Music (Jazz Music)

Lesson 2

Jazz

can be described as a musical style that involves lively syncopated rhythm and improvisation

Jazz

Developed by the African-Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Jazz

The elements from the music cultures of West Africa, Europe, and America were creatively combined, leading to the development of it.

Distinctive Feature of Jazz: Instruments

performed by small groups (combo) 3-8 musicians or by a big band composed of 3 groups (woodwinds, brass, rhythm section)

Distinctive Feature of Jazz: Improvisation

its making music spontaneuosly

Distinctive Feature of Jazz: Rhythm

Syncopation, the displacement of accented beats by accenting weak beats, having rests on strong beats or tying notes over from a weak to a strong beat.

Distinctive Feature of Jazz: Swing

Swing, is a manner of performing jazz music

Distinctive Feature of Jazz: Melody

Blues scale : 3rd, 5th, 7th

Distinctive Feature of Jazz: Melody

Bebop scale: scale of nine notes

Origins of Jazz: Popular Songs

During the early 20th century, the cakewalk (strutting dance of the blacks in the South), minstrel songs and vaudeville songs and dances have syncopated melodies with a highly pulsating accompaniment.

Origins of Jazz: Blues

contains feature that are common in jazz music

Origins of Jazz: Ragtime

Ragtime pieces are called rags and they are not improvised

Origins of Jazz: Bands

The brass bands and the wind bands of the 19th century provided opportunities for musicians to be trained.

Origins of Jazz: Dixieland Jazz

also called “New Orleans style or Hot Jazz”, consists of 5-8 performers

Origins of Jazz: Dixieland Jazz

Scat-singing, is an improvised style characterized by singing nontexted vocalizations or nonsense syllables like doo-bi-doo or du-rut-di-rut

Origins of Jazz: Swing

this new jazz stle was developed in the 1920s, it reached its peak during the “swing era”(1935-1946), performed by big bands with 15 musicians

Origins of Jazz: Swing

Categories of jazz during swing era:

-sweet swing

-hot swing

-benny goodmans jazz

Origins of Jazz: Bebop

also called rebop or simply bop, is an important jazz style in the 1940s.

Origins of Jazz: Bebop

this is aggressive and fast and is not intended for dancing but for listening

Origins of Jazz: Cool Jazz

this jazz style emerged in the 1940s

Origins of Jazz: Cool Jazz

is related to bebop but without the aggressive interpratations

Origins of Jazz: Free Jazz

also called avant-garde jazz

Origins of Jazz: Free Jazz

in this style, the musician has complete freedom to improvise.(shouts,cries,outbursts and other non traditional sound may be produced by the performer.)

Origins of Jazz: Fusion

also called “jazz rock”

Origins of Jazz: Fusion

is the merging of rock sounds and rhythm with jazz improvisation.