-1CD 1, Lesson 1

New Orleans: The Melting Pot of Sound, Part I

(19:38)
Track 1)

Second Line

Track 2)
That was a New Orleans jazz standard entitled, Second Line. And the Second Line is a group
of people that follows a jazz band parading down the street. They dance and inspire the musicians to get
deeper into the groove.
The second line parade and jazz were born around the turn of the 20th century in the city of New Orleans,
Louisiana. Now in the city at that time, many different types of people lived together in the same
neighborhoods - French, Spanish, descendants of all types of Africans, Caribbean people - in other words,
Americans. But the thing is, even though these people were living close to one another, they really didnt like
each other. The music gave them an opportunity to creep closer to each other and get to know each other on
more familiar terms.
The first band to play New Orleans jazz was led by a cornetist named Buddy Bolden. The thing that made
him special was that he knew what all these people had in common. He was like a translator except instead of
translating languages, he translated human feeling and emotion into the language of music. He realized that all
of these people got jealous, happy, tired, hungry, had relatives they didnt get along with, and they got sick,
amongst many other things. Buddy Bolden knew how to put this knowledge of what everyone had in
common into music with his band.
They showed everyone that New Orleans jazz was about working together, with feeling and style. This
working together is called collective improvisation. Now I know those two words might sound intimidating.
But improvisation simply means making up or inventing something at the spur of the moment. Something
that we do everyday, like what type of clothes you put on, or what we say when we go to speak. Collective
just means together, with another person, or group of people. An example of collective improvisation would
be a conversation. For example, this improvisation between me and Mr. Wycliffe Gordon.
Track 3)

Spoken dialogue to demonstrate collective improvisation

Track 4)
Youll notice that we were conversing about something. I make a statement and Wycliffe
talks about something related to it. In this case it was a pencil behind his ear. As we went along, we
exchanged ideas.
Track 5)

Wycliffe and Wynton play horns in dialogue

We do the same thing with musical ideas. We play themes and then go back and forth, playing with and
adding to them, and taking away, playing together, answering each other. Its a lot of fun.
Track 6)
Improvisation gives you the freedom to express your personality. But collective means you
have the responsibility of listening and trying to play with and accommodate the personalities of other
musicians. You cant just get up and play whatever you want to play. Theres no room for ego trippin, like
playing too loud. Now if youre playing too loud, you obviously cant listen to what anyone else is playing. So
learning how to speak and listen to one another is important for everyday conversation and is also essential to
playing New Orleans jazz.
Now lets see how musicians speak and listen in the New Orleans style. Were going to start with the drums,
because the drums are the heart of the band. And the foundation of the drum set is the bass drum. The bass

-2drum plays the basic rhythm of New Orleans music. We call it the big four - an accent on the 2nd fourth
beat, like this.
Track 7)

Bass drum example of the big four

Track 8)
That accent gives a New Orleans march that special lilt thats unique and identifiable. This is
jazz. Its like a signature or a fingerprint, or an accent when speaking.
All of the instruments in the drum set converse with each other. Remember our collective improvisation, we
are always going back and forth. The snare drum is the highest pitched drum, the drum that most commands
our attention. Lets hear the snare drum talk to the bass drum.
Track 9)

Bass and snare dialogue

Track 10)

The string bass functions like a clock. It keeps time tick tock, tick tock.
Bass keeps time like a clock

Track 11)

Now that tick tock tick tock was just too boring for the New Orleans musicians.

Track 12)

So they started to add little notes and dips and things into it. Made it sound like this.
Bass plays syncopated tick-tock rhythm

Track 13)
Now, were going to hear the bass and the drums converse. I want you all to notice that they
trade ideas back and forth, just like Wycliffe and I did when we were conversing earlier.
Track 14)

Bass and drums converse

Track 15)
The bass and the drums are the backbone of a New Orleans jazz band. Now the face of the
band is what we call the front line the trumpet, the trombone, and the clarinet. These instruments play in
different registers. A register means where the notes of an instrument sound high, middle, and low. Its just
like in the animal kingdom. Chickens, small birds, and clarinets high register. Ducks, medium sized dogs,
and trumpets middle register. Cows, bears, and trombones low register.
Lets let a New Orleans song teach us about the different registers. This song is entitled, Audubon Zoo.
Track 16)

In the trumpet or middle register, the song sounds like this:

Demonstration of trumpet register in Audubon Zoo

Track 17)

What about the clarinet register? Well youve got to get up on your toes for that one.
Demonstration of clarinet register in Audubon Zoo

Track 18)

Now, the trombone register:

Demonstration of trombone register in Audubon Zoo

Track 19)
When the trumpet, clarinet and trombone play the same melody in different registers we
have a full range of instrumental color, and it sounds good, good, good.

-3Track 20)

Playing in different registers

Track 21)

In New Orleans jazz, the trumpet generally plays the melody.

Trumpet melody of Audubon Zoo

Track 22)
The clarinet accompanies the trumpet from above, in the higher register. Now the clarinet
sometimes plays trills, arpeggios, and runs. They like to play glissandi.
Track 23)
The trombone accompanies the trumpet melody from below by using punctuated notes,
growls, and they also do glissandi, but they use the slide.
Track 24)
There is a style of New Orleans trombone known as tailgating. The reason its called
tailgating, is because a long time ago bands used to play on the back of horse-drawn carts, to advertise
products or a concert coming up and the trombone, if they played inside of the cart it would just bang into all
the musicians. So the trombonist stood on the end of the cart and hung his slide off of the back gate like a
tail. So we call it tailgating. Tailgating trombone
Track 25)

Tailgating trombone

Track 26)

Lets hear a three-way conversation clarinet, trumpet, and trombone in the three registers.
Clarinet/trumpet/trombone dialogue

Track 27)
We almost forgot about our friend, the piano. The piano alone can imitate an entire band. It
can play the trumpet part, the clarinet part. Even the trombone part, but without all of the glissandoin,
growlin, and slidin. Lets listen to the piano playing the low and the high parts at the same time.
Track 28)

Demonstration on piano

Track 29)
But really, the pianist, is just like the coach of a team. The coach is on the sidelines. The
piano sits in the back with the rhythm, and helps to make everybody sound good. The piano is like the brain
of the band. The piano, bass, and drums are called the rhythm section. If youre lucky enough to have a banjo
or guitar thrown into the rhythm section, they play on all the beats, forming a comfortable foundation for the
group.
Track 30)

Rhythm section with banjo

Track 31)
New Orleans jazz is about playing together, learning how to converse. Collective
improvisation. Its about expressing your feelings with style. Now how do we express our feelings with style?
Well lets say you saw a car accident on the corner. How would you describe it to somebody? Would you say:
I just saw an accident. Two cars banged into each other? No! They wouldnt have any understanding of
what you were talking about. You would say: man you wouldnt believe what I just saw. Two cars. Pow!
Banged into each other, broken glass all over the place, sirens going off! Man I think somebody really got
hurt. Oh, it was terrible.
You create a feeling for what happened by changing the quality of what you say. You use rhythm and
inflection and pacing to bring the listener to the scene of the accident. Now in jazz, we call that playing with
feeling. Playing with blues feeling. We use accents and pacing and bending and scooping and scraping notes.
You make something sound like you. No two people are going to bend the note a note the same way and by
doing these things we bring people into our feelings.

-4And we can do the same thing on our horns. But with a lot of that thang.
Track 32)

Band plays Audubon Zoo with blues feeling

Track 33)
Lets listen for the bass and drum conversation, the working of the rhythm section, the front
line - trumpet and clarinet - the registers of the horns. I want you all to really listen to the singing and the
playing with the blues feeling in this selection, Audubon Zoo.
Track 34)

Audubon Zoo

-5CD 1, Lesson 1
New Orleans: The Melting Pot of Sound, Part II
(18:45)
Track 35)
Its Saturday afternoon. We have on a white, short-sleeved shirt, black pants and tie, and a
black cap. We are standing out in the middle of the street underneath a hot, hot sun. Its 95 degrees and 98
percent humidity. There are people on both sides of the street, dancing, making a lot of noise, having a good
time. Were marching down the street with instruments in our hand. Now every now and then, we stop at a
different neighborhood watering hole to get a drink of something cold. We are uptown, in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Musicians have been playing these parades for over a hundred years and it feels just as good today
as it felt then. We play a traditional march, famous for its difficult clarinet part, The High Society March.
Introduction to High Society
Track 37)
The bass drum is striking up the big 4, all the horns are shoutin and hollerin, and moanin
and croonin. And this march is long, long, long. The people are behind us following the band down the
street. They are called the second line. And our chops are tired, but the band is callin and the people are
responding. We keep playing. They keep dancing.
Track 38)

High Society

Track 39)
Now that weve set the scene, lets examine some basic elements of New Orleans jazz. First,
one of the most important achievements of New Orleans music is it forces people to communicate with each
other. The musicians in the band, the dancers on the street, and even the trombone players. The most
fundamental form of communication when speaking is call and response. For example, If you hear this:
Track 40)

Call and response shave and a haircut

You see you naturally fill in the last two notes. Its because you understand that particular call. And if
somebody calls out your name, you respond, what! Or if you have manners, you say, yes. Or even in blue
ribbon cases, becoming more rare as the years progress, yes, maam. Now were going to learn a New
Orleans song. The words are:
Track 41)
Oh, my buckets got a hole in it. Oh, my buckets got a hole in it. Oh, my buckets got a
hole in it. And I cant say no more.
Track 42)

Lets listen to this performance of Oh My Buckets Got a Hole In It.

Track 43)

Oh My Buckets Got a Hole In It

Track 44)
Now wed like to play Oh My Buckets Got a Hole In It again. But we want you to sing the
song, and well respond with out instruments. Well start you off by singing the first phrase.
Track 45)

Oh My Buckets Got a Hole In It: students sing, instruments respond

Track 46)
Now that we have a better feeling for call and response, lets examine the musical devices
that all of us use to make New Orleans music what it is.
A groove. A groove is the interaction and repetition of different parts. Well first were going to just hear one
part. Lets listen to this bass part:
Track 47)

Bass groove of St. Louis Blues

-6-

Track 48)
groove.

Now, when this bass part is joined by another rhythm, from the drums, thats called a

Track 49)

Bass and drums play the groove

Track 50)
When they improvise, they have a conversation based on this groove, and the groove
becomes thicker and thicker, and hotter and hotter.
Track 51)

Bass and drums improvise on groove

Track 52)
Something that helps a groove maintain its buoyancy is called a riff. And a riff is the same
thing repeated over and over again.
Track 53)

Riffs

Track 54)
A solo is when one person stands out and makes their own statement, with or without
rhythm accompaniment. Lets hear Mr. Wessel Anderson solo with the rhythm section.
Track 55)

Alto saxophone solo over St. Louis Blues

Track 56)
When the band stops and one person is left alone to do the best that they can thats called a
break. Now when youre left alone you better maintain the rhythm and the feeling of the piece, because the
band is bound to come back in and if youre not in the right place, you might end up going home without
your gig.
Track 57)

Trombone break

Track 58)
This is a W.C. Handy classic, St. Louis Blues. The groove, breaks, riffs, and solos are going to
be in abundance and quite obvious.
Track 59)

St. Louis Blues

Track 60)
New Orleans jazz was a part of everything that went on in the community. You could hear it
in weddings, at picnics, in parades at political rallies. You could hear it in peoples homes, from the shotgun
house to the mansion. But the most famous communal activity was the New Orleans jazz funeral. We still
have those today. And not as a relic, but as a living tradition. We take the body of the deceased out to the
grave to the sound of a slow, mournful dirge. Then, after the reverend says a few well-timed words over the
body, we play the happy, up-tempo march, fulfilling the words in the bible, mourn at birth and celebrate at
death. The slow dirge and the up-tempo march together are called the New Orleans function. And when
youre listening to this, I want you to think about solos, riffs, breaks, call and response, collective
improvisation, conversations between each other. All of the many things weve talked about. And those of
you who can find that second fourth beat - if you want to get up and do some improvisatory dancing- please
feel free.
This is the dirge, Flee As A Bird, followed by the happy, up-tempo piece, Didnt He Ramble, Didnt He Ramble.
In and out of town, rambled all around. He rambled. He rambled until the butcher cut him down.
Track 61)

Flee as a Bird and Didnt He Ramble

2002 Jazz at Lincoln Center