Jeswin's MUSC 145 Exam 2

What were the three phases of jazz between 1900 and 1965?

Location (NOLA --> Chicago --> NY)
1) Early Jazz (1900s-1920s) - New Orleans Jazz/Dixieland
2) Swing/Big Band Era (1930s-1940s) - Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman.
3) Bebop (1940s-Onwards) - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis.

What are the characteristics of swing?

- jazz becomes pop mainstream
- swing dancing becomes a national craze
- standardized sections of the big band
- 4-beat in bass almost all the time

Big Band instrumentation?

Rhythm Section: guitar, piano, bass, drums
Trumpets: X X X X
Trombones: X X X X
Saxes: X X X X X

What were the bass players doing in swing?

"walking"; quarter notes instead of half notes

What were pianists doing in swing?

"comping;" syncopated chords; lots of root-position type but begin inverting the chords too

What did drummers introduce in swing?

high-hat backbeat; play quarters and 8th notes on ride symbol; drummers L.H. comps on the snare; "four on the floor"

What else was improved/became more advanced in the swing era?

improvisation became more advanced with more arpeggios over chord changes; scoring techniques improved; electric guitar (1936)

In the recording world from 1929-1939, _______ sold less, but there were more households with ________ and more _________ available.

Records; radios; jukeboxes

Who was Paul Whiteman?

"King of Jazz" (but not really bc had no improv and no swing feel); classically trained violinist; wanted to score jazz for a symphonic ensemble and called his music symphonic syncopation

What was a quote by Paul Whiteman?

he sought to "make a lady out of jazz"

Harmony in 1920-30s-40s?

Chord Tones (1,3,5 b7) and Extensions/Alteration (9, #11, 13)

Scoring techniques?

???

Sweet Jazz vs Hot Jazz?

???

Who was Fletcher Henderson?

important band leader/pianist/arranger; early swing style; predecessor to big band instrumentation (members like Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Don Redman); not a good manager; becomes arranger for Benny Goodman

Who was Duke Ellington?

Jazz composer and pianist; cotton club; radio broadcasts; innovative orchestrations (mutes, plunger, growls, "jungle sounds/music"); cater to instrumentalists abilities; always wanted to look sophisticated

What is Jungle Music?

post minstrelsy with "jungle" mindset associated with African Americans

Duke Ellington styles?

1) Pre-Swing (Cotton club Jungle Music for exotic dancers)
2) Mainstream swing
3) interest in "legit" composition

What was the Cotton Club?

mob owned (so dangerous) night club in Harlem where many black musicians (like Duke Ellington) go their start; they were allowed to play there but not be patrons.

What is Bubber Miley accredited with?

trumpet plunger mute and growls

Most distinguishing factor in swing?

walking

What styles was Kansas city known for?

blues and riff-driven styles

What are the two Kansas City Bands?

Walter Page's Blue Devils (technically from Oklahoma City but joined Moten's band later) and Bennie Moten's Band

What is Kansas City seemingly immune to? Why?

The Great Depression because it has over 300 clubs with live music (city councilman Tom Pendergast illegally allows gambling, prostitution, and alcohol during prohibition)

What does Moten do that is highly unusual?

Hires a 2nd pianist (William Basie)

What happens when Moten dies?

He dies from infected tonsillectomy and Count Basie basically takes over

What did Benny Goodman play?

clarinet

Who was Benny Goodman?

Goodman was the "King of Swing." He was the first white band leader to integrate his groups; music has strong African parallels; "Goodman ray" - where he would glare at you in the small groups or otherwise if you did something wrong

Who was Count Basie?

most famous bandleader
piano and organ
influenced by Fats Waller
known for the blues and riff-driven styles

Count Basie Rhythm Section:

greatest rhythm section of swing era

Count Basie Rhythm Section Members and instruments/style?

Count Basie: piano; (early career stride interjections) (mature was very sparse)
Freddie Green: guitar (strums all 4 beats, no solos)
Walter Page: bass
Papa Jo Jones: drums (changes how drums were played and the time keeping on the open symbols)

Also: Lester Young - tenor sax

What is Count Basie's "Signature"

"plink, plink, plink"

What is tutti play?

shouts all together with the same rhythms very loudly

What is a shout chorus?

when the band plays tutti

What is playing the changes?

the rhythm section players play the chord changes reading chord symbols

What are block chords?

8th note lines harmonized in parallel motion (big band arranging technique)

What does "A wh*re in church" mean in reference to Jazz History? What else happened at this event?

When Benny Goodman's band was playing Carnegie Hall this is what they described it as. Gene Krupa got the band back on swing and then Count Basie joins them in the finale and people in the audience actually get up and dance (history)

What is the Savoy Ballroom?

most popular one in Harlem; racially integrated; dance floor a full block long; Chick Webb was the house band

Who was Chick Webb?

Harlem's "King of Swing;" hunchback dwarf and played through the pain because of Spinal Tuberculosis; Ella Fitzgerald; simple, straightforward, hard-swinging music for dancers; "Beat" Benny Goodman and Count Basie's Band after the Carnegie Hall debacle

What was the saxophone section?

1) Alto Sax 1
2) Alto Sax 2
3) Tenor Sax 1
4) Tenor Sax 2
5) Baritone Sax

What is a sax soli?

when the sax section all stands up and starts playing

What characterizes the Basie "New Testament" Band?

Mature Basie style - post swing year
Shout chorus with horns in block chords moving in parallel motion creating a thick wall of sound
Dynamic Contrast

Who was Glenn Miller?

Most popular commercial swing band leader when US went to war
Made the glenn miller army air force band; plane disappears in bad weather over English channel

Women in Jazz?

Rita Rito; International Sweethearts of Rhythm; Mary Lou Willians; Maria Schneider

Who were the International Sweethearts of Rhythm

first female integrated big band; faced racial and gender biases while touring (police officer story)

Who was Mary Lou Williams?

famous swing pianist and arranger for big bands; early career in Kansas City (playing piano and arranging for Andy Kirk's band); played swing and bebop in her long career (ended up at Duke University)

Who was Maria Schneider?

greatest jazz composer (women or otherwise) since 1992

Describe Woody Herman

(Four Brothers)
1947 "second herd"
4 Brothers sax section:
- Stan Getz (tenor)
- Zoot Sims (tenor)
- Herbie Steward (tenor)
- Serge Chaloff (bari)

(Stan and Zoot were famous artists that go on to Bebop)

What is bebop?

"Virtuosic jazz"; birth of modern jazz; much faster tempos and unprecedented instrumental virtuosity; not as easy to sing along to or dance to

Who "invented" BeBop

Charles Christopher "Bird" Parker, Jr. (Alto sax) (Charlie Parker) (heroin) and John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (Trumpet) (Dizzy Gillespie) (teacher)

What happens to jazz in the nation with BeBop

it is no longer the popular music of the country

What is a contrafact?

New melody written to chord changes of existing tune, commonly used during Bebop Era

Changes in rhythm section during BeBop

- swing 4 on the floor dissipated because of faster tempos
- "dropping bombs" w/ bass drums (irregular accents)
- bass players still walk in 4 most of the time
- piano comping is more developed and stride is completely abandoned/outdated

Rhythm changing:

the most popular form of contrafact

What was Minton's?

the laboratory for bebop (Miles Davis)

What was the first BeBop recordings?

Dizzy's "Woody n you" led by Coleman Hawkins and Dizzy Gillespie

What is considered the 1st authentic BeBop recording?

Groovin High - Dizzy Gillespie (contrafact of "Whispering" by Paul Whiteman) (bebop horn players with a swing rhythm section)

What is Salt Peanuts?

By Dizzy Gillespie and His All Star Quartet; contrafact of "I Got Rhythm" by George Gershwin; well developed BeBop style; technical virtuosity; Al Haig (piano)

Who was Bud Powell?

"Charlie Parker" of piano (even though they didn't like each other); heroin much of his life; most famous bebop pianist with stationary L.H. and very active/important R.H.; alcoholism, beaten by police, nervous breakdown

How did Parker get hooked on heroin?

car crash where his best friend died and he was horribly injured and spent 2 months in hospital on morphine

Parker's Great Discovery?

KoKo contrafact of Cherokee and figured out he could play any note in the chord and resolve it in the chord; able to fly out of conventional chord changes

What is Chord-Scale pairing:

you can play arpeggios and scales and resolve anywhere to chord tones; can play any scale over a set of chord changes (Charlie Parker)

What was the "Billy Eckstine Band"

w/ Charlie (Bird) Parker and Dizzy Gillespie where a young Miles Davis wants to sit in with the band

Miles Davis and Parker relationship?

mentor and student sort of but mostly where Miles had rich parents so he ends up taking care of Parker and being conned out of things and money by him.

KoKo by Charlie Parker...

contrafact of Cherokee; Bud Powell didn't show up so Dizzy had to play piano and Miles couldn't play the tune so rumor is that Dizzy played piano and trumpet.

Trip to Hollywood for Parker

"Moose the Mooch" new drug dealer; "relaxing" at the Camarillo

Swing Era soloists...

had to keep up the energy

Benny Goodman...

insisted on having all members of his band, regardless of their skin color, allowed on Bandstand

Who was Charlie Christian?

1st great electric guitar player in jazz; played at the club Mittens; solo lines foreshadow BeBop

Who was John Hammond?

The most influential entrepreneur and activist of his period. He helped launch a lot of artists. His mother was connected to the Vanderbilts. He loved black jazz and folk music, he also had a hatred for racial injustice. He also joined the NAACP. Bessie Smith

Who were the three tenors?

Coleman Hawkins (Fletcher Henderson Band)
Ben Webster (Duke Ellington Band)
Lester Young (Count Basie Band)

What did the three tenors all have in common?

they all had a personalized sound and an emphasis on timbre

Who was Coleman Hawkins?

first great tenor sax player; Fletcher Henderson Band; fast hard vibrato; large strong sound; lots of chord arpeggios

Who was Lester Young?

main influence was Frankie Trumbauer; conscious decision to not play like Coleman Hawkins; smooth; understated; lighter; Count Basie Band; close with Billie Holiday; "greatest saxophonist ever;" 1 yr in detention barracks in army for marijuana

Who was Ben Webster?

Duke Ellington Band during mainstream swing era; much breathier sound; from Kansas City

Who was Jimmy Blanton?

bassist; 1st proficient bass soloist; driving sense of swing; joins band at 20 and dies at 23

Who was Django Reinhardt?

messed up left hand in fire; gypsy; traveled in caravans and played music to make money; France

What were crooners?

male singers who sang really soft without a lot of embellishments; mad possible with the advent of microphones; slower foxtrots; less syncopated

Who were some famous crooners?

Young Frank Sinatra
Bing Crosby
Russ Columbo
Fred Austaire

What was Tin Pan Alley?

hayday of songwriting business; publishers occupied whole block and have musicians on hand; west 28th street in NYC

What happened in the 1920s -40s with music?

songwriting teams and rich harmony (5-, 6-, and 7- note chords)

Harmony in popular music over time?

30s/40s: 7 note chords
50s: 3 and 4 note chords
70s/80s - now: 2 note (1&5) power chords

What was a "high point"

made the music seem fulfilling; when all of the music came up to a single highest note in the line

What is Gershwin's rhythm?

switching up the rhythm for something that would start on down beat gets twisted so starts on 4, not 1

Who was Al Jolson?

Jazz (but really just minstrelsy) continued into the 20th century; no swing feel or improv; he belts out music but not a lot of finesse

What songs would a lot of jazz performers also play?

Songs from the American Musical Theater

What is the new type of verse-chorus form with singers?

Verse a preparation for the chorus; Chorus: AABA; end.

How is jazz singing different from crooners?

there are more liberties with the melody and more vocal acrobatics; sassier; more syncopation; jazz band accompanies

Examples of Jazz Singers?

Billie Holiday; Ella Fitzgerald; Louis Armstrong; Later Sinatra

Columbo vs Holidy in All of Me

Columbo: crooning but not really song; interpretation
Holiday: more emphasis on how words are inflected

How did Frank Sinatra's singing style change?

began as a crooner and then became a jazz singer

Who was Billie Holiday?

jazz singer; bad upbringing; records "Strange Fruit" - brave move

Why was recording "Strange Fruit" a brave move on Billie Holiday's part?

it was a protest piece about African American men being lynched in the south

Who was Ella Fitzgerald?

also had troubled upbringings; homeless in NY for 2 years where she sings on the street; wins contest at Apollo theater and joins Chick Webb's band; radio airplay; scat singing

What is vocalese?

a style of jazz singing in which lyrics are written for melodies that were originally part of an instrumental composition or part of an improvisation

What was Ella Fitzgerald known for?

embellishing the melody and singing new words

Who did Ella Fitzgerald imitate?

Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and other instrumentalists

Who was Nat "king" Cole?

both a singer and excellent pianist; becomes more of a vocalist than pianist

Who was Charles Mingus?

young west coast bassist

Significance of "Salt Peanuts" live at Massey Hall?

last recorded meeting of Parker and Gillespie; recorded by Mingus and the bass lines were dubbed in afterward

Who was Fats Navarro?

great BeBop trumpet player