Joseph King Oliver - Admission/Application Essay Example

? Joseph ‘King’ Oliver Introduction Jazz is a music style having its origin in the black communities living in the US in the 20th century. It is a mixture of American and European music cultures. New Orleans is the epitome of jazz music dating back to the year 1910. With the blacks embracing this type of music, the style of the music’s definition is ragtime. Other qualities of this type of music are the improvisation and off beat rhythms that it possesses. Oliver Joseph contributed to the development of jazz music. He became one of the best jazz musicians in New Orleans considering that the city contributed the best trumpet players during those days. By the year 1910, Oliver had a band and played a trombone as his first musical instrument. Other instruments he used in production of jazz music included the clarinets and the pianos. Drums were used as part of the music providing rhythm to it. General characteristics of historical Jazz music Jazz music is performed under certain musical conditions in order to create emotional tones. It includes following harmonizing rules together with good rhythm. The piano created the harmony required in the song while clarinets and other trumpets enhanced the chromatics and minor modes. The American jazz contained lots of raga that is fast and swingy. Oliver Joseph discovered improvisation type of jazz music. After moving to Chicago, he became very famous with the Dixie type of music, which was a hybrid of jazz. The wah-wah-wah technique is also part of his unique inventions with different sounds of horns. Being a great composer, he wrote many songs for jazz players. Some of his tunes are still played up to these days. Joe King Oliver was a bandleader and cornetist with a nickname earned while being a leading cornetist in New Orleans. He decided to move to Chicago in 1918 where he became very successful. By 1923, Oliver Joseph made some of the new recordings of Jazz music. The categories of music would vary from the light and happy, heavy and serious. Others are full of surprises while easy and smooth; still others are smooth and complicated. Jazz is played by both small groups and big bands and any given musical instrument is in a position to play it. The jazz music comes in varieties referred to as Dixieland and swing, bebop and cool, hard pop and bop. Many of the jazz pieces do not have any particular style designation. Reference to the sound is through the naming of the given musician. Jazz is quite hard in several settings with many bands presenting it as some serious music within different concert halls. There is some jazz played for dancers within ballrooms and another played in the background music of a radio station. Most of the jazz music is played in the nightclubs where individuals come together to listen to music while they drink and hold conversations with their friends. Question 3 “Dippermouth Blues” Listening to “Dippermouth Blues” indicates the manner in which different instruments blend. It is as if every instrumentalist does something different, yet the overall sound has some cohesion, a texture described as “polyphonic” by many musicians. Within this recording are the three prominent passages of collective information (0:05-0:36, 1:10-1:26, and 2:15-2:32). In addition to this, some characteristic technique that is associated with the New Orleans style, the stop time is included. Time does not actually stop; the band, instead, initiates several repeated accents, which create some silent spaces that require the filling by some soloist. The stop time’s simplest version happens only if a bound sounds on the downbeat of every measure. In such a case, though sounds on the first three beats of every measure, thus, opening the second half of every measure in an effective way. Oliver’s cornet solo over the three choruses (1:25-2:11) has some distinctive “wah wah” which formed part of the signature of the bandleader. In 1923, Oliver Joseph performed his most successful song the “Dipper mouth blues”. Louis Armstrong inspired by King Oliver played the cornet that day. Honore Dutrey handled the trombone during the performance while Lil Hardi Armstrong played the piano. Bill Jonhson played banjo as Baby Dodds played the drums. Johhny Dodds, a brother to Baby Dodds, played the clarinet during the performance1. The first four lines begin with rolling. The twelve bars ranging from 5-20 the trumpet and trombone remain silent. This means the drums and the banjo play the part of maintaining the rhythm. The second 12 bars in this song include the chorus as the trumpet taking higher tones while the trombone carries the lower tones. The next third 12 bars include Johhny Dodds playing his clarinet with a solo performance, which plays in a stop time. Dodds repeats his performance in the fourth bar. The fifth bar experiences a change as collective improvisation sets in as two cornets play together without any distinctive difference in their sounds. The sixth bar is the climax of the music as king Oliver gets on with the wa-wa muted cornet. Oliver continues with the play to in the seventh bar. In the eighth bar, Oliver connects with Baby Dodds in vocal break as he sings, “Oh, play that thing”. The ninth bar consists of the chorus and the song takes approximately 2:22 minutes recording. The tonal improvisation expressed skillfully in this music is worth noting. He included mutes in this song creating the wah-wah a throaty effect from his vocal. This technique influenced most of the jazz musicians as per that time. The double breaking of the cornet is also among the most important features of this music; a skill that many jazz musicians did not possess at all. In conclusion, Joe Oliver creates sensational performance in the song “One more time”. His skills in composure and the rhythmical blending of the instruments are marvelous. The lyrics also thrill with the chorus reaching the climax in the middle of the song. The chocolate dandies are also included in this performance. Oliver performed with bands such as creole jazz band, Dixie syncopators, as well as with his orchestra. Works Cited Gioia, Ted. The History of Jazz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Read More