American Roots Music

 Do You Like Jazz? 

My first encounter with jazz music was during my junior year of Highschool. When I was in Highschool, I was a HUGE musical theatre nerd. (I know, I know. Shocker!) I was sick of all my playlists and was on the hunt for a new musical to be obsessed with when I suddenly came across a musical called "Anything Goes". The music in "Anything Goes" is very lively and exciting. The swing of the drums combined with the brass instruments and the musical theatre vocals were pleasing to my ears. Being the nerd that I was (and still am) I began researching the music in the show and learned that the music was composed by the one and only Cole Porter. Cole porter was one of the most popular composers of the 20th century. While a lot of his music had jazz influences, I felt curious and had an intense desire to learn more. Why did Cole porter's music in "Anything Goes" sound the way that it did? Where did this style of music come from? I learned that even though Cole Porter used jazz-isms in his music, there is a lot more to jazz than what I found in his music. (Below I've attached a video from the musical that kick started my musical journey)

How Did Jazz Come to Be? 

Like we talked about in class, blues music was adapted to entertain the people up north. In order to adapt to the social needs of northerners, musicians began to add percussion, brass instruments, and adapt their lyrics to the lives of their audience. One thing we didn’t talk about was how a genre called ragtime also influenced jazz music. If you aren’t familiar with ragtime, you probably have listened to it without even knowing it.  Are you familiar with Scott Joplin's “The Entertainer”? Well, that’s ragtime! 

Blues and Ragtime music paved the way for jazz music to be popular in the roaring twenties. New Orleans is considered to be the birthplace of jazz music. The population in New Orleans is very diverse because it's a port city. Since there were a lot of different people from different places in New Orleans, there were also a lot of contrasting musical ideas.  Having a lot of people with different backgrounds in one place caused New Orleans to have a vibrant night life that allowed jazz music to grow. People of all different races and nationalities used to make music together in the town squares. A lot of the first jazz musicians were African Americans. Many of the earliest jazz music was inspired by African American folk songs/spirituals and the rhythmic elements of jazz are derived from African music. Another musical idea that is believed to be inspired by African music is using other instruments to "sing". Some of the European aspects such as harmony and the use of European instruments are present in jazz music as well. The use of musical improvisation is derived from both African and European music. Eventually all the ideas from the blues, ragtime, and different cultures meshed together and formed jazz music. Since jazz is inspired by music from all over the world, it is syncretic just like the blues.

The First Jazz Recording

The earliest jazz music was called "Dixieland". Dixieland was a genre based upon improvisation. All of the band members would improv their own individual parts. Each musician would improvise in a way that each individuals playing would fit into the song like a puzzle piece.

The first jazz song ever recorded was Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass Band. The song was recorded on February 26, 1917. For a long time, there was a debate as to who should own the rights to the Livery Stable blues. Since the song was written by "unskilled musicians" who couldn't read or write music, it was decided that Livery Stable Blues would be public domain. Since Livery Stable Blues is the first recording we have of jazz music, it gives us a really good idea as to what jazz music is comprised of!

Jazz ingredients in Livery stable Blues:

• 12 bar progression based upon the I-IV-V chords (similar to the blues)
• Use of a habanera beat which is commonly used in jazz (the habanera beat is a Caribbean beat. There were ships coming into New Orleans from the Caribbean around the time jazz music started to develop so this makes a lot of sense)
• Use of brass/wind instruments
• Piano arrangement inspired by ragtime
• improvisation

Racism and Jazz Music

During my research I came across some information related to racism and jazz music. Even though I was unsure as to how I wanted to discuss what I learned, I felt it was important to discuss the racism and social injustice connected to jazz music. While learning about the influences in the Livery Stable Blues, I read about minstrelsy. “Minstrelsy most commonly featured white musicians in blackface projecting their own cartoonish idea of what it meant to be black – and it was by far the most popular form of music in the US from 1840 to 1920” (Blauvelt,2017).

Since jazz was a popular music genre and African Americans were the first to perform it, many people copied them and even tried to take credit for their work. Nick La Rocca, a white cornet player claimed to have created jazz because he was the first person to ever write it down.

In the BBC article titled, "The Mysterious Origins of Jazz", author Christian Blauvelt states that, “The musical DNA in Livery Stable Blues comes from black artists and shows that jazz is a fundamentally African American music, even if an all-white band was first to record it. “(Blauvelt,2017)

Influential Jazz Musicians

We've done a lot of talking about jazz but, how about we do some listening? Below I have listed a few of my favorite jazz musicians as well as their contributions to jazz music. I hope you enjoy! 

Nat King Cole:

Nat King Cole was born March 17, of 1919. Even though he was a phenomenal jazz pianist, he became very famous for his singing voice. One interesting piece of information about Nat King Cole is that he was the first African American to host a TV show. The last song he ever recorded was "L-O-V-E".

Miles Davis

Miles Davis is one of the most famous trumpet players and composers of all time. One of my favorite jazz standards of all time is Miles Davis' "So What". His most famous album is "Kind of Blue" 

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was in a lot of ways the pioneer for modern day drummers. Thanks to Krupa, we have tunable toms. Being the first drummer to record music with a kick drum is also one of Krupa's many feats. If it wasn't for Krupa, we wouldn't have the drum kits that we have today. 

Hopefully you've learned more about America's Roots and jazz music! Thank you for reading!

Love and light always, 

-Michaela Faye

Sources

10, theurbandaily S. P. J. (2019, May 28). The evolution of jazz music. The Urban Daily. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://theurbandaily.com/793095/the-evolution-of-jazz-music/

A&E Networks Television. (2021, May 10). Nat king Cole. Biography.com. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.biography.com/musician/nat-king-cole

Blauvelt, C. (2017, February 24). The mysterious origins of Jazz. BBC Culture. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170224-the-mysetrious-origins-of-jazz

IMDb.com. (n.d.). Gene Krupa. IMDb. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0472758/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

IMDb.com. (n.d.). Miles Davis. IMDb. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002537/bio

The origins of Jazz. Jazz Observer. (2018, March 14). Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://jazzobserver.com/the-origins-of-jazz/

Where did jazz come from? Jazz in America. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.jazzinamerica.org/LessonPlan/8/4/194

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, January 14). Nat king Cole. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_King_Cole