Fine Music: Notable Jazz Musicians (& their Most Famous Works & Notable Biographical Info), Movements/Styles/Genres (& their Associative Artists & Characteristics), and Analysis of the History of Jazz (Causes & Effects, etc.)

Based on Ted Gioia's "A History of Jazz"

52nd Street, New York (Fact 1)

This was the new hub of Bebop after Minton's and Monroe's that drew in serious listeners and was first hosted by Dizzy Gillespie's first combo consisting of himself, George Wallington, Oscar Pettiford, and Max Roach; and eventually Don Byas on Tenor Sax

1000's - 1200's: Griot Music (Fact 1)

Instrumentation: Similar to Blues, the "Kora" provides stringed accompaniment for it in a similar way to the way the guitar accompanies Blues in that the use of the plucked string comments the melody like coming from the singer

1000's - 1200's: Griot Music (Fact 2)

Lyrical Content: Different from Blues, it focuses on preserving historical stories and folk tales of the tribes that participate in it, rather than a personal expression or individualized statement

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 1)

Characterized by its use of Call and Response, an element that relates to both the musical structure of a piece and its functionality and implementation in black social life

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 2)

Cultural Context: Characterized by its performances being an integral part of black social life including ritual occasions and rites of passage, and thus has an ability to transcend the present place or time at which it is being made or performed

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 3)

Cultural Context: Characterized by its performances being an integral part of black social life, including ritual occasions and rites of passage, and thus has a quality of functionality to it that demands attention to the listener, in other words it doesn't merely serve as background music

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 4)

Cultural Context: Characterized by only being able to truly understand its genres or styles if you know the dance that goes along with each genre or style, the dance and the music would not be able to exist without each other other and thus complement each other

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 5)

Instrumentation: Characterized by instruments (including percussion) that are used to emulate the human voice

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 6)

Composition: Characterized by an emphasis on Improvisation and Spontaneity

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 7)

Rhythm: Characterized by an extremely rich sense of rhythm, its most notable element

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 8)

Philosophical Context: Characterized by multiple approaches to its instrumentation, one of which is by finding it in the physical world through the use of everyday objects, especially tools (shells, flints, stones, sticks, weapons, tools, wheels, building devices, etc.) and/or "instruments" (drums, rattles, scrapers, gongs, clappers, friction instruments, percussion boards, etc.)

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 9)

Philosophical Context: Characterized by multiple approaches to its instrumentation, one of which is by finding it within oneself through the use of the humans hands (clapping) and voice (singing)

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 10)

Philosophical Context: Characterized by multiple approaches to its rhythm, one of which is making it a source of discipline and control (such as the Spirituals or the "Work Song" being a melody of disciplined labor)

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 11)

Philosophical Context: Characterized by multiple approaches to its rhythm, one of which is making it a source of liberation (such as the Blues, both "Country" and "Vaudeville" Blues)

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 12)

Music Theory: Characterized by superimposed beats and polyrhythms, constructing multiple layers of rhythmic patterns and forming a counterpoint of time signatures, making a polyphony of percussion

1000's - 1900's: Traditional West African Music and Early Jazz (Characteristic 13)

Historical Context: Characterized by the embodiment of the feeling of loss in regards to family, home, and possessions and of gain in regards to keeping and saving metaphysical aspects of their culture such as music and stories (folk tales)

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 1)

Religious Context: New Orleans was home to the Latin-Catholic Culture, which tolerated the New Orleans dance and music compared to the American Protestants, specifically Anglicans, that likely banned such dances and music in other cities and of which was discriminating against Catholics and Latin-Catholic Culture already, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 2)

Political Context: New Orleans' City Council passes a bill demonstrating unheard of levels of tolerance towards the namesake phenomenon, that allows for the establishment of an official site for slave dances to take place (Congo Square), and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 3)

Historical Context: New Orleans was home to the 1884-1885 World's Cotton Centennial Exposition, which oversaw Mexican Cavalry Bands play concerts for free, and which contributed to the Mexican and overall Latin Influence of New Orleans Music and Early (and all) Jazz, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 4)

Historical Context: New Orleans gathers a diverse group of people over time and becomes an ethnic melting pot unlike that of any other place in the New World, including Spanish and French settlers due to its change in ownership over time starting with its founding in 1718 by the French, then being ceded in 1764 to the Spanish, then being returned in 1800 to the French, and then being sold via the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to the United States, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 5)

Historical Context: New Orleans gathers a diverse group of people over time and becomes an ethnic melting pot unlike that of any other place in the New World, including Blacks that came as slaves from Africa, that came as slaves from the Caribbean, and that were native-born in America, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 6)

Historical Context: New Orleans gathers a diverse group of people over time and becomes an ethnic melting pot unlike that of any other place in the New World, including black and white Haitian Refugees fleeing from the Haitian Revolution or being forced to leave Cuba, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 7)

Historical Context: New Orleans gathers a diverse group of people over time and becomes an ethnic melting pot unlike that of any other place in the New World, including settlers from Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland; all of whom immigrated to the US in general during this time, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 8)

Historical Context: New Orleans saw the birth of genres such as Jazz and Blues because of the music and stories that were integral to African culture that African slaves could keep even after their family, homes, and possessions were taken away from them and they were stripped from their homeland, freedom, and unique social structures as a result of the West African Slave Trade, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 9)

Social Context: Because whites were imitating black stereotypes through the production of Minstrel Shows, notably with "blackface"; black entertainers of the day would, in turn, imitate white stereotypes of black behavior as a response and thus integrate such qualities into the music, which contributed to the overall namesake phenomenon as well, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Cause 10)

Historical Context: The North African conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain & Portugal) in 732 AD left a cultural impact in terms of the distinctive qualities of Art, Architecture, and Music on Europe, particularly Spain (and that would've taken over all of Europe if it hadn't been for Charles Martel stopping them at the Battle of Tours in France) and by which served as the first sign of an ethnic melting pot in referring to the Spanish, French, and (North) Africans, and thus contributed to the namesake phenomenon

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Effect 1)

Historical Context: New Orleans gathers a diverse group of people over time and becomes an ethnic melting pot unlike that of any other place in the New World, thus gradually and eventually completely eliminating many (and/or all) significant differences between cultures

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Effect 2)

Political Context: New Orleans behavior encourages slave revolt such as the Stono Rebellion, and thus, in turn, Southern State Legislatures such as South Carolina make it illegal for slaves to use drums (and horns or loud instruments in Georgia)

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Effect 3)

Religious Context: Religious Organizations (likely Protestant or Anglican ones) tried to convert the African aspects of slave music into Western ones, exemplified by the publication of Christopher Smart's and Dr. Isaac Watts' "The Hymns and Spiritual Songs"

1800's: 19th Century Syncretism of African and American Music (Effect 4)

Musical Context: Long-term, it would influence pretty much every genre ever from Pop to Rock to Soul to Jazz to Blues to Rap to Reggae

1800's: Calypso (Characteristic 1)

Historical Context: Afro-Caribbean style of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid-19th Century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th Century

1800's: Calypso (Characteristic 2)

Historical Context: Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso due to the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th Century

1800's: Calypso (Characteristic 3)

Characterized by highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals, and is most often sung in a French Creole or English and led by a Griot, eventually called a Chantuelle, and then after that a Calypsonian

1800's: Calypso (Characteristic 4)

Political Context: Around the time and place of its origin, English replaces "Patois" or Trinidadian (French) Creole as the dominant language, which gave its musicians opportunity to challenge the Governor, Legislative Council, and Town Councils of Port of Spain and San Fernando

1800's: Calypso (Sub-Genres)

Genre with Sub-Genres Including:

1) Benna (Antigua and Barbuda)

2) Mento (Jamaican Folk Music)

3) Ska (influences Rocksteady)

4) Reggae

5) Spouge (Barbadian Pop)

6) Soca (Kaiso and Chutney-Influenced)

1800's: Congo Square (Fact 1)

Place in New Orleans where slaves were allowed to play traditional African music and dance

1800's: Congo Square (Fact 2)

Now known as "Louis Armstrong Park"

1800's: Ring Shout (Fact 1)

Religious Ritual and Dance practiced by African Slaves in New Orleans, in which worshipers move and rotate counterclockwise in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands

1800's: Spirituals - "Work Songs" (Characteristic 1)

Ritualized vocalizing of black American slaves and later on, workers, that disregards Western systems of notation and scales

1800's: Spirituals - "Work Songs" (Characteristic 2)

Come in many types including field hollers, levee camp hollers, prison work songs, and street cries

1800's: Spirituals - "Work Songs" (Characteristic 3)

Philosophical Context: Stressing hard work and not being lazy was already a huge part of African culture regardless of the impact of slavery because they integrated the music into the occupations of the "here and now"

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 1)

Composition: Characterized by the use of the namesake scale (a normal natural minor scale but with a flatted 3rd, 7th, and 5th {the 5th was added later, it didn't start with it flatted} and sometimes a major 3rd instead of a minor one, especially in a vocal line), by the use of "bent" notes (the sliding between major and minor tonal centers of a chord, or the creation of tension by playing a minor third in the context of a harmony with a major tone {or vice versa}), both of which quickly spread to other genres of the 20th century after beginning with this one

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 2)

Composition: Some commentators and musicologists of the namesake genre speculate its unique techniques origination when the newly arrived slaves brought together the African Pentatonic Scale with the Western Diatonic Scale, the result being two areas of tonal ambiguity, around the 3rd and 7th Intervals

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 3)

Harmony: Characterized by heavy reliance on tonic, dominant, and subdominant harmonies

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 4)

Lyrical Form: Characterized by an AAB lyrical form in which one line is stated, the second line repeats it, and the third line rhymes with it, often 3 lines that make up 4 bars each

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 5)

Lyrical Content: Characterized by lyrics that feature themes and subjects associated with the artists' loss or lack of faith due to various unfortunate, troubling, tragic, or depressing events

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 6)

Song Form: Characterized by being 12 bars, but sometimes beats were added, subtracted, paused for breathing or speaking, etc. because of it not being as influenced by music derived from Western or European tradition

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 7)

Historical Context: Characterized as a movement that was a reaction against the previous movement of Gospel which was reflected in its lyrical content, can be seen as the antithesis of Gospel Music, sometimes referred to as "Badspel"

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 8)

Historical Context: Characterized as a movement that was an inspiration as the predecessor for the entirety of Country Music, since all Country music, starting with "Classical" Country, came from this genre of music first, not the other way around (not to be confused with Traditional/Folk Music, which also included "Spirituals")

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 9)

Geographical Context: Characterized often (but not always) as a movement of music that began in the spirit of the rural, before it ever became popular and moved to the city

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 10)

Lyrical Content: Characterized by featuring its artists' expressions of pain, oppression, poverty, longing, and desire but expressed in a way without self-pity but rather a mastery or overcoming of their circumstances through the music

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 11)

Philosophical Context: Serves the same aesthetic role as an Ancient Greek "tragedy", in which art finds fulfillment for both artist and audience by turning our attention to the oppressive and the tragic

1860's: Blues (Characteristic 12)

Composition: Characterized by the use of Improvisation and Spontaneity in music for the first time since the Baroque Era

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Artists)

Genre of Music with Artists Including:

1) Meade Lux-Lewis (The Boogie Boys)

2) Albert Ammons (The Boogie Boys)

3) Pete Johnson (The Boogie Boys)

4) Art Tatum

5) Charles "Pinetop" Smith

6) Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport

7) Count Basie

8) Tommy Dorsey

9) The Andrew Sisters

10) Roosevelt Sykes

11) Amos Milburn

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 1)

Historical Context: It took its sister genre Ragtime, which was piano-based and had syncopated rhythms and combined it with its predecessor genre Blues, which was guitar-based, making a happier, more up-tempo, piano-based style of Blues, or as it is sometimes referred to, "Piano Blues"

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 2)

Choreographic Context, Rhythm Section: The "Shuffle" is the typical dance to this genre, since it was the first genre of any genre of music ever to have a backbeat, or accents on the 2nd and 4th beats by its rhythm section, which made it easier and more fun to dance to

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 3)

Purpose: Dancing, Emotional Appeal but with Intellectual Performance, just like its sister genre Ragtime, except the dance wasn't the "Foxtrot" anymore, it was the "Shuffle", and was another name for the "Shuffle" dance that accompanied the music

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 4)

Instrumentation: Solo Piano, the Left Hand represents the Bass (usually comped blues chords, but sometimes could represent the Melody with certain pattern techniques) and the Right Hand represents the Harmony and Melody as syncopated melody lines or block chords and both represent the Rhythm

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 5)

Composition: The Left Hand representing the Bass, which plays a steady, repetitive, nonstop pattern based on blues chord progressions that often represents the Melody as well while the Right Hand representing the Harmony plays offbeat or Counter-Rhythmic Chords, Ostinatoes, Licks/Riffs, and Melodies, offsetting each other to, like its sister genre, create an interesting and unique feel overall

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 6)

Historical Context: Started immediately after the end of the Great Depression and the End of Prohibition and passing of the 21st Amendment, "Boogie Woogie" just refers to alcohol and the craziness of it and the of the "Shuffle" dance to the music, and because it spread through barrel houses because of the end of prohibition, it is also sometimes called "Barrel House" Blues

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 7)

Composition/Instrumentation: Characterized by the use of insistent left-hand patterns based on blues chord progressions, underscoring syncopated melody lines or block chords in the right hand

1870-1920: Boogie Woogie (Characteristic 8)

Etymology: The name comes from the namesake dance that accompanies it

1897-1920: Ragtime (Artists)

Genre of Music with Artists Including:

1) Scott Joplin (Sedalia, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri)

2) Scott Hayden (Sedalia, Missouri)

3) Arthur Marshall (Sedalia, Missouri)

4) Tom Turpin (St. Louis, Missouri)

5) Artie Matthews (St. Louis, Missouri)

6) Louis Chauvin (St. Louis, Missouri)

7) James Scott (Carthage, Missouri)

8) Joseph Lamb (New Jersey)

9) William Krell (Mississippi)

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 1)

Instrumentation: Solo Piano, the Left Hand represents the Bass, Harmony, & Rhythm and the Right Hand represents the Melody

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 2)

Composition: The Left Hand plays Bass Notes (a resounding note such as a fifth, octave, or tenth) on the first and third beats (and thus could represent the kick drum of the Rhythm Section) and middle-register Chords on the second and fourth beats (and thus could represent the snare drum of the Rhythm Section) and goes back and forth with a march-like feel WHILE the Right Hand plays a Melody that has a "syncopated" rhythm that is different from that of the rhythm in the left hand and a melody that is constructed entirely out of repeated syncopated figures, which in turn creates an overall namesake-timed rhythm and by which needs no accompaniment for it covers Bass, Rhythm, Melody, and Harmony all at the same time

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 3)

Form: AABBACCDD (Four Themes) with a change in key with the introduction of the first "C" and with each melody (letter) usually being 16 bars

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 4)

Historical Context: Musical Genre popularly encouraged and increasingly demanded due to the the massive increase in production and spread of pianos into American households (from 100K per year at its start [1890] to 350K per year at its end, the same year that marked the peak level of the number of pieces published of the namesake genre [1909]) marked by 295 separate companies that were manufacturing pianos and 69 separate companies that were producing piano supplies

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 5)

Geographical Context: Missouri was the forefront of this musical genre, which took mainly after St. Louis Blues, but was also focused in cities like Sedalia and Carthage, Missouri

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 6)

Artistic Context: Genre of Music that was supposed to capture or depict the "speed and snap" of the new and modern American Life come the turn of the century (Irving Berlin)

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 7)

Purpose: Dancing, Emotional Appeal but with Intellectual Performance, just like its sister genre Boogie Woogie

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 8)

Feel: Disciplined, Structured, Calm

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 9)

Improvisation: There isn't any

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 10)

Influences: Genre of Music influenced by the syncopated rhythms of 19th Century African-American Banjo Dance Music as well as French "Contredense"

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 11)

Characterized by the lack of vocals because of the complexity and intricacy of the melodic lines produced by the syncopations created by the right hand on the piano in it

1897-1920: Ragtime (Characteristic 12)

Historical Context: Characterized by the growing popularity and mechanical development of the innovative player pianos (making up over half of the output of the US Piano Industry) such as the Angelus Cabinet Player Piano (1897)

1900's: Country Blues (Artists)

Genre of Music with Artists Including:

1) Robert Johnson

2) Charlie Patton

3) Willie Brown

4) Tommy Johnson

5) Son House

6) Leadbelly

7) Blind Lemon Jefferson (Texas Blues)

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 1)

Instrumentation: More specifically than with its parent genre, it is made up of just a singer and his guitar and nothing else which reflects its emphasis on personal expression, such guitars used included bottleneck guitars and cheap banjos, the guitar was the defining instrument of the genre

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 2)

Lyrical Content: More specifically than with its parent genre, its lyrics are characterized by subjects and themes associated with loneliness, alienation, and desolation

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 3)

Philosophical Context: More specifically than with its parent genre, its lyrics are characterized by subjects and themes associated with the MALE view of the world compared to its sister genre

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 4)

Geographical Context: More specifically than with its parent genre, it is characterized by its artists being born and raised along the Mississippi Delta, and is often referred to as "Delta" of the namesake genre

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 5)

Form: More specifically than with its parent genre, its based their form on 12 bars, but often varied it due to its emphasis on personal expression

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 6)

Lyrical Content: More specifically than with its parent genre, and quite similarly with its Texas-based sister genre, its lyrics also heavily emphasize religion

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 7)

Geographical Context: Is Rural

1900's: Country Blues (Characteristic 8)

Many of its musicians failed to keep time in groups of musicians or in performances of their works as elaborate band arrangements, but this was because the essence of the music was supposed to be individualized and a tight ensemble sound was not central to the music

1900's: Race Records (Fact 1)

Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners that mainly features black female vocalists and was prominent during the time of Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues

1900's: Race Records (Fact 2)

Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners that were priced at 50-75 cents that sold well especially since the companies that created them sent "talent scouts: on field trips to find and record promising black musicians mostly in Atlanta but also in Memphis, Dallas, and New Orleans

1900's: Texas Blues (Characteristic 1)

Sound: A subgenre of Country Blues, its singers applied the thin tones of the high end of their voice, rather than just the low end

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Artists)

Genre of Music with Artists Including:

1) Bessie Smith

2) Ma Rainey

3) Mamie Smith

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 1)

Instrumentation: A singer at the forefront of a relatively large brass band, reflecting the lack of personal expression as compared to its sister genre

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 2)

Lyrical Content: More specifically than with its parent genre, its lyrics are characterized by subjects and themes associated with unrequited, salacious, or abusive love, sex, and has an overall playful or joyous quality to it as compared to its sister genre

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 3)

Philosophical Context: More specifically than with its parent genre, its lyrics are characterized by subjects and themes associated with the FEMALE view of the world compared to its sister genre

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 4)

Geographical Context: More specifically than with its parent genre, it is characterized by its artists growing up and performing in not one single place, but rather in traveling performance groups including the namesake type of group, as well as circuses and minstrel shows

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 5)

Form: Strictly followed the 12 bar form of its parent genre, it never varied from it, reflecting the lack of personal expression and conforming to a formula as compared to its sister genre

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 6)

Composition: More formulaic construction of music compared to its sister genre, with strongly heavy use of arrangements, solos, introductions, call and response between instruments and their sections, etc.

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 7)

Historical Context: Characterized by a shift in the audiences of the parent genre, from a form of folk art to a form of mass entertainment, fueled by the growth in the market for blues recordings, and resulting in the commercialization of the parent genre

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 8)

Economic Context: Because of the shift from folk art to mass entertainment, because of the sexually themes and lyrics often employed in many of its songs, and its reshaping of blues into a phenomenon related to the upper class; it alienated the middle class, especially in the black community

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 9)

Geographical Context: Is Urban

1900's: Vaudeville ("Classic") Blues (Characteristic 10)

Many of its artists were performing in both the Jazz and namesake genre, rather than just the latter because it drew on other forms of music

1920's-1945 - Kansas City Big Band Jazz/Swing (Characteristic 1)

Economic Context: Characterized by many of its musicians performing there because that's where the money was and ultimately, economic necessity drew them there

1920's-1945 - Kansas City Big Band Jazz/Swing (Characteristic 2)

Political Context: Characterized by being a part of a town with a tolerant but corrupt government controlled by political boss Tom Pendergast