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Echoes of Harlem - Duke Ellington

A Geographical Look at Jazz and Swing

A look at the musical figures and the historical and political factors that drove the four great jazz cities.

Buddy Bolden’s Blues aka I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say - Jelly Roll Morton

New Orleans

The Birthplace of Jazz

❖ Slaves in the early 19th century are allowed to create music in New Orleans at certain

times and under certain conditions, in contrast to many other parts of the slaveholding south, which creates a culture of music and allows African musical traditions to survive.

❖ New Orleans was a major southern port with a large number of immigrants and

travelers from Europe and the Caribbean creating a heterogenous society that brought their own traditions with them, and blended them together in New Orleans.

❖ Jazz is born in New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century or possibly the last

decade of the 19th century depending on how you define jazz. It evolves from brass band marches adding ragtime syncopations and improvisation over chord changes.

❖ It is commonly believed by everyone except Jelly Roll Morton, that the first jazz

musician was Buddy Bolden. There are no known recordings of Bolden. Bolden was institutionalized in 1906 and died in 1931, forgotten. (Yanow)

❖ Jell Roll Morton claimed to have created jazz but he was widely considered a

• blowhard. A musically gifted blowhard, but a blowhard none the less.

❖ Key musicians from the Birth of Jazz: ❖ In the 20s New Orleans musicians begin to move out of New

Orleans to explore opportunities in other cities.

❖ Jelly Roll Morton - Grandpa’s Spelling ❖ King Oliver - Dippermouth Blues ❖ Kid Ory & Johnny Dodds - Gatemouth ❖ Sidney Bechet - Wild Cat Blues ❖ They carry their style to other musicians who start to adopt the form

and make recordings in places that have more availability of technology.

❖ Available technology limits the kinds of music that we have access to today,

and may play a factor in what we currently believe are stylistic factors.

❖ Acoustic recordings were done by placing a large collecting horn at one end

• f a room which carved a recording groove in a wax cylinder. The

instruments were placed at differing distances from the horn depending on how well they transmitted sound to the recording.

❖ This cylinder was poor at collecting the sound from sharp percussion and

bass instruments, so these instruments are diminished in presence in early recordings.

❖ Guitar and String bass were too quiet to be picked up over the other

instruments, so banjo and tuba were used instead.

❖ In the 20s these limitations are overcome by electronic recording methods,

leading to the rise of…

At the Jazz Band Ball - Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Chicago

Jazz becomes a phenomenon

❖ The Original Dixieland Jazz Band: While originally a New

Orleans band, they were brought to Chicago to perform regularly in 1916 , and then went to New York to record, pressing the first commercial jazz recording in 1917

❖ An all white band, this reflects on the

realities of the era. Although there were many more African-American bands performing during this time, their recording opportunities were, at this moment, limited.

❖ The members of this band would

demonstrate considerable racist tendencies. Leader Nick LaRocca is quoted: Our music is strictly white man’s music…My contention is that the Negroes learned to play this rhythm and music from the whites…The Negro did not play any kind

• f music equal to white men at any time.

❖ Louis Armstrong: Undoubtably the single

most important person in the formation of Jazz, Louis Armstrong comes from New Orleans.

❖ Started playing Cornet seriously at the New

Orleans Home for Colored Waifs.

❖ Joined the King Oliver Band in Chicago in

1922.

❖ Was the foreman of the extended solo change

in jazz.

❖ Was the driving force in swinging the rhythm,

a quality he brought to New York when he went to play with the Fletcher Henderson Band in 1924.

❖ Muskrat Ramble - Louis Armstrong

❖ Other key Chicago players: ❖ Earl Hines - Piano (with Louis) - A Monday Date ❖ Benny Goodman - Clarinet (wait for New York) ❖ Eddie Condon - Guitar/Banjo - Lets’s Swing it ❖ Bud Freeman - Saxophone – Copenhagen ❖ Austin High Gang

Take the A-Train - Duke Ellington (Billy Strayhorn comp.)

New York City

Jazz grows up

❖ New York City is the center of the

entertainment world then as now. Performers and artists would come to New York in order to “make it.” All the major recording studios were based in New York, as well as many of the most well paying and prestigious live performance venues such as the Alhambra Ballroom; the Roseland Ballroom The Savoy Ballroom; and the crown jewel of them all, The Cotton Club*

*unless you were a swing dancer, then of course you knew where the real best place was.

❖ Duke Ellington -

❖ Don’t Get Around Much

Anymore

❖ Chick Webb -

❖ Let’s Get Together

❖ Benny Goodman -

❖ Let’s Dance

❖ The Dorsey Brothers -

❖ I Can’t Get Mississippi Out of

my Mind

❖ Harry James -

❖ Music Makers

❖ Artie Shaw -

❖ The Grabtown Grapple

❖ Cab Calloway -

❖ Are You Hep to the Jive

❖ Jimmie Lunceford -

❖ For Dancers Only

❖ Classic Big Bands: ❖ New York City is the centerpiece for the swing era. All

the great swing bands were either from New York City,

• r based there for extended stays.

❖ Racial Integration: ❖ The big band leaders were so influential during this time that

they were able to write their own tickets for who they played with.

❖ Of particular note was Benny Goodman, who would refuse to

play at some places if they raised issues about who he was playing with. (Goodman’s bands were integrated featuring African-American players such as Charlie Christian, Lionel Hampton, and Teddy Wilson)

❖ The public acceptance by such high profile celebrities of

integrated groups led to a considerably breakdown of previous racial barriers.

Vine St. Boogie - Jay McShann

Kansas City

Jazz becomes a man

❖ Kansas City is about as close to the dead center of the United States

as you can get. In the early part of the 20th century it was a major transportation hub. All (rail)roads led to Kansas City.

❖ The mayor of Kansas City, Tom Pendergast, essentially ignored

prohibition, creating a culture of permissiveness and an economy that made the club owners very happy and rich, and they passed that

• n to the musicians.

❖ Count Basie and Buck Clayton both wrote in their autobiographies

about playing regularly to crowds of three thousand or more.

❖ The central location made the movement of musicians and musical

cultures very easy and common and the fusion of southern and eastern blues and jazz created a very unique and rhythmic music

• form. Swing at heart, but steeped in the blues.

❖ Kansas City notables:

❖ Bennie Moten - ❖ Moten Swing ❖ Count Basie & Lester

Young -

❖ Jumpin’ at the

Woodside

❖ Harlan Leonard - ❖ I Don’t Want to Set

the World on Fire

❖ George E. Lee - ❖ Ruff Scufflin’ ❖ Andy Kirk & Mary Lou

Williams -

❖ Mary’s Idea ❖ Jay McShan &Charlie

Parker -

❖ Swingmatism

Sources

❖ Basie, W. & Murray, A. (2002) Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography Of Count Basie. Da Capo

• Press. USA

❖ Bergreen, L (1997). Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway Books. ❖ Brown, J. R. (2004). A Concise History of Jazz. Mel Bay Publications. ❖ Clayton, B. Buck (1987) Clayton’s Jazz World. Oxford University Press, USA ❖ Driggs, F. & Haddix, C. (2006) Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop--A History. Oxford University

Press, USA

❖ Kirk, A. & Lee. A (1989) Twenty Years on Wheels. Bayou Press, UK ❖ Pearson, N. (1987) Goin’ to Kansas City. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL. ❖ Schapiro N. & Hentoff N. Ed. (1955) Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, Dover Publications, NY. ❖ Schuller, Gunther. (1989) The Swing Era. Oxford University Press. ❖ Yanow, S. (2005) Jazz: A Regional Exploration (Greenwood Guides to American Roots Music)

Greenwood