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History of Jazz

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 4 months ago
History of Jazz
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In The Beginning…

     “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was…” (Briscoe 1) wait a second! That may be going back a bit too far in ‘this’ story. However, whether you are a believer in God and his creation story of the world or you are a believer in evolution, there is a story, which has oral traditions as well as documented evidence, which cannot be denied. It’s the story of Jazz! It is one in which ‘America’ is the beginning and the end is still yet to be known. Writer Gerald Early once said that “when they study our civilization two thousand years from now, there will only be three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball and jazz music. They’re the three most beautiful things Americans have created” (Ward vii). Creation is a beautiful thing and must be viewed from an untrained eye as well as through the scope of a trained instrument. To know completely the story of the pyramids in Egypt it was necessary to study their creation and therefore we must do the same with jazz music. It is the creation of America and she should be proud to know and share its roots. So what exactly is Jazz music?

 

 

It is America’s music—born out of a million American negotiations: between having and not having; between happy and sad, country and city; between black and white and men and women; between the Old Africa and the Old Europe—which could only have happened in an entirely New World. It is an improvisational art, making itself up as it goes along—just like the country that gave it birth. It rewards individual expression but demands selfless collaboration. It is forever changing but nearly always rooted in the blues. It has a rich tradition and its own rules, but it is brand-new every night. It is about just making a living and taking terrible risks, losing everything and finding love, making things simple and dressing to the nines. It has enjoyed huge popularity and survived hard times, but it has always reflected Americans—all Americans—at their best. “Jazz,” the drummer Art Blakely liked to say, “washes away the dust of everyday life.” Above all, it swings. (Ward xxi)
 
     In its earliest form, Jazz was not yet known as Jazz. The beginnings of this American formation date back as earliest we can tell to the 1890's. During the last part of the nineteenth century and for the first few decades of the twentieth century, the United States would see major changes in its cultural and societal approach to its everyday functioning which helped to create modern forms of jazz. "Jazz began out of the complex black musical life of the late 1880's to 1914. While rooted in the oral folk music tradition of the black community, the music that would become known as jazz after 1914 began as various forms of entertainment music before recordings or the term jazz itself existed to give the form a special definition" (Hennessey 15).

This page will serve to show the development of Jazz being no more than an informational database of time periods and artists of those times. I hope this page will also serve as a page that can be linked to and further developed by American Studies scholars hoping to bring to light more information than I present to further Americas understanding of ‘ITS’ own music.

 

Jazz Heritage
      “The initial contributions to the development of jazz as an art form are basically undocumented because their importance was not recognized. The country had recently finished a revolution that freed part of the population to practice religion independently of the mother country while the other part of the population was just finding its own independence from within the first” (Tanner 19). The two groups that made up this integral part of the development were the white Western Europeans who had traveled over and set up in America and the black population from Africa. The integration of these two groups compiled two different forms of musical influence that would ultimately mesh together to create the unique styling’s that would differ from any other in the world. “Both brought different values and needs to the musical fusion that continues to define jazz: one tradition is predominately literate and reflects that interest in its performance practice while the other works through an expressive language typical of the oral tradition” (Tanner 19). But why is Jazz music so important to American Studies?
     Following the Civil War's end in May of 1865 there was a longing of the African Americans to continue what the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 had promised; slaves would be free. The new freedmen were interested in continuing what was given them and tried to rise economically, socially and politically. They however, would still struggle to have rights given abling them to live freely. "Depriving blacks of political equality became, to them (Southern Whites), a holy crusade in which a noble end justified any means" (Franklin 250). It seemed as though the African American 'freedmen' were still doomed to slavery. Something would need to change. That change came in the form of their music. During the twentieth century the music of black America began as a primitive folk entertainment. It “grew with amazing speed into a complex and varied art form that interacted with classical music; the ethnic musics of Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Orient; with jazz’s offshoots, rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock, and became an international language" (Sales 3). This could only happen if America was at a place of abundance and advancement and was beginning to allow blacks to join in the 'normal' society. The burgeoning technology of the railroad, automobiles, player pianos, “radio, and, most of all, the phonograph—in less than a century Jazz made changes that roughly correspond to the transition from the Gregorian Chant in the early Middle Ages to contemporary avant-garde music…the music of black America, beginning with ragtime at the turn of the century, sent successive shock waves throughout the white mass culture, and continued explosions left lasting marks on our social landscape” (Sales 4). Basically, Jazz evolved in such a short period of time compared to previous evolutionary timelines that it had to have been an American form. America was leading the world in advancement and technology and was now furthering its empire in an American made music tradition...rather, an African-American made and United States created art form.
 

Jazz Musicians

A

 

·         Adderley, Julien "Cannonball"

 

 

 

·         Louis Armstrong

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B

 

·         Basie, Count

 

·         Bechet, Sidney

 

·         Beiderbeche, Bix

 

·         Benson, George

 

·         Blakey, Art

 

·          Bolden, Buddy

 

·         Bowie, Lester

 

·          Brown, Clifford

 

·          Brubeck, Dave

 

 

C

 

·         Calloway, Cab

 

·         Carter, Benny

 

·         Cheatham, Doc

 

·          Christian, Charlie

 

·         Clarke, Kenny

 

·         Coleman, Ornette

 

·         Coltrane, John

 

 

 

D

 

·         Davis, Miles

 

·         Desmond, Paul

 

·         Dorsey, Tommy

 

 

 

 

E

 

·         Edison, Harry "Sweets"

 

·         Eldridge, Roy

 

·         Ellington, Duke

 

·         Europe, James Reese

 

·         Evans, Gil

 

F

 

·         Farmer, Art

 

·         Fitzgerald, Ella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G

 

·         Getz, Stan

 

·         Gillespie, Dizzy

 

·         Goodman, Benny

 

·         Gordon, Dexter  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H

 

·         Haden, Charlie

 

·         Hampton, Lionel

 

·         Hancock, Herbie

 

·         Hawkins, Coleman

 

·         Henderson, Fletcher

 

·         Hendricks, Jon

 

·         Herman, Woody

 

·         Hines, Earl

 

·         Hinton, Mill

 

·         Holiday, Billie

 

·         Horne, Lena

 

J

 

·         Jerome, Jerry

 

·         Jordan, Louis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L

 

·         Lincoln, Abbey

 

·         Lovano, Joe

 

·         Lunceford, Jimmie

 

 

 

 

 

M

 

·         Manning, Frankie

 

·         Marsalis, Branford

 

·         Marsalis, Wynton

 

·         McLean, Jackie

 

·         McShann, Jay

 

·         Miller, Glenn

 

·         Mingus, Charles

 

·         Modern Jazz Quartet

 

·         Monk, Thelonious

 

·         Morton, Jelly Roll

 

·         Mulligan, Gerry

O

 

·         Oliver, Joe "King"

 

·         Original Dixieland Jazz Band

 

 

 

 

 

P

 

·         Parker, Charlie

 

·         Powell, Bud

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R

 

·         Redman, Joshua

 

·         Reinhardt, Django

 

·         Rollins, Sonny

 

·         Russell, Pee Wee

 

 

S

 

·         Shaw, Artie

 

·         Silver, Horace

 

·         Smith, Bessie

 

·         Strayhorn, Billy

 

 

T

 

·         Tatum, Art

 

·         Terry, Clark

 

·         Trumbauer, Frankie

 

V

 

·         Vaughan, Sarah

 

 

W

 

·         Waller, Fats

 

·         Waters, Benny

 

·         Waters, Ethel

 

·         Webb, Chick

 

·         Whiteman, Paul

 

·         Williams, Mary Lou

 

·         Wilson, Teddy

 

Y

 

·         Young, Lester

 

 

Jazz Timeline

This timeline has links provided to song clips and videos that represent each period and its form of music best.

Slavery (18th & 19th Century) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNOhWV_DiR4 (Joe McDonald singing a traditional slave song)

 

Jim Crow Era (1890-1915) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs (Billie Holiday singing about Jim Crow Era)
World War I (1914-1919) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZkdRjAWR6g (W.C. Handy- "Memphis Blues" played by Jim Hession)
Roaring Twenties (1920-1929) -- -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6COgkqy1UU8 (Louis Armstrong- "West End Blues")
The Great Depression (1929-1939) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsJGagKWrds&feature=related (Charlie Palloy- "Brother Can you Spare a Dime? 1932)
World War II (1941-‘60s) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRjQzSwmEHw (Gene Krupa- " Boogie" 1950s)
The Sixties (‘60s) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCdeJwGs818 (Stan Getz and John Coltrane 1960)
“Modern Times” -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITLs4umWEFw (Jamie Cullum- "Everlasting Love" 2000s)
 

Jazz Styles

This link will take you to another page where you will be able to understand a working definition of the different styles of jazz music!

 

Bibliography

 

 

Briscoe, Stuart. Daily Study Bible For Men. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999.

 

Franklin, John Hope, and Moss, Jr. Alfred A.. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, Seventh ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1995.

 

Hennessey, Thomas J. From Jazz to Swing: African-American Jazz Musicians and Their Music, 1890-1935. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

 

Sales, Grover. Jazz: America’s Classical Music. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.

 

Tanner, Paul O.W., David W. Megill, and Maurice Gerow. Jazz, Ninth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

 

Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Jazz: A History of Americas Music. New York: Random House Inc., 2000.

Originally Created By: Jarret A. Rosser

December 8, 2008

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