Introduction to Jazz History

For the purposes of this website, which is the focus on vocal jazz artists,  many sub-genres has been left unmentioned. The follow information gives you a grand overview of important jazz artists/developments that shaped and influenced the era spanning from the 1900s to post 1970s. 

EARLY ROOTS

The early roots of the music come from musical styles that developed as a result of the collision of African traditions and European forms.  

Some purely African characteristics:  

• pitch bending, rigid tempo, few changes in dynamics and prominent percussion role.

African-European blend:

• "blue" notes, methods of producing tones and swing.

Characteristics of both cultures include:

• improvisation, syncopation, poly-rhythms, antiphony (call and response).

Musical Styles:

• Ragtime - written music for piano and other instruments that began during the 1880-1900 period.
• Blues and Spirituals - a rural vocal and instrumental music tradition directly descended from African sources using European hymns and popular ballads for the original literary sources.
• Marching music - popularized by Composer, Conrad Sousa ("Stars and Stripes Forever")

NEW ORLEANS

In New Orleans, several ethnic groups (French, Spanish, English and African) spawned a culture where social activity was always accompanied by music some form.  Black music (Race music) making had less interference here than in any other part of the South.

A very high percentage of the early jazzmen (black and white) came from New Orleans.  The most prominent figures during this time were:  Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Leon Rappolo (New Orleans Rhythm Kings), The Original Dixieland "Jass Band" with Joe "King" Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Baby Dodds, Jimmy Noone and Zutty Singleton.

The style was an offshoot of ragtime that featured collective improvised couterpoint and was played mainly in 4/4/ time.  

Listen to Charleston:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzDKDpbKXc 

NEW YORK

In New York, music developed on piano that was derived from ragtime, which featured a more syncopated bass line played in 10ths, (two notes passed an octave span).  The style was called stride piano (pre-1920s).

The important stride pianists are:  James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith and Fats Waller.

The "blues craze" (or race records) provided work for the early jazzmen who migrated to NYC.

New York musicians were among the first to try to codify New Orleans and stride styles with written arrangements for large ensembles.

Musicians of importance are:  Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson, Miff Mole and Red Nichols.

CHICAGO

Many southern African Americans migrated to Chicago during and after World War I and the musicians migrated with them.  White Chicagoans developed a style based on what they heard the African Americans play.

The music was based on New Orleans music but was mainly played in 2 instead of 4.  

The important musicians of the Chicago style were:  Frank Teschemacher, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon, Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and Bud Freeman.

Before the Stock Market crash of 1929, Chicago was the center of a burgeoning recording industry.  Most of the important early jazz recordings were made in the area.

These records included:  The King Oliver Creole Jazz Band, the Jelly Roll Morton Red Hot Peppers, The Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, Johnny Dodds and the New Orleans Wanderers, Jimmy Noone and the Apex Club Orchestra, Earl Hines and Bix Beiderbecke.

Listen to:  Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, Black Bottom Stomp  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqPCjR1Bwog 

BIG BAND CONVENTIONS

Big Bands developed in two directions from New York, Chicago and Detroit.  Antiphony between sections was codified in the work of Fletcher Henderson and his arrangers (including Don Redman) and was the predominant style during the period of 1929-48, respectively.  This style was also developed in the Casa Loma Orchestra, The McKinney's Cotton Pickers (Don Redman, Benny Carter and John Nesbitt arrangements) and Gene Goldkette Orchestra (Bill Challis arrangements).

This style remains the predominant mode of big band arranging up to today.

KANSAS CITY AND THE SOUTHWEST

In Kansas City during the 1920s to late 1930s, another style developed from ragtime, stride piano, boogie woogie (a piano style that developed in the South and Southwest independently of ragtime), Southwestern blues and cowboy songs.

Many Southwestern and Midwestern Territory bands such as the Oklahoma Blue Devils, Alphonso Trent Orchestra, Troy Floyd Orchestra and the Nat Towles Orchestra contributed to the development of the Kansas City Style.

The important musicians of the Kansas City Style were:  Benny Moten, Andy Kirk, Mary Lou Williams, Harlan Leonard, Count Basie, Lester Young, Jay McShann, Buster Smith, Tommy Douglas, Walter Page, Jesse Stone, George E. Lee and Buddy Anderson.

The Kansas City period lasted until about 1940 and was the impetus for modern jazz as we know it today.  It was also one of the birthplaces of early 1950's "Rhythm and Blues."

BIG BAND AND THE SWING ERA

During the "Swing Era," (ca. 1935-45), soloists and large and small ensembles perfected the style that came from the New York bands of the 1920s.  Much of the music was jazz influenced-pop music.

Some important jazz bands and musicians of this era were:  Benny Goodman, Jimmy Lunceford, Chick Webb, Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Ben Webster, Willie Smith, Vic Dickenson, Dickie Wells, Red Norvo, Mildred Bailey, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson and Mary Lou Williams.

By the end of the 1930s, both traditionalists (players who played in both the New Orleans and Chicago styles) and experimentalists were beginning to believe that the "Swing Era" music had reached a dead end.  The music of Count Basie, Harlan Leonard and Jay McShann (all from Kansas City) revitalized the music somewhat because of their emphasis of Afro-American values in their music.

Pianist Stan Kenton tried to turn this music into a European Concert music by the late 1940s.  He called his music "Progressive Jazz."

The New Orleans Revival came from this belief and this style remains in much of the amateur Dixieland groups heard today.  A new style came from this belief and was also surfaced during WWII, "Bebop."

BEBOP

The style known as "bebop" developed as an underground movement in New York in the period 1940-45 out of ideas initially developed independently in Kansas City and New York.  Players in this style listened heavily to Art Tatum and Duke Ellington.  This style has heavily influenced much of western 20th century music from the late 1940s until today.  It flowered in the small clubs on 52nd Street in New York from 1945 to about 1949.

Charlie Parker (from Kansas City), Dizzy Gillespie (from South Carolina and Philadelphia) and Thelonious Monk (from New York) were the architects of the style.  Charlie Christian (from the Southwest via the Benny Goodman Band), Jimmy Blanton (from St. Louis and Ellington Band), Allen Tinney, Vic Coulson, John Carisi and others also contributed ideas.

Bebop used rhythm differently, with accents at unexpected places.  The basist, and not the drummer, became the principal timekeeper.  Harmony was built on the upper partials of chords, with a common language of substitute chords that could be used at will, (better known as dissonance).

Other important musicians who came up in this period are:  Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, Fats Navarro, Oscar Pettiford, Al Haig, George Wallington, Milt Jackson, J.J. Johnson, Don Byas, Clyde Hart, Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae.

Eventually, Thelonious Monk's music evolved into his own personal style that had little to do with bop rhythms.

COOL AND WEST COAST STYLES

Bebop was codified by the "Cool" and "West Coast" styles and most of he players were mainly white.  The "cool" style derived from a band led by Miles Davis in 1949, The Claude Thornhill Band, an octet led by Dave Brubeck and pianist, Lennie Tristano and his students, (most popular, Lee Konitz).

Players of these styles whose music is still heard today are:  Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Art Pepper, Shorty Rodgers and Paul Desmond.

The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Dave Brubeck Quartet were the most successful of the groups that were formed during this period.

Most of the music that was overtly European sunk without a trace by the late 1950s.

STAN KENTON AND JAZZ STUDIES

By the early 1950s, Stan Kenton had incorporated bebop and cool elements into his music.  He was accepted by academics and Kenton's efforts led to jazz studies programs that are heard in many colleges and universities today.  He continued to make sporadic attempts to forge a new concert music throughout his career.

NORMAN GRANZ AND JAZZ AT THE PHILHARMONIC

Empresario Norman Granz presented many of the great Swing Era, Kansas City and Bebop soloists in an variety of styles in concerts called, "Jazz At the Philoharmonic" from the mid 1940s through 1967.  A style developed from these players known today as "Mainstream Jazz."

THE 1950S AND HARD BOP

During the 1950s, bop never died.  Its harmonies and jagged phrasing developed into a style that overtly incorporated blues and church music and was known as "Hard Bop."  A later, more popular form, "Soul Jazz" developed from Hard Bop.

Important Hard Bop players were:  Clifford Brown, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, Bobby Timmons, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Hank Mobley, Curtis Fuller, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Jimmy Smith, Miles Davis, Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery.

THIRD STREAM MUSIC

Players such as Charles Mingus and John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet used Afro-American styles and devices along with some European forms in an early attempt at a fusion of the two cultures called "Third Stream Music" that succeeded only when Afro-American roots were not lost.

Otheres of importance in the "Third Stream" experiments were:  Stan Kenton, Gunther Schuller, Gils Evans and George Russell.

The "Third Stream" movement did not succeed until the 1970s when Europenas became skilled enough at playing jazz.  

THE GREAT THAD JONES-MEL LEWIS ORCHESTRA

Thad Jones and Mel Lewis led an orchestra around 1966 to 1980 that incorporated many devices from the Bebop, Hard Bop and Kansas City styles that maintained the big band tradition in jazz through some lean years.

MODAL JAZZ

Miles Davis, arranger/ orchestra leader Gil Evans, pianist Bill Evans and others began improvising on scales or modes instead of chords in the 1957-59 period.  This became the chief method of improvising during the 1960s fro players who were not free improvisers.  John Coltrane developed from this period into one of the most influential musicians of the last half of the 20th century.  His playing led directly to much high energy rock of the late 1960s and 1970s and remains the standard by which saxophone technique is judged today.

FREE JAZZ

Ornette Coleman, independently of Davis, developed his own modal style based on Southwestern blues.  The style of playing did away with bar lines and meters and was more free-flowing.  The style came to be known as "Free Jazz."  In addition, other "Free Jazz" players arose who did not base their playing on the blues.  Among the early innovators in this style are:  Albert Ayler, Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell and Sunny Murray.