Jazz Heritage
MUH 2116 Evolution of Jazz
Errol Rackipov
African and European Influences
Emphasis is placed on the fact that the rhythmic feel of
jazz came from Africa, but other aspects of jazz derive
from European music
One tradition is predominantly literate and reflects that
interest in its performance practice
Another tradition works through an expressive language
typical of the oral tradition
Jazz began with a blending of African and European
musical cultures
African Influences
Music was by far the most vital and demonstrative form of
expression in the life of Africans. Everything was done to the
rhythm of their music.
The art form was passed down by word of mouth from one
generation to the next and was a means of preserving tribal
traditions, ambitions and love.
In Africa, music was for a whole community, and everyone
from youngest to oldest participated.
The drum served as one fundamental means of coordinating the
movements.
African Influences
African slaves brought these traditions to the
United States and nurtured them
Slaves did not intentionally invent a new music at
this point
Rather, the new music arose unconsciously from
the transplantation of the African culture and the
African Americans’ struggle for survival
African Rhythms
Common misconception about the origins of jazz is that its
rhythms came from Africa – only the emphasis of rhythm Rhythms used by jazz performers – simple, far removed
from the complex pattern combinations used by the natives
in Africa
African drumming banned by the law
patting juba - slapping the hands, knees, thighs and body in a
rhythmic display. Like many forms of North American body
percussion it developed as the slaves' response to the banning of
drums ring shout - religious dance performed by African-American slaves,
performed with hand clapping and a shuffle step to spirituals
Call and Response
Call and response - performance style with a singing leader
who is imitated by a chorus of followers. In jazz, a “call” is usually performed by a solo singer or
solo instrumentalist and is followed by a “response” from
one instrument, or an ensemble
Call and response pattern can be traced directly to African
tribal traditions “Trading fours” – alternating solos between the musicians
in a jazz group (usually between the group and the
drummer) Later on in jazz music “trading fours” became an essential
element of the arrangement
European Influences
The melodic feature of jazz is inherited directly
from European music. The diatonic and
chromatic scales used in jazz are the same as
those used for centuries by European composers.
The harmonic sonorities also derive from
European sources: polkas, quadrilles, hymns and
marches.
Musical forms of Europe became standard in jazz
works.
Most jazz is constructed in a theme and
variations form.
Creole Music
Segregation movement ten years after the Civil war
Creoles – people with African American, French and
Spanish ancestry Ostracized from white society and joined the ranks of the
African Americans
The combinations of these musical talents resulted in an
early form of jazz:
Conservatory-trained Creoles
Spontaneous oral tradition of African Americans
Creole Music
The Creoles contributed harmonic and
formal structure to this early jazz music
The Creole music was a blend of the oral
tradition and the European musical tradition
Early Slave Music
Field Hollers (Cries) - American slaves were often not allowed to talk
to one another in the fields while working
Singing was permitted while working
American slaves established communication between themselves by
field hollers (cries)
The whites could not understand this garbled singing
Outstanding elements of the field hollers was the bending of a tone
Bending of tone is an over-exaggerated use of a slide or a slur
• In general, a tone is bent (slurred) upward to a different tone or
downward to another pitch
Early Slave Music
Works songs
Banks of Mississippi – riverboats; Mines of Virginia; Cotton fields of the South; Prison
camps in Texas and Georgia
One thing in common - sung without instrumental accompaniment
Work songs were associated with a monotonous, regularly recurring
physical task
Some work songs would include grunts, groans
Work songs placed emphasis on rhythm and meter
Early Slave Music
Minstrels (plantation songs)
Started by 4 white actors who performed in blackface and created cartoonish
caricatures
Later on - African Americans performed in blackface and making fun of their
race to entertain the white audience
The whites enjoyed these shows so much that they would imitate the slaves
by putting on the same kind of show and black make-up
Beginning in the 20th century, traveling minstrel shows were the main form
of entertainment for both races
These shows featured the top blues singers of the day, such as Bessie Smith,
Ma Rainey, and others
Religious Music
Hymns of Scottish and English origins
Spirituals Around 1800 - The Great Awakening
Often called “hymns with a beat”
The first original songs were created by Protestant African American slaves
on American soil Excellent blend of African and European cultures
Contribution to the popular song and vocal jazz
Gospel
Song whose lyrics recount passages from the scriptures
Important that the audience actively respond to the performer
Fisk Jubilee Singers, Mahalia Jackson
Marching Bands
After the Civil War, African Americans were able
to make some instruments and buy pawned or war
surplus instruments
Marching band was a big influence on African
Americans Funeral bands
• Cornet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, banjo, drums
• After the burial ceremony, a couple of blocks from
the cemetery, the band would break out into a jazz
type of march such as: “When the Saints Go
Marching In”