BTAN33010BA02

American Language and Culture

Jazz: An American Art Form

Format: seminar, 2 hours; graded

Place:54

Time:WEN12-13.40

Tutor:Gabor TURI

Office Hours:WEN 11-12, and by appointment ()

Description of Course

Jazz originated in the United States through the confrontation of Afro-Americans with European music. During its hundred years of history, jazz, serving for dance and entertainment in its first decades, has evolved into an art form characterized by a flow of creative energies and inventiveness. Music of vital and forward motion, jazz is a symbol of an improvisational process, guided by the instinct for freedom. Jazz has become a genuinecontribution to the cultural history of the United Statesand a special component of America’s consciousness as well as a means of artistic expression that, in various forms incorporating all sorts of elements, is being performed all over the world. The course, which is based on open ears and mindsrather than on pre-existing knowledge of music theory, examines jazz in a broad cultural and sociological context.

Course Goals

Through weekly lectures, readings, oral presentations, discussion and listening to music samples,the students will develop a better understanding of the history and the nature of rhythmic improvised music in the US. Since this is predominantly a seminar course, emphasis will be on analyzing the characteristics, styles, human conditions and the environment of this indigenous American phenomenon. Language skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking (including musical terms) are expected to be improved. Students will be asked to prepare an internet discography on selected musiciansby the end of the course.

Class Attendance and Participation

Students may not miss more than three classes under any circumstances. As sources on jazz are hardly available from the department’s library, it is of primary interest for everyone to attend classes to gain all necessary information to pass the in-class written exam at the end of the course, which may not be missed or rescheduled. Students are expected to keep up with the readings and the music samples to participate in the discussion.

Oral Presentation

The five to ten-minute oral presentationswill supplement the required readings and music samples and should highlight different aspects of the issue under discussion. These oral presentations will have to start discussion. Students are asked to hand out a one-page outline of their presentation to each member of the class before the session starts. In grading, both the content and the presentation (handout, lecturing skills) will be taken into consideration.

Grading

Attendance and participation in class discussion: 20%

Oral presentation: 20%

Internet research: 20%

In-class exam: 40%

A=85-100; B=75-84; C=65-74; D=55-64; F is 54 or below.In case of borderline grades, participation in class discussion and the individual student’s pattern of work (progress) will be considered. No extra credits are available. Grades and grading policy will only be discussed in person.

Sources

Power point presentations on each class can be downlowded at the department’s library.

A set of annotated CDs containing music samples presented during the course are available at the same library.

Books on jazz, jazz CDs and DVDs are available at the Music Collection of the University Library.

Recommended web sites on styles, musicians, and recordings:

FOR DISCUSSION IN WEEK-BY-WEEK BREAKDOWN:

WEEK 1, September 16: How to Recognize Jazz

Jazz as a separate and distinct art form. The elements of jazz: the blues, spiritual and gospel song, sound and phrasing, rhythm,harmony, melody, arrangement, improvisation. The instruments of jazz.A definition of jazz in terms of its originsand characteristics.

WEEK 2, September 23:The Birthplace:New Orleans

The early backgrounds. The roles of the slave, the free Negro, and the Creoles of Color.Crashing of cultures. The musical melting pot: Protestant hymns, German and French Marches, ’Latin’ and West Indian rhythms, European melodies. Ragtime.Pioneering jazzmen in the transitional era of minstrelsy, and their early travels.The process of blending; the emergence of patterns, forms, and styles. Second line. Storyville, the hothouse.

Oral presentation:

Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (in: Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, ed: Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya.. Dover Publications, 1955) 14-25.

WEEK 3, September 30: North toChicago and New York

(1917-)

World War I, and the Jazz Age. The migration North to Chicago by land or riverboats: King Oliver, Jimmy Noone, Johnny Dodds and others. The rise of the soloist: Louis Armstrong. The white response: Bix Beiderbecke, and the Austin High Gang. The effect of the new environment on music. Race records. Stride piano/boogie-woogie/barrelhouse New York: Harlem renaissance.

Oral presentation:

W. H. Kenney: White Chicago Jazz: Cultural Context (in: William Howland Kennedy: Chicago Jazz. A Cultural History, 1904-1930. Oxford University Press, 1993.) 87-111.

Jelly Roll Morton: The “Inventor of Jazz”. (in: Robert Walser, ed.: Keeping Time. Readings on Jazz History. Oxford University Press, 1999.) 16-22.

WEEK 4, October 7: Great Individuals:Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington

Armstrong: the first soloist in jazz. Introducing swing. Popular appeal: Ambassador of jazz.

Ellington: the orchestra as a musical instrument. A personal touch. The greatest oeuvre of all.

Oral presentation:

Gary Giddins: Louis Arsmtrong (in: Visions of Jazz. Oxford University Press, 1998) 83-101.

Rex Stewart: The Duke and His Man (in: Boy Meets Horn, The University of Michigan Press, 1991) 163-179

WEEK 5,October 14: The SwingEra

(1930-)

The Depression and its effect on jazz inthe late twenties and early thirties. New York becoming the focal point of the sheet music, radio, recording, and booking business.The evolution of big bands in Harlem.Jazzmen in big commercial bands and radio studios. Social dance. The beginnings of swing: Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, the Dorsey Brothers. Territory bands. Kansas City and environs in the Pendergast era. Prosperity in Prohibition as a magnet for musicians: Count Basie.Duke Ellington: the orchestra as a musical instrument.

Oral presentation:

The Big Bands (in: Ted Goia: The History of Jazz. Oxford University Press, 1997.) 145-157.

Rudolph Fisher: Comon Meter (in: Marcela Breton, ed.: Hot and Cool. Jazz Short Stories. Bloomsbury, 1991.) 12-28.

Week 6, October 21: Modern Jazz: The Bebop Revolution

(1940-)

Transitional years. The recording ban, World War II, and the developments in technology.Death of the big band era. The evolution of bop: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, at Minton’s. Further developments in musical language. A psychological shift. The jazz musician as artist. Junkie and Hipster.

Oral presentation:

Ross Russell: Bird at Work (in: Bird Lives! Quartet Books, 1973.) 255-268.

Ralph Ellison: Minton’s (in: Robert Gottlieb, ed.: Reading Jazz. Pantheon Books, 1996.) 545-554.

Nat Hentoff: Junk (in: The Jazz Life. Da Capo, 1961.) 75-97.

WEEK 7, November 4: Cool/West Coast, Third Stream

(1949-)

Birth of the cool: its origins and definiton. The Miles Davis recordings of 1949. White intellec-tualism:the new school of Lennie Tristano. West Coast directions: Dave Brubeck, Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan. An attempt to mix jazz with classical music: Third Stream Music.

Oral Presentation:

James Lincoln Collier: The Old-World Cool of Tristano, Mulligan, and Brubeck (in: The Making of Jazz. Delta Book, 1978.) 408-420.

André Hodeir: Situation of Jazz at the Death of Parker (in: André Hodeir: Jazz. Its Evolution and Essence. Grove Press, 1956.) 267-280.

WEEK 8, November 11: Hard bop, Soul, Latin

(1955-)

Black vitality gains new expression in hard bop: Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins. The advent of long play recordings: improvisation extended. Blue Note Records. Return to an earthy way of expression: soul jazz. The influence of ethnic music: Afro-cuban jazz, the Latin ’tinge’, bossa nova. A flourishing decade.

Richard Cook: Seven (in: Blue Note Records.Justin, Charles and Co., 2001.) 117-136.

WEEK 9, November 18.: Great Individuals: Miles Davis and John Coltrane

Davis: the pioneer. Stylistic progressfrom bebop to fusion. Great bands andhistoric recordings. An intimate trumpet sound. Popular appeal.

Coltrane: search for new aesthetic principles. An overwhelming voice: sheets of sounds. Freedom of expression. Cosmic spirituality.

Oral presentation:

Nat Hentoff: John Coltrane (in: Robert Gottlieb, ed.: Reading Jazz. Pantheon Books, 1996.) 620-628.

Miles Davis Speaks His Mind (in: Robert Walser, ed.: Keeping Time. Readings on Jazz History. Oxford University Press, 1999.) 365-376.

WEEK 10, November 25: The New Thing

(1959-)

The racial element: segregation and its consequences on black ideology.Music and politics. The process of liberation: energy, intensity, atonality, and the opening of musical sounds into the realm of noise. The new type of avant-garde jazzmen. The pioneers of free jazz: Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler. Chicago revisited: the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.The New York loft scene. Towards anew definition: contemporary improvised music.

Oral presentation:

Valerie Wilmer: Ornette Coleman – The Art of the Improviser (in: As Serious As Your Life. The Story of the New Jazz. Quartet Books, 1977.) 60-74.

WEEK 11, December 2: Fusion

(1970-)

Popular culture, beat music and their impact on jazz. New devices ofsound production and the electronization of intsruments. The integration of jazz and rock: Weather Report, Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra.African and Indian influences.

Oral Presentation:

Stuart Nicholson: Ticket to Ride (in: Jazz-Rock. A History. Schirmer Books, 1998.) 1-13.

WEEK 12. December 9: Jazz in the New Millennium

A new conservative agenda: Wynton Marsalis. The New York scene. The role of the individual: Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Vijay Iyer. Jazz becomes world music. European jazz. Considering the future of jazz.

Oral Presentation:

Wynton Marsalis and Herbie Hancock: Soul, Craft and Cultural Hierarchy (in: Robert Walser, ed.: Keeping Time. Readings in Jazz History. Oxford University Press, 1999.) 339-350.

Finding Her Roots - Dee Dee Bridgewater (in: Down Beat, October 2007)

WEEK 13. December 16:The Profession of Jazz

The morality of jazz.The language of jazz. The preservation of jazz. Jazz and business.The jazz public.Jazz criticism.Jazz and other art forms.

Oral Presentation:

Frances Newton: The Musical Achievement (in: The Jazz Scene. MacGibbon and Kee, 1959) 136-147.

Marshall W. Stearns: The Appeal of Jazz (in: The Story of Jazz. Oxford University Press, 1956.) 197-207.

In-class exam (test + essays)

READINGS:

Ben Sidran: Oral Culture and Musical Tradition (in: Robert Walser, ed.: Keeping Time. Readings on Jazz History. Oxford University Press, 1999.) 297-301.)

LeRoi Jones: Jazz and the White Critic (in: LeRoi Jones: Black Music. Da Capo, 1968.) 11-20.

DISCOGRAPHY

(A one page summary of the recording career and a list of the most important CDs by one of these artists to be submitted by December 16.)

Jelly Roll Morton

Bix Beiderbecke

Count Basie

Billie Holiday

Charlie Parker

Dizzy Gillespie

Thelonious Monk

Charles Mingus

Sonny Rollins

Art Blakey

Ella Fitzgerald

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Chick Corea

Keith Jarrett

Herbie Hancock

Wynton Marsalis

Dave Douglas

GLOSSARY

A list of the most important terms in jazz

Arrangement. A new version of a previously written piece. Jazz arrangements often include new chords for the piece as well as new material to be played during and between solos, and so on.

Avant-garde. Jazz (usually atonal) not based on preconceived chord changes. Jazz played in a freely improvised nature (but which is not entirely "free" as it generally shows evidence of a structure or blueprint). The term first came into widespread use in the 1960s to describe some of the more freely improvised music of artists.

Bebop. Virtuosic jazz style with irregularly accented, long phrases and sophisticated harmonies. Most prominent between 1944 and 1950. Also called “bop.”

Block chords. A series of big chords played with the hands moving in parallel (c.f. locked hands).

Big band. A jazz ensemble of 12 to 20 members, consisting of a rhythm section plus sections of trumpets, trombones and saxophones.

Black & Tan. A night club with customers of all races.

Blue note. The lowered 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees of a key.

Blues. Frequently used song form in jazz. Also a separate tradition of African-American music. Usually a twelve-bar form. Blues songs have a fairly standardized chord progression. The notes are found "between" the keys of the piano; having a "bluesy" sound is common in blues compositions and performances.

Boogie woogie. A piano blues style based on a driving repeated left hand part, playing eight notes to the measure in an exaggerated swing style. Became very popular from late 1930’s on.

Bossa nova. A fusion of the harmonies and languid approach of cool jazz with several ostinato patterns (two slow beats to the measure) derived from the Brazilian samba. Originated around 1960, soon became hugely popular.

Break. A momentary pause in the rhythm section, usually just one or two measures, which a band member will “fill,” usually with an improvised phrase.

Bridge. The B section of an AABA form, generally eight bars long. Also called “channel” or “release.”

Call and response. A means whereby instruments or sections of instruments in a band or combo play a passage which is in turn responded to by another instrument or section; a musical conversation: one musician or section will play a short melodic idea and is answered by another musician or section.

Changes. Jazz terminology for chords (e.g., the changes of a tune = the chords of tune); a tune's chord progression.

Chord progression. A sequence of chords that underlies a composition, often twelve or thirty-two bars in length.

Chorus. The form of a song, often twelve or thirty-two bars in length. In jazz the chord progression (q.v.) of the chorus, but not its melody, is repeated over and over during improvisations.

Collective improvisation. Concurrent improvisation by the musicians in a combo; two or more musicians improvising at the same time.

Combo. Same as small band or small ensemble (duo to nonet); an assemblage of musicians with a common purpose.

Congo Square. The area in New Orleans where musicians met for social activities and to play music.

Cool jazz. A jazz style using a mellow tonal quality and smooth, flowing melodic lines partly inspired by Lester Young. Often classical instruments and techniques were used. Most prominent throughout the 1950’s. Sometimes called “West Coast jazz.”

Creole. Louisiana residents with African heritage mixed with Spanish or French ancestry.

Cutting contest. Musical game of one-upmanship, a competitive jam session, where the performers attempt to outdo each other.

Dixieland. Early instrumental jazz band music. The name given to New Orleans style jazz when it began to be played in Northern cities. This style of jazz is also known as New Orleans style jazz, Chicago style jazz or traditional jazz.

Double time playing. Playing twice as fast as the other members of the band. It also refers to the whole band going into a tempo twice as fast as what preceded it.

Embellishment. Musical decoration of a note or a phrase.

Extramusical devices. Sounds not normally associated with the instrument, like squeaks, vocal yelps, electronic feedback.

Free jazz. A name often used throughout the 1960’s for jazz performances that contained improvised solos free of preset chord progression, and in some cases do not have a steady beat.

Funky. 1. Earthy or dirty. 2. mean, „low down” or sexy. 3. Bluesy. 4. Gospel-flavored.

Fusion. A combination or “fusing” of jazz with other types of music, especially soul music and rock. Amplified and electronic instruments are used. Prominent since around 1970.

Growl style. A methord used by some trumpeters and trombonists in which by unorthodox use of mutes, lips, mouth and blowing techniques a sound is produced that resembles the growl of an animal.

Hard bop. An aggressive, exuberant style that grew naturally out of bebop. Prominent beginning in the early 1950’s.

Harlem. The best known African American neighborhood in the United States, located in Manhattan, north of Central Park. It has been a center for black business and cultural activities for more than sixty years.

Head. The melody or prewritten theme for a piece.

Head arrangement. A band arrangement that was created extemporaneously by the musicians and is not written down.

Improvisation. The spontaneous creating of an original piece of music. It requires a great deal of practice and an intimate knowledge of the style of music in which one desires to create.

Jam session. Informal performance where musicians improvise at their leisure, often without an audience but just for the benefit of the musicians themselves.

Jazz-rock. A variety of tsyles beginning in the late 60s that used electric instruments, funk rhythm and accompaniment and jazz improvisation. Also known as fusion music.

Jukebox. An automatic phonograph that plays recordings when money is inserted into a coin slot.

Lick. A little melodic idea that a musician uses frequently. Jazz players can be identified by their characteristic licks. In classical analysis licks are called “formulas.”

Mainstream. Originally a term that embraced certain music (particularly small bands) which extended the swing jazz tradition into the present; an umbrella term that includes all post-bebop acoustic jazz except that which is considered free or avant garde jazz; jazz reflecting hard bop sensibilities.

Modal jazz. A music in which the melody and/or harmony is based on arrangement of modes. In jazz, the term can mean music based on the extensive repetition one or two chords or music based on modes instead of chord progressions.

Motive. A short musical idea that the musician develops by creating some variations of it. A typical jazz solo will have several short stretches during which the artist becomes involved in developing a particular motive.

Mute. An attachment which reduces an instrument’s loudness and alters its tone color.

Piano roll. A roll of paper with holes cut into it while a pianist plays. When played back on a specially designed player piano, the original performance can be reproduced. Most prominent in the early 1900’s.