Jazz Age and the Swing Era

1. Jazz Age and the Swing Era Big Bands and Swing Dancing!

2. Listening • #1 – Listen to the following songs from the Jazz/Swing era. What is your first response to what you hear? What do you think about this music?

3. Introductory Video • #2 – View the introductory video to the Jazz Age. List 3 main points of interest from the video. • A. • B. • C.

4. Information • #3 –Why do you think jazz music became so popular after WWI? • In the 1920s, jazz spread rapidly all across America. The rise of jazz was part of a new, post–World War I optimism • a prevailing sense that something new was happening, that America was finally breaking from European culture and coming into its own. • Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald called the new era the Jazz Age.

5. Information • #4 – Describe Louis Armstrong’s playing and vocal style. • A very wide note range on his trumpet • Brilliant tone • Graceful, intense and passionate melodies • Raspy singing voice and relaxed use of language in his singing.

6. Information • #5 – Why was Chicago so attractive to jazz musicians in the early 20th Century? • Chicago’s stockyards, stores, and factories, as well as its reputation as a rail and shipping hub, made the city a magnet for people seeking a new start. • free of the extremes of prejudice common in the South. • considered a big step toward economic and personal freedom

7. Information • #6 – What is prohibition and how did it affect jazz music? • In 1920, Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited the bottling and consumption of alcohol, and for the next 13 years • But in Chicago, as elsewhere, many people ignored the law, and entrepreneurs and criminal gangs often joined forces to open nightclubs called speakeasies, where liquor, gambling, dancing, and jazz were the attractions • Therefore, jazz musicians became more in demand!

8. Information • #7 – What is stride piano playing and what jazz pianists played this style? • pianists James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith. Johnson and Smith played a style called stride • Fast form of piano playing in which the left hand quickly moves between bass notes and chords while the right hand creates a series of variations on the melody. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDMOkgSdy3E&feature=related

9. Information • #8 – How did the radio affect jazz music? • Thanks to radio and the gradual resurgence of the market for records, what had once been purely regional styles could now be heard in living rooms in almost any part of America.

10. Information • #9 – How did the big band swing leader, Benny Goodman challenge segregation? • He hired pianist Teddy Wilson, with whom he’d already recorded, to be featured in a trio setting (with Goodman himself and drummer Gene Krupa) in the spring of 1936 • Just a bit later made it a quartet by adding the brilliant vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. • Benny Goodman’s orchestra was one of the most successful swing bands, thanks in part to the brilliant arrangements of the African-American composer and bandleader Fletcher Henderson.

11. Benny Goodman Orchestra • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2S1I_ien6A

12. Information • #10 – What two major events in the early 40s affected jazz musicians/music? • America’s entry into World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 • Musicians of fighting age from all over the country were drafted into military service. • In the late summer of 1942, the musicians’ union called a strike against the record companies, demanding that musicians be fairly compensated for radio and juke box play of recordings. For almost two years, no new instrumental music was recorded for commercial issue.

13. Pioneers Count Basie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYLbrZAko7E Pianist and bandleader Count Basie at the Aquarium, New York City, c. 1946-1948. Courtesy of William P. Gottlieb.

14. Count Basie • #11- Who was Count Basie and what would you say is his one significant contribution to jazz music? • “I’ve always played happy music,” William “Count” Basie once said. “Music that people can tap their feet to.... That’s what I intend to keep on playing.” He kept that pledge for nearly fifty years.

15. Duke Ellington • The Duke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY&feature=related

16. Duke Ellington • #12 - Who was Duke Ellington and what would you say is his one significant contribution to jazz music? • American composer, pianist, and big bandleader • Ellington wrote over 1,000 diverse jazz compositions

17. Duke Ellington cont. • Each of his compositions – • love songs and dance tunes • ballet and film scores • orchestral suites and choral works

18. Ella Fitzgerald • Ella Fitzgerald - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbL9vr4Q2LU

19. Ella Fitzgerald • #13 – Who was Ella Fitzgerald and what would you say is her one major contribution to jazz music? • American jazz and song vocalist • She was known for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. • A master of scat singing

20. Benny Goodman • Big Band Leader

21. Benny Goodman • #14 - Who is Benny Goodman? • American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing" • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4yGKj23jgQ&feature=related

22. Benny Cont. • Along the way, Goodman popularized the clarinet as a solo instrument, became a respected classical soloist, organized a series of hard-swinging small ensembles, and helped establish jazz in America’s concert halls.

23. Billie Holiday • #15 Who is Billie Holiday and why is she so important to jazz history?

24. Billie Holiday cont. • American jazz singer and songwriter • Holiday had a big influence on jazz and pop singing • Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

25. Final Listening Activity from the Jazz Era • Describe how the band and soloists interact with each other. • Tell me what you hear more of; the left hand playing the bass notes and chords or the right hand playing the improvised melody. • Describe the rhythms, riffs (short melodic phrases played repeatedly over a series of chords) or any call and response that you hear in this music.

26. Review 1 • Louis Armstrong made a significant contribution to the development of the improvised jazz solo and popular singing styles

27. Review 2 • Prohibition helped the development of jazz because speakeasies employed musicians

28. Review 3 • Which of the following three events are in the correct chronological order? • the Great Depression, the Jazz Age, World War II • radio DJs become celebrities, World War II, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings • growth of big bands in the 30s & 40s, attack against Pearl Harbor, musicians’ union strike against record companies

29. Review 4 • In the 1920s and 1930s, jazz developed most rapidly in urban areas with growing immigrant and African-American populations

30. Review 5 • A style of piano playing in which the left hand alternates between bass notes and chords and the right hand plays melody and improvisation is called stride piano playing

31. Review 6 • Radio and recording were most significant in spreading the popularity of jazz music.

32. Review 7 • When Benny Goodman hired Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton he helped break down racial barriers by performing with an integrated band.

33. Review 8 • The rhythm section of the band is made up of piano, bass and drums.

34. Review 9 • During World War II singers began to be more popular than jazz instrumentalists in part because musicians didn’t record due to their boycott of the recording industry.

35. Test Review – Jazz/Swing Era • 1. Why did jazz become so popular after WWI? • 2. Choose 2 words to describe Louis Armstrong’s musical style. • 3. What two cities became attractive to jazz at the early part of the 20th century?

36. Test Review continued • 4. How did prohibition affect jazz music? • 5. Listen to the following song and tell what type of jazz piano playing you hear. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDMOkgSdy3E&feature=related • 6. What did radio do for jazz?

37. Test review continued • 7. What jazz musician challenged segregation and how did he do it? • 8. What two events in the early 40s affect jazz musicians and jazz music?

38. Test review continued • 9. Who are the following people, what did they contribute to jazz and how would you describe their music? • Benny Goodman http://www.neajazzintheschools.org/listen/listenpop.php?tk=cd1_t38 • Count Basie http://www.neajazzintheschools.org/listen/listenpop.php?tk=cd1_t36

39. Test review continued/artists • Duke Ellington http://www.neajazzintheschools.org/listen/listenpop.php?tk=cd1_t32 • Ella Fitzgerald http://www.neajazzintheschools.org/listen/listenpop.php?tk=cd1_t45 • Billie Holiday http://www.neajazzintheschools.org/listen/listenpop.php?tk=cd1_t44

40. Test review continued • 10. What two things did Louis Armstrong contribute to the development of jazz? • 11. What is a rhythm section made up of? • 12. Why did jazz singers become more popular during WWII?

41. Discussion Question • Discuss the following questions: • How did the movement of African Americans to northern cities affect the development of jazz? What impact did radio and recording have on the development of jazz? How would jazz music have been different without these events? • Why did New York and Chicago become centers of jazz after New Orleans? What qualities or characteristics did these cities have that might have influenced the growth of jazz?

42. Discussion • Is the best music also the most popular music? How does music become popular? Do the media make music popular, or do consumers choose what is popular? Jazz music, before and during World War II, was the most popular music in the country. Discuss how social, political, and technological trends helped make jazz popular.