History of Jazz Music Jazz music, one of the most popular genres there is today in American culture. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines jazz as a type of music with lively rhythms and melodies that is often made up by musicians as they play. American music developed especially from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre. Although the jazz has been defined in the dictionary there is no common definition of this music has been reached according to musicians. Jazz music consists of several layers and the process is very difficult with composing and performing joined together.
Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Elvis Pressley introduced this Genre. Classic Rock evolved in the United States and stemmed from a combination of various music genres. Those music genres that Rock stemmed from were blues, African-American genres, jump blues, jazz, and gospel music. Elvis Pressley who is an inspiring rock artist added his own twist to rock music by adding a fast paced upbeat sound and gave rock music life. Hip Hop was formed in the early 1970’s.
[citation needed] A few black rhythm and blues musicians, notably Louis Jordan, the Mills Brothers, and The Ink Spots, achieved crossover success;[citation needed] in some cases (such as Jordan's "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie") this success was achieved with songs written by white songwriters. [citation needed] The Western swing genre in the 1930s, generally played by white musicians, also drew heavily on the blues and in turn directly influenced rockabilly and rock and roll, as can be heard, for example, on Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" (1957). [citation needed] Going back even further, rock and roll can trace one lineage to the old Five Points, Manhattan district of mid-19th century New York City, the scene of the first fusion of heavily
Lyrics and melodies Lyrics can often be about hardships and slavery and other things that affect Africa. Generally they sing about things that affect them in their everyday life. Melodies are usually made using scales and often have intervals of seconds and thirds. In Yiri by Koko there is a lot of four note scales in descending
INTRODUCTION: African-American music can be classed into three different traditions, each being the source of today's most popular genres. First we have the sacred tradition genres, secular tradition genres and finally the Jazz secular tradition genres. Throughout this paper we will take a very close look at the African-American music legacy , focusing on the meanings of all different genres, it's context and history, musical features as well as performance style, we will also focus on the lyrics and how they are expressed and finally notable performers in the history of African-American music. But first we must also know little about the history of the African-American population itself. It is evident that the Black Americans have long been considered a large and significant ethnic minority of the United States population.
There are also blues inflections in the vocal and guitar duet where the flat 3rd is emphasised by bending the notes at the beginning of phrases. The use of blues notes are very common in the style due to the heavy blues influence in New Orleans Jazz. Chromaticism is also featured in Duke Ellington’s Koko, again blues notes are used, for example in bar 8 of Nantons trombone solo he uses a fragment of the blues scale making use of the flattened 5th, 3rd and 7th. Another example of Chromaticism in Koko is in the double bass solos where Blanton plays descending chromatic phrases. The use of chromatic notes adds to the mood created by the minor blues chord progression.
The sixties were when many artists started experimenting with different sound techniques such as distortion and playback. Among The Beatles and The Who, Jimi Hendrix was one of the pioneers in this new world of music. He was left handed but played a right handed guitar "upside down" which let him experiment more with his playing methods. The Sixties was also a great time for dance innovation with many dance fads and crazes coming into style. America and other countries were coming out of the Jive period and Rock-n-Roll was ushering in new and exciting dance moves which started the era of the Twist.
Ben Harper, who is a well-known musician, wrote a song called ‘Steal My Kisses’. This 1970s light and playful piece consists of a variety of stylistic techniques and is influenced by the ‘culture’ behind the classified ‘funk’. Harper however liked to experiment with genres, manipulating and combining musical categories within one song, ‘Steal My Kisses’ being an example. Funk originates from the mid 1960s by various musicians who combined the popular groups, rhythm and blues, soul and jazz. It is comprised of instruments including the bass guitar, drums, electric guitar, vocals and the occasional keyboard.
Portugal is most internationally well known in the music scene for its customs and traditions of fado, but the country has seen a recent development and growth with versatile musical styles, with modern tunes from hip hop to rock now becoming widespread throughout the small country. Fado is one of the treasures of Portugal and one of the most beautiful and original musical styles in the world today. The type of Fado that has captivated international audiences, through fado performers like Amália Rodrigues. Portuguese music was influenced greatly by Ancient Rome’s musical tradition which was brought into the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans. Its genres range vastly from classical to popular music.
The roots of jazz music are to be found in many venues and areas; from art to the diversity of social blankets and experiences people have gone through, from sorrow to joy, from elation to misery, jazz seems to have fed itself a bit from every aspect of life. But there is one root of jazz that seems to overwhelm the others, namely the blues. Blues music has gone through several stages of development and has managed to become the “underground aquarium that would feed all the streams of American music, including jazz” (Ken Burns’ “Jazz” documentary, Ep.01). Though, at first hearing, blues tunes seems to be simply structured, using just 3 chords and a few choruses , it allows millions of variation, adding to the improvisation factor that will stand to be the most awe- provoking aspect of jazz performances. The apparent simplicity of blues music has been played with in a great number of ways along the years.