Music 308 History of Jazz

Day 5, February 12:

Reviewing Technical Terms
Learning Jazz
Jazz as a way of life
Rural Roots of Jazz
Quiz Postponed until Thursday!

•  Multiple choice, on scantron form

(bring a pencil!)
•  Identifying listening examples we
have heard in class
•  Choosing correct definitions for
some musical terms
 Reviewing Terms for Quiz:
•  Rhythm:
–  Syncopation
•  a deliberate upsetting of the normal pattern
of accents
•  What is "normal"? To understand, we need
to understand:
–  beat
–  meter
–  strong beat, weak beat,
–  subdivision of beat
–  normally, accents occur at the beginning
of each grouping (the "strong" beats)
•  If you're not sure of definitions, consult
"Music Basics" PDF on Blackboard
 Reviewing Terms
•  Rhythm: Syncopation
•  accents shifted to weak beats or
subdivisions.
•  example: backbeat
–  accent on beats 2 and 4 of the 4/4 bar

44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
> > > >
j j
!
44 œ •  œexample: displacement
–  œnotœjustœ "accented
œ œ œ weak
œ beat"
œ œ œ œ
4 œ > – œstrong > œbeat> shifted
œ > œ > œ > œ > œ >
> > to the previous
> >
subdivision

44 œ1 œ2 œ3 œ1 œ2 œ3 œ1 œ2 œ3j œ1 2 œ3 1 œ2 3 œ1j
44 œ >œ œ >œ œ >œ œ >œ œ >œ œ >œ œ >œ œ >œ
note groupings:)

> > > > > > !

44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
note groupings:)
 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ j j
œ œ œ œ œ
> > > > > > > >
Reviewing Terms
44 œ continued:
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
(Eighth note groupings:)
•  Rhythm,
>
–  Polyrhythm > > > > >
•  a type of syncopation
•  Two or more kinds of rhythmic grouping heard
4 4œ
simultaneously
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
> > > >
44 œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œœ j
Quarter note groupings: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2

œ œœ œœ
> > > >> > > >> > !

44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
(Eighth note groupings:) 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1

> > ! > > > ! >

!

Quarter note groupings: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2

 Reviewing Terms
•  Rhythm, continued:
–  Swing
•  "Swing" or "Shuffle" subdivisions are uneven
–  first subdivision j j jthe second
is longer than
3 3

–  could beœ notated

œ œas aœtripletœ like
œ this:
j j
3 3

œ œ œ œ
!
–  but jazz composers often write simple 8th-note subdivisions;
!
it's understood that they are "swung"
A more general sense of "swing" (also called "groove")

!
–  The sense of momentum caused by rhythmic tension
between parts
–  Caused in part by syncopation
!
–  But also by playing "before the beat," "on top of the beat" or
"behind the beat" – discrepancies of a few microseconds
–  Double time
•  Shifting to a beat twice as fast as the basic beat
 Reviewing Terms for Quiz:
•  Pitch:
–  Blue note
•  Porter: "a note whose pitch and sound are altered
and bent for expressivity"
•  the pitch often changes (glides upwards or
downwards) as the note is sung or played
•  most common: 3rd, 5th, or 7th of the scale
–  Three types of short melodic patterns:
•  Riff:
–  rhythmic, repeated, unchanging even when the
chord changes
•  Motive:
–  developed, varied (different pitches, rhythms,
notes added or subtracted, etc.)
•  Lick:
–  a motive with a history. Characteristic patterns
used by particular players or groups of players.
 Reviewing Terms
•  Form:
–  Call and response
•  Can be a simple folk form in itself
•  Or an element in more complex forms
•  Musical dialogue between 2 different voices or groups of voices
•  Example: rural church service, from documentary “Land Where
the Blues Began”
•  Sometimes the response is a riff
–  Representing forms:
•  this is the format to use in your papers
•  large sections (choruses) = Upper-case letters: A, B, C etc)
•  internal construction of sections = lower-case letters within
parentheses: (a,b,...)
•  subscripts = number of bars in each section or subsection
–  A12, (a8b8)
•  varied repeat of a section = use same letter with a prime sign (')
 Reviewing Terms
•  Form, continued:
–  One chorus of blues: A12(a4a'4b4)
• Structural chords every 2 bars.
– a4: I - I
– a'4: IV - I
– b4: V - I
–  Popular song forms
•  32-bar Chorus, usually either:
– A32(a8a'8b8a"8)
–  or A32(a8b8a8c8) ("Embraceable You")
»  More simply A16A'16
– Harmonies based on II-V-I or circle of
5ths progressions
 Reading assignment
•  Paul Berliner, Thinking in Jazz: The
Infinite Art of Improvisation (The complete
book: ML3506.B475)
•  Epilogue: Jazz as a Way of Life (p.
485-504) posted on Blackboard
–  Don't forget to read the footnotes! p.
822-825
•  Study questions posted on the website
along with the reading (see “Course
Documents”)
•  In-class writing assignment next Tuesday
Feb. 19
–  covers this reading, lectures from Feb. 5
and today
–  and remarks of visiting guest Ray
Anderson (Feb. 7)
•  This reading will also be subject of
questions on the midterm
How Do Jazz Musicians Learn?
•  Last Tuesday we watched and
discussed a clip from “The Benny
Goodman Story”
•  Dialogue:
–  Kid Ory: "Have you ever heard this
kind of music?"
–  Young Benny: "No"
–  Ory: "You just play the way you feel."
•  Popular image of jazz improvisation:
–  spontaneous
–  intuitive
–  innate
–  (Racist overtones: "black people got
rhythm")
•  Is improvisation "making something
out of nothing?"
–  They may “play what they feel,”
–  but they had to learn how!
 Paul Berliner reading:
("Improvisation as composition" p. 492-498)
•  Popular definition of improvisation
–  "making something out of nothing"
–  is "astonishingly incomplete"
•  Improvisation is based on discipline,
experience
•  Quotes Chuck Israels (bassist, teacher):
–  "the musical decisions that take place during
improvisations are made instantly,
–  "but the work behind those decisions takes
place over long periods of time -
–  "hours, days, weeks, months, and years spent
considering all of the musical possibilities (p.
494)
A more realistic view of learning jazz:
Barry Harris

•  Harris mentioned
frequently in the
Berliner chapter; an
important jazz
teacher
•  Excerpts from video
Passing it On - A
Portrait of Barry
Harris
•  (ML 417.H25C5)
Barry Harris: “Passing it On”
 Harris video
•  Harris on his teaching and career
•  ”I’m famous in some parts of the world'"
•  "Eldest member of my class"
•  “That says I'm the dumbest because I've been in the
class the longest”
 Berliner on the Jazz Process
•  This class will mostly be about jazz recordings
–  History of jazz seen as a succession of "classic" recordings.
–  Berliner: Jazz listeners & historians attach great importance to
recordings,
–  some jazz fans "venerate recordings as ends in themselves"
•  What is the attitude of most jazz musicians toward
recordings?
–  Recordings are part of the process, not a final goal
–  (very different from the approach of most pop musicians)
–  The process is more important than the product
•  The process: sources of inspiration and material – where do
ideas come from?
–  Jazz's own musical past
•  "licks" from older players
–  Other musical cultures
•  South America, Africa, the Middle East, etc.
–  The "soundscape" - patterns in nature, human motion
•  Miles Davis: "Rhythm is all around us...If Tony (Williams) was
walking down the street and stumbled, he might want to play that"
–  Solos have "layered patterns of cultural history"
 Improvisation as Composition
•  Improvisation as Composition (Berliner)
–  Learning the language
•  acquiring a repertory of pieces, solos, discrete
phrases, to fashion their own statements.
•  Later, learning to “tell stories”
–  Cycles of generation, application, renewal
•  Old ideas become "springboards" for new ones
•  Which in turn become part of the "general
storehouse"
•  And generate new ideas again
–  Composing in "real time"
•  juggling multiple tasks
•  can't erase mistakes; you have to work with them
•  in band interaction, you have to be ready to give up
your own ideas
 Jazz as Musical Conversation
•  When you're playing, you're in conversation
with...
–  the piece's form
–  your predecessors within the tradition
–  yourself and your personal history
–  your instrument
–  the other members of your band
–  your audience
–  in transcendent moments, "in touch with the
big picture" (in conversation with God)
 The Musician's Odyssey
•  Jazz life as a "pilgrimage"
- life paths
–  Economic pressures,
professional opportunities
•  making a living, juggling the
music with the rest of life
–  Shifting goals and detours
•  commercial work
•  changes of musical direction,
fusion with other styles
•  dry spells
–  Berliner tells stories about
various musicians
–  Last Thursday we heard Ray
Anderson’s story
•  Soon to be posted on
Blackboard: summary of his
remarks
 Unit II: ORIGINS: THE ROOTS OF JAZZ,
LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND THE JAZZ AGE
(Today through Feb. 26)
•  Time to buy the textbooks!!
•  Reading for this Unit:
–  Gioia History p. 3-91
•  1. The Prehistory of Jazz
•  2. New Orleans Jazz
•  3. The Jazz Age
–  Robert Walser, Editor: Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz
History (abbreviated as Keeping Time)
•  Preface p. vii-xi
•  1. Sidney Bechet's Musical Philosophy - Sidney
Bechet p.3-5
•  7. The 'Inventor of Jazz' - Jelly Roll Morton p. 16-22
•  17. What is Swing? - Louis Armstrong p. 73-76
•  Listening: Unit 2: Roots, Early Jazz, Louis Armstrong
•  Next Quiz: March 3
 What elements in jazz come from
Afro-American roots?

•  1. Song:
–  Melodic and harmonic structure
–  Vocal performance styles and traditions
•  2. Dance:
–  Rhythmic structure
–  Dance performance
–  Rhythmic Styles
 Rural Roots:

•  Excerpts from Video, Land Where Blues Began

–  View online: http://www.folkstreams.net/film,109
–  Available in Music Library: Music Video ML
3521.L36 1998
–  Produced by Alan Lomax, well-known
Ethnomusicologist
•  Rural Southern Afro-American Folk Music
–  Recorded in Mississippi Hill Country between
1978-1985
–  Exploring sources of Rock, Jazz, and R&B
–  Connections to African musical practice
From Land Where the Blues Began
 Land Where the Blues Began:
Folk Instruments, African Instruments, and
Dancing

•  Lonnie Pitchford
–  Homemade instruments & African equivalents
–  1-string guitars, “Diddely bow”
•  Napoleon Strickland
–  Bottleneck guitar
–  Fife and Drum
•  Could be what slaves played for Thomas Jefferson
•  Marching beat is Syncopated; becomes a dance beat
 Work and Song
•  Clyde Maxwell:
–  Solo song: Woodchopping, plowing
•  Lucius Smith
–  Interviewed at age 92
–  Talking about the sharecropper's life
•  Song while plowing a field
–  Cross fades between African and African-American songs
•  Bud Spires and Jack Owens
•  Life and Blues in the Fields
–  Song: “Hard Time Killing Floor”
•  Lyrics:
Lord, hard times here every where I go
Hard times, baby gal, driving you door to door
Hard times driving you to the door…
I ain't gwine no higher, baby, Lord
Lord, stay right here till you drag me down…