American Jazz

bebop, cool jazz, and swing

Swing

* 1935-1946
* emphasis on offbeat
* bands featured soloists who would improvise on melody over arrangement
* danceable, big bands, radio-broadcasting
* less strict syncopation gone can hear the feel/groove in the swing beat
* swung quavers
* composed - usually a conductor
* wind and brass solos - well planned ahead, short, set time.
* trumpets, trombones, alto, tenor and Bari saxes. piano in rhythm section = guitar, drum kit, double bass without bow it is all plucked
* bands 12-25 people

Riff- relaxed phrase repeated over changing the melodies - similar to an ostinato, but ostinato used in classical music

Hits - repeated notes played by brass

* harmony = simple chords, walking bass
* melody = clear smooth memorable melodies
* rhythm = solid beat, dance groove, swung. anchoring
* Louis Armstrong (trumpet)
* Duke Ellington (pianist) - C-Jam blues
* Count Basie - One O’Clock Jump
* Benny Goodman - Facinating Rhythm
* Glenn Miller - In The Mood
* developed after the prohibition of alcohol.

Bebop

* after 1940
* swing musicians had jam sessions (serious musicians)
* take simple but play it super fast with complex chord subs + transpose song up one semi tone
* walking bassline
* ride cymbal off beat
* listening music
* head (theme) - solos - head
* focus on individual virtuosity
* complex harmony
* largely improvised
* difficult melody - rhythm section also has melodies even drums
* jazz chord substitutions - try to stay away from primary chords
* dissonance
* saxophone, trumpy, bass, drums and piano
* ==drum bombs - refers to bombs from second world war==
* tritones

ARTISTS

* Charlie Parker (sax)
* Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet)
* Bud Powell - piano
* Roy Hayns - drums
* Tommy Potter - double bass

cool jazz

* after WWII
* low energy, shorter whereas bebop is long
* restrained and relaxed
* slow medium tempo
* light rhythm and quiet rhythm section
* play behind beat
* little dynamics
* legato - limited and no vibrato
* lyrical melodies smooth and melodic
* classical influence
* Rhapsody in Blue = Gershwin
* %%1949-1955%%
* strange time signatures
* Miles Davies,Chet Baker
* Paul Desomd and Lee = sax

One o'clock jump

* Composed by Count Basie and Buster Smith, arranged by Eddie Durnam, ^^1937^^
* Kansas city style big band playing
* ^^12 bar blues^^ - cyclical - over and over again
* saxophone riff borrowed from another piece Six/Seven Times from 1929
* saxophone battles between Hershel and Lester
* syncopation
* FORMAT

%%4 bar intro,%%

%%2 choruses (2x 12 bar blues) which is just piano improv - Basie - F Major.%%

%%mod to D flat major - creates lift%%

%%each soloist 12 bars - tenor, trombone, sax, trumpet, bass%%

%%4 choruses of ensemble riff = brass and saxes alternate%%

* listen for riffs in background
* PLAYERS

Basie = piano

Walter Page = double bass

Joe Jones = drums

Hershel Evans = tenor sax

Lester Young = trombone, plays in a more bebop style

George Hunt = saxophone

Boblicity

• cool jazz

• composed by Cleo Henry. co written Miles Davies and Gil Evans

• walking bass

• 1950s

• INSTRUMENTALISTS

Gerry Milligan - Bari Sax

Miles Davies + Chet Baker - Trumpet

Dave Brubeck - Piano

Paul Desmond, Lee Konite - Alto sax

Gil Evans - arranger

• SONG FORMAT

32 bar song with form AABA

F major - B flat major - A flat major - F major

clean harmonies, dissonant, no vibrato, subdued rhythm section lyrical, legato, improvised scales, solos + arrangements

chromaticism, double time, syncopation

improvised solos + arrangement

• ORDER OF PLAY

Gerry solo (2 A sections)

Harmonised, background fugues

Short solo

Return to A section

Anthropology

* Bebop
* Charlie Parker + Dizzy Gillespie 1945
* B flat major - associated with rhythmic changes. 300bpm
* form: AABA
* walking bass - no bass solo
* alto sax, trumpet, piano, double bass, drums
* improvisation, chromatic, irregular structure, syncopation


* originally Thriving On a Riff
* contrafact - used harmony of I’ve Got Rhythm ( I - vi - ii - V) (used form AABA, everything 8 bars.) melody is the new thing

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* SOLOS + ORDER OF PLAY

1) Charlie Parker’s Improv

1st chorus - many original ideas

2nd and 3rd chorus - quotations from: Tenderly, High Society, Temptation

2) Drum solo

4 bar exchanges with Charlie and Dizzy

no bass solo = walking bass

3) Dizzie Gillepsie

3 choruses, quick phrases, lyrical playing, hear drum bombs

4) Bud Powell

piano, all original ideas, 2 choruses

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* PLAYERS

Charlie Parker (sax)

Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet)

Bud Powell - piano

Roy Hayns - drums

Tommy Potter - double bass

C Jam Blues

12 bars blues
- head, solos, head
- quavers on 1 then 1 and 3
- C and G only notes = g provides motion and harmonic ush to repeat the entire melody again
- fast tempo

Koko

- bebop by Charlie Parker
- 32 bars intro
- Chorus is in 3rds then in octaves
Each player (Parker and Gillipsie plays a dazzling 8 bar arabesque before playing final 8 bars together
64 bars of chorus
- structure of each 64 bar chorus? = 32 bar ternary (aaba)
- 32 bar intro
64 bar chorus
2nd 64 bar chorus
32 bar drum solo
28 bar coda
- Sax, trumpet, drums, double bass
- ends with imperfect cadence