Essay on Jazz Music

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THE LOS ANGELES JAZZ SOCIETY PRESENTS
A Look at America’s National Treasure

Jazz Music

Developed by Dr. Thom Mason, Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of
Southern California
Presentation created by Dessa Drake, Fifth Grade Teacher
Canoga Park Elementary School

What is Jazz? Where did it come from? Where did Jazz originate and how did it spread in the US?

What instruments do jazz players play?
Piano
Guitar
Bass

What instruments do jazz players play?
Tenor
Saxophone

Alto
Saxophone

Baritone
Saxophone

What instruments do jazz players play?

Trumpet

Trombone

Who are some of the important people in the history of Jazz Music?

•The

Louis

first great
African American jazz musician
•A trumpet player and singer
•Referred to as the 1st genius of jazz for the things he did that are now standard in jazz •Hit records in every decade from the 1920s until his death in the 1970s

Armstrong

Bessie

•The

most famous blues singer
•Called the
“Empress of the
Blues”
•The highest paid jazz singer in the
1920s
•1st hit record
“Downhearted
Blues” sold over
800,000 copies in
1923, saving a record company from going out of business Smith

•The

Duke

most famous big band composer •Composed over
1500 original songs and instrumental pieces
•Many people consider him the most important composer of
American music in the century
•Many of his band members stayed with him for over
40 years

Ellington

•The

Ella

most famous female jazz singer •Won a talent contest in Harlem when she was 18
•Joined Chick
Webb’s band, and after he died, she became the 1st woman to lead a jazz big band made up completely of men •Nicknamed “The
First Lady of
Swing”

Fitzgerald

Charlie

•The

most famous
Modern Jazz saxophone player
•Nicknamed
“Bird”
•The 1st great modern jazz soloist •Played with such a high level of technical skill that many thought his records were doctored up

Parker

Miles
•One

of the most famous trumpet players of Modern
Jazz
•Called the founder of “Cool
Jazz”
•One of the 1st jazz musicians to blend jazz with pop and soul music Davis

Al Aarons & the LA Jazz
Caravan
Listen for:
• the saxophone •the

trombone
•the

trumpet
•the electric guitar •the piano
•the drum

Styles of Jazz

Dixieland
•The

1 style of jazz for instruments •The horns in the front often “jam” solos at the same time, called
“collective
improvisation”
•After collective improvisation at the beginning, each player takes a solo, followed by another collective improvisation •Louis Armstrong was the 1st jazz soloist to make this style important •Most of this style of jazz was created in New
Orleans, “the birthplace of jazz” and in Chicago,
“the home of the blues” during the 1920s and
1930s
st

Style

Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers

Blues
•The

1st style of jazz for singers •Began in the 1920s with “Race Records,” which were meant for the black community
•First blues recording was “Crazy Blues” by
Mamie Smith
•Women were the most famous blues singers of the 1920s, while men became famous in the
1930s
•The main feature of this style is the use of blue notes, which give the music a sad or
“blue” quality
•Blues solos bend notes, falls, and smears and often repeat an idea over and over

Style

Big Band Swing Style
•Brought

instruments and singers together
•The most popular music in America from the 1930s until the end of World War
II
•Big bands had as many as 20 or more musicians in them
•Sounded more modern than
Dixieland jazz
•People loved to dance to the sound of big bands •The most famous had singers as well as soloists •Performed in ballrooms Famous African American
Big Band Leaders
Count Basie

Cab Calloway
Duke Ellington

Big Band Swing Style
•Most

big bands were either all black or all white until Jewish clarinet player Benny
Goodman began hiring African
Americans for his big band in the mid1930s
•He

did not believe anyone should have to experience prejudice •Big

bands have been integrated ever since

Modern
•BeBop,

the music of
the
Show More

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