JAZZ

- Has been called Americas Classical Music.

- classical focus: composers; jazz focus: performers
- not static, yet similar to other musical styles (rhythm, melody, etc.)
- First to gain foothold of identity; woven in the American culture

Slang sex, primitivism, racism (jas, jass, jascz, jasz, jaz)
French to chatter or gossip (jaser)
San Fran Bulletin (1913) Scoop Gleeson (jazz on the old pill)

Much early jazz studies done by record collectors

Shipton pg 4: A music created by black Americans in the early twentieth century
through an amalgamation of elements drawn from European-American and tribal
African musics.

Collectively-improvised, syncopated rhythms over a strong pulse, flattened (blue) notes

Jazz music - combination of cultural traditions:
a) Rich oral tradition of the African slave culture
b) Formal schooling of Western European musical tradition
*c) Creole influences/culture
*d) Carribean influences/culture/religion

1) brass and military bands (also strings)
2) hymns, psalms of Christian church
3) Hispanic rhythms from Spanish colonists
4) folk songs, shanties, or work songs from laborers

- Tin Pan Alley (Union Square, NYC) so named for tinny upright-piano sound.

- Jazz music strikes a balance between composition, which is music already written, and
improvisation, the spontaneous composition of unwritten music.

- European symbols show what is played, but how it is played is the African American
oral tradition influence.


LISTENING GUIDANCE

Fast, slow; Lyrics, none Instruments, soloists
high-pitched, low-pitched Song Form Sound effects (flutter tpt, toms)
Tone Texture

All music usually follows a form. Motives and phrases can all contribute to form.
Two common forms: AABA and AAB (blues)
Texture: When listening to large jazz ensembles, one can note the thickness or
fullness of the groups sound. Whole sections of instruments help achieve this effect.

a) Three sections of instruments found in a large jazz ensemble: Saxophone,
Trombone, Trumpet
b) Rhythm section: Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Auxiliary Percussion

Melody, Rhythm, Harmony: basic blocks

a) Melody memorable single line
b) Rhythm basic pulse, steady or unsteady
c) Harmony two or more sounds together; consonance, dissonance

- SYNCOPATION is achieved by placing accents on weak beats.

- SWING: slightly-longer downbeat, slightly-shorter accented weak beat.