Jazz

Jazz has become such an important genre of music within our society, but where did it all stem from? Well, in order to see how jazz has evolved into what it is today, we have to go far back to the Slave trade and colonialism.

During the times of European colonization, many of the large European powers would transport African slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean in order to work on the land. In order to really keep touch with their roots in Africa, they would sing hymns or work songs from their homeland while they were forced to provide labor on their slave owners’ land. Many of these songs tended to share the same basic African rhythms and even some instruments. Along with these aspects of their music, they were exposed to new kinds of music due to the interaction with new culture. This led to a fusion of ideas and helped to create new styles of music and dance. Cuban ethnomusicologist, Frederick Ortiz, defines this process through one term: “transculturation.” One of the genres of music that was created from this was calypso. This combined the structure of Spanish song and the African rhythms and drum/percussion instruments.

 

 

Moving on into the 1910s, jazz began its triumphant start in New Orleans, where many of the famous jazz legends, such as Jelly Roll Morton and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, pioneered the style of ragtime and helped establish this new style of swing. Many of the groups that were established were of African-American descent and they helped to spread these new ideas of music across America. Within many of the songs played by both Jelly Roll Morton and The Dixieland Band, the main focus on their style of music was “stride” and “call and response.” “Stride” is when the piano player uses his left hand and moves the bass line of the song. This is done in a fashion where he jumps back and forth between hitting a low note on the piano and some higher low notes with only his left hand. This is done to simulate a bass line.

 

 

In this song, “Jelly Roll Blues” by Jelly Roll Morton, many of these characteristics are present. For example, at 1:44, the clarinet player is soloing. This is him adding his own “opinion” to the “conversation” (or song). As he plays, the piano player (Morton) and the other rhythm section players (banjo, bass, and drums) add little rhythmic phrases to keep the flow of the song. Then coming in at 1:54, the rest of the musicians come back in and Morton continues with the stride piano. However, the melody isn’t played by everyone. Some of the players, like the trumpet player, add a little background rhythm as though they are responding to the clarinet player’s solo. Also, if you listen closely, the piano player (Morton) is using the stride technique. This then repeats right after, but instead the trumpet player gets a chance to speak.

 

These musicians toured to many cities, such as Chicago and New York. This style of jazz heavily influenced one of the most well-known musicians in New York, known as Duke Ellington. Duke had created many famous standard songs that are still played till this day and had a tremendous impact on the future jazz scene.

 

As jazz began to evolve throughout the decades, the jazz clubs in Harlem and all throughout the city began to flourish with brand new music. Also, many different sub-genres of jazz started to emerge. Many of these genres included swing, bebop, and cool jazz. One of the other genres to emerge was Latin Jazz. Now this took from many aspects of Caribbean music. As previously stated back in paragraph 2, the Latin jazz genre had many Afro-Caribbean influences. From the drum and percussion instruments used in much African music, they combined this with some latin rhythms, particularly the clave, to produce one of the styles of Latin jazz called, Bossa Nova. One of the songs that strongly represents the bossa groove is Antonio Carlos Jobim’s tune, “Wave.”

In this song, you can clearly hear the combination of two different styles of rhythm. One is more prevalent than the other. The primary groove is the straight-ahead bossa groove, but there is also a slight soca calypso influence in the beat. The extras hits within the snare click that are prevalent throughout the song highlight the soca rhythms while the underlying basic rhythm is still felt within the 2:3 clave for the bossa groove.

Here are two photos illustrating the basic rhythms of soca and bossa.

The notes that are circled are the rhythms for the snare. I also included a recording of how these rhythms sound, with a metronome.

Soca Snare Hit                                                           Bossa Snare hit

 

Around the same time that “Wave” came out, new styles of jazz began to emerge. These styles of jazz took much influence from the modern styles of music that were also being established. Some of these styles included funk, soul, and even rock. Many of the great musicians at the time, such as Stanley Turrentine, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey and others, helped to push this movement forward. One famous musician that lived within Harlem that had a immense impact on the soul jazz scene and much of jazz fusion was Dr. Lonnie Smith.

He is a famous jazz organ player who actually lived near City College in Harlem. He played with many other jazz greats, such as George Benson and Lou Donaldson. Being part of the Large Jazz Ensemble at City College, I was able to work with and perform with Lonnie during this year’s CUNY Jazz Festival, held at City College. After one of our rehearsals, we were able to sit down and talk with him about his experiences in New York and gigging within the city. Lonnie said that New York used to have clubs everywhere. You would walk down Broadway in Harlem and you would see clubs all around. You pop into one of them and you are sure to find a jazz group playing. He even said that when he would walk around St. Nicholas Terrace, which is where he used to live, he would hear jazz coming from the apartments. Whether people would be playing jazz or listening to it on their record players, jazz was here and alive in New York.

If you want to check out some of Dr. Lonnie Smith’s recordings, check out the songs, “Pilgrimage” and “Too Damn Hot.” These songs really highlight why he was such a pioneer in the soul and fusion scene.

 

Nowadays, jazz has become a genre that takes many influences from modern genres of music and implements them to create a new sound. While it may seem that jazz has changed, all jazz musicians out there still stay true to its roots. One prime modern example of this is from an interview with Monty Alexander. Back in 2008, The New York Amsterdam News published an article about Monty Alexander and his concert back in March where he was performing at Jazz at Lincoln Center for the weekend. In their interview, he discussed how he wanted to bring together the many Caribbean influences, such as reggae from Jamaica and soca and calypso from Trinidad & Tobago, and showcase the intersection they have within jazz. He wanted to not focus on the politics that may differ between the Caribbean and the U.S, but to unite people through the culture and universal language of music.

 

Jazz has evolved tremendously throughout the years and continues to evolve today. It seems to have evolved so much and become a totally different genre when in actuality, it has expanded to incorporate other genres. Just like music shows no boundaries between generations and cultures, jazz shows no boundaries with other genres of music. It has become so embedded into our culture that we can’t let it go. And that’s the beauty of music. No matter how long it has been around and changed, it still holds onto its true roots and it will never go away because it allows us to express ourselves and our identities.

 

 

References:

Bush, Barbara. “African Echoes, Modern Fusions: Caribbean Music, Identity and Resistance in the African Diaspora.” Music Reference Services Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 1, 2006, pp. 17-35.,

Carney, Court. “New Orleans and the Creation of Early Jazz.” Popular Music & Society, vol. 29, no. 3, July 2006, pp. 299-315. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/03007760600670331.

Wilkinson, Bert. “Caribbean Jazz Explosion This Weekend.” New York Amsterdam News, vol. 99, no. 11, 06 Mar. 2008, p. 14. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=31818320&site=ehost-live.