Cootie Williams
Trumpet player
Performed with Duke Ellington, “Concerto for Cootie”
Django Reinhardt
Belgian gypsy guitarist
1928 – Lost 2 fingers in a fire. Compensated with a new technique.
Un-amplified – unlike Charlie Christian
Quintette du Hot Club de France
First outstanding European Jazz Musician
Art Tatum
1909-1956
Severely limited vision
Amazing Technique & velocity at piano
Reharmonization
Willow Weep for Me
Tiger Rag
Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian w/ Goodman sextet.
Blues form. This is a compilation of several solos.
Each solo is introduced by a 4 bar phrase.
First to use amps
First example of amplified electric guitar
Congo Square
A place where slaves were permitted to dance
Now called Louis Armstrong park
New Orleans City Council 1817 designated Congo square as the official site for slave dances
Other parts of the country did not permit this and outlawed any African elements in the music of slaves. New Orleans Latin-Catholic influence was tolerant
Ragtime Form
AABBACCDD
Piano Genre
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy Ellington – (1899-1974).
Composer, bandleader, & pianist.
Wrote more than 2,000 compositions, more than just a songwriter.
Referred to as “master of the three minute form”.
Count Bassie
Born Red Bank, NJ, 1904
Style went from stride to very sparse.
Kansas City Swing Style
Uses Brass vs. Reeds – Call and Response
Emphasized swing as the main component.
First great rhythm section came out of this band
William “Count Basie – Piano
Freddie Green – Guitar
Walter Page – Bass
Jo Jones – Drums
Duke History
Born 1899 – Washington DC.
Father was a butler – cultivated, proper, & elegant.
Formed a band the “Washingtonians” and moved to NYC.
Categories of Duke’s Music
Jungle pieces – (Cotton club)
Popular dance pieces
Mood Pieces (Mood Indigo & In a Sentimental Mood)
Solo features – )Concerto for Cootie/Warm Valley)
Concert works – All of the suites
Duke Ellington played at the..
Historically important engagement at the “Cotton Club” (1927-31)
Played for floor shows
Critics said “Jungle Sounds”
“Bubber” Miley
Plunger Mute
Growls
Benny Goodman
As a soloist, he defined jazz clarinet as no other, before or since.
Established standards of technical perfection unheard of in that era.
Popularized Swing Style
Had First Racially Mixed band
Monk
Unorthodox composer, his work seriously challenged improvisers.
Able to play as if he could “bend” notes.
Used melodic, cell development. (Straight, No Chaser)
Minimum amount of material.
Called “High Priest of Bop”
Straight No Chaser
Epistrophy
Gerry Muligan on cool Jazz
Pipe and slipper music
Dave Brubeck
Achieved international fame. (Cover of TIME, 11/8/54)
Admired as a composer, not as a pianist.
Worked with Paul Desmond (Alto sax).
Mastery of “odd” meters.
Time Out – most famous album (1959)
Supermetric
blue rondo ala turk
small beat over the larger beat
Miles Davis
1949 – As influential as Armstrong’s Hot Five
Recording Projects with arranger Gil Evans.
Nine piece band – Nonet
Instrumentation was unusual, it added french horn and tuba.
Once again, the arrangement was central to the music.
Chet Baker
with Gerry Muligan
“Pianoless” quartet.
Used counterpoint as the main focus.
No harmonic instrument was present.
Counter Point
the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony.
Gil Evans
Recording projects with miles davis
Ellington in the 1950s
Continuation of excellence
Expansion of forms, and compositions.
Many believe his best works are from the 1930s and 40s.
More sacred concerts.
Suites – Such Sweet Thunder, Suite Thursday, Nutcracker Suite, Black Brown and Beige Suite
Ellington’s Film Score
“Anatomy of a Murder”
Billy Strayhorn
Ellington’s “alter ego”
Co-wrote much of the music during this period
Liked to compose is “dark” keys
Wrote Take the A Train, Lush Life (age 18), and collaborated on the suites
Flourished in Ellington’s shadow
It was difficult to discern where one’s style ended and the other’s began.
Bill Evans
One of the most influential jazz composers and pianists from the 1950s & 60s.
Highly influenced by French impressionist Maurice Ravel. (Harmonically)
He used a light, legato style.
Loved to play waltzes.
Studied at SLU in Hammond
Worked with Miles Davis on Kind of Blue
This album helped to solidify his reputation.
Bill Evans Cont.
He made four LPs with bassist Scott LaFarro – who revolutionized the technical approach to the double bass.
This trio used more of an equal contribution style, rather than piano solo with bass & drums accompaniment. (as compared to Oscar)
Drummer was Paul Motian.
This trio’s most significant contribution was to loosen the bebop formula patterns which were standard during the 1940s & 50s.
Chick Corea
He also belongs in the jazz fusion category
Followed Herbie Hancock in Miles Davis group.
Interest in voicing chords in fourths, both playing and compositionally.
Due to –bop voicings sound muddy on the electric piano.
Influenced heavily by Bill Evans and Spain.
Also influenced by L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology
John Coltrane
Tenor & Soprano Sax
After Charlie Parker, the most widely imitated saxophonist in Jazz.
Came to fame in 1955 with the Miles Davis quintet.
Worked with Monk in 1957, an important period.
Addiction to drugs/alcohol disrupted his career.
Coltrane Cont.
Overcame the addictions. (1957)
A Love Supreme celebrates this victory and the religious experience associated with it.
Believed in a universal musical structures which transcended ethnic distinctions. (Musica universalis)
Turned to radical musical styles in the mid 1960s. Attracted large audiences.
After his death, he acquired a cult-like following. Church in San Francisco bears his name.
Coltrane’s Music
One of his main objectives was to elaborate the full implications of bop chord progressions.
Improvised from formulae
Pattern oriented, rigid eighth note repetitions.
Impressive technique yielded sheets of sound.
Entrenched in the Thesaurus of Musical Scales by Nicholas Slonimsky.
Coltrane’s Influence
Enormous impact on contemporaries and future players.
Re-established soprano saxophone as a modern jazz instrument.
He sold hundreds of thousands of albums in his final years, & established Avant-Garde jazz as popular music. (Temporary)
weather Report
Significant in jazz history
Used collective improvisation
Emancipation of traditional roles in the rhythm section.
Little distinction between soloist and accompanist.
Important names
Joe Zawinul
Miroslav Vitous
Jaco Pastorious
Bass player (electric) with Weather Report
Changed the direction of jazz bass playing
Imitated just as the great jazz bassists.
Outstanding in four different roles
Walking Bass
Interactive approach (ala Scott LaFarro)
Funk Bass
Soloist
Jaco Cont.
A troubled genius
Health problems, drug use led to his death
Beaten to death, 9/21/87 by a bouncer (Luc Havan) in a South Florida nightclub.
Herbie Hancock
1973
Chameleon
Wanted to hire not jazz musicians who could play funk but to hire funk musicians who could play jazz.
Very electronic, lots of studio production and overdubs.
Platinum selling album.
ornette Coleman
Born 1930
Played alto saxophone
First recordings were from 1958 and 1960.
Club work was met with hostility.
“Harmolodic” – a term he invented to describe simultaneous soundings of a single melodic line, in different tonalities, pitches, or keys.
Harmolodic
a term he invented to describe simultaneous soundings of a single melodic line, in different tonalities, pitches, or keys.
Wynton Marsalis
Born in New Orleans
Played with Art Blakey
Numerous awards, Grammys & Pulitzer
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Pat Metheny
One of the biggest names in jazz in 70s and 80s.
Guitarist, he worked with pianist Lyle Mays.
Spacious and open sounds.
Some of his music falls into the “new age” category.
Scott Lafarro
was an influential jazz bassist, perhaps best known for his work with the Bill
Evans Trio
who revolutionized the technical approach to the double bass.
Paul Chambers
Bass player
Played with Miles Davis Quientet
Chano Pozo
worked with Dizzy
cuban percussionist
heard on cubanobe cubanobop
Art Blakey
Leader of Jazz Messangers
Drummer
Stan Getz
tenor sax
made Brazilian music popular
Clifford Brown
trumpet player
died at age 25 in car crash
Sonny Rollins
Played Tenor Sax
Played with Monk
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Main Brazilian composer
Played Piano/Guitar
John Zorn
Saxophonists, Avant Garde Composer
Performs in New York on opposite side of Wynton
Art Blakey
Drummer and leader of the Jazz Messengers
Epitomized the loosening of jazz drumming styles.
Used loud intrusions as accompanimental figures.
Clifford Brown
Worked with Sonny Rollins (Sax) and Max Roach (Drums)
Long fluid lines, reminiscent of bebop.
Died in auto accident at age 25.
Miles Davis
Influential on Four Decades of Jazz
West Coast (w/ Gil Evans)
Hard Bop/Modal (Kind of Blue)
Post Bop (1963-68)
Jazz Rock/Fusion (Bitches Brew)
Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.
Unmistakable sound. (Harmon)
Great use of space.
Miles Davis and Hard Bop
A less flamboyant trumpet player
Caressed harmonies rather than set them on fire.
Played standard tunes rather than originals
Used Cannonball Adderley on Alto sax
Miles First Great Quentet
Miles
Wayne Shorter (Saxophone)
Herbie Hancock (Piano)
Tony Williams (Drums)
Ron Carter (Bass)
Miles Davis’s Second Great Band
This band created a new jazz idiom.
Every album used new concepts.
They used tunes which did not have bridges, turnarounds, or sections.
Used these forms to encourage free-flowing sounds and improvisations.
Caused an “airy” feeling.
The Big Six
Louis Armstrong, Duke ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans
Vocalese
uses lyrics, either improvised or set to pre-existing instrumental solos.
Instumentation of Hardbop group
Standard group was the Quintet– Piano, bass, drums, trumpet, and tenor sax.
instrumentation of swing group
5 saxophones, 3-4 trumpets, 3-4 trombones, piano, bass, guitar, and drums.
Nicholas Slonimsky
Wrote the Thesaurus of musical scales
used by Monk
A book containing musical scales
smooth jazz
type of music played in elevators and on weather channel
chromatics
adds color to the music
smooth Jazz
Quiet refined “Funk” music.
Just as easy to hear or ignore.
Another definition–Instrumental pop music.
Fuzak – combination of fusion and muzak.
Best known practitioners are:
Kenny G
George Benson
Bob James
blues format
statement
statement
commentary
aaba format
each section has 8 measures with a bridge
Such Sweet Thunder
Duke Ellington
1957
Star Crossed Lovers
Duke Ellington’s Suite
Jazz Vocalist
added vibrato to add warmth to their sound
Brazilion
Bass notes are almost always on the beat.
Very light and airy.
Afro Cuban
More intense
More rhythmic
Bass notes are seldom on the beat.
Salsa, mambo, merengue.
Combination on duple and triple rhythms.
Augmentation
Larger by a semitone than the corresponding major or perfect interval
Fibonacci Series
Golden Section
.618
Duke Ellington used it
Lester young was influential on the saxophonists in which period of jazz history
cool jazz
Fusion
Almost always straight 8th music
Fusion uses more electronic instruments
Electric bass guitar rather than acoustic bass
Electric piano rather than acoustic piano.
Many electronic effects alter the sound.
Jazz Rock Fussion
a combination (borrowing) of the popular rock idiom of the 1960’s with the jazz idiom.
rock borrowed jazz harmonies, & improvisation
jazz borrowed the complex rhythms of rock and funk.
Funk
Orginated during hard pop era
Supermetric
a smaller beat on top of the Main beat
used in blue rhondo turk
cotton club
Important night club in the late 1920s featured balck entertainers and white audiences
bebop Characteristics
Name comes from the sound of the music.
Dominated by the saxophone.
Drug use was heavy in the bebop crowd.
Bop improvisation was more complex
Melodic chromaticism
Harmonies were more complex in bop
(Much more chromatic)
Comping was more prevalent than stride style and simple, on-the-beat chording
Surprise was more highly valued in bop.
Bop was a more agitated style than swing
bebop
Small chamber groups
Arrangements unimportant
Solos were always different
Aimed at listeners, not dancers
Guitar not used
Melodies were obscured
Focused on Blues / I Got Rhythm
Saxophone eclipses the clarinet
Louis Armstrong an uncle tom?
no, he had an fbi file due to his comments about the little rock 9
equal contribution
used by bill evans
every instrument is equally important, all make contributions to the music
head hunters
Herbie Hancocks band
Wanted to hire not jazz musicians who could play funk but to hire funk musicians who could play jazz.
Very electronic, lots of studio production and overdubs.
Miles Davis’s first band
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Bill Evans
Cannonball Adderly
Jimmy Cobb
Paul Chambers
Miles Davis’s Second Band
Miles
Wayne Shorter (Saxophone)
Herbie Hancock (Piano)
Tony Williams (Drums)
Ron Carter (Bass)
Moonlight in Vermont
song with lyrics that do not rythm.
haiku
Shirley Horn and Diana Krall
Play piano and sing at the same time
finale
a computer composing program
sin gua non
without which nothing
nonet instumentation
used by miles davis
added the french horn and tuba
sheets of sound
used by coltrane
due to his impressive technique
A Love Supreme
celebrates Coltrane’s victory and the religious experience associated with it.
Musica universalis
Believed in a universal musical structures which transcended ethnic distinctions.