Afro-American Music Test 3 Study Guide

Riff

A short, recurrent melodic-rhythmic phrase

Even Rhythm

Sweet Rhythm

Uneven Rhythm

Hot Rhythm

What is expected of a good swing musician?

Must read music and must be able to improvise

Fats Waller (Swing)

• Stride piano

• The Joint is Jumpin’

Art Tatum (Swing)

• Legally blind

• Piano

• Used entire piano to create melody

Lionel Hampton (Swing)

• Vibraphone

• Prolific composer

Coleman Hawkins (Swing)

• Tenor saxophone

• Produced a bold, “fat” tone

Charlie Christian (Swing)

• Electric guitar

• Brought the electric guitar to the front line

Lester Young (Swing)

• Tenor saxophone

• Produced a high, “thin” tone

Billie Holiday (Swing)

• The quintessential swing singer

• Did not have a wide vocal range

Benny Goodman (Swing)

• Clarinet

• White Musician

• King of Swing

Jimmie Lunceford (Swing)

• Big Bands

• Earned degrees in music and sociology from Fisk University

• Formed a student jazz band at Manassas HS

• Novelty acts

• 1935 - Hitting the Battle - first recording of amplified guitar

Count Basie (Swing)

• Piano

• Master of the riff 

Bebop Aspects

• Expanded/more complex harmonies

• Quick harmonic changes

• Fast-paced, frantic melodies

• Greater use of dissonance

• Creating new melodies over existing harmonies

• Politically and socially vocal

• Onomatopoeic song titles

Minton’s Playhouse

After hours club in Harlem, NY where bebop was popularized

Thelonious Monk (Bebop)

• House pianist at Minton’s Playhouse

• Comping 

• Bold use of dissonance 

Kenny Clarke (Bebop)

• Drums

• His style became the basis of bebop drumming 

• Time keeping on cymbals

• Bass drum and snare used to “drop bombs”

• String bass becomes a secondary timekeeper

Dizzy Gillespie (Bebop)

• Trumpet

• The “Professor” of bebop 

• Experimented with Afro-Cuban rhythms  

• Manteca 

Charlie Parker (Bebop)

• Alto Saxophone

• The mastermind of bebop

  • Developed a means of chromatic improvisation

Cool Jazz Aspects

• Less politically active than bebop

• Colorblind

• Sonority over technical facility

• Slower harmonic and melodic pace

• Less focus on the soloist

• Classical musicians compose cool jazz music

• Jazz on the concert stage

• Classical music titles

• Odd meters (beats per measure)

Miles Davis (Cool Jazz)

• Trumpet

• “Birth of the Cool” album

Gil Evans (Cool Jazz)

• Piano

• White arranger of the songs on the Birth of the Cool album

Dave Brubeck (Cool Jazz)

• Piano

• White musician

• His album Time Out was the first jazz album to sell a million copies

Hard Bop Aspects

• Back to the folk appeal of the spirituals, blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues

• Return of dancing

• Simpler melodies

• Swing rhythms

Sonny Rollins (Hard Bop)

• Hard Bop

• Tenor saxophone

Jimmy Smith (Hard Bop)

• Hard Bop

• Hammond Organ

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Hard Bop)

• Drums

• Trumpet: Lee Morgan

• Tenor Sax: Benny Golson

• Piano: Bobby Timmons

• Bass: Jymie Merritt

Horace Silver (Hard Bop)

• Hard Bop

• Piano

Modal Jazz Aspects

• The use of 12th and 13th century church modes

• Limited chord changes – improv. over 2 or 3 chords

• Pedalpoint

• Soloist has more freedom to improvise

Miles Davis (Modal Jazz)

• Trumpet

• Kind of Blue

John Coltrane (Modal Jazz)

• Saxophone

• My Favorite Things

Free Jazz Aspects

• Freedom from form, melody, harmony, meter

• Absence of harmony-creating instruments

• Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

• Black Artists’ Group

Ornette Coleman (Free Jazz)

• Free Jazz

• Alto saxophone

John Coltrane (Free Jazz)

• Soprano, alto and tenor saxophones

Charles Mingus (Free Jazz)

• String Bass

• Use of the Bow

• Unusual effects

Cecil Taylor (Free Jazz)

• Piano

• Percussive approach

• Extreme melodic dissonance

Fusion Jazz Aspects

• Combination of popular styles, including rock and funk, along with open-ended improvisational style of modal and free jazz

• electric keyboards

• electronic sound manipulation

• overdubbing

• looping

Miles Davis (Fusion Jazz)

• Trumpet

• Bitches Brew

Grover Washington (Fusion Jazz)

• Tenor saxophone

• Mister Magic

Herbie Hancock (Fusion Jazz)

• Piano/Keyboard synthesizers

• Rock It

Young Lions/New Traditionalists Aspects

• Sought a return to the ideals of bebopthrough-modal jazz styles (1945-1965), or the golden age of modern jazz

• Despised free and fusion jazz

• Classically trained musicians—comfortable in both classical and jazz circles

• Jazz at Lincoln Center

• Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra

Wynton Marsalis (Young Lions/New Traditionalists)

• Trumpet

• Jazz at Lincoln Center (1996)

• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra 

Marcus Roberts (Young Lions/New Traditionalists)

• Young Lions/New Traditionalists

• Blind

• Piano

Christian McBride (Young Lions/New Traditionalists)

• Young Lions/New Traditionalists

• String bass

Patrice Rushen (Young Lions/New Traditionalists)

• Young Lions/New Traditionalists

• Piano

• Forget Me Nots

Duke Ellington (Swing)

• Piano

  • Ragtime and stride

• Effects - brass growl, leading to “jungle” sound

• Showcased band members

• Used unusual registers of instruments 

• Composed large-scale jazz works 

Duke Ellington’s Suites

• Black, Brown, and Beige 

• The Queen’s Suite

Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts

• Suites based upon biblical texts, religious experiences