GLST 490 – Day 8GLST 490 – Day 8

Jazz Since 1950

http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/884/1100884-miles-davis-picture.htm

Housekeeping ItemsHousekeeping ItemsAn interesting film is showing at Worldbridger

tonight at 7 p.m. in Building 356, Room 109 – “Chasing Ice.” Admission is by donation.

Pete Seeger died at age 94 a couple of days ago (see folder). He was active right up until the end. See the chapter in 331/3 Revolutions Per Minute.

I am circulating the call for contributions for the “Avenues” Sustainability on March 15th on campus, as well as a poster for International Development Week. It will undoubtedly feature some music. For more information, see www.viu.ca/internationalization/IDW2014.asp.

I’ll start off with some samples of music we discussed.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Today, in a rather whirlwind tour, we're going

to cover cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, free jazz, soul jazz, fusion, and neo-traditional. We will also watch a bit more of the Ken Burns series.

One man – the person whose photo is on the first page – Miles Davis, played a pioneering role in helping to develop all of these, along with bebop.

As mentioned, bebop was a reaction to the commercialization of swing, but it became quite cerebral – more of an art music for the select few. It was also fairly harsh – fast and frenetic. As it began around 1940, it was often seen as heralding the birth of what is called “modern jazz.”

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Cool jazz, by contrast – which originated with

“The Birth of Cool” sessions (recorded in 1949 and 1950), in which Miles played a dominant role – was languid and slow, more subdued, and became popular on the West Coast, with its more laidback lifestyle. The group that recorded the sessions consisted of mostly white musicians (Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan), with white arrangers on some tracks and a black arranger – John Lewis (co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet) on others.

This collaboration signalled the growing cooperation of black and white musicians at a time when segregation was still the rule in the rest of society.

Later, Dave Brubeck, became one of the most popular 'cool jazz' players.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Hard bop was a style that maintained the

hard edge of bebop. A principal exponent was drummer, Art Blakey, with his Jazz Messengers, which helped nurture the careers of a succession of young jazz greats, such as Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and others.

As with bebop,drummers were more expressivethe tone was darker and heavierchord progressions tended to not mimic popthe overall tempo was hard-drivingpiano accompaniment was more varied

(Gridley).Hard bop tended to be more straight ahead

than bebop.

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Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Hard bop helped feed into the soul jazz of the

1960s. It borrowed, as did soul jazz, from the blues, from gospel, and hence was more 'earthy' and less cerebral than bebop.

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Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Modal jazz, was featured most prominently

on Miles Davis' 1959 album, “Kind of Blue,” and then was carried on by artists such as John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.

Modes are scales used in pre-classical European music and in most non-European music. Instead of playing a song with changes, however simple (such as a 1-4-5 blues), which then resolves itself, modal music involves riffing on the equivalent of one chord, or at most two. This is true for Celtic music, Chinese, African, most Indian, some reggae, and almost all Middle Eastern music. Such music is often very charming, but it is essential static.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950 It should be emphasized that these are merely labels to

help us pigeonhole things; the reality is infinitely more complex.

Soul jazz, that developed in the 1960s, emerged at the time of the civil rights movement. It was funky and often self-consciously black. The music was relatively simple; the emphasis was on the 'groove.'

Its principle exponents were organist, Jimmy Smith, trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Charles Mingus, guitarists Grant Green and Kenny Burrell, and pianists Les McCann and Herbie Hancock.

It attracted quite a large audience, though it wasn't always considered 'serious' jazz by the snobs.

In the 60s, sax players like Stan Getz also created 'cool' sounds in collaborating with Brazilian musicians, but Dizzie Gillespie had helped nurture Latin jazz back in the 40s.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950At the same time as soul jazz, free jazz also

took hold. This style of jazz often did away with standard chord changes, melody, tone, and rhythm.

It rarely featured a piano, and drummers were free to create a “sheet of sound” behind the other players. Its often anguished quest for 'freedom' from traditional musical constraints mirrored the emerging Black liberation movement.

The sounds of saxes and other instruments were often harsh – shrieking, wailing, gurgling, and grunting – and tones rough and hoarse.

There was often a stronger emphasis on texture than on melody.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Some musicians also began

to incorporate sounds from non-European musical traditions – this was at a time of great 'Third World' upheaval and strife, thus helping to pave the world for worldbeat.

Principal exponents of free jazz included Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Roland Kirk, and John Coltrane (especially towards the end of his life; John Coltrane died at the age of 40, in 1967, from liver cancer).

Source: Wikipedia.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Fusion jazz was pioneered

by Miles Davis, and a number of his protegés – Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter & Joe Zawinul (the nucleus of the future Weather Report), John McLaughlin, and others.

Ever the innovator, Miles sought to take a page from the book of Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone, and to incorporate rock elements. However, he may also have been motivated by a desire to earn more money by appealing to young people.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950Unfortunately, I don't have a live clip of Miles’ band

playing from his most famous fusion album, “Bitches' Brew,” released in 1970. Here’s a taste of the music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a1Ph-ioxoA

Another milestone in the genre was Herbie Hancock's 1973 “Headhunters.” While the musicianship was impeccable, the music was totally funky. This music was fun to dance to and made a good soundtrack for getting high, given the continuing persistence of the youth counterculture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbkqE4fpvdI.

The disco craze of the mid-to-late '70s was not kind to jazz, and some musicians – such as Wynton Marsalis – began to retreat to traditional, more 'pure,' forms of jazz.

Later on, some artists, like Miles Davis, experimented with working with hip hop artists, with mixed results.

Jazz Since 1950Jazz Since 1950However, in the late '80s, DJs rediscovered soul

jazz and hard bop tracks from the '50s and '60s, and began to create something called acid jazz which resulted in a resurgence of popularity for jazz. Today, there are some innovators – such as Bad Plus and Pat Metheny – but a lot of jazz, for which the market remains fairly small, seems to be trodding familiar paths.

Jazz has somewhat been overwhelmed by the commercial-ization of the music industry, and the dominance amongst Afro-Americans of hip hop and slick 'rhythm and blues.'

Nonetheless, jazz has come a long way from its humble origins over a century ago to where there are now aficionados, master musicians and composers in countries as diverse as Japan, South Africa, Cuba, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Croatia!