Ten Important Musicians of Early Jazz 1. Scott Joplin (1868-1917) Scott Joplin is considered the foremost composer of ragtime music. Many of his compositions, including “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer,” were published and sold across the country. Ragtime, although based on European classical music, led to the development of the style known as stride piano, one of the first forms of jazz. More » continue reading below our video Highest Paid Male Actors Ever Courtesy of Cassel Buy from Amazon Trumpeter Buddy Bolden is credited with bringing a loose, raw approach to instrumental jazz with his loud tone and emphasis on improvisation. He infused ragtime with the blues and black church music and organized ensembles consisting of brass instruments and clarinets, changing the way jazz composers orchestrated their music. Check Amazon rating » Courtesy of Decca Jazz Buy from Amazon Best known as a bandleader, King Oliver was also Louis Armstrong’s teacher and was responsible for launching Armstrong’s career by featuring him in his band. Oliver played with many of the great musicians of early jazz including Jelly Roll Morton.

He famously turned down a regular gig at New York’s Cotton Club in 1927 that was snatched up instead by Duke Ellington and which subsequently helped Ellington rise to fame. Check Amazon rating » Courtesy of ASV Records Buy from Amazon Cornetist and trumpeter LaRocca was the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band (later changed to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band) which made the first jazz recordings in 1917. The group consisted of drums, piano, trombone, cornet, and clarinet. Their first cut was called “Livery Stable Blues.” Check Amazon rating » Courtesy of Milestone Buy from Amazon A prolific performer who began by playing in New Orleans brothels, Jelly Roll Morton combined ragtime with various other musical styles, including blues , minstrel show tunes, Hispanic music, and white popular songs. His virtuosity at the piano, and his mixture of composition and improvisation had a lasting effect on jazz performance. Near the end of his life, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded a series of interviews with the pianist.

To this day, the recordings of Morton speaking about his early days in New Orleans, and playing examples of various musical styles, provide a valuable glimpse into the beginnings of jazz. Check Amazon rating » Courtesy of Musicmasters 6. James P. Johnson (1891-1955) Growing up listening to Scott Joplin ’s rags, James P. Johnson was one of the originators of the stride piano style. His music, which used most of the conventions of ragtime, also included improvisation and elements of the blues, two aspects that were widely influential in the development of jazz. The music of Fats Waller , Duke Ellington , and Thelonious Monk is due in large part to the innovations of James P. Johnson. More » Courtesy of Living Era Records 7. Sidney Bechet (1897-1959) Bechet began playing the clarinet , but developed skill on a multitude of instruments. He is best known for his virtuosic playing on the soprano sax, on which he played lyrical melodies with a voice-like wide vibrato. He is considered the first great jazz saxophonist , and he was the major influence on later stars, especially Johnny Hodges.

More » Courtesy of GNP Records 8. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) With his unique lyrical approach to the trumpet, Armstrong changed the face of jazz, shifting the focus from collective improvisation to personal expression through soloing. He was also a singer with a distinctive voice, and had a knack for scat singing . Throughout his career, he never lost the ability to appeal to a wide audience, and because of his celebrity and his lovable persona, he was selected by the U.S. State Department to represent his country as a musical ambassador, promoting jazz on international tours. Read my profile of Armstrong's life and work. More » Courtesy of Old Masters Trumbauer, who played alto and C melody saxophones, is best known for his collaborations with Bix Beiderbecke. Trumbauer’s sound was clear and refined, and his thoughtful improvisations inspired later great saxophonists, most notably Lester Young . Check Amazon rating » Courtesy of ABC Music 10.

Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) The only contemporary of Louis Armstrong who could hold a candle to the legendary trumpeter, cornetist Bix Beiderbecke had a smooth tone and constructed elegant and subdued solos. Despite being one of the leading musicians in Chicago and New York, Beiderbecke was unable to overcome personal demons, and developed a severe dependence on alcohol. He died at age 28 after consuming excessive amounts of toxic prohibition-era liquor. More » JAZZ HISTORY - Music And Music Education 151 with Brian Hanson at Southeastern Louisiana University - StudyBlue An accent on a note somewhere unexpected, off the main beats. Sharp A tone that is a half-step above a given tone. FLat A tone that is a half-step below the given tone. Half-step The smallest pitch difference between two sounds in most Western Music Systems; also know as SEMITONE Whole Step The combination of two semi tones; also known as a TONE or WHOLE TONE. Octave A span of eight letter-name notes. Diatonic Scale A seven-note musical scale made up of five whole steps and two half-steps.

Chromatic Scale A musical scale containing twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. Staff A set of five horizontal lines used in a music notation Clef A symbol in musical notation used to indicate the range of pitches to be played. Treble Clef A clef used to indicate the higher range of notes. Bass Clef A clef used to indicate the lower range of notes. Middle C a set of staves that incorporate the treble and bass clefs. Major Scale A diatonic scale that ft.'s the following pattern of a whole (W) and half-steps (H): W W H W W W H W Minor scale A diatonic scale that ft.'s the following pattern of a whole (W) and half-steps (H): W W H W W W H W Pitch A term referring to how high or low a note sounds. Duration A term referring to how long a note is sounded. Beat The pulse in a piece of music. Tempo A term that refers to how quickly the beats pass in a piece of music. Rhythm in a piece of music, the series of articulated durations from one note to the next. Meter The grouping of beats in a piece of music.

Measure An interval of time by a group of beats. Time Signature A convention in music notation defining the number of beats in a measure as well as which note value carries one beat. Duple meter A meter ft. alternating strong and weak beats. Triple meter A meter ft. a strong-weak-weak pattern of beats. Polyrhythm A combination of two or more rhythms sounding simultaneously. Swing Eighth Note An eighth note with a duration that is greater or smaller than half the duration of a quarter note. Improvisation Spontaneous composition of music in the moment of performance. Swing Feeling A term used to describe the groove or rhythm of jazz music. Bluesy Flavor A musical quality that suggests, or reminiscent of, blues music. Three essential features of Jazz. 1.Improvisation The principal way that we as listeners identify when a player is improvising is by recognizing that he or she is no longer playing the melody. The swing feeling in jazz may be achieved by one or more of the following: Using swing eighth notes. Using an abundance of syncopation. Using frequent polyrhythms.

A quarter note is ordinarily divided into two equal eighth notes, what jazz musicians refer to as “straight eighth notes,” or “straight eighths.” Swing eighth note: An eighth note with a duration that is greater or smaller than half the duration of a quarter note. Tonic The tonal center or key of a piece of music. Blue Note a note that doesn't fit the traditional 12-tone scale of Western music. Pitch bending a gradual change in pitch from one not to another. Harmony The sounding of two or more pitches together. interval The distance b/w two pitches in terms of letter-name notes. Third an interval of three letter-name notes. blues a genre of vocal music developed among African American and derived from field hollers, street cries, and gospel hymns. chord three or more notes sounded together chord progression a series of chords that aims to establish tonality tonality The musical language of traditional Western music, characterized by the tonic-dominant relationship. Triad a chord in which each note is separated from the next by a third. changes a term musicians use to refer to chord progressions. 12-bar form a common blues form with an AAB format.

blue notes are represented by lowering the third, fifth, and seventh notes of the major scale by one-half step. Pizzicato a playing technique in which the strings of a string instrument are plucked. ride rhythms characteristic swing rhythms played by the drummer that may be described as "ching, chick-a-ching, chick-a-ching." voicing a term referring the the particular arrangement of the notes in a chord Standard forms In jazz, the 12-bar blues form and the 32-bar song form chord substitution The use of a chord in a place of another in a chord progression, typically to impart a new and distinct flavor to the chord progression. Mute a device fitted to an instrument that is used to alter the instrument's sound Form the overall structure or layout of a piece of music. 12-BAR BLUES FORM A song form typically consisting of three 4-bar phrases, represented as AAB 32-bar song form a song form typically consisting of four 8-bar phrases, represented as AABA Timbre The quality or "color" of a sounf; what makes one instrument sound different from another even when they are playing the same note. Horn In jazz, an instrument that is sounded by blowing air through it.

front line The brass and wind instruments in a jazz combo--such as trumpet, trombone, and saxophone. ballad a song form played in slow tempo. bridge The contrasting "B" section in 32-bar song form. Chorus One full play-through of a song's tune. Walking bass a style of playing bass in which the strings are plucked on every quarter-note beat. Comping A term that refers to the improvisational techniques deployed when a pianist plays the accompanying chords in a Jazz setting. rhythm section the section of a jazz combo consisting of piano, guitar, double bass, and drums. trading fours a drum solo divided into passages of four bars in which the drummer alternated with the entire combo playing passages of the same length. trading eights a drum solo divided into passages of eight bars in which the drummer alternates with the entire combo playing passages of the same length. Bomb A drumming technique in which an additional syncopation is created bys striking the bass drum with greater force. Hi-Hat a type of cymbal used in drumming, consisting of two cymbals mounted on a stand, one on top of the other.

backbeat a rhythmic accent on the weak beats in a measure, typically beats 2 and 4. turnaround The last two bars of a phrase or chorus in which the standard rhythmic and melodic patterns are abandoned to allow a freer and more virtuosic expression by various instrumentalists, often drawing attention the the drummer. two principal forms of jazz music are 12-bar blues form and the 32-bar song forms. IKnown as the standard forms of Jazz. saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s His goal was to create a woodwind instrument that projected as well as a brasswind (e.g., the trumpet) The standard trumpet used in jazz is B-flat trumpet, Trombone The trombone is a fifteenth-century instrument with a straight sliding tube used to change the range. Its length led to the development of a U-shaped slide, halving the demands on the player's reach. The slide acts as valves do on other brass instruments and is ideal for jazz with its bending, indeterminate notes. Clarinet Invented in the Baroque period around the year 1700, the clarinet features an intricate set of keys that allows for a very large pitch range.

The clarinet enjoyed its heyday in jazz during the big band swing era. Since then, the saxophone, with its simpler key system and powerful projection, has largely taken the clarinet's place on the front line. Voicing: A term referring to the particular arrangement of the notes in a chord. Comping: A term that refers to the improvisational techniques deployed when a pianist plays the accompanying chords in a jazz setting. Chord substitution: The use of a chord in place of another in a chord progression, typically to impart a new and distinct flavor to the chord progression. Equi-Heptatonic scale a seven-note scale used in non-WESTERN music, such as African music. Spiritual a religious song, especially one associated with enslaved Africansin America. Brass Bands A musical ensemble consisting of brass instruments, occasionally woodwind instruments, and a percussion section. Ragtime a style of American music popular around the turn of the century that featured syncopated rhythms. Mississippi Delta Blues An early style of blues music featuring harmonica and the slide guitar technique of playing guitar. Rural Blues An early style of acoustic, guitar-driven blues music, typically featuring a male perspective.

Urban blues An early form of blues, also known as classic blues, that typically featured a female perspective. Call-and-response A musical "back and forth" Characterized by alternations between two groups, or between a soloist and a group. field hollers a class of rural; African American vocal performance performed by an individual while engaged in manual labor. Coda The concluding passage of a piece of music, typically forming an extension to the music structure. The early genres of African-American song —slave songs, spirituals, field hollers, street cries, gospel hymns, the blues—were fundamental to this emerging art form Stride piano: A style of jazz piano derived from ragtime in which the left hand alternates between bass notes and chords on successive beats of 4/4 time, creating an “um-pah, um-pah” foundation underneath the right hand’s melodic embellishments and improvisations. Robert Johnson (1911-1938) was not the first Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer, but the performances of 29 of his songs, recorded in the 1930s, capture the essence of the style.

They have also been as influential as any individual contribution to guitar in American popular culture over the past century Bessie Smith (1894-1937) was the greatest and most popular urban blues singer of the 1920s. Known as the “Empress of the Blues,” New Orleans Jazz The earliest jazz, created and performed and around New Orleans during the first two decades of the twentieth century by African Americans. Collective Improvisation A characteristic feature of New Orleans Jazz in which multiple instrumentalists improvise together according to agreed-upon conventions. Obbligato Melody In New Orleans jazz, a second melody played on the clarinet, subordinate to the principal melody played on the cornet, characterized by arpeggios that often outline the chords of the progression, weaving arounf the principal melody. The earliest jazz was performed in _ 1. dance halls 4. streets of New Orleans 5. on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain Band performing during this era were drawn upon the influence of 1. ragtime 2. blues and the brass band repertoire, would “jazz up” the music by taking liberties with it. The melody might be syncopated and embellished.

The accompaniment instruments might also be improvised according to a performer's understanding of the chord progression. The hot and “dirty” sounds of New Orleans’ nascent jazz music came from African American skilled laborers: masons, carpenters, plasterers, cigar makers Charles "Buddy" Bolden (1877-1931) known as known as King Bolden and sometimes referred to as “the father of jazz,” was a bold and talented cornetist who led a pioneering band around the turn of the century. Unfortunately, there are no known recordings of his performances. The legend of his life and music, though, continues to cast a long shadow on the streets of old New Orleans. Jelly Roll Mornton (1890-1941) composer, pianist and bandleader, is considered one of the first great jazz musicians. While few take seriously his claim—made in later years—that he “invented” jazz, he was certainly among the first to draw together elements of ragtime piano and blues in a new rhythmic manner that suggested swing eighth notes. This was the essence of the "stride style" of piano developed by early jazz pianists, and Morton was a notable contributor.

(More about this when we get to Harlem.) Storyville known as "The District" by the locals, was a sector of New Orleans near the French Quarter where prostitution was legal between 1897 and 1917. Morton's early performances in The District—which he tried unsuccessfully to hide from his family—set Morton on a career path as an itinerant musician, his travels eventually taking him to both coasts, as well as points in between. Black Bottom Stomp recorded in Chicago in 1926. Clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, and banjo each enjoy moments of our attention, emerging as distinct passages during the ensemble performance. (Jelly Roll Morton), Chicago, September 15, 1926. Jelly Roll Morton, piano; George Mitchell, trumpet; Edward "Kid" Ory, trombone; Omer Simeon, clarinet; Johnny St. Cyr, banjo; John Lindsay, bass; Andrew Hilaire, drums. Joe "King" Oliver (1885-1938) was a cornetist and bandleader who earned his nickname as the leading cornetist in New Orleans.

Oliver moved to Chicago in 1918 and began to lead his own band in 1920. After a brief stint in California, his band landed a long-running, multi-year engagment in one of Chicago's most popular dance halls, Lincoln Gardens. He made some of the earliest recordings of New Orleans jazz in 1923. Oliver brought together a first-rate group of musicians, which took the name King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and included a young, emerging talent also on cornet—Louis Armstrong. Polyphony: Literally, “many sounds”; a term to describe the texture of New Orleans jazz. New Orleans jazz: The earliest jazz, created and performed in and around New Orleans during the first two decades of the twentieth century by African Americans. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Dippermouth Blues (Joe Oliver), Richmond, Indiana, 1923. Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, cornets; Honore Dutrey, trombone; Johnny Dodds, clarinet; Lil Hardin, piano; Bill Johnson, banjo and vocal break; Baby Dodds, drums New Orleans style: stop time.

Time doesn't really stop, but the band initiates a series of repeated accents that create silent spaces to be filled by a soloist. The simplest version of stop time occurs when a band sounds only on the downbeat of each measure. In this case, though, everyone (except the clarinetist—who is the soloist) sounds on the first three beats of each measure ("1 2 3 . . . 1 2 3 . . . 1 2 3"), effectively opening up the second half of each measure. Signature sound in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band Oliver's cornet solo over three choruses (1:24-2:08). His distinctive "wah-wah" was one of the bandleader's signature sounds. It's also worth noting the overall character of New Orleans style jazz, a spirited sound that conveys a marvelous sense of exuberance. Sidney Bechet (1897-1959). In the 1920s, the only soloist who could rival Louis Armstrong.Clarinetist and soprano saxophonist par excellence, Bechet's style was less exuberant than Armstrong's, but he exuded warmth and emotional maturity.

(However, that did not keep him out of trouble in his early travels to London and Paris. In two separate incidents, he served jail time in these European capitals4.) Bechet's improvisations were among the most blues-infused of any jazz musician, characterized by a distinctive, wide vibrato. His legacy is one of having carved his own niche from the New Orleans style. Let's listen to Sidney Bechet with New Orleans trumpeter Tommy Ladnier and other New Orleans-style Blue Horizon Over six blues choruses, Bechet slowly develops his original tune, reaching into the upper register climactically in the fourth (2:09) and sixth choruses (3:36). Note especially the rich, full sound of his long, sustained high notes, as well as his flawless, expressive mastery of pitch bending. (Sidney Bechet), New York, December 20, 1944. Sidney Bechet, clarinet; Sidney De Paris, trumpet; Vic Dickenson, trombone; Art Hodes, piano; George "Pops" Foster, bass; Manzie Johnson, drums.

New Orleans “Dixieland” Jazz New Orleans jazz music originated among African-Americans and black Creoles, but its appeal was so broad that it was soon imitated by white musicians. The first jazz recording, in fact, was of a band of white New Orleans musicians who called themselves The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. (For this reason, many jazz historians reserve the term Dixieland for the style of New Orleans jazz that is performed by white musicians.) Livery Stable Blues contributed greatly to the dissemination of jazz across the country and in Europe (where they toured), helping to establish a market for New Orleans jazz. In the recording, listen for the aforementioned tricks, in particular the sounds of barnyard animals: a rooster crowing on clarinet, a horse whinnying on cornet, and a cow lowing on trombone. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Livery Stable Blues [spotify♫] [rhapsody♫] (Ray Lopez and Alcide Nunez), New York, 1917. Nick LaRocca, cornet; Eddie Edwards, trombone; Larry Shields, clarinet; Henry Ragas, piano; Tony Spargo, drums.

Chicago many of the New Orleans jazz musicians—seeking to escape an increasingly oppressive social environment in the south, as well as to pursue greater opportunities in the north—migrated to Chicago in the late teens and early 20s. They made their way to Chicago by train or by steamboat up the Mississippi River as far as St. Louis. Indeed, steamboats up and down the river provided performance venues for a number of these New Orleans jazz musicians and carried their music northward. In the 1920s, Chicago was at the center of jazz, both old and new. So it is from recordings made in Chicago in the 1920s that we have come to know the New Orleans style. The greatest and most influential of these New Orleans musicians were Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) He was the first great solo improviser. Some would say he is the greatest solo improviser in the history of jazz. He showed the world the beauty, virtuosity, and depth that can be conveyed through improvised solo performance. His rhythmic genius demonstrated the latent potential of swing.

Spontaneous, swinging melody flowed from his horn like a fresh water spring. Struttin' with Some Barbecue and Hotter Than That Both pieces were written by Lillian Hardin Armstrong, who plays piano on the recordings—and was also the trumpeter's wife! Struttin...exhibits a characteristic form in jazz known as A A' form A A' form (A A Prime Form) A standard form in American song and in jazz, frequently 32 bars in length and divisible into two subsections. At the halfway point, this form returns to its familiar opening material. Difference between 32-bar form and AA' Form The big difference between the two forms is at the midway point: in song form, the contrasting B section—the bridge—begins the second half of the form, whereas in an A A' form, the second half of the form begins with a return to the opening material. The contrasts in A A' form exist principally between the two 8-bar subsections in both 16-bar halves of the form. Characteristically, in an A A’ form, smaller letters could represent the 8-bar subsections, with the A section broken down as a b and the A' section as a b'.

Turnaround: The last two bars of a phrase or chorus in which the standard rhythmic and melodic patterns are abandoned to allow a freer and more virtuosic expression by various instrumentalists, often drawing attention to the drummer. Break: A point in the music, normally at the turnaround, when all the instrumentalists except one stop playing, allowing that one performer to begin or end a solo improvisation with a virtuosic flourish. Backbeat: A rhythmic accent on the weak beats in a measure, typically beats 2 and 4. Scat singing: A style of improvisatory singing that employs “nonsense” syllables made up by the singer while improvising a melody. Earl Hines (1903-1983) was an early jazz pianist from Pittsburgh who developed a horn-like style of improvisation that was highly influential. To refer to a style as “horn-like” is to focus attention on the right hand of the piano as it plays a single melodic line, much as a trumpet or saxophone would; that is, one note at a time. This style of playing may also be described as linear.

Horn-like style: A term used to describe the single-note melodic improvisations of pianists and guitarists imitating the style of horn players, since their instruments also allow them to play more than one note at a time. Bix Beiderbecke Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (1903-1931 is considered the first great white jazz performer. As a youngster, Bix studied piano, but he soon made the switch to cornet. Growing up in Davenport, Iowa, Beiderbecke's earliest exposure to jazz came from phonograph records. The allure of the music—and the lifestyle of jazz musicians—drew Bix to Chicago, even before he could graduate from the military high school near Chicago where his parents had sent him. The tragic brevity of his life is the stuff of legends. His career as a musician would take him in fairly short order from Chicago to St. Louis to New York, where he would eventually drink himself to death at age 28. Frankie Trumbauer (1901-1956) was another important Chicago-style player.

He played the C-melody saxophone, an uncommon instrument that helped impart a distinctive sound to his playing, as did his more linear approach to improvisation. Such jazz luminaries as tenor saxophonist Lester Young cite Trumbauer as an important influence. “Chicago style” was largely the result of musicians influencing one another. While this style wasn't clearly defined, it featured certain prevalent characteristics that distinguished it from the New Orleans style: Individual solos became more important than collective improvisation. The guitar took the place of the banjo. A saxophone was often added. James P. Johnson (1894-1955). Concurrent with developments in Chicago, a northeastern jazz scene was coalescing in Harlem, pioneered by “the father of stride piano,” Stride piano: A style of jazz piano derived from ragtime in which the left hand alternates between bass notes and chords on successive beats of 4/4 time, creating an “um-pah, um-pah” foundation underneath the right hand’s melodic embellishments and improvisations.

Thomas "Fats" Waller (1904-1943) took the stride style he learned and infused his original piano pieces with rich textures, vigor, and an irrepressible joy. Waller was well known for his showmanship and comedic delivery. His show tunes, such as Ain't Misbehavin’ [spotify♫] [rhapsody♫], were enormously popular. However, Waller's stride style piano pieces are regarded as his greatest contributions to jazz. Let's listen to one of these, Handful of Keys [spotify♫] [rhapsody♫], recorded in New York on March 1, 1929. Swing: The dominant style of jazz from the mid-to-late 1930s through the early 1940s, characterized by big band performances and prominent use of propulsive, danceable rhythms in both written melodies and improvisations. Fletcher Henderson's band landed the gig at what would soon become New York's premier dance hall, the Roseland Ballroom, in 1924. In 1924, Louis Armstrong left King Oliver's band in Chicago to join Fletcher Henderson's band in New York.

The year he spent as a sideman with Henderson served both the trumpeter and the bandleader well. Armstrong returned to Chicago to lead his own band, soon to make his deservedly famous Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. And before Armstrong returned to Chicago, Henderson and his other sidemen had absorbed the essence of solo improvisation and swing from him. Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952) grew up in a middle-class black family in southern Georgia. His mother, a piano teacher, instilled in him an appreciation of classical music, but Henderson never considered music as a career. He graduated from Atlanta University with a degree in chemistry and then moved to New York in 1920. Almost serendipitously, he wound up working as a song demonstrator for one of New York's earliest black-owned music publishing companies. When one of the owners, Harry Pace, founded the first black recording company, Henderson was enlisted to serve a host of musical duties. Ultimately, this led him into the role of band director for the company's various recordings. Before long, Henderson had put together his own band to perform outside the studio1.

Henderson was a pioneer in the emerging jazz style that would come to be known as swing. His arrangements—or charts, as they are called—provided the model for most of the bands that would come to prominence in the latter half of the 1930s. Chart: A written arrangement, especially for a big band. Henderson's charts divided the band into three sections: Reeds (reed section): alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones; and clarinet Brass (brass section): trumpets and trombones Rhythm (rhythm section): piano, guitar, double bass, and drums Call-and-response: A musical “back-and-forth” characterized by alternations between two groups, or between a soloist and a group. This back-and-forth between sections is also described asantiphonal counterpoint. Don Redman (1900-1964) was a conservatory-trained saxophonist/composer who was hired by Fletcher Henderson, and he is largely responsible for much of Henderson's early big band success.

Redman's arrangements not only heightened the distinction between written and improvised sections, they also made skillful use of the contrasts between reeds and brass—the innovation that Henderson's orchestra became known for. He was also among the first to develop the voicing-across-sections technique, where players are drawn from the various sections to play a line together. (Duke Ellington adopted and further developed this technique of voicing across sections, as we'll see in the second part of this lesson.) One of Fletcher Henderson's early hits was his composition The Stampede [spotify♫] [rhapsody♫], arranged by Don Redman. This was early New York jazz, not hiding its debt to the New Orleans style, but leading the way toward the big band sound that would evolve in the next decade. Coleman Hawkins takes the solo in the second chorus (0:50-1:23). Here, he is pioneering the development of the tenor saxophone “voice,” which was literally a newcomer to the jazz band. Fletcher Henderson, for his part, has ample opportunity to demonstrate his piano acumen in passages of call-and-response, and we hear the strong influence of New York's "Father of Stride", James P.

Johnson (listen [spotify♫] [rhapsody♫]). The Great Depression that began with the stock market crash of 1929 had profound economic and social effects on the nation and the world. Three years after the crash, the value of stocks stood at about one-fifth of what it had been at the peak. Industrial output had fallen sharply. Agricultural production plummeted, a situation greatly exacerbated by the Dust Bowl. By 1933, unemployment in the United States had reached almost 25 percent of the working population2. Martin Williams director of the jazz program at the Smithsonian Institution, has remarked on the significance of Henderson's music, stating that it “helped carry the human spirit through some rather desperate times in the 1930s.” Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969) considered the first great tenor saxophonist. He developed a warm, full sound on the instrument that was emulated by many who came after him. A Midwesterner from St. Joseph, Missouri, Hawkins studied piano and cello as a child and by age nine had begun playing tenor saxophone. He cut his teeth as a performer in Kansas City and Chicago.

In 1921, before his seventeenth birthday, Hawkins was invited to join blues singer Mamie Smith on tour, and three years later he joined Fletcher Henderson's band in New York. Hawkins stayed in Henderson's band for ten years. In 1934, he began a tour of England that resulted in a five-year stay in Europe. He was welcomed everywhere except Germany, where the Nazis had enacted laws that forbade African Americans from entering the country. In 1939, with the outbreak of war imminent, Hawkins returned to the States5. The first notable European jazz originated in the 1930s with the music of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, led by French gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) is considered the first great European jazz musician. At age 18, a fire left Reinhardt with portions of the ring finger and pinky from his left hand missing. However, as recordings made some six years later demonstrate, Reinhardt found his own guitar technique that more than compensated for the loss.

His playing drew international attention, and Reinhardt enjoyed recording opportunities with such well-known visiting American jazz musicians as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter7. Stéphane Grappelli (1908-1997). French jazz violinist Benny Carter (1907-2003) was one of the two great alto saxophone players of the swing era. (Johnny Hodges, who played with Duke Ellington, was the other.) Carter, along with Hodges, did much to establish the alto saxophone as a major jazz instrumental voice. Carter was enormously talented on multiple instruments, including trumpet, and he was a first-rate arranger and composer. His playing evinces a “singing” quality, even as his improvisations suggest something of a thematic development. Roy Eldridge (1911-1989) was the next great trumpeter after Louis Armstrong. Through the 1930s, his mastery of the trumpet was unparalleled. His innovative approach owed much to his adoption of melodic idioms of the saxophone, which were much harder to execute on trumpet. Roy and Benny known as masters of swing.

Collective improvisation: A characteristic feature of New Orleans jazz in which multiple instrumentalists improvise together according to agreed-upon conventions. Art Tatum (1909-1956) was one of the great jazz pianists coming out of the stride tradition. Nearly blind from birth, Tatum possessed extraordinary facility on the keyboard, combining the dazzling technique of classical training with a marvelous feel for the blues. He arrived in Harlem from the Midwest in 1933, and he is reputed to have never lost a cutting contest. In his solos, Tatum tended to ornament the existing melody rather than spontaneously create a new one. In other words, we can hear more of a connection to the original melody in his improvisations. Chord substitution: The use of a chord in place of another in a chord progression, typically to impart a new and distinct flavor to the chord progression. Duke Ellington (1899-1974) was the greatest composer of the swing era, and, many would say, the greatest composer in the history of jazz. Fittingly, among the considerable array of anointed jazz “royalty,” perhaps none conducted himself with greater aristocratic bearing than the “Duke” himself.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born in Washington, DC and grew up there in modestly comfortable circumstances. His father was a butler for a successful medical doctor, and Ellington grew up in the doctor's home. His mother devoted herself to his upbringing, and from an early age, he was encouraged to believe that he was destined for greatness8. Ellington Effect: A term coined by Billy Strayhorn to describe the originality and distinctiveness of the sound of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, attributable to Ellington’s brilliance as a composer and arranger, to the individually distinctive sounds of his sidemen, and to the ways in which Ellington wrote specifically for them Bubber Miley (1903-1932) was the band's first star trumpeter, and he developed agrowl style of playing that lent the trumpet a more vocal quality. The gutbucket cornet style of King Oliver strongly influenced Miley, but he was able to advance that style by combining the use of both the plunger mute and straight mute to create a “wa-wa” sound and a more controlled growl11.

Growl style: A style of trumpet and trombone playing that utilizes mute and plunger effects to impart a rough, guttural vocal quality to the brass instrument. Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton (1904-1946) cultivated a similar growl style on the trombone. Ellington liked this growling brass concept so much that he wrote it into many of his compositions, and it became one of the distinctive features that contributed to the Ellington Effect. Jungle style: One of Duke Ellington’s styles of composition and performance that employs a variety of exotic effects, often with an emphasis on driving rhythms intended to convey a “primitive” sound Cootie Williams was born in Mobile, Alabama and taught himself to play trumpet at an early age. His professional career began at age 14, and Williams moved to New York three years later. After brief stints in bands led by Chick Webb and Fletcher Henderson, Williams joined Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1929.

Concerto style: One of Duke Ellington’s styles of composition and performance that features one soloist exclusively Concerto for Cootie is aptly named, and it provides a superb example of Ellington's concerto style, featuring Cootie Williams as the soloist through the entire piece. Williams' performance is masterful, and it includes the use of both straight mute and plunger mute, as well as open trumpet. Johnny Hodges (1907-1970) was Ellington's most celebrated soloist. As lead saxophonist, he would carry the melody when the saxophone section was out front. Hodges developed a silky, sultry ballad style that infused even his performances of written melodies with the character of solo improvisation. And his improvisations were all the more remarkable for their blend of languid passages and rapid flourishes. Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967) Billy Strayhorn Composer, arranger, and pianist Billy Strayhorn studied music extensively while growing up in Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Although classically-trained, Strayhorn had an interest in jazz, and he went to hear the Ellington band when they came to Pittsburgh in 1934. Recalls Strayhorn, “Nothing before or since has affected my life so much12.” Ben Webster Ben Webster (1909-1973) was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, another important city for the development of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. Webster began his musical career as a jazz pianist but switched to tenor saxophone around 1930. His progress on the instrument was extraordinary. Through the early 1930s, he played tenor sax in several of the leading bands in Kansas City, including the one led by Bennie Moten.

Other sidemen in Moten's band included such jazz notables as bassist Walter Page and pianist Count Basie (whom we will study in the next lesson)14 In 1934, Webster moved to New York, where he played for a time in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra before joining Cab Calloway's orchestra, which was the house band at the Cotton Club through most of the decade. . Jimmy Blanton (1918-1942) was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and received his early music education from his mother, who was a pianist. He played double bass locally before moving to St. Louis in the late 1930s. Blanton was playing in Fate Marable's riverboat bands when Duke Ellington heard him in 1939. Ellington was awed by the young virtuoso and immediately enlisted him to join his orchestra. Jimmy Blanton innovated jazz performance on double bass, pioneering the modern role of the bass player. His ability to swing a band, his harmonically astute walking bass lines, his virtuosic approach to soloing—all of these aspects of Blanton's artistry influenced every bass player in the generation that came after him.

Walking bass: A style of playing bass in which the strings are plucked on every quarter-note beat. Kansas City one of those cities, possibly the only one that could rival New York and Chicago in the early 1930s. It was also the city where the Count Basie Orchestra (listen [spotify♫]) first came to prominence. Count Basie, along with Duke Ellington, is regarded by jazz historians as one of the two most important and innovative bandleaders of the swing era. We devote a large portion of this lesson to an examination of Count Basie as a bandleader, his talents on the piano, and his orchestra members. Benny Goodman (1909-1986) First white band leader and clarinetist who benefited greatly from his association with Fletcher Henderson and his use of Henderson's arrangements. Goodman's band was one of the few white bands regarded as “hot” by black jazz musicians. More than anyone else, Goodman popularized swing for the broader American population, ushering in the era of jazz's greatest popular appeal. He became known as “The King of Swing” due to his unparalleled success in the mid-to-late 30s.

He had the uncanny ability to please the public with hit after hit, as well as keep his musicians actively engaged by maintaining high-level improvisation as a regular part of their performance practice. Fletcher Henderson Goodman grew up in Chicago, where from an early age he was able to hear many of the great New Orleans and Chicago jazz musicians who performed there regularly. He also studied classical clarinet, which stood him in good stead with the art music community and eventually led to a dual career that saw him record some of the great classical works for clarinet. Charlie Christian (1916-1942) was the first great electric guitarist in jazz. His flame burned brightly—but all too briefly—extinguished by poor health, which was itself aggravated by hard living. He died of pneumonia at the age of 25. Such tragic brevity of life makes his contributions to jazz all the more remarkable. Christian grew up in Oklahoma City, absorbing the influences of both acoustic blues and the emerging southwestern style of swing of the region. His local reputation grew steadily through the late 1930s, and in 1939 he was brought to the attention of John Hammond, the same record producer and talent scout who worked with Benny Goodman.

Charlie Christian plays electric guitar with the Benny Goodman Sextet on I Found a New Baby This is one of the earliest examples of the electric guitar featured as a solo instrument in jazz. The piece is another 32-bar song form (AABA), this one beginning with a four-bar introduction that leads directly into Goodman's solo on clarinet (0:06-0:44). Although he touches briefly on the melody, Goodman improvises through most of the first chorus. Christian then enters immediately to solo through the second chorus (0:45-1:21). The guitarist's improvisation is considered "horn-like" because he was adapting the melodic idioms of saxophone to the guitar. At the time it was a fresh approach to solo guitar, made possible by electronic amplification of the instrument. Lionel Hampton (1908-2002) was a vibraphonist, drummer, and bandleader who came of age during the swing era. He was among the first to play jazz vibraphone (a.k.a. “vibes“), a xylophone-like instrument with resonator tubes suspended below aluminum bars to create a natural reverberation of the sound.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Hampton moved with his family to Chicago when he was 11. In his teens, he started performing as a drummer. In the late 1920s he traveled to Los Angeles as a member of Les Hite's band, which famously played with Louis Armstrong at the Cotton Club in Culver City in the early 1930s. It was Louis Armstrong, in fact, who encouraged Hampton to make the vibraphone his principal instrument4. Through the first half of the decade, Hampton developed his own swinging style of playing the vibraphone. His association with Benny Goodman, which began in 1936, marked another milestone for Hampton. As a member of the Goodman Quartet, he produced some of his finest work, and it brought him widespread recognition that would advance his career. Hampton put together his own band which included such notable jazz luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Charlie Christian. Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra is When Lights Are Low It's a perky 32-bar song form that provides ample opportunities for the soloists to shine.

In the first chorus, Hampton solos over the bridge (0:20-0:29), followed by a Benny Carter solo on alto sax covering the final A section (0:29-0:39). Hampton returns to solo through the entire second chorus (0:39-1:18). The vibraphone is unique among jazz instruments. The instrument itself possesses a luminescent sound, and Hampton is among the instrument's early pioneers, displaying a rhythmic speed and richness that betrays his background as a drummer. Following the second chorus there is a marvelous insertion of eight bars, during which the band drops out. Hampton concludes his solo over the first four bars, and tenor great Coleman Hawkins enters to cover the last four bars. The band then returns, as Hawkins continues his solo through the first half of the third chorus. Clyde Hart offers a brief solo over the bridge, and the band returns to close the piece, which includes a brief coda containing one last burst of brilliance from the vibraphonist. Coda The concluding passage of a piece of music, typically forming an extension to the basic structure.

Prohibition in the United States (1920 to 1933) presented economic opportunities—most of them illegal—that were met in a host of different ways by enterprising people and institutions. Organized crime got its big start during these years, and many municipal governments turned a blind eye to the goings on. These were the Roaring 20s. Money was plentiful, booze was flowing, and jazz was playing for the crowds. Great Depression (1929 to early 1940s) which devastated most areas of the country and curtailed performance opportunities for many professional jazz musicians. But as Prohibition continued, some cities—particularly those with a good measure of political corruption—promoted the vices that would allow them to withstand even the most severe economic downturn the nation had seen. Kansas City was just such a city, a thriving Mecca for the nightlife—and for jazz! William “Count” Basie (1904-1984) Pianist and bandleader, Basie developed a more relaxed, swinging style of jazz by paring down the Fletcher Henderson style.

Basie's style featured more solos, as well as more short-riff call-and-response between the reeds and brass. More than anyone else, Basie popularized this Kansas City style of swing. grew up in Red Bank, New Jersey, and from an early age he learned piano from his mother. While still in his teens, he made his way to Harlem to learn from such masters of stride piano as James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. For several years Basie performed in and around New York, and he also toured as a solo pianist and accompanist for blues singers on the vaudeville circuits. That's how Basie found himself stranded in Kansas City in 1927. He found work there playing piano for silent movies and, within a year, was invited to join Walter Page's Blue Devils. The following year he became a member of Benny Moten's Kansas City Orchestra. Basie organized a group of his own called the Barons of Rhythm, which included many of his band mates from Moten's orchestra. He landed an engagement at the Reno Club, one of KayCee's most popular nightspots. This gig soon brought his band to the attention of New York booking and recording agents.

Within a year's time, the Count Basie Orchestra was playing at the Roseland Ballroom in New York and beginning a long and successful recording career that would elevate his orchestra to the top tier of big band orchestras nationwide. Riff a short, catchy melodic gesture, sounding sometimes like a melodic outburst. Basie Built Basie built entire pieces around riffs, which allowed for a lighter, bouncier sound than other bands. Such pieces also lent themselves readily to a collaborative process in which the entire band would create the arrangement of the piece during practice. After working out their various parts together, players would commit them to memory. Basie's band was renowned for creating such head arrangements. Head arrangement An unscored, collaborative musical arrangement typically worked out during rehearsals and committed to memory. Count Basie Orchestra, Doggin' Around enor saxophonist Herschel Evans solos in the second chorus, and then trumpeter Buck Clayton offers a bright, polished performance through the first half of the third chorus. Jack Washington, on baritone sax, completes the chorus.

Basie's solo in the fourth chorus (at 1:39) is a model of economy, utilizing repeated riffs with a rhythmic subtlety that is the hallmark of his style. And tenor saxophonist Lester Young in the fifth chorus demonstrates a relaxed, fluid, behind-the-beat linear style that conveys harmonic sophistication. Jo Jones (1911-1985) was one of the earliest drummers to play the ride rhythm on the hi-hat as it was continuously opening and closing, producing a smoother, more sustained rhythm. He also played a quieter bass drum than most swing-era drummers. Ride rhythm: Chapter 6: Louis Armstrong and the First Great Soloists | Jazz: W. W. Norton StudySpace Jazz: W. W. Norton StudySpace Louis Armstrong and the First Great Soloists Chapter Outline This chapter considers the landmark career of jazz revolutionary and pop icon Louis Armstrong and his effect on creating jazz as a solo art. We begin with the arc of Armstrong's career from New Orleans to Chicago and New York, detailing his interactions with the music of his hometown (King Oliver), the new big-band dance music (Fletcher Henderson), and the classic blues (Bessie Smith).

We then move back to Chicago and Armstrong's landmark Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1926-28), which bridged older, New Orleans-style collective improvisation with the new emphasis on soloing, often aided by pianist Earl Hines. Armstrong influenced two important soloists: Bix Beiderbecke, who represents the pinnacle of young white interest in jazz, and Coleman Hawkins, whose canny understanding of Armstrong's achievements launched a lengthy career. We conclude with a discussion of Armstrong's later career as a mainstream entertainer, singing popular songs with his own, large dance orchestra (1930s) or his small New Orleans group (1947-71). Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) He is the most important figure in the history of jazz. He transformed a social music into art and a place where a musician, regardless of race or geography, could find a voice. He was a central influence as an instrumentalist and as a vocalist. He was also very popular at a time when jazz was considered primitive and degenerate.

Primary Innovations Proved that improvised music could have the weight and durability of written music Blues: established it as jazz's harmonic foundation when most saw it as a mere fashion Improvisation: established jazz as music that prizes individual expression, above and beyond technique Singing: introduced a jazz vocal style using scat, loose phrasing with lyrics, which influenced later vocal stars such as Bing Crosby and Billie Holliday Repertory: created masterworks based on Tin Pan Alley songs, not just original New Orleans themes, showing that jazz could expand musically and commercially Rhythm: introduced swing These five contributions were introduced in ways defying conventional ideas about art and put American music on a par with European and Russian music. Early Years Although he came from bleak beginnings, he had a long and fruitful career in music and later in movies. He did not simply peak during the 1920s. He helped spearhead swing and persevered through bop and fusion even though he disliked them. Born to an unwed teenager in 1902 in a devastated New Orleans area. When his mother showed him her hometown in the country, Armstrong saw a different kind of life. At age seven, he was working two jobs.

He received his first cornet from the immigrant Jewish family that owned one of the businesses that Louis worked for. In 1913 he was arrested for shooting blanks and sent to the New Orleans Colored Waif's Home for 18 months, where he received rudimentary musical instruction; he was made leader of the band before he left. After discharge, Louis took lessons from Joe Oliver. Riverboat Years In 1918 he started playing in saloons and parades, often with his own trio (with bass and drums), playing mostly blues. When Oliver left for Chicago, he suggested that Armstrong take his place in the band with co-leader Kid Ory. Later that year he started working on Mississippi riverboat excursions. He spent three years with the Streckfus Steamboat Line under the musical leadership of Fate Marable, who played the calliope.

During this time Armstrong: Became a better music reader; learned to adapt New Orleans music to written arrangements Learned songs beyond the New Orleans repertory Experienced a new kind of audience (white) Acclimatized to the life of a traveling musician With Oliver in Chicago Marable did not let Armstrong sing, so he quit in 1921 to return to Ory's band. He became well known in the area. Ethel Waters, while traveling with her pianist Fletcher Henderson, attempted to lure him to New York, but he stayed in New Orleans. In 1922, he was invited to join Oliver's band in Chicago at the Lincoln Gardens. He usually played second trumpet (there were a few exceptions, such as "Dippermouth Blues"). He astonished musicians with his harmonizing trumpet breaks with Oliver and the brilliance of his timbre. By 1924 he left Oliver with the encouragement of his second wife, Lil Hardin (the pianist in Oliver's band), and went to New York at the invitation of Fletcher Henderson. With Henderson in New York This was a crucial time for jazz and Armstrong. Henderson hired the best black musicians of the day.

Armstrong was considered an old-fashioned country rube by the slick New York musicians of the Henderson band, but only until they heard his originality, blues feeling, and rhythmic drive. He also made many recordings with blues divas such as Bessie Smith and others. He recorded with Sidney Bechet on the Clarence Williams Blue Five sessions. Armstrong recorded more than thirty-six times with Henderson in fourteen months, during which he: Influenced Redman's arrangements Made the blues more a part of the band's sound Increased the prominence of the band's beat Set the standard for other players in the Henderson band as well as other bands Because Henderson would not let him sing, he left in 1925 and returned to Chicago. The Hot Five In Chicago he played in a pit orchestra that played for silent movies and intermission music. By the end of 1925 OKeh Records asked to him record as a leader. He chose Lil Hardin and three musicians whom he had worked with in New Orleans: Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), and Kid Ory (trombone). Using varying personnel, Armstrong made sixty-five recordings with the Hot Five and Hot Seven.

These were very important recordings in that they mark: The change from polyphony to showcasing soloists The move from embellishments to improvisation The move from breaks to full chorus solos or more The move from multiple ragtime-like strains to single-theme choruses of pop songs and blues "Hotter Than That" Recorded in 1927. The thirty-two-bar chorus is based on a New Orleans favorite, "Tiger Rag," originally recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1918. Lonnie Johnson joins in on guitar as a soloist, which was unusual. There is no written melody, just improvisation (including a trumpet solo, scat singing, and trading between Armstrong and Johnson) and complex three-beat figures. Enter Earl Hines (1903-1983) In 1926 Armstrong was asked to be the feature soloist with the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra at the Sunset Café in Chicago. Dickerson also hired pianist Earl Hines.

Hines had an idiosyncratic style, which included soloing like a horn, using octaves and tremolos as well as single notes, and accompaniment using playful rhythms combining on-the-beat, boogie-woogie, and stride rhythms. Armstrong and Hines hit it off immediately. Armstrong had him record with the Hot Five in 1928 and took him to New York the same year. These recordings were considered an advance on the earlier Hot Fives. Polyphony generally disappeared, to be replaced by solos and homophonic textures that characterize jazz to this day. "Weather Bird" Written by Armstrong for Oliver and recorded with him in 1923. It is structured like the traditional three-strain ragtime; each strain is sixteen bars long. A good deal of friendly battling occurs here. The Armstrong Impact: A Generation of Soloists Before Armstrong, bands reflected the abilities of their leaders or took an ensemble approach. Armstrong changed that tradition by inspiring a new generation of musicians, both black and white, who were interested in unfettered improvisation. With Armstrong jazz had the potential to become universal.

By 1929, a number of musicians were following Armstrong's example of the starring soloist. Composers also had to make use of these emerging soloists. Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) Beiderbecke was born in Davenport Iowa. He had an exceptionally good musical ear. He became famous as a cornet player but also knew his way around a piano. He belonged to the generation that learned jazz from recordings. Recordings had three influences on the dissemination of jazz: Young people could hear jazz no matter where they lived. Solos could be learned and memorized through repeated listening to a recording. Recordings helped young players to break away from tradition. At the age of fourteen, Beiderbecke was deeply affected by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band recordings when they first came out. He taught himself the New Orleans style of cornet playing through recordings and live performances on the Streckfus steamers that visited Davenport. Both these activities dismayed his parents. He neglected his schoolwork so in 1921 his parents sent him to a boarding school, which happened to be within train-hopping distance to Chicago.

Beiderbecke took full advantage, regularly visiting clubs like the Lincoln Gardens, where he heard King Oliver and Armstrong. He was expelled in 1923 when he joined the first band of northern whites to imitate New Orleans ensembles: the Wolverines. In 1924 they recorded for Gennett. Chicago Style In 1924 he made some recordings with the Sioux City Six, which included C-melody saxophonist Frank Trumbauer (1901-1956). Trumbauer had a strong influence on Lester Young and Benny Carter. Beiderbecke and Trumbauer became close friends and the figureheads for a generation of white musicians referred to as the Austin High School Gang. Other musicians who were associated with this group included Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and others. They created the Chicago style, which started out as an imitation of New Orleans jazz but later became more rhythmic and combined soloing with polyphonic themes. For young white musicians, being involved with jazz was an act of rebellion, but for blacks this wasn't the case. Beiderbecke died young from the effects of alcoholism.

Although a featured soloist with the popular Paul Whiteman band, he was largely unknown during his lifetime. He recorded between 1924 and 1930, but his career reached its zenith in the recordings made in 1927 with Trumbauer and guitarist Eddie Lang (1902-1933). "Singin' the Blues" This is one of the most imitated records of all time. The performance had three novel aspects: The source is a popular song. The melody is never actually played until after the cornet solo, The tempo and feeling are indicative of a ballad. Both Trumbauer's and Beiderbecke's solos are famous, as is Lang's accompaniment. Fletcher Henderson recorded a version of Trumbauer's solo. His famous trumpeter, Rex Stewart, often played Beiderbecke's solo note for note, and words were put to it in 1935. Beiderbecke is quite different from Armstrong-he is more subdued, yet still swings. Coleman Hawkins (1904-1960) Hawkins had a long and successful career.

He learned to play a number of instruments including piano, cello, and C-melody saxophone. He started playing professionally for dances in Kansas City. In 1922 he joined Mamie Smith's band, at which point he took up tenor saxophone. He traveled with Smith's band before ending up in New York and joining Wilbur Sweatman, where Fletcher Henderson heard him and asked him to join his band. He stayed with Henderson for eleven years. He had a big sound with a wide vibrato. After Armstrong joined the Henderson band, Hawkins strove to adapt Armstrong's sense of swing and blues sensibility to the saxophone. Hawkins's solo on "Stampede" was influential on the next generation of jazz musicians. However, his playing still lacked a smooth legato style until 1929, when he recorded "One Hour." "One Hour" This was a rare integrated session that included black musicians Coleman Hawkins and Pops Foster with a white band, the Mound City Blue Blowers, led by Red McKenzie. It was based on a piece written by James P.

Johnson in 1926 called "If I Could Be with You One Hour," which was recorded by a number of groups in 1930. The structure is ABAC, and each section is four bars long except for a six-bar extension on the C section. Hawkins plays with a rich timbre, musical variety, and legato phrasing. Pee Wee Russell's clarinet solo playing is very percussive. Both Russell and Hawkins show Armstrong's influences. McKenzie sounds dated next to the two reed players. Satchmo's World Armstrong's 1920s recordings set a new direction for jazz. Although he was not as broadly known as the white jazz musicians, each new recording was highly anticipated by his fellow musicians. In the 1930s, Armstrong gained a wide following but musicians started to look elsewhere for new directions. To World War II After the Hot Five sessions ended in 1928, Armstrong went on the road with Carroll Dickerson. His next record in 1929 was, for the first time, with an acknowledged integrated group: three blacks and three whites including guitarist Lang, trombonist Jack Teagarden, and pianist Joe Sullivan.

At the same session he fronted Luis Russell's ten-piece integrated band, whose members came from a wide geographical area. Jazz had superseded its origins. They recorded two numbers, one of which was a show tune, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," which showed Armstrong's effectiveness as a jazz-oriented singer of pop tunes. This led to a number of hit recordings starting in 1929, including Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'," which he performed on Broadway more than 200 times in the show Hot Chocolates. From 1930 to 1933 he recorded many songs and became the hit of New York. After a number of long engagements in several major American cities, he went to Europe in 1932, where he was a hit in Paris and London. He returned in 1933 and 1934 to even greater acclaim. He started appearing in short films, usually in stereotypically demeaning roles, which Armstrong carried off with a certain degree of irony.

In 1935 and 1936 he signed a long-term contract to front Luis Russell's band, took on a new powerful manager, and signed a lucrative deal with Decca Records, which lasted twenty years. He published his first autobiography (heavily ghostwritten), Swing That Music, and had a starring cameo appearance in the Bing Crosby movie, Pennies from Heaven. And all this was in addition to releasing many hit records and having the first nationally sponsored radio show starring an African American. By the mid-1930s his singing voice became mellower while his trumpet became more brilliant. He was acclaimed as one of the great singers of pop music and jazz. The All Stars During World War II his popularity waned as the material grew stale and a new generation discovered rhythm and blues. Jazz was also changing in ways that shunned show business, something that Armstrong had come to represent. He made a Hollywood travesty, New Orleans, in 1946, after which he formed a small band. It was with this band that Armstrong made a comeback, triumphing at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in 1947. This led in turn to the formation of Louis Armstrong and his All Stars.

They really were stars at the beginning. During this period he also made movies and hit records, appeared on television, and traveled constantly, in some cases as an American goodwill ambassador. Africa and Arkansas In 1956 he went to Africa for a documentary being made by CBS television. He had lunch with Ghana's president and then played for an audience of 100,000 fans. Armstrong was very moved by the acceptance but was then faced with the problems of segregation back home. He insisted on touring with an integrated group. In Knoxville, his concert was dynamited. The U.S. government wanted to send him to Russia as a goodwill ambassador, but when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus ordered the national guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School, Armstrong balked. At the same time, black leaders characterized him as an Uncle Tom. But by the mid-1960s the controversy had passed. He had a great success with "Hello Dolly!" in 1964. During his later years he wrote his memoirs. He died in 1971, but seventeen years later his "What a Wonderful World" was a big hit.

Jazz Personalized Armstrong's life paralleled the story of jazz. In 1929 he started to achieve mainstream acceptance, and he underscored the importance of individual expression and the potential of its emotional impact. In the 1930s, a whole generation personalized jazz while making it one of the world's best-known popular musics and in the process giving it a new name: swing. Hines moved to Chicago and in 1928 he participated in a - MUSIC - 118B View Full Document Bix Beiderbecke Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (1903-1931) is considered the first great white jazz performer. As a youngster, Bix studied piano, but he soon made the switch to cornet. Growing up in Davenport, Iowa, Beiderbecke's earliest exposure to jazz came from phonograph records. The allure of the music—and the lifestyle of jazz musicians— drew Bix to Chicago, even before he could graduate from the military high school near Chicago where his parents had sent him. The tragic brevity of his life is the stuff of legends. His career as a musician would take him in fairly short order from Chicago to St.

Louis to New York, where he would eventually drink himself to death at age 28. Largely self-taught on the cornet, Beiderbecke developed a unique set of fingerings that imbued his horn with a distinctive timbre. Never a good sight-reader, he had a superb ear and a keen appreciation for modern classical music, especially the French Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, as well as the Russian modernism of Stravinsky 6 . Bix was not widely appreciated during his lifetime, except among his fellow musicians. Many jazz listeners have since come to relish his cornet improvisations and compositional genius. He is considered one of the first improvisers to pay close attention to the chord changes. His style of playing was quite different from the flashy, extroverted approach of Louis Armstrong. Beiderbecke was also not interested in the mute and plunger effects popularized by King Oliver and other New Orleans jazz barrelhouse cornetists. Instead, with an open bell—like his idol, Armstrong—Beiderbecke created his own style. His solos include long, lyrical passages, with occasional “hot” bursts.

There is an introspective quality to his music, his fluid melodies seeming at times almost to “float” above the accompaniment 7 . Hoagy Carmichael Composer and pianist Hoagy Carmichael, one of Bix's closest friends, offers this assessment: Bix's breaks were not as wild as Armstrong's, but they were hot and he selected each note with musical care. He showed me that jazz could be musical and beautiful as well as hot. He showed me that tempo doesn't mean fast. His music affected me in a different way. Can't tell you how— like licorice, you have to eat some 8 . This preview has intentionally blurred sections. Sign up to view the full version.

Question: Dying aged 28, who is considered the first great white jazz musician?
Answer: Bix Beiderbecke