Cool Jazz
school/type of jazz that grew out of Bebop, possesses a ligher, more laid back quality.
Third Stream
music that synthesizes the characteristics of classical music and other traditions, like jazz. it may involve composition or improvisation, or both. both classical and jazz composers contributed. not necessarily “cool” in style, but he thought derived from the birth of the cool sessions and several of its participants.
What are the musical characteristics of Hard Bop?
powerful emotions, vigorous rhythms, a tough urban and straight-forward attitude. Hard-swinging and syncopated rhythms, blues basis, experimentation with meter, and long solos.
What is the difference between Hard Bop and Cool?
The west coast style/Cool aims for light timbre, while hard bop favors a heavy, dark, impassioned timbre. hard bop is generally louder and faster, and relies less on trappings of composition and arrangement.
What is Thelonious Monk’s compositional style?
He uses reputation, his style is rooted in blues, focuses on logic and consistency, lots of dissonance, use of chromaticism and whole note scale, lots of syncopation.
What styles did Thelonious Monk discard?
traditional concepts of melody in jazz, current approaches to rhythm (bop), the excess characteristic of bop, harmonic improvisation instead he conceived improvisation as a n outgrowth of the original melody.
What was Gil Evan’s work as arranger?
Jazz arranger rather than a performer or composer. instead, focused on preexisting works, radically altering them into imaginative new pieces. he was self taught, and joined claude thornhill’s band as arranger where he pioneered Cool.
What was Gil Evan’s compositional/arranging style?
his style was individual/idiosyncratic, though influenced by ellington. expanded orchestration using orchestral instruments and amplified piano, electric bass, synthesizers. his sound was described as rich and dark, restrained use of vibrato.
What was George Russel’s association with modalism?
His idea of modalism developed during a 15 month stay in a tuberculosis war, 1945-46.
1. involves improvisation using lydian scale (major scale with raised 4th note) from which each chord derives, allowing improvisation to focus on melodies rather than harmonies.
2. freed jazz musicians from a reliance on 32-bar popular song forms and 12-bar blues, since scales guide improvisation.
What is Charles Mingus’ compositional style in reference to styles he incorporates?
His output (of ca. 300 pieces) spans all extant styles of jazz. incorporates elements from gospel, new orleans polyphony, the blues, ragtime, classical music, swing, and bop. worked with conventional forms like blues and popular song forms.
What is Charles Mingus’ compositional style in reference to rhythm and overall sound?
His rhythm had frequent contrasts (switching to stop time or double time), changes of tempo and/or meter, use of latin, shuffle, and other patterns. frequent changes of texture, striking dissonance, collective improvisation, overlapping riffs, fondness for the timbres of low instruments (bass, trombone, baritone sax, tuba).
What is Miles Davis’ trumpet style?
characterized by lyricism, focus on melody and timbre, played fewer( and longer) notes in the middle register, which created relaxed, tuneful melodies.
What trends/styles were instigated by Miles Davis?
He introduced Harmon/wah wah mute to Jazz in 1954 and helped popularize the fugelhorn ca. 1958. adapted himself to cool, hard bop, jazz-rock fusion, and model jazz. he was the most innovatory musician in Jazz between 40’s and mid 70’s.
What piece did Miles Davis’ Sextet create?
Kind of Blue, which became one of the best selling Jazz albums of all time and influenced countless other musicians.
What is Miles Davis’ Sextet association with Modal Jazz?
Elected to use scales as basis of improvisation rather than harmonies, which simplified score harmonically and maximized it’s emotional content (due to the slow, drawn-out lines)
What is Modal Jazz?
Style of jazz that developed in late 50’s, emerged as specific alternative to bop.
What are Modal Scales?
scales other than minor or major. They serve as the basis of both melodic and harmonic content.
1. scales/modes are those of medival catholic church, as well as those of cultures outside western europe and its diaspora.
2. rarely involves strict adherence to the modes.
What is modal improvisation?
1. improvisation based on modal scales.
2. often coincides with slow moving/static harmonies.
3. can more easily create an unhurried and meditative feeling.
4. absence of frequent chord change is indication of modal jazz.
Who is John Coltrane?
Perhaps the boldest explorer of Modal Jazz, a cultural/ethical leader of Avant-garde Jazz in the ’60’s. His first long-term band experience was on alto saxophone, but then he began playing tenor.
What is Avant-garde Jazz?
the advance group in any field- but esp. in the visual, literary, or musical arts – whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox methods and experimentation.
What are the 4 aims of Avant-garde Jazz?
Musicians aimed to liberate Jazz from-
1. repeating chord progressions
2. previously-composed melodies, esp. Tin Pan Alley standards
3. the swing groove
4. Predictable roles for the players/instruments of the ensemble.
What were some characteristics of Avant-garde Jazz in the 1960’s?
Emphasis on “free” collective improvisation, and a cultivation of voice-like sounds, created by avoidance of “cool” timbres, distorting the sounds of traditional Jazz instruments, adopting or inventing unconventional (for jazz) instruments, though not electronic ones.
more of a focus on texture rather than melody.
Who was Ornette Coleman?
an alto sax player and composer, the first individual to receive a pulitzer prize for a recording, the most disruptive figure in jazz during late 50’s and early 60’s. his 1960 album Free Jazz imparted that name to the Avant-garde Jazz of the 60’s, probably the most important influence on Avant-garde jazz for the next 10 years.
What was the association with the radicalism of ’50’s and 60’s Avant-garde/Free Jazz and Ornette Coleman?
He was attacked in late 40’s, so he taught himself Music Theory and started to develop a radically new concept/style based on musical intuition and highly personal reinterpretations of music theory. Most disruptive figure in jazz during late 50’s and early 60’s.
What is Loft Jazz?
a term sometimes applied to the Avant-garde Jazz performed in New York lofts 1964-86. stereotypically associated with new york, though chicago was also major center.
What is eclecticism/pluralism in reference to Loft?
Open to inspiration from any/all styles of music including Pop and Rock, Funk, Samba, World Music and folksong, 20th-century classical music
What is Fusion?
Jazz-Rock hybrids. in a more general sense, fusion embraces a hybridization of Jazz and any other type of music, like jazz and soul, jazz and pop, jazz and funk, jazz and folk music, and jazz and latin-american music.
What is soul jazz?
an offshoot of Hard Bop that incorporates aspects of Rhythm and Blues.
What are some characteristics of soul jazz?
strong backbeat; aggressive, urban sound; simple chords resembling those of Gospel; shorter solos (than bop and related styles); clear dance rhythms; tuneful melodies; typically performed by small groups led by a sac player; frequently makes use of piano or electric organ; demonstrates an african orientation through colloquial spelling titles, use of slang in titles, or titles referencing soul food, churchgoing and other aspects of african-american life.
WHat is the hammond organ?
an electric organ intended to replicate the sound of a pipe organ, but comparatively compact/portable.
what is the association between hammond organ and soul jazz?
Jimmy Smith, who was considered the first player to make the organ effective as a (nearly) complete jazz ensemble, used both the hammond organ and soul jazz together in his song “the organ grinder’s swing.”
what is latin jazz?
jazz that incorporates elements of latin-american music, especially its dance rhythms (which are closely related to west-african rhythms).
what is the latin groove?
subdivides the beat into equal halves (unlike swing groove), and accents are irregular and syncopated.
what is cubop?
a style of jazz that fuses bebop and traditional elements of cuban music, distinguished from the more general category of Latin Jazz by its specifically Cuban basis. (also called Afro-Cuban Jazz).
What is Bossa Nova’s nation of origins?
IT is a type of brazilian popular music that originated by affecting radical changes to the traditional urban samba (ie. a sung ballroom dance in a duple meter and making use of polyrhythm).
WHat is Bossa nova’s association with Stan Getz?
Stan Getz was a leading tenor sax player of the 50’s. He initiated a Bossa Nova craze in the US.
How does Funk facilitate Jazz-rock fusion?
Jazz drummers learned to adopt a funk groove; bassists started replacing walking bass lines with more syncopated patterns; some bands started cultivating a more “electric” sound by using electric guitars and the hammond organ; the complex harmonies of funk are compatible with jazz chords; and the slow-moving chord changes of funk are compatible with modal improvisation.
what is smooth jazz?
the term emerged in the late 80’s early 90’s as a replacement for the term fusion. supposed to indicate a hybrid style, while simultaneously connoting something “innocuous, listener-friendly”. it blends jazz, funk, and romantic tunes of soul. kenny G is often considered the inventor of the style, but it is continuation of the “sweet soul” of grover washington jr. and george benson.
what is smooth jazz’ commercial orientation?
1. musicians, broadcasters, and record companies formed a symbiotic, profit-driven triangle perpetuating the style.
2. particularly welcomed by radio stations who purported to play jazz, but had playlists dominated by soul, blues, and blues-rock in order to maintain an audience.
what is jam band jazz’s musical characteristics?
use of extended improvisation, long sets in performance, and crossing of genre/stylistic boundaries.
What is acid jazz?
a fusion of 60’s soul jazz with the rhythms, rapping and technology of hip-hop. developed/flourished during the late-night dance scene of the late 80’s and early 90’s.
what are the two types of styles acid jazz encompasses?
1. the syncopated rhythmic interplay between instruments (characteristic of funk)
2. the complicated harmonies of post-bop jazz.
who is willie “bunk” johnson?
a trumpet-player active during the new orleans period whose career was resurrected after the publication of Jazzmen.
what was willie bunk johnson’s association with 40’s jazz historicism?
he helped create a schism between (conservative) jazz revivalists and (radical) boppers.
who was wynton marsalis?
a jazz trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and educator; considered the leader of the neoclassical movement.
what is wynton marsalis’ personal delineation of what constitutes jazz?
he insists that in order for something to be jazz, it must incorporate swing rhythms and the blues, as well as call and response. the avant-garde style is not jazz in his opinion, and he has shut this style out of the lincoln center.
he has also ridiculed the practice of wearing african garb and face paint by some jazz musicians.
what is the racial association for cool and west coast jazz?
most often associated with white musicians in CA, and weren’t necessarily CA natives. The name has roots in african-american verbal expression.
what is the racial association with hard bop?
reemphasized the african-american orientation of bebop, (east coast blacks)
what was charles mingus’ reaction to the little rock crisis?
he composed “fables of faubus” because he used jazz as a means of discussing/exposing prejudice.
what were the aims of the civil rights movement?
1. dissolving racially segregated public facilities in the south
2. restoring suffrage to southern blacks
what was brown vs. the board of education?
it ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954, overturning plessy vs. ferguson (1896) and “seperate but equal”
who was james meredith?
he sued to enter the university of mississippi in 1962; though meredith won the suit, ms governor barnett blocked his admittance until president kennedy showed up with US marshalls (which turned the campus into a riot zone).
What was the little rock crisis?
took place in 1957, in which arkansas gov. faubus prevented 9 black students from entering a white high school until president eisenhower called in the national guard.
what was the civil rights act of 1964?
banned segregation in employment practices, public places, and schools.
what was the voting rights act of 1965?
banned discriminatory practices leading to disfranchisement.
what was the immigration and nationality services act of 1965?
abolished immigration quotas that had been in place since 1924.
what was the fair housing act?
also known as the civil rights act of 1968, which prohibited sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, or national origin; later expanded to gender (1974), the physically disabled (1988), and families with children (1988).
what were the actions/efforts of jazz musicians during the civil rights movement?
1. performing at benefit concerts
2. recording albums with political themes
3. attributing political meaning to some jazz aesthetics
4. the exploration of african and other non-american/non-european musical and religious ideas
5. engaging in highly-charged dialogues about race and racism in the jazz industry.
what was the association with black nationalism and avant-garde jazz?
avant-garde was loosely linked to black nationalism, stems partly from the radical politics of some practitioners and advocates, as well as the explosive/expressionistic nature of the music.
what were the general aims of black nationalism?
1. socio-political movement prominent in the 60’s and early 70’s among some african americans
2. sought to acquire economic power for blacks, foster a sense of community, and maintain/promote a separate black identity