Jazz

Jazz book cover — Jazz by Walter Dean Myers illustrated by Christopher Myers Holiday House New York

Jazz — page 1 — INTRODUCTION When we use the term jazz we are talking about an approach to music that is exciting and creative one that relies on improvisation improvisation and spontaneity American in its origins today jazz is played throughout the world in performances that celebrate both the history of this rich music as well as its immediacy There are many kinds of jazz swing be-bop cool jazz fusion and free jazz are just a few but its fundamental premise remains remains the same musicians composing something new as they perform The jazz musician might begin with a well-known melody and then interpret it according to his or her own personality and musical training In every instance improvisation is a key element element of jazz The second major element of jazz is rhythm Early jazz often served as dance music but even as the music and performances grew increasingly complex and abstract its strong rhythm continued to pull in the listener A blending of two musical traditions African and European contributed to the development of jazz African music with its five-tone or pentatonic scales and complex rhythms came to North America during the slave trade In 1834 James R Creecy described a black gathering in Congo Square in New Orleans Groups of fifties and hundreds may be seen in different sections sections of the square with banjos tom-toms violins jawbones triangles and various other instruments from which harsh or dulcet sounds may be extracted By the end of the Civil War there were many skilled black musicians musicians and black popular music quickly began dividing into several distinct styles Gospel and spiritual music grew out of the black church The blues flourished throughout the Deep South in informal clubs and parties Early black musicians from the slave states who had been forbidden to learn to read and write usually played their instruments by ear that is they learned tunes and chords by listening and imitating others What they heard however was not only African-influenced mu sic but the European music being played by white musicians At the same time white musicians heard black music and borrowed borrowed freely from it using black harmonics and sometimes black scales Black musicians did the same with European music music and soon popular music began to show a melding of these different traditions The use of the African or blues scale and African rhythms changed the feel of European music and made it swing The dance halls and small clubs in which most black musicians played allowed them more freedom and experimentation experimentation than they could have had in formal concert halls Since so many black musicians were still not formally trained in reading musical notation there had to be some way of knowing knowing what the other players were going to do so that they could perform together

Jazz — page 2 — To solve this problem these musicians began using European chord structures as the basis of their music By understanding which chords would be played and in what order musicians could stay within the same harmonic structure A player could stray from the melody as originally composed and still make music that sounded as if it belonged to the same composition if he or she were playing within the same chord structure as the others Learning chord structures made American popular music which was written and played in the European style readily available to be played by these emerging artists It also encouraged improvisation because the players realized that the variations within the chord structures were often the most interesting parts of the song or composition Black musicians still outside of the mainstream in American popular music as America entered the age of technology took the lead in musical improvisation Somewhere around 1910 this hot new music was described by a new term jazz There are conflicting versions of what the word meant and why it was used but by the outbreak of the First World War the word was used throughout the country World War I saw black Americans going to Europe for the first time in large numbers The segregated black military outfits had their own bands and introduced Europeans to jazz James Reese Europe took an outstanding group of musicians through France as the head of the 369th Infantry Band the army’s most famous musical ensemble This coincided with another major influence the growth of the recording industry Records spread jazz throughout the world To Europeans it represented represented the freedom found in American performance styles To American musicians it represented a challenging new way of approaching music By the mid twenties there were bands calling calling themselves jazz orchestras all over the United States and the era itself was christened the jazz age All musicians black and white understood the principles of swing and improvisation Not all jazz will be loved by all people but anyone who understands understands the history and development of the art and the dedication and genius of the true jazz performance can appreciate appreciate its beauty and depth Today different artists reinterpret the music according to their own sensibilities and new listeners bring their own tastes and understanding to the music Ultimately it becomes like all art a dialogue between the artist and the audience a dialogue that is still vital still fun and still America’s gift to the world W D M

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