Jazz history 04

Chapter 4

Chapter 4NEW ORLEANSCopyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The City on the GulfJazz comes from a mixture of African, European, and Caribbean experiences, but it started out as a local musical practice in New Orleans.New Orleans jazz transformed marching band and dance music into an improvised, playfully voiced, and polyphonic music played over a steady dance beat using collective improvisation.

The City on the GulfThe demographics of New Orleans also contributed to the creation of jazz because it was characterized by the mingling of newly urbanized blacks with Europeanized Creoles.New Orleans musicians eventually moved to other parts of the United States, such as Chicago, New York, and California, as part of the Great Migration.At the same time, the burgeoning record industry made New Orleans jazz available in diverse geographical and sociocultural contexts.

The City on the GulfNew Orleans is a port city. It became a nineteenth-century commercial center focusing on the slave trade on the one hand, with a distinct, more relaxed Caribbean culture on the other.New Orleans had French, Spanish, and English speakers and was the largest, most sophisticated city in the South.It had an active cultural life from the eighteenth century, encompassing opera, Mardi Gras, dances, parades, and fancy balls.

The City on the GulfCopyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The City on the GulfRace relations were different from those in other parts of the United States. Unlike the rest of America, New Orleans was oriented toward the accepting Caribbean Culture and enveloped many of the racial practices of its citizens.For instance, slaves were allowed to retain much of their culture, including music.American culture recognized two categories: white and black. Caribbean culture, including that of New Orleans, recognized a mulatto culture as well. This benefited free blacks with lighter skins.New Orleans mulattos were known as Creoles of Color.

Creoles of ColorBecause of their mixed race, they had privileges and opportunities that blacks did not.Creoles of Color had rights including civic power, property ownership, French language skills, Catholic religious practice, decent education, and skilled trades.Creoles saw themselves as different that dark skinned blacks and did not consider themselves black.Some even owned slaves of their own.Creoles lost this status around 1894 with the enactment of Jim Crow laws and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1896.

Creoles of ColorCreoles tried to remain geographically separate from blacks by keeping to an area of the city east of Canal Street including the French Quarter.Blacks lived uptown, on the other side of Canal. But Jim Crow laws forced the two traditions to collide.Uneducated Uptown Negroes played raucous, beat-based, orally learned, bluesy, improvised music based on rags, folk music, and marches. Creoles saw this as unprofessional, but they started teaching Uptown Negroes as well as young Creoles the musical traditions of Europe.

Manuel Perez (18781946)Was a Creole trumpeter, cigar maker, and classically trained cornetist.Perez was educated at a French Grammar School and learned classical music and the march tradition.He was know for playing in various bands that required reading music and no improvisation.For 30 years he led the Onward Brass Band and other ensembles, playing picnics, riverboats, and dance halls.

Manuel Perez (18781946)He influenced many famous New Orleans jazz musicians by providing free lessons to them.By 1910, he realized that improvisation was becoming more important, so he hired Joe King Oliver for that purpose.By 1937, his style of music had lost its popularity, so he went back to cigar making.

Buddy Bolden (18771931) and the Birth of JazzAlthough there are many myths about cornetist Buddy Bolden, it is generally accepted that he was the first important jazz musician, had a large black and Creole following, and represents the triumph of African American culture.1877: born in New Orleans.1895: started working in parades and other functions.19011902: went into music full time.1906: experienced a mental breakdown after years of depression and alcoholism; incarcerated in state hospital for the insane. He died there in 1931.

Buddy Bolden (18771931) and the Birth of Jazz (contd)Known for his loud and great blues playing, unlike the other New Orleans musicians, whose reputations generally rested on their musicianship and clarity, Bolden was known for his individual style.Combine this with his brief career, excessive lifestyle, competitive spirit, and charisma, and the template for later jazz and popular music stars coalesces.

Copyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Buddy Bolden (18771931) and the Birth of Jazz (contd)

Jazz begins here. The only known photograph of the Buddy Bolden Band, c. 1905: (standing) Jimmy Johnson, bass; Bolden, cornet; Willie Cornish, valve trombone; William Warner, clarinet; (seated) Jefferson Mumford, guitar; Frank Lewis, clarinet. HERMAN LEONARD PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

Buddy Bolden (18771931) and the Birth of Jazz (contd)Did Bolden invent jazz?He was known as an innovator of a new way of playing; no precursors or contemporary rivals are mentioned.He could play in every setting at a time when there was a huge demand for a wide range of music.Bolden seemed to have been respected for playing successfully in most forms of popular musiclegitimate and otherwise.He also played pieces that have remained part of the jazz repertory, sentimental pop, and dance music.

Buddy Bolden (18771931) and the Birth of Jazz (contd)

An 1890 issue of the New Orleans Mascot depicts white citizens pleading for mercy as a black band, hired to advertise a museum, performs some kind of new, raucous music without the aid of sheet music.

Buddy Bolden (18771931) and the Birth of Jazz (contd)He led many bands, with the best known in 1905 consisting of cornet, trombone, two clarinets, guitar, bass, and drum set.Sometimes a second cornet was added, foreshadowing King Olivers band with Louis Armstrong.Between the time of Bolden and the first jazz recording in 1917, jazz continued to develop. Photos and interviews give us a picture of this stage.

New Orleans PolyphonyIn early jazz, players started by emulating the ensembles of well established music.This meant that early jazz groups were either small marching bands or small chamber groups like string quartets.As the 20th century dawned and march music became more popular, many of the Jazz ensembles would begin to take on the shape of a marching band.

New Orleans PolyphonyThese groups were led by a "frontline" which was generally made up of trumpets, cornets, saxophones, clarinets, and trombones.Clarinet, cornet, and trombone became the most popular "frontlines" in early jazz, but were soon eclipsed by saxophone and trumpet.Each of the instruments in the front line played a specific role and added texture to the ensemble.

New Orleans PolyphonyThe trumpet/cornet was seen as the melody instrument.This meant that the trumpet would play in a very recognizable manor. This would ensure that the listeners would be able to recognize the tune.The trumpet would also improvise during the tune, but would save that for a time when the group "opened up" for solos.

New Orleans PolyphonyThe clarinet would play the obligato line.This is an ornate and highly active line that weaves around the melody and ornaments it.This part is always improvised and varies greatly as the piece goes on.Popular in early jazz, this technique fell out of favor in later jazz, and as the saxophone began to replace the clarinet in jazz, this part was not retained.

New Orleans PolyphonyThe trombone was know to play the "tailgating" part.This term comes from the fact that in early jazz ensembles, bands would be loaded into trucks to perform in parades and the trombone would be placed on the back of the truck, sitting on the tailgate. This was done to prevent the slide from hitting the other players.This part is a moderate counterline to the melody. Often incorporating slides and smears.

ImprovisationBy the time New Orleans jazz was first recorded, it had attained a distinctive style of collective improvisation, with each wind instrument having its own musical space and rhythm: the clarinet was the fastest and pitched the cornet was in the middle; and the trombone was the slowest and below the cornet.The ensembles would also arrange sections of the tune where they would play together in large moving chords called "block chords" which would become the basis for swing era big band pieces.New Orleans Polyphony

StoryvilleStoryville or The District in New Orleans was a neighborhood where prostitution was legal.It began in 1897 and lasted until 1917.In 1897, Alderman Sidney Story proposed legislation to limit prostitution to the area between North Robertson, North Basin, Customhouse (now Iberville) to St. Louis streets. The city council passed the ordinance and the citizens of the city "looked forward to an era of improvement and stability as a result." Clearly, the council's focus was in restricting vice to a "manageable" area.Bordellos could be mansions or shacks and everything in between.The belief that jazz and Storyville were linked is widespread but wrong.At most, there were a few pianists who worked the bordellos. Many jazz musicians worked in Storyville cabarets, but they also worked in parks, parades, excursions, advertising wagons, and riverboats, and for dances throughout the city.But Storyville did play a role. It was a rough area where white values of taste were absent. This made it easier for musicians to develop expressive techniques, slow tempos (for sexy, slow dances), and timbre variation.

StoryvillePictured above, in the foreground, one of Tom Anderson's saloons, at the corner of N. Basin and Iberville Streets. Mr. Anderson was considered the unofficial "mayor" of Storyville.The arrow in the upper right corner points to Lulu White's Mahogany Hall.Miss White was sometimes referred to as the Queen of Storyville.Mahogany Hall was the most expensive "sporting palace" in the District, constructed primarily of marble and mahogany, and built at a cost of $40,000.

The Great MigrationIn the late nineteenth century, former slaves started to move into cities like New Orleans. With the onset of World War I, they moved north to places like Chicago and New York.They were socially motivated by their powerlessness, the discriminatory practices of sharecropping, widespread racial segregation touching practically all areas of life in the South, and thousands of lynchings for which nobody was arrested.Economically, the draft during World War I opened up the labor market in northern cities for blacks.


The Great MigrationRobert S. Abbott founded the influential Chicago Defender in 1905.He helped fuel the "Great Migration" of Southern Blacks to the North.His newspaper would print lists of phone numbers for organizations that would help relocate blacks via financial assistance.Southern farmers tried to stop the migration by denying blacks access to trains by invalidating tickets, but nothing could stop blacks from being lured north by high wages and better treatment.

Robert S. Abbott founded the influential Chicago Defender in 1905, and helped fuel the Great Migration of Southern blacks to the North.GRANGER COLLECTION

Jazz Moves On: First RecordingsFreddie Keppard (18901933)As the Great Migration took hold, musicians like trumpeter Freddie Keppard played all over the United States with his Creole Jazz Band.This brought New Orleans jazz to the rest of the country and raised its popularity greatly.He was offered an opportunity to be the first person to record in 1916 by the Victor Talking Machine Company.Fearful that other musicians would copy him, he declined this fantastic opportunity.

Jazz Moves On: First RecordingsThe Original Dixieland Jazz Band was formed in New Orleans and became the first group to record Jazz.They learned jazz by listening to the black musicians around New Orleans and sought to emulate their style.The all-white ODJB came to New York to play at Riesenwebers Restaurant in 1917.They were a sensation.

Original Dixieland Jazz BandVictor signed them to record two pieces, Livery Stable Blues and Dixie Jass Band One-Step, which turned out to be blockbusters.Although previous ragtime records had hinted at some jazz elements, to most listeners, the ODJBs music was unprecedented. The records were so popular that they brought the word jazz into common parlance.The groups origins came directly from the streets of New Orleans.Many New Orleans neighborhoods were integrated, and thus white players became familiar with ragtime and jazz in New Orleans and probably influenced black players in terms of repertory, harmony, and instrumental technique.The five-piece format of the ODJB comes from the Keppard band.There is a significant white tradition centered around Papa Jack Laine, who led the Reliance Band. He discouraged improvisation but trained many important white players, including members of the ODJB.

The ODJB has been labeled as mediocre. But they played a spirited, unpretentious music that established many Dixieland standards and broke with ragtime. By visiting Europe in 1919, the ODJB made jazz international. The group dissolved in 1922.Dixie Jass Band One-Step This is a well-organized piece in ragtime form and highly embellished in its presentation. The famous 32-bar trio section is played three times, each one divided into two 16-bar sections with almost the same melody. Each repeat increases the energy level. This number of repetitions and the way they were handled were unprecedented. The song was also very well recorded.Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Dixie Jass Band One-StepCopyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.


Dixie Jass Band One-Step


Dixie Jass Band One-Step

Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll MortonJelly Roll Morton (18901941)Early Jazz was defined by excellent improvised performances by players such as Joe King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, James P. Johnson, but it had its composers as well.Jelly Roll Morton fits right in as a Creole composer who learned from and worked with black New Orleans musicians.His major contribution to jazz was discovering ways to notate, arrange and compose Jazz Music, much like a classical composer would.Morton mixed together his knowledge of composition, coming from his Creole heritage, and his experiences working with Blues and Rag Musicians to become a master at New Orleans Polyphony.


Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton, the seminal New Orleans pianist, composer, and bandleader, at a 1926 recording session.FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION

Jelly Roll MortonMorton was a very boastful and extravagant person.He began life working as a bordello piano player, and as he began to tour around the country he also worked as a pimp, a pool hall hustler and most of all a musician.Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe in 1890, but he later changed his name to Morton and lied that he was born in 1885 and that he had invented jazz music in 1902.His first big success was when he moved to Chicago in 1922 when he did a recording session in Richmond Indiana at Gennett Records.This session, featuring the all white New Orleans Rhythm Kings, established Morton as a jazz power house.One of these tunes, The King Porter Stomp, would go on to be jazz standards.

Jelly Roll MortonIn 1926 Morton signed a recording contract with Victor Talking Machine Company and established a new band called The Red Hot Peppers.This ensemble did not tour and only existed in the recording studio. Victor advertised this group as the Number One Hot Band and it became a huge success.With the success of these recording Morton began touring the country and living a highly extravagant lifestyle including a custom tour bus and having a diamond placed in one of his front teeth.Although he ended his life in fair amount of obscurity, he managed to establish himself as a master of jazz composition and his legacy lives on today.

Jelly Roll MortonCopyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

In Chicago, 1926, Jelly Roll Morton created his most enduring work and a pinnacle in the New Orleans style with a recording unit he called the Red Hot Peppers.FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION

The Dead Man BluesThe Dead Man Blues is a standard 12 bar blues, but the composition is laid out in a grouping of 2 choruses making the final form much like a march. (Form=Intro ABCA Coda)The piece is meant to depict a New Orleans Funeral March and begins with comic dialog to set the scene.The band then plays a slow, minor dirge to set the mood.After the dirge, a few choruses of traditional New Orleans Polyphony follow to establish the melody.This is a followed by a cornet solo and a trio section arranged for 3 clarinets.The recording is very tight and shows how well organized and detailed Morton could be with his compositions.This piece is a rare masterpiece of the early jazz era and represents some of the best elements of early jazz.


The Dead Man Blues


The Dead Man Blues


The Dead Man Blues

Joe "King" OliverJoe King Oliver (18851938)Oliver was a trumpet and cornetist from New Orleans and became the best know soloist in the area before moving to Chicago in 1918.Oliver did not start into to music till 1905, but his dedication proved fruitful and he soon became a member of the influential trombonist Kid Ory's band.Here he developed a taste for mutes and soon began to use them extensively in his music.

Joe "King" OliverAs his fame grew, he found himself playing in a club one night and he was across the street from his rival Freddie Keppard.His pianist Richard M. Jones remembers him saying, "Get in B-Flat" and Oliver stepped out on the street and began to play.Soon people stared coming from all the other clubs to hear his sound and Oliver Stated "Now that SOB won't bother me no more."

Joe "King" OliverIn 1918 Oliver moved to Chicago to find work and he established a steady band at the Lincoln Gardens.This band would become quite famous and become the vehicle that launches Louis Armstrong's career.The band was Oliver on Cornet, Honore Dutrey on Trombone, Johnny Dobbs on Clarinet, Warren "Baby" Dobbs on Drums, Bill Johnson on Bass and Banjo, and star pianist Lil Hardin.After Oliver developed pyorrhea he decided to add a cornetist to lighten his playing load. This is when he called for Louis Armstrong to come and join him in Chicago.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz BandCopyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

King Olivers Jazz Band promotes its latest OKeh Record in Chicago, 1923. Oliver stands tall at the center. Louis Armstrong, with one leg over the sign, sits beside pianist Lil Hardin, soon to be his wife.FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Joe King Oliver (18851938) (contd)They were a great success. Black and white musicians came to hear the uptown style of Olivers band. The Creole Jazz Bands recordings from this period exhibit a mature New Orleans collective style. In 1923, they recorded for Gennett in Richmond, Indianathen a hotbed for the Ku Klux Klanusing stop-time, breaks, and an improvised, polyphonic first line.Dippermouth Blues also includes solos by clarinetist Johnny Dodds and Louis Armstrong, and a widely imitated solo by King Oliver using mutes.

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Joe King Oliver (18851938) (contd)Not unlike Morton and other early jazz figures, Oliver was soon surpassed by new styles and younger players. By 1935, he could no longer play, and he died in poverty soon thereafter.Gennett RecordsGennett was owned by a piano-manufacturing company. The studio was made of wood planks, with one megaphone that recorded acoustically, so the musicians had to position themselves in the room to create a musical balance.

Photo 4-11Copyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

A typical set-up for an early acoustic recording: Rosario Bourdon, a major figure in the development of the Victor Talking Machine Company, conducts its ensemble at the RCA-Victor Studios in Camden, N.J., 1928. The musicians play into a horn attached to a recording apparatus in the adjoining room. Note the cellists custom-built high chair.FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Snake RagAs per the title, this has a ragtime structure but also includes bluesy breaks, chromatic melodies (or snakes), a repeated trio section (which is used to build excitement), and the signature Armstrong-Oliver improvised duo breaks.

Music 4-4Copyright 2015 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Sidney Bechet (18971959)Clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Bechet may have been the first great jazz improviser. He made the saxophone central to jazz and also traveled abroad during the 1920s, spreading this new music.Born a Creole, Bechet mostly taught himself the clarinet. He ended up playing in many of the important marching bands. In 1916, he started touring, arriving in Chicago in 1919. There he attracted the attention of composer, songwriter, classical violinist, and bandleader Will Marion Cook, who recruited Bechet into his band, the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, for their European tour.

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Sidney Bechet (18971959) (contd)There were some important results from this tour:Bechet bought his first soprano saxophone in London.The band inspired the first serious jazz essay, which was penned by conductor Ernest Ansermet and praised Bechets playing.This tour popularized jazz in Europe, and though he opted to stay abroad, Bechet was deported in 1921 following an unfortunate incident in London.In 1921 Bechet teamed up with New Orleans pianist, composer, song publisher, and record producer Clarence Williams and recorded with Williamss Blue Five. In the groups 1924 recording of Cake Walking

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Sidney Bechet (18971959) (contd)Babies (from Home), Bechet proved himself to be the only musician of that era who could rival the talented, up-and-coming Armstrong.Cake Walking Babies (from Home)A combination of New Orleans style and pop music, recordings such as these were seen as boosting sheet music sales, so vocal choruses were included, here sung by Alberta Hunter. The title refers to the cakewalk, a comic dance supposedly dating from the time of slavery and one of the first dances to cross over from black to white society. The performance contains bravura performances by Armstrong and Bechet.

Jazz Moves On: First Recordings (contd)Sidney Bechet (18971959) (contd)He settled in France in 1951 and remained the soprano saxophones chief exponent until his death in 1959.The New Orleans style is still alive at Preservation Hall in New Orleans and in bands all over the world devoted to Dixieland jazz.




LG05 Dead Man BluesJelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot PeppersThe Norton Jazz Recordings1926Jazz196817.92eng - Originally released 1926. All Rights Reserved by Sony Music Entertainment

Education

Jazz history 04