ShamarlonY

= o_o Let's JAZZ it up o_o  =



__-- Jazz at Rittenhouse Square --__
====On one sunny afternoon on May 13, 2010, our African American History teacher Mr. Sherif decided to take the whole class out to Rittenhouse Square so we could do short surveys about either our group ethnomusicology page or our individual BM page. Below you will find some short review questions that I used to guide my research. Below that is a brief description of the background and origin of jazz. In the background and origin section you will read about the role of slavery in the development of the music and also the role of European musical instruments as well. I then went on to explain improvisation and its role in jazz music. There is also an example of improvisation on the piano. I then went one to explain individual styles of jazz that developed over the years. In this section you will learn about styles such as ragtime, swing, bebob and cool jazz and listen to examples of these styles of jazz. It is also important to talk about the decline of jazz so I included a section titled, "What happened in the 1960s?" After this section, I connected back jazz music to the history of African Americans. After this, there is a short documentary about jazz in the world today and interviews with modern jazz musicians. There is there is a section where I analyzed data from the 1930 US Census and related it back to African Americans and jazz music. The final section is a bibliography where I cite the website where I got my information from.====

====For my individual page about jazz, I had a short Q & A session with a few of the patrons at the park. I also took tallies of how many people listen to jazz and how often. I think that this was a great opportunity to listen to what people had to say about my music and what it means to them. I got to meet some very profound thinkers who were very polite and willing to answer my questions.====

**Question**: Did your childhood influence your love for jazz music?
==== **Answer**: Well I think that it did for me. I grew up in the 1960s where classic jazz was becoming unpopular. There was just so much change going on people were finding other forms of entertainment. But one day my dad took me to a John Coltrane concert and I loved it. Sometimes his music was fast and he was just going out of control and at other times, the music was so calm it could put you to sleep. From that day onwards, I love jazz music. So I owe to my dad for bringing me to that concert when I was just a boy.====

**Question:** How does jazz music fit into your daily life?
==== **Answer**: I think that jazz is just amazing. I own a lot of jazz CDs and I listen to it on the radio. It is always on in my car. It just makes my day more enjoyable and it relaxes me at work. There is harmony, rhythms and joy in the music. The style of jazz that I listen to depend on my mood. So if I feel happy, I will listen to some fast playing blues (eg. Dizzy Gillespie) and when I am in a bad mood I listen to more slower tempo jazz (eg. Miles Davis)====

** Question: ** Why don't you like jazz music?
==== **Answer**: I really don't know. Jazz is just not my thing. I prefer alternative rock and heavy metal because that is what I listened to all of my teen years. Jazz is just to old for me and it is not that popular anymore. Jazz is not the only genre of music that I don't like. I also don't like classical, blues, pop and disco music. Rock is just my thing!====


 * Fig. 2- How many people listened to jazz music and how often. (No. of people surveyed 34) **



**__-- Brief background and origin --__**
====Jazz is a music genre that originated at the begging of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. During the Atlantic slave trade, millions of Africans were brought to the United states and they also brought along their tribal musical traditions with them. African music was largely functional, for work or ritual and includes work songs and field hollers. These types of African music used a single-line melody and and call and response. At this same time, a lot of white Europeans lived in the South and they still played traditional European music in their communities. Interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment were some of the elements of the European classical music. In New Orleans, the culture of African and Europeans was intertwined. This dates back to the days of slavery because New Orleans was the only North American city that allow slaves to gather in public and play their native music. Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana was one of the best example. In the early 19th century, an increasing number of black musicians learned how to play European instruments, particularly the violin. Over the years, a merged occurred between and jazz was formed. New Orleans is now known as the birthplace of Jazz. In the early years, jazz was only confined to the states around the Mississippi Delta. As the music grew, it spread to states in the north, west and east.====

====One of the key and most well known element of jazz was improvisation. Jazz improvisation is the process of spontaneously creating fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes of a tune. It has been said that the best improvised music sounds composed, and that the best composed music sounds improvised. This was able to keep jazz musicans on the tip of their toes. Always trying to make up new melodies, rhythms and beats. This gave room for a wide variety of jazz. Because of improvisation, jazz never got boring, you always heard something new and enticing. A performer will interpret a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition exactly the same way twice. Depending upon the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with fellow musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician/performer may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will. Although improvisation was an important element of jazz, it was no the only one. There is also "call and response" patterns where one instrument, voice, or band section answers another. With a few exceptions found in some styles, most jazz is based on the principle that an endless number of melodies can fit the chord progressions of a song.====
 * ==== "Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise" ~ George Gershwin ====

**1958 NBC TV Program "The Subject is Jazz"- Billy Taylor explains improvisation.**

media type="file" key="Billy Taylor Explains Jazz Improvisation.mp4" width="468" height="321" align="left"

media type="file" key="Chick Corea Friedrich Gulda - 2 Pianos Jazz Improvisation.3gp" width="445" height="363" align="left"

**Date:** October 19, 2007
====**Synopsis:** This is an example of the Major and minor scales and triad arpeggios type of Jazz improvisation. This type of improvisation was used by the Jazz pianist Duke Ellington. This type of improvisation was mostly used as Jazz was developing during the 1930s and 1940s. Also, in the beginning of the video, there was a some call and response going on. Sometimes Chick Corea will play a piece and then Friedrich Gulda would respond and vice-versa.====

[[image:WALK.png width="348" height="307" align="right" caption="Fig.4- A cakewalk dance being performend by African Americans"]]
==== **Ragtime:** Rhythms brought from a musical heritage in Africa were incorporated into Cakewalks, Coon Songs and the music of "Jig Bands" which eventually evolved into Ragtime (1895). The first Ragtime composition was published by Ben Harney. Ragtime music is vitalized by the opposing rhythms common to African dance, was vibrant, enthusiastic and often extemporaneous. Ragtime was the precursor of Jazz styles, early Ragtime music was set forth in marches, waltzes and other traditional song forms but the common characteristic was syncopation. Syncopated notes and rhythms became so popular with the public that sheet music publishers included the word "syncopated" in advertising. In 1899, Scott Joplin, a young classically trained pianist from Missouri published the first of many ragtime compositions that would put the name "Ragtime" on the map.====

media type="file" key="Maple leaf rag - Scott Joplin.mp4" width="475" height="337" align="left"

**Date:** September 18, 1899
====**Synopsis:** The structure of this song is AA BB A CC DD. "Maple Leaf Rag" is a multi-strain ragtime march with athletic bass lines and upbeat melodies. Each of the four parts features a recurring theme and a striding bass line with copious seventh cords. It contains a lot of syncopation, especially between the first and second strain. I also think that there are also some blues element. I think that there are some examples of blue notes because some part of the composition are at a lower pitch. Notice that for most of the time the pitch of the sound is high, then it gets lower and then it goes back to the normal. This song ties in back to African American history because Scott Joplin wrote this composition in honor of the Maple Leaf Club, a black social club that existed briefly during the late 1890s in Sedalia, Missouri.====


 * Swing: **The 1930s belonged to Swing. During that era, most of the Jazz groups were Big Bands. Derived from New Orleans Jazz style, Swing was robust and invigorating. Swing was also dance music, which served as it's immediate connection to the people. Although it was a collective sound, Swing also offered individual musicians a chance to improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex. The swing style has come a long way. During the 1990's their was a revival of Swing music fueled by the retro trends in dance. Once again young couples across America and Europe jitter-bugged to the swinging sounds of Big Band music, often played by much smaller ensembles.

media type="file" key="Count Basie Jumpin at the Woodside.mp4" width="462" height="380" align="left"

**Date:** 1937
====**Synopsis:** This is one of Baise's most famous compositions. It captured the essence of swing music. It is so alive, fast, enthusiastic and full of energy. This composition has an eight bar, A-A-B-A structure. Notice that this song has polyrhythms. There is a the drums and bass in the background while the piano, trumpets and all the other instruments play over it. There is also a lot of syncopation between the instruments.====

==== **Bebop** : This music style was developed in the early 1940s and its main innovators were alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Until then, Jazz improvisation was derived from the melodic line, Bebop soloists engaged in chordal improvisation, often avoiding the melody altogether after the first chorus, Usually under seven pieces, the soloist was free to explore improvised possibilities as long as they fit into the chord structure. Bebop performers helped to shift jazz from danceable popular music towards a more challenging "musician's music." Differing greatly from swing, early bebop divorced itself from dance music, establishing itself more as and art from but lessening its potential popular and commercial value. Since bebop was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it used faster tempos.====

media type="file" key="Groovin High - Charlie Parker Dizzy Gillespie.mp4" width="458" height="338" align="left"

**Date:** February 9, 1945
====**Synopsis:** This song was a bebop mainstay that became a jazz standard. Groovin' High contains a complex musical arrangement based on he chord structure of the 1920 standard "Whispering" by John Schonberger. This song has a medium paced tempo, a six bar introduction, three key changes and transition passages between solos. The structure is A-B-A C. This song also has polyrhythms because you can hear the drums and the cymbals in the background while the trumpet is played over this rhythm.====

==== **Cool Jazz:** By the end of the 1940, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was replaced with a tendency towards calm and smoothness, with the sounds of cool jazz, which favored long, linear melodic lines. It emerged in New York City, as a result of the mixture of the styles of predominantly white jazz musicians and black bebop musicians, and it dominated jazz in the first half of the 1950s. The starting point were a series of singles on Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950 of a nonet led by trumpeter Miles Davis.====

====Nicknamed "West Coast Jazz" because of the many innovations coming from Los Angeles, Cool became nation wide by the end of the 1950's, with significant contributions from East Coast musicians and composers. In 1957, composer Miles Davis released the album, "Birth of the Cool" which put cool jazz on the map. Through this album, cool jazz gained popularity.====

media type="file" key="Miles Davis - Move.mp4" width="451" height="357" align="left"

** Sample # 5: The Birth of the Cool **

 * Name of composition:** Move

**Date:** January 21, 1945
====**Synopsis:** This song was one of Miles Davis's hit songs. This a a song that represented what cool jazz it all about. It has a linear melodic tone that is soft, calm and smooth. It captures of the essence of cool jazz and what it was all about. The structure of this song is A-A-B-A.====

[[image:beatles-1964.png align="right" caption="Fig. 9- The Beatles took the public's attention from jazz focus it on rock and pop. "]]
====The first few years of the 1960s were very much like the 1950s, when jazz still garnered a segment of the popular audience. But with the rise in popularity of the Beatles and television becoming the dominant form==== ====of entertainment, jazz clubs began to close, putting musicians out-of-work. But some musicians continued on, striving to extend the boundaries of jazz into new areas. In 1961 tenor saxophonist John Coltrane formed a revolutionary quartet, utilizing many aspects of jazz’s rhythms and harmonies into his approach, culminating in the recording of a milestone work in 1964, //A Love Supreme//, an album that ensured his position as an important saxophonist and one of the most influential jazzmen of the decade. As jazz struggled to continue through hard times, some jazz musicians looked to the rhythms of rock ‘n’ roll and strived to add elements of that music to jazz, creating “fusion jazz.” The culmination of this movement was the landmark recording by trumpeter Miles Davis entitled //Bitches Brew// which became a popular seller and catapulted Davis into almost pop star status.====

__-- Jazz and African- Americans --__
====Today, we might see jazz as just a weird type of music that our ancestors used to listen to, but there is so much more meaning to the word jazz. Back in the early 1900s, the black people faced so much oppression and inequality. Through jazz and other genres of music, they could find refuge, they could find shelter, they could be themselves. Jazz was apart of their daily lives. You could separate jazz from the struggle of African Americans. Those musicians dedicated their lives to jazz. The freedom i s jazz is the freedom in them. Jazz is not just some old music, it is an art form that is a proud creation of the black community. They could take away their lives, they could take away their freedom but they could not take away their music. Jazz itself is a success story told through it's own invention.====

__-- Jazz in 4 minutes --__
This is a short documentary about jazz. The question is: What is Jazz?

media type="file" key="Jazz Documentary Revised.mp4" width="759" height="362"

__-- 1930 Census --__
====From the 1930 census, I will show you how the lives of African Americans relate to jazz music. From this census, you can learn how the cultural experiences of African Americans in three different social institutions are connected back to jazz.====

==== **Domestic:** The 1930 US census states that in 11,891,143 African American lived in the US during that year. 9,361,577 lived in the South, 2,409,210 lived in the North and 120,347 in the West. One of the main reasons why jazz music was more popular in the South is because it had a larger population than the North and the West. The African American population in the in South gave rise more musicians and it had a larger impact on jazz music. This census also states that there was 881,687 colored farms the South, and 86.1% of them had radios. As jazz music grew and became more popular, the media wanted it to be more accessible to the public. To do this, jazz music was broadcasted on radio stations. This relates back to jazz because since jazz was always on the radio, they could listen to music and learn about the structure of the songs and even some of the artists. I decided to find some information about New Orleans because it is the birthplace of jazz. In New Orleans alone, there was 105,554 African Americans living there. This had a huge effect on jazz because they supported the jazz musicians and their music and made it stronger.====

==== **Educational:** In 1930, the average literacy level of African Americans 20 years old and older was 46.3%. This is due to the fact that segregation was present and black schools were poorly funded and organized. Only 35.4% of African Americans students actually went to black colleges in the South. Most students were too poor to attend college and they had to stay back and help their families. Of this 35.4%, only 23.7% of them would graduate college with a bachelor's degree or higher. In New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz, 58% of all children 10 years old to 19 years old went to school. The literacy level of African Americans there was 56.7%, higher than the national standard. This is due to the fact that New Orleans was home to a large black population and there was numerous colored schools. The most prominent all black school in Louisiana was Dillard University. It was an all black school located in New Orleans. 96% of the students who started off as undergraduates earned their Bachelor's Degree and went on to pursue higher studies.====

[[image:LEGEND.png caption="Legend"]]