Early Jazz (New Orleans & Chicago) Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary terms and definitions covering early jazz styles, instrumentation, major innovators from New Orleans and Chicago, and European jazz developments.

Front Line

The group of horn instruments in an early jazz band, typically consisting of trumpet, clarinet, trombone, and occasionally saxophone.

Rhythm Section

The instruments in an early jazz band that supply rhythmic and harmonic support, including guitar, banjo, tuba, bass saxophone, piano, and drums.

Collective Improvisation

A musical arrangement technique in early jazz where all group members solo at the same time.

Trumpet (Front Line Role)

The front line instrument responsible for playing the main melody.

Trombone (Front Line Role)

The front line instrument responsible for harmonizing and supporting the main melody.

Clarinet (Front Line Role)

The front line instrument that soloed around the melody, contributing colorful and extra lines.

Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB)

New Orleans jazz band led by cornetist Nick LaRocca that made the very first jazz recording in 1917, recorded in New York and Chicago rather than New Orleans.

Nick LaRocca

Cornetist and bandleader of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1889-1961).

Chicago School

A group of young white musicians from Chicago who emulated New Orleans jazz styles, adding saxophone, replacing banjo with guitar, using elaborate intros/endings, and emphasizing individual solos over collective improvisation.

Jelly Roll Morton

New Orleans pianist and composer (1890-1941) recognized as the first important jazz composer, who balanced composition with improvisation and loosened ragtime's stricter rhythms.

James P. Johnson

East coast jazz pianist (1894-1955) known as the 'Father of Stride Piano' and composer of 'Carolina Shout' (1921).

Stride Piano

A jazz piano style defined by the characteristic motion and rhythm of how the left hand is played.

Fats Waller

Popular jazz figure, songwriter, pianist, and entertainer (1904-1943) who composed 'Ain't Misbehavin'' and 'Honeysuckle Rose'.

Earl Hines

Pianist (1903-1983) who connected 1920s piano playing with the 1930s-40s by playing trumpet-style or horn-like right hand lines, encouraging future pianists to solo like horn players.

Sidney Bechet

Soprano saxophone player (1897-1959) known for his wide and fast vibrato, bluesy style, and status as one of the first well-known individual soloists of the 1920s.

Louis Armstrong

Influential figure known as 'Pops', 'Satchmo', or the 'Father of Jazz', renowned for his trumpet playing, swing feel, memorable solos, vocal style, and popularizing scat singing.

Scat Singing

A vocal technique involving improvised vocalization with nonsense words or syllables, popularized by Louis Armstrong starting accidentally on his recording of 'Heebie Jeebies'.

Gypsy Jazz

A European jazz style centered in Paris, France, that combined American swing, French dance hall (musette), and Eastern European folk music.

Django Reinhardt

Belgian guitar virtuoso who popularized Gypsy Jazz alongside his group, Quintette du Hot Club de France.