The Evolution of Jazz

Jazz survives and prospers because folk love it ...

The musical interpretations of jazz bands can produce amazing effects which are both -

hauntingly different with new scales, complex rhythms with infectious syncopations and

surprisingly coherent as the music emerges from a spontaneous, apparently chaotic environment.

There are two aspects which bounce the music into prominence -

swing, or the manifestation of the tension and release created by the juxtaposition of rhythmic lines - buoyant, detached, floating, melodic 'trajectories', away from the 'ground beat', resulting in a lilt, which is difficult to describe but unmistakable when heard or felt

improvisation, or unwritten spontaneous collective self expression, which poses a further intriguing challenge for players and listeners alike

Jazz ensembles have evolved, there is no trace of 'intelligent design' only an unfolding of an evolutionary process -

deep universal circuits in the brain entice individuals to sing and play instruments, experimenting in a desperate attempt to understand sounds  

surprise 'emerges' from complex interacting detail as some collective sound sequences produce a rewarding excitement which is more than the sum of the individual parts - a dopamine kick

the spontaneous environment is not a 'free for all' it is rooted in a rigorous social discipline, nevertheless something new emerges every night from risky innovations

the beauty of the music is found in the 'emerging' sound of the whole band and the technical design of the music is difficult to pin down and not very meaningful 

immensely complex rhythms, harmonies and pitches are undoubtedly the 'cause' of the pleasure of jazz but any top down analysis must destroy the emergent effect 

jazz ensembles build excitement from the bottom up by a process of trial and error, what works for one won't work for another, swing is an emergent tapestry

but whatever the detailed 'cause', some sounds are loved and survive, others are neglected and die ...

So perhaps the only way to understand jazz evolution is to take a broad overview of the last 150 years and trace the history of the music and its influences. The jazz sounds emerged from a complex mix of influences active in New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century. 

NOO ORL'INS
1718 Founded - Jean Baptise Le Moyne.
1718 Charter - John Law, Duc d ' Orleans.
1755 7 years war ended French influence.
1762 Ceded to Spain, cathedral built, Treaty of Madrid gives American access to the port.
1763 Cajuns settled - Acadians escaping the British from Nova Scotia.
1800 Napoleon forced Spain to give up sovereignty.
1803 Louisiana purchase. 10,000 citizens 50% black. Much immigration, Creoles (ex French & Spanish) downtown. Yankees Uptown.
1815 Battle of New Orleans. British threaten capture.
1817 Dancing in Congo Square legalised.
1861 Secession.
1865 Civil war ends & a white back lash follows. Creoles suffer. Congo Square activities banned & Lincoln Park prospers.
1897 Sin was 'confined' to 'Storyville', named after Alderman Joseph Story.
1898 Spanish / American war ends & military bands disband & cheap instruments become readily available ...

The Ken Burns film 'Jazz' is one of many interpretations of the evolution of jazz - emerging from the gumbo of American freedom and Democracy ... Jazz encourages individual innovation in the context of a co-operative group ... 

1. New Orleans - Gumbo (musical mix) - The Roux (Blues) - The Big Noise (Bolden) - The Soul of the Negro (Ragtime) - The Creators of Jazz (Keppard, ODJB)

2. Chicago and New York - The Gift (Louis in New Orleans) - Hellfighters (Jim Rees Europe) - Blessed (young Duke) - Chicago (Creole Jazz Band) - New York (Stride, Duke and the Harlem Renaissance) - Austin High Gang (Chicago) - To Make the Angels Weep (Louis with Fletcher)

3. The Jazz Age 1925 - Our Language (The Hot 5s) - Sing Like the Devil (Bessie) - Bix (Tram and Goldkette ) - The Most Dog (Bechet and young Benny) - The Mother of Us All (Ethel Waters and the Red Hot Peppers) - Race Man (Cotton Club and young Artie) - Wake Up Bix (Paul Whiteman) - Modern Time (Louis' swing)

4. The Depression 1929/35 - The True Welcome (The Savoy Ballroom) - Mr Armstrong (Louis survives on Broadway) - Elegance (Duke survives in Hollywood) - An American Invention (The Roseland Ballroom) - Hard Times (John Hammond) - Tremendous Pride (Duke orchestrates, Louis sings) - A Great Medicine (Let's Dance and The Palamar)

5. Big Band Swing - Pure Pleasure (Benny Goodman) - Dreaming (Duke dreams, Louis relaunches, The Big Bands) - The Business Part (Artie Shaw) - The Road (nationwide pops) - Like Taking a Drug (teenage bobby sox craze) - Men Working Together (Teddy, Lionel and Billie) - Do You Remember (Chick v. Benny)

6. Kansas City Swing - The Velocity of Circulation (saxophones) - Kansas City (blues riffs magnet) - The Count (rhythm section) - Memories of You (Lucille and Decca) - Musical Kinship (Lester and Billie) - A Whore in Church (Carnegie Hall) - The Ray (Benny disapproves) - Strange Fruit (Billie) - A Reason for Living (rhythmic art from Basie and Ellington)

7. Bebop - Dedicated to Chaos (Mintons) - Soldiers of Music (Glen Miller) - Finding Each Other (Billy Strayhorn, Dizzy and Bird) - Kill Jim Crow (freedom at home) - The Street (52nd) - We Need to be Free (Duke supreme) - These Things Couldn't Happen (freedom in Europe)

8. Bird - Risk (Parker flies) - Trying to Play Clean (Pied Piper) - This is My Home (drugs) - Sustained Intensity (the birth of the cool) - Apostle of Hipness (white misunderstanding) - Monk (logical eccentric) - Cool (West Coast) - The Life Unlived (Bird dies)

9. Miles - The Adventure (Soul to Rock) - The Titan (Sony Rollins and Newport '56) - Eavesdropping (Miles and tenderness) - Ooftah (whites loved him blacks forgot him but Louis spoke out) - The Messengers (Art Blakey) - Inside/Outside (Miles Ahead, Kind of Blue) - Existence Music (Trane) - The Adventure (Free Ornette)

10. Back to fun and dance - A Masterpiece by Midnight (Rock is easier the gap grows) - Freedom Now (apocalyptic protest music digging deeper) - Imaginary Concerts (Cecil Taylor no audience) - Not to be Understood (Duke's sustained quality) - Shooting Comets (John Coltrane artistic success) - Tennis without a Net (Miles goes free form and then electric) - Good Evening Everybody (Ambassador Satch) - Homecoming (we stand on their shoulders and are hooked for life)

Some generalizations -

a stream of rural Blues songs from the Plantations and Church, and the popular Ragtime banjo and piano music from Minstrelsy, fused within Black and Creole Hot Dance and Parade Bands in New Orleans to produce JAZZ.

jazz is about black musicians adapting African rhythm to European harmony, songs and instruments involving individual innovations within a structure of functional harmony

the best results were spectacular, the ability to sustain an upbeat exciting atmosphere in dance halls, clubs and bars was in great demand

newcomers could find jobs by acquiring the skills through imitation but there was a huge demand for continual innovation

particularly new rhythms were explored, instruments were played in new styles that integrated different individual roles within a band

black innovations were often 'sweetened' for white commercial audiences, leading black performers to adjust their innovations 

geniuses included: Louis Armstrong (trumpet & vocals), Jelly Roll Morton (piano & orchestra), Sidney Bechet (clarinet & soprano sax), Duke Ellington et al (leader & composer), Count Basie et al (leader of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young), Charlie Parker et al (saxophone), Miles Davis et al (trumpet) ...

Duke Ellington on Jazz - 'Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which jazz evolved. The music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of freedom yet produced ... '

Wynton Marsalis on jazz - 'There's no right or wrong ... just some choices that prove better than others ...'

This was evolution NOT design ...

Sue Fischer - 'The frenetic element of early ODJB recorded jazz is probably due to the dance style prevalent at that time - a one-step, which is a fast walking dance. That tempo and rhythm isn't particularly suited to the jazz style of playing. By the time of their 1921 sides, the foxtrot has replaced the one-step in popularity, and the music has smoothed out. Chicago possibly did have some influence on that, because around the time the ODJB started playing in there, the Juvenile Protection League waged a campaign against too-slow dancing in public places (especially public dance halls). The intention was to protect the morals of young girls, authorities decreed that tempos should be 20 bpm faster than usual. New York and some of the other large cities had similar laws, but significantly New Orleans did not'.

 

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