MUH 271 Jazz History

1. MUH 271 Jazz History Some Notes from Chapter 3

2. “What Kind of Music is Jazz?” • Categories of folk, art, and “pop” music • Division into categories based on “ethnocentric value judgments” • labels exist but have no theoretical basis • The labels, however, particularly folk, art, and pop, do in fact identify (at least as ideal types) fairly discrete musical function and content. • Cultural economic and transmission support systems as primary determinants

3. Folk, Art, and Pop music • Folk Music • meets the approval of the group; tied to social occasions • transmission indirect or even incidental; oral transmission • text is emphasized. • no “professional” musicians. • Art music • non-subsistence income to support specialist musicians • direct patronage by individuals or institutions • extended, formal performances, individual's creative output • training • self- and class-selected listening • Popular Music • indirect patronage by a mass audience • technology as a means of transmission; owner/providers mediate flow • economic • musicians are specialists or professionals

4. Congressional resolution of 1987 • Main tenets (contradictions?) • art yet also people’s music • indigenous American music yet global • ethnically unifying yet African American • Distinction between “race” and “ethnicity” • jazz musicians may be black or white or any other ethnicity. • African American: not a race but an ethnic group • ethnic features can be learned and shared • African American musical principles include polyrhythm, call and response, blue notes, and timbre variation: the principles are not unique but their combination is

5. Folk Traditions • Serve to establish a persistent musical identity • Helped create the hybrid nature of American culture • Various Genres • Ballads: local history through long songs; often include braggadocio • Work songs: accompanied manual labor • Berta Berta • Work Song (Cannonball Adderley) • Field hollers: unaccompanied, rhythmically loose, accompany farm labor • Spirituals: call and response with religious poetry. Two kinds: polished Fisk Jubilee Singers style; orally transmitted Pentecostal church singing. By 1920s, gospel music had developed. Spirituals are highly interactional, which influenced jazz musicians.

6. Blues (see also “Blues” notes) • Country blues • Solitary singer (male), guitar accompaniment • Loose and improvisatory form • City (Vaudeville, Classic, Urban) blues • Style originally “acquired” by female singers • Female singer, accompanied by piano/organ, multiple inst. • Stricter adherence to form

7. Minstrelsy • a uniquely American entertainment led to parodies of European operatic and theatrical songs • In the 1830s, minstrel musical acts appeared as interludes between circus acts or theatrical performances • (1843) first full-scale minstrel show played in New York; "Virginia Minstrels“ applied black cork to their faces, performed song-and-dance/variety show • Blackface • typically burned, pulverized champagne corks mixed with water or petroleum jelly • racial marker • type of mask to shield the performers from identification with the their roles

8. “Jim Crow” and “Zip Coon” • "Jim Crow" - A construct of Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, "Jim Crow" was presumably inspired by an elderly African American who Rice had seen dancing and singing the words: "Weel about and turn about and do jus' so, Eb'ry time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow." The name later refered to the racial caste system that existed from 1877 to the mid 1960s. • "Zip Coon" - Created by George Washington Dixon, "Zip Coon" supposedly represented the "dandy," "sporting life" Northern character who had acquired some wealth through legitimate or illegitimate means.

9. Ragtime • Performance Practice vs. written notation • Known & unknown variations in “established” music • Pitch variance (intonation). • “rough and varied timbres.” • “ragging” • "African" contributions include: • Syncopated rhythm. • Social significance. Ragtime possibly descended from the “cakewalk,” a “walkaround” in which couples would parade around a square and improvise high-stepping, vigorous movements as they turned the corner. The cakewalk can be seen as a white imitation of black slaves parodying European dances. • European music contributions. • Form, probably derived from the march. • Solo piano. • Other characteristics: • Alternating root/chord in the left hand. • Solo piano. • Fully notated.