Jazz History 2

8/3/2019 Jazz History 2

1/40

2. Origins of Jazz: Blues,

Spirituals, and Minstrelsey


2/40


3/40

Examples of traditional African music

African Music Example 1African Music Example 2

African Music Example 3


African Music Example 5African Music Example 6




4/40

Salient Characteristics of African Music

OstinatoPoly RhythmsBody Percussion/DanceLyrics used to tell storiesUnique form of PolyphonyRepetition

Call And Response


5/40

R elationship to danceThe treatment of "music" and "dance" as separate art forms is a

European idea. In many African languages there is no conceptcorresponding exactly to these terms. For example, in manyBantu languages, there is one concept that might be translatedas 'song' and another that covers both the semantic fields of theEuropean concepts of "music" and "dance." So there is one wordfor both music and dance (the exact meaning of the concepts

may differ from culture to culture).For example, in Kiswahili , the word "ngoma" may be translatedas "drum," "dance," "dance event," "dance celebration," or"music," depending on the context. Each of these translations isincomplete. The classification of the phenomena of this area of culture into "music" and "dance" is foreign to many Africancultures. Therefore, African music and African dance must beviewed in very close connection.


6/40

Akwaaba Excerpt


7/40

Historical Context: Slavery in America


8/40

Historical Context: Slavery In America

Slavery in the United States was a form of slave laborwhich existed as a legal institution in North America formore than a century before the founding of the UnitedStates in 1776, and continued mostly in the South untilthe passage of the T hirteenth Amendment to theUnited States Constitution in 1865 following theAmerican Civil War .[1] T he first English colony in NorthAmerica, Virginia , acquired its first Africans in 1619,after a ship arrived, unsolicited, carrying a cargo of

about 20 Africans. T hus, a practice established in theSpanish colonies as early as the 1560s was expandedinto English North America.


9/40

Most slaves were black and were held bywhites, although some Native Americans andfree blacks also held slaves; there were a smallnumber of white slaves as well. Europeansalso held some Native Americans as slaves,and African-Native Americans. Slavery spreadto the areas where there was good-quality soilfor large plantations of high-value cash crops,such as tobacco , cotton , sugar , and coffee . T heslaves did the manual labor involved in raisingand harvesting these crops.


10/40

By the early decades of the 19th century, themajority of slaveholders and slaves were inthe southern United States , where most slaveswere engaged in a work-gang system of agriculture on large plantations, especially

devoted to cotton and sugar cane. Such largegroups of slaves were thought to work moreefficiently if directed by a managerial classcalled overseers, usually white men.


11/40

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, an

estimated 12 million Africans wereshipped as slaves to the Americas . Of these, an estimated 645,000 were brought

to what is now the United States.By the 1860 United States Census , theslave population in the United States had

grown to four million. [


12/40

T he Middle PassageT he Middle Passage was the stage of the triangulartrade in which millions of people from Africa wereshipped to the New World , as part of the Atlantic slavetrade . Ships departed Europe for African markets withmanufactured goods, which were traded for purchasedor kidnapped Africans, who were transported acrossthe Atlantic as slaves; the slaves were then sold ortraded for raw materials, which would be transportedback to Europe to complete the voyage. Voyages onthe Middle Passage were a large financial undertaking,and they were generally organized by companies orgroups of investors rather than individuals.


13/40

An estimated 15% of the Africans died at sea,with mortality rates considerably higher inAfrica itself in the process of capturing andtransporting indigenous peoples to the ships.The total number of African deaths directly

attributable to the Middle Passage voyage isestimated at up to two million; a broader lookat African deaths directly attributable to theinstitution of slavery from 1500 to 1900suggests up to four million African deaths.


14/40

Slave Treatment and Resistance

While treatment of slaves on the passage was varied,slaves' treatment was often horrific because the capturedAfrican men and women were considered less than human;they were "cargo," or "goods" and treated as such; theywere transported for marketing. For example, the Zong , aBritish slaver, took too many slaves on its voyage to theNew World. Overcrowding combined with malnutrition anddisease killed several crew members and around 60 slaves.Bad weather made the Zong' s voyage slow; the captaindecided to drown his slaves at sea, so the owners couldcollect insurance on the slaves. Over 100 slaves were killed

and a number of slaves chose to kill themselves. T he Zongincident became fuel for the abolitionist movement and amajor court case, as the insurance company refused tocompensate for the loss.


15/40

Excerpt from "Slavery and T he Making of America"


16/40

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musicalform and a music genre [1] that originated inAfrican-American communities of primarilythe " Deep South " of the United States at theend of the 19th century from spirituals , worksongs , field hollers , shouts and chants , and

rhymed simple narrative ballads .


17/40

T he blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm andblues , and rock and roll is characterized byspecific chord progressions, of which thetwelve-bar blues chord progression is themost common. T he blue notes that, for

expressive purposes are sung or playedflattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd tomajor 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the majorscale , are also an important part of the sound.


18/40

T he blues genre is based on the blues form butpossesses other characteristics such as specific

lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can besubdivided into several subgenres ranging fromcountry to urban blues that were more or lesspopular during different periods of the 20thcentury. Best known are the Delta , Piedmont ,Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War IImarked the transition from acoustic to electricblues and the progressive opening of blues musicto a wider audience, especially white listeners. Inthe 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues-rock evolved.


19/40

A frican roots of the blues

African American work songs were animportant precursor to the modern blues;these included the songs sung by laborers likestevedores and roustabouts , and the fieldhollers and "shouts" of slaves. ]


20/40

T here are few characteristics common to allblues, as the genre takes its shape from thepeculiarities of each individual performance. [5]

Some characteristics, however, were presentprior to the creation of the modern blues, andare common to most styles of African Americanmusic . T he earliest blues-like music was a"functional expression, rendered in a call-and-response style without accompaniment orharmony and unbounded by the formality of anyparticular musical structure". T his pre-bluesmusic was adapted from the field shouts andhollers performed during slave times, expandedinto "simple solo songs laden with emotionalcontent".


21/40

Alan Lomax recordingsA

lan Lomax (January 31, 1915 July 19, 2002)was an A merican folklorist andethnomusicologist. He was one of the great fieldcollectors of folk music of the 20th century,

recording thousands of songs in the UnitedStates, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean,Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomaxadvanced his theories of Cantometrics, thesampling and statistical analysis of folk music,with the help of collaborators Victor Grauer andR oswell R udd.


22/40

Work Songs

Work Song 1Work Song 2

Work Song 3Work Song 4


23/40

T he D elta blues is one of the earliest styles of bluesmusic . It originated in the Mississippi Delta , a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis,Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in thesouth, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo Riveron the east. T he Mississippi Delta area is famous bothfor its fertile soil and its poverty. Guitar , harmonica and

cigar box guitar are the dominant instruments used,with slide guitar (usually on the steel guitar ) being ahallmark of the style. T he vocal styles range fromintrospective and soulful to passionate and fiery. Deltablues is also regarded as a regional variation of countryblues .


24/40

Important Early Blues Artists

Son House (1902-1988)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jN5vqEyV7gR obert Johnson (1911-1938)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLmlz34BUlk&feature=relatedLeadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter)(1888-1949)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tOpyipNJs


25/40

Charley Patton(1837-1934)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waz8QqCyhLs&feature=fvstBlind Lemon Jefferson(1893-1929)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8

Big Bill Broonzy(1893-1958)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0c1c0Zs T LA


26/40

Excerpt from Ken Burns 1

Ke n Burns Jazz 01 Episod e 1 23:30-31:26


27/40

Spirituals

Spirituals (or Negro spirituals ) are religious(generally Christian ) songs which were created byenslaved African people in America.


28/40

Although numerous rhythmical and sonicelements of Negro spirituals can be traced toAfrican sources, Negro spirituals are a musicalform that is indigenous and specific to thereligious experience in the United States of Africans and their descendants. T hey are a resultof the interaction of music and religion fromAfrica with music and religion of European origin.Further, this interaction occurred only in theUnited States. Africans who converted to

Christianity in other parts of the world, even inthe Caribbean and Latin America , did not evolvethis form.


29/40

Slaves were de-africanizedSecret religious Services-Ring Shouts

T he Ringshout and T he Birth of AfricanAmerican Religion


30/40

Famous Negro Spirituals

Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Childhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiJx1Hbn_KMWade In The Waterhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg_8L96E3eU&feature=related

Michael Row The Boat Ashorehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gce7DDH-F0

Joshua Fit T he Battle Of Jericho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPZuWzZvoYQ Go Down Moseshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz0sQDhx1rE


31/40

Interesting

There is also a duality in the lyrics of spirituals.They communicated many Christian idealswhile also communicating the hardship thatwas a result of being an African-Americanslave. T he spiritual was often directly tied tothe composer's life. It was a way of sharing

religious, emotional, and physical experiencethrough song.


32/40

Amazing Grace

Amazing Wintley Phipps.....


33/40

Minstrel Songs

Ke n Burns Jazz 01 Episod e 1 15:22-21:14


34/40

T he minstrel show , or minstrelsy , was anAmerican entertainment consisting of comicskits, variety acts, dancing, and music,performed by white people in blackface or,

especially after the Civil War, black people inblackface.


35/40

Minstrel shows lampooned black people asdim-witted, lazy, buffoonish,superstitious, [happy-go-lucky, and musical. T heminstrel show began with brief burlesquesand comic entr'actes in the early 1830s andemerged as a full-fledged form in the next

decade. In 1848, blackface minstrel showswere the national art of the time, translatingformal art such as opera into popular terms

for a general audience.[3]


36/40

By the turn of the 20th century, the minstrelshow enjoyed but a shadow of its formerpopularity, having been replaced for the mostpart by vaudeville . It survived as professionalentertainment until about 1910; amateur

performances continued until the 1960s inhigh schools, and local theaters. As blacksbegan to score legal and social victories

against racism and to successfully assertpolitical power, minstrelsy lost popularity.


37/40

Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly

American theatrical form. In the 1830s and1840s, it was at the core of the rise of anAmerican music industry , and for severaldecades it provided the lens through whichwhite America saw black America. On the onehand, it had strong racist aspects; on theother, it afforded white Americans a singularand broad awareness of what some whitesconsidered significant aspects of black-American culture to be.


38/40

Excerpt from Spike Lee sBamboozled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45g3YP7JOk


39/40

How much influence black music had on minstrel performanceremains a debated topic. Minstrel music certainly contained someelement of black culture, added onto a base of European traditionwith distinct Irish and Scottish folk music influences. MusicologistDale Cockrell argues that early minstrel music mixed both Africanand European traditions and that distinguishing black and whiteurban music during the 1830s is impossible.Insofar as the minstrelshad authentic contact with black culture, it was via neighborhoods,taverns, theaters, and waterfronts where blacks and whites couldmingle freely. T he inauthenticity of the music and the Irish andScottish elements in it are explained by the fact that slaves wererarely allowed to play native African music and therefore had toadopt and adapt elements of European folk music. Compoundingthe problem is the difficulty in ascertaining how much minstrelmusic was written by black composers, as the custom at the time

was to sell all rights to a song to publishers or other performers.Nevertheless, many troupes claimed to have carried out moreserious "fieldwork".


40/40

Minstrel Show Songs

Camptown Races(Steven Foster)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tuu5YtkPIo&feature=relatedMy Old Kentucky Homehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn_ZbX60Oa4&feature=relatedOh Susannahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rijQX5S1AYMTurkey In T he Strawhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXa Tg3ji2W4&feature=related

Documents

Jazz History 2