I
suppose Jazz is not going to be all about improvisation but because it’s a way
to convey and share your talent and emoticon with or without using words; but
with instruments which leads to improvisation, which I prefer another word of
saying it which is a universal language, to be exact. Jazz can cheer us up when
we’re down or maybe even help us to express anguish. This explains why Jazz was
born around the 1890s. And at that period of time, Jazz began to spread
different styles and it kept changing and until now, Jazz is still alive. And it has a modern style of Jazz. It is of
course, defined as a style of music, native to America, and characterized by a
strong flexible rhythmic with solo and improvisations on basic tunes, chord
patterns and etc. At first, jazz music wasn’t only popular to Americans, but
Europeans too. Jazz singers also released acapella records. And not to mention
they also produced and shipped V-Discs all around the world. World War II made
an impact on jazz. It has increased the confidence of the soldiers who were
fighting and also the families of these soldiers. A lot of jazz musicians were
soldiers and entertainers as well for the U.S troops. As far as I have been
taught, there are 5 different styles of music, which are Ragtime, Blues,
Dixieland, Swing/Big band and Bebop.
The
Second World War had an enormous effect on the development of jazz music, which
had a role to play in the American war effort. Jazz and jazz-influenced popular
music were a rallying cry for U.S. Jazz musicians also worked throughout the
war on patriotic films. The effects that the Second World War had on jazz music
and the contributions that jazz musicians made to the war effort. Gathering
together excerpts of important works by both jazz historians and jazz
musicians, the culminating activity helps students develop a broader historical
perspective on the effects that World War II had on the course of jazz music.
Ragtime was developed in African-American
communities around 1890’s until 1910’s. It combines rhythms that were brought
to this country by salves, with musical forms brought over to the United States
from Europe. Ragtime uses syncopated rhythms. By syncopated, It means the
accents in the melody are shifted away from the strong beats in the bass line
underneath. It Is a multi-theme music and it is usually grouped either ABACD or
ABCD. At this period of style, they don’t use any other instruments except the
piano. So basically, ragtime is actually a piano music and is usually hard,
bright or cheerful. It depends on the period of time and also on the right
situation. It is rarely rhythmically complicated.
The end of the American Civil War
brought emancipation to the slaves, but not true economic or political freedom.
Efforts by former slaves after the war to improve their own lives were met with
strong resistance from many whites who did not want to deal with them on an
equal basis. Laws were passed legalizing racial discrimination and making it
practically impossible for many non-whites to vote. The only types of jobs made
available to them were poor-paying menial labor, with three exceptions:
teacher, preacher, and musician.
A style of music that is based around using “blue
notes” is called Blues. Again, it started in African-American communities in
the US but it emerged on a different period of time, which was on 1910’s until
the 1920’s, which is about 10 years of being prominent. And was influenced by
various things, like spirituals, church music and chants. This genre was born
along the North Mississippi Delta after the Civil War.
Blues came into its own as an important part of
the country's relatively new national popular culture in the 1920s with the
recording, first, of the great female classic blues singers and, then, of the
country folk blues singers of the Mississippi Delta, the Piedmont of the
Carolinas, and Texas. As huge numbers of African Americans left the South
(driven by dismal socio-economic conditions and the hope of a better life above
the Mason-Dixon line) between 1915 and the 1940s, the blues went with them and
took root in the urban centers of the North, particularly Chicago. The more
urban, electric blues that developed and eclipsed the rural blues of the '30s
fed directly into both rock and roll and what would become known as rhythm and
blues. With the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s, white audiences
"rediscovered" and breathed new commercial life into the folk blues
(and some of the remaining Delta bluesmen who had languished in obscurity since
the 1930s) and made it the cornerstone of the tremendously popular British and
American blues rock of the next decade.
Dixieland; originated in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Started to emerge around 1920s until 1930s. Improvisation and the playing back
and forth of the cornet, trumpet, clarinet, and trombone characterize it. The
piano, bass, and percussion instrument players, who also have their turns to
solo, supply the background beat. It is usually played by bands of 4-8 members.
Early Dixieland and Ragtime developed from the
last decade of the 19th Century until the end of World War One along the
Mississippi River. Jazz development and Jazz artists centered on New Orleans at
this time. Musical styles from religious services blended with popular styles
played by pianists, small bands, and street bands in the Storyville district of
this city.1
The typical
instrumentation of an early Dixieland group was a six member group, consisting
of the usual front 3 horns, clarinet, trumpet and trombone, backed up by the
rhythm section consisting of the tuba, banjo, and drums. Such an
instrumentation could easily adapt to performing in street parades as well as
indoor settings.
To sum up all this, there are a lot of jazz styles,
but the most famous ones are Ragtime, Swing, Be-bop and Blues. And each style
has it’s own characteristics which makes it special and also which makes people
fall in love with different styles of music and I realized that jazz music is
still alive at this generation and it never gets old because jazz music started
from an old generation and they usually have more power than the modern pop song.
The music has a good contour, good rhythm, some sort of a motif (which a lot of
jazz lacks), and good energy in it.
I think the improvisation aspect of Jazz is the key.
I know that when I playing an instrument completely spontaneously sometimes we
hit a groove that just seems to begin a life of it’s own. Time and space
expand, things seem to be perfectly clear, and totally “in the moment” and it’s
almost like having an orgasm, the feeling is so powerful.
Since jazz music I mostly improvised, melody is one
of the most interesting elements for a jazz musician and listener. In
a typical jazz group the musicians first play the main melody or theme, then
one or more musicians (piano, trumpet, sax, bass, etc.) take turns improvising
variations based on the main melody. That’s why there’s no other musician with
more knowledge and command of their instrument than a jazz musician. A jazz
musician is creating art every time he or she plays. In jazz the same piece of
music sound different even if is played by the same musicians. In popular
music, like r&b, rap, hip hop, country, etc. The same melody is repeated
constantly with little or no variations.
There’s also the fact that most people can’t listen to music
if there’s no lyrics to it. That’s why almost all famous artists in popular
music are singers. In popular music the singer is the star, the one that sings
the melody, and the other instruments are just a background. Words also provide
a welcome memory aid for the musically undeveloped mind. Audiences of art music
(classical, jazz) don't expect much from words.
