The Roots of Jazz

1. The Roots of Jazz • European influence on Jazz • Church hymns • Folk songs and dances • Military marches and airs • Classical compositions

2. The Roots of Jazz

3. Instruments • African instruments • Banya = Banjo • European instruments • Slaves brought no property • Varied scales and tuning

4. Styles • Military bands and marching bands • Christian hymns • Transformed into Spirituals • Spiritual: a religious folk song; an expression of hope for release from oppression and sorrow • Secular songs, the forerunners of the 12-bar blues, began to appear • Orally passed • The blues are fundamental to jazz

5. Minstrel Show Music • The interchange of cultural elements between whites and blacks • 1840s - white stage companies • After the Civil War, African-Americans created minstrel companies

6. Cakewalk and Ragtime • Sundays • Parody dancing • “Walkaround” • The prize was often a cake • Strutting, high-kicking dance to syncopated music became the “cakewalk”, a craze in the 1890s

7. Cakewalk and Ragtime • Cakewalk to Ragtime? • Ragtime to Cakewalk? • Jazz originated from a mix or African and European music and probably could not have developed anywhere but in the United States

8. The Influence of Jazz on Classical Composers • Louis Moreau Gottschalk American - 1812-1860 • Night in the Tropics (c.1858) • second movement (allegro molto) is a rumba, a Cuban dance unknown in the United States until the 20th century

9. Debussy • Claude DebussyFrench - 1862-1918 • “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner (1908) • the cakewalk illustrates the “stride” left hand

10. Stravinsky • Igor StravinskyRussian (1882-1971) • Piano Rag Music (1919) • dedicated to Artur Rubinstein • Ebony Concerto (1945) • commissioned b y Woody Herman • written for jazz ensemble

11. Gershwin • George GershwinAmerican (1898-1937) • Rhapsody in Blue (1924) • 1924 performance by Gershwin • Porgy and Bess (1935)

12. Others • Darius Milhaud (French) • La creation du monde (1923) • influenced by Harlem jazz • jazz saxophone • George Antheil (Polish-American - 1900-1959) • A Jazz Symphony (1927) • William Albright (American - 1944-1998) • Grand Sonata in Rag (1967-1970)

13. Today’s ReviewThe Roots of Jazz • Musical forms • the Spiritual • a transformed Christian hymn • began about 1780 with the “Great Awakening” • lined out • Secular songs • loneliness • infidelity • rootlessness • repression • not written down • forerunners to the 12-bar blues

14. The Roots of Jazz • Minstrel Show Music • the interchange of cultural elements • white companies in blackface • after the Civil War, black stage companies in blackface • The Cakewalk, Ragtime, and the influence of Jazz on European Music and visa-versa • parody of European dances • contests, with the prize often being a cake • very popular in the 1890’s • probably resulted in the development of Ragtime

15. The Roots of Jazz • Rhythm • Polyrhythms • Field Hollers • Call and Response • Instruments • no property • African instruments were reconstructed in America • the bandora became a guitar • the balafou became a marimba • the banya became the banjo • European instruments were adopted • military bands • social bands

16. Suggested Additional Listening • New World Records (RAAM) • #205 White Spirituals from the Sacred Harp • #224 Brighten the Corner Where You Are: Black and White Urban Hymnody • #294 The Gospelship: Baptist Hymns and White Spirituals from the Southern Mountains

17. People Wynton Marsalis Buddy Bolden Louis Armstrong Caruso Sousa Jelly Roll Morton Vern and Irene Castle James Reese Europe Places, Recordings, Styles Original Dixieland Jazz Band Storyville Ragtime New Orleans Creole The Roots of JazzEpisode One - Gumbo

18. Notes from Ken Burns’ JAZZ Episode One- Gumbo

19. Notes from Ken Burns’ JAZZ Episode Two - The Gift

20. The Gift • Louis Armstrong - the embodiment of Jazz • Jazz becomes an art form • 1917 - 1st jazz recordings reached the public • Chicago and New York became the centers after WW I • Duke Ellington called “The Greatest of all American composers” (?) • Louis Armstrong said there are two things in music - one is good, the other, bad • Louis Armstrong followed Joe “King” Oliver to Chicago - the Creole Jazz Band

21. The Gift • Davenport, Iowa, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden • The “Hellfighters”, James Reese Europe, The “Memphis Blues”, trick instruments • Duke Ellington • An elegant dresser • “Soda Fountain Rag” - 1st piece • Chicago - the Great Migration • Gennette Records recorded the Creole Jazz Band’s first tune the “Chimes Blues”

22. The Gift • Jazz is a disease • Piano in Harlem • Stride Piano - James P. Johnson - “Charleston” - Willie “The Lion” Smith • Cornettist “Bubber” Miley joins Duke Ellington • Will Marion Cook advises Duke Ellington to find the logical way and avoid it • The Austin High Gang, a white band, learns the jazz style • Eddie Condon develops the Chicago style

23. The Gift • Violinist Paul Whiteman called the “King of Jazz” • First big hit is “Whispering” • 2/12/24 Carnegie Hall, “Rhapsody in Blue”

24. The Gift • Fletcher Henderson • Working on a graduate degree in chemestry • The two greatest bands in NYC: • Paul Whiteman and Fletcher Henderson • Henderson hires Louis Armstrong and jazz is changed • Armstrong stayed with Henderson for 2 years • Henderson’s band played at Roseland • Armstrong’s greatest contribution to jazz was swing