well: “Man, if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.” Espera Esperanza Spalding, the first jazz musician to win the Grammy for Best New Artist, is a bassist, singer, and composer. Here, she plays “Espera” at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Concert, where her performance was specifically requested by that year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—U.S. President Barack Obama.
Nature Boy Billed as "the greatest jazz vocalist of his generation," Kurt Elling combines music from the Great American Songbook with modern jazz standards to create his own eclectic, but wholly traditional sound. This performance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra of the standard "Nature Boy" shows that jazz has come to embrace its past, but is still in a constant push forward.