Jazz Music in the 1920s and 1930s in New York - Coursework Example

New York: Jazz Music in 1920s and 1930s New York: Jazz Music in 1920s and 1930s Introduction Jazz, a musical art, has expanded a lot from its own genre of definition, accompanied with a variety of other popular modern forms in the course. As invented by the African American societies, specifically in the south of the United States, earliest roots of jazz are found in New Orleans. In early 1920s, jazz music was spread all over in New York, where a number of bands performed on the margins of the society. Jazz was also performed in Red Light district and other illegal places during the Prohibition era, associated with the corruption of that era. However, genre such as blues and popular music including jazz, overlap in a lot of ways. New York: Jazz Music in 1920s and 1930s Beginning of 1920s and dawn of 1930s marked great advances in the history of the music history. Phonograph record converted into the fundamental method of disseminating music. Music industry who was so keen to discover various ways of making profit realized that the piano rolls, record and sheet music can all be merged together. However, jazz music appeared while all of the discoveries were made. Jazz was originally founded in New Orleans, early in 1900s. As the opportunities for employment increased, both white and black moved towards New Orleans. Most of the musicians were given opportunities to work in small dance halls, ballrooms and cabarets. (1) The early players of jazz mostly used to play as solo pianists or in small bands. Apart from marches and ragtime, it included all types of blues and popular dance music. Often, bands used to play in parades, funerals, picnics etc. However, ragtime and blues has before raised jazz and sustained to remain in the scenario alongside to it. It had also influences the style of jazz and provided important vehicles for its improvement. In New York, during 1920s, a variety of jazz musicians appeared on the scene. Though, at the time, the lead voices were using most responsible for stating melody such as horns and ensembles. Louis Armstrong, one of the biggest jazz musicians ever widened the range of the music. He was a dazzling improviser. Armstrong along with other musicians of his generation changed the layout of jazz by bringing soloist in front of the public. Although, in his recording groups therefore the hot seven or the hot five displayed that creativeness of jazz could go far beyond piece of music. Hence, he created some innovative melodies supported by the chords of the initial song. Louis Armstrong also established a standard for the jazz singers, not due to the alteration of melodies but also by improvising without lyrics therefore by the use of an instrument which is known as scat singing.(3) On the other hand; Bix Beiderbecke offered another kind of voice to the public. Fletcher Henderson and Joe Smith mellow tone was of orchestra and behind them was Bessie Smith who recorded their tunes. Along with other, in 1929, Henry Red Allen, Jabbo Smith and Reuben River Reeves well all recorded by their labels. Although, Allen had a long lasting career in this field but others therefore Smith and Reeves faded away by time though they had a huge influence over Roy Eldridge with his Rhythm Aces during 1930s. Furthermore color was added by the lyrics of Arthur Whetsol and Freddie Jenkins and by a number of Duke Ellington’s trumpet section. Inspired by Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, during 1920s, large groups of jazz musician who were known as big band, became popular in 1930s, period which was known as swing era. Henderson along with Don Redman introduced the jazz scores. For such an achievement of introducing written jazz scores, they were honored with gifts from the soloists such as Coleman Hawkins and Louis Armstrong. (2) Additionally, Ellington also introduced a band in New York at Cotton Club in the late 1920s. Until he died in 1974, he continued to direct orchestra accompanied with some beautiful concert pieces of songs such as Black, Brown and Beige (1943). He also made his orchestra organized individuals who wrote some unique pieces of solos. Apart from Ellington orchestra, other bands that were popular were Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford and Cab Calloway. During 1930s, in the city of Kansas, another kind of big band jazz was founded which was led by the Count Basie band. In the band of Basie, the wind instrument was mostly played which exchanged strong rhythmical interplay along with pauses to accommodate other instrumental solo songs. Lester Young, tenor saxophonist of Count Baise band, played some riffs in a free manner which was hardly ever apparent in the work of other soloists. Other great musicians of 1930s were Roy Eldridge (trumpeter), Kenny Clarke (drummer), and Charlie Christian (electric guitarist). Jazz in 1930s became increasingly stylized and flexible. Among the leading jazz singers of all the time were Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Mildred Bailey. However, jazz also spread his roots in Europe such as Charlie Christian was influenced from Diango Reinhardt, a Belgian guitarist, whose recordings were also available in New York and other states of America. Instruments such as trombone evolved around in New York as well as Chicago and New Orleans which emerged as a solo instrument. During 1920s, the rhythmic approach of Kid Ory was also influential but as the time passed other instruments helped to free such an ongoing role. (1) Bessie Smith along with Fletcher Henderson displayed the style of swinging and bluesy. Duke Ellington and Tricky Sam Nanton also became equivalent with Bubber Miley’s trumpet. A lot of techniques were also introduced by Red Nichols and Miff Mole at that time even if they introduced an awkward rhythm. Legato style was displayed by Jimmy Harrison which also featured Fletcher Henderson but his unfortunate easy death gave him more popularity then ever. In 1928 and 1929, Jack Teagarden established a sensation amongst the other musicians after his arrival in New York. He played trombone, with the help of a trumpeter, which clearly showed that he had no difficulty with blues or any other complex instruments and became an outstanding musician specifically in blues singer category. He also liberated the earlier role of trombone which was then no longer restricted of just being a supportive instrument along with other. In the early 1920s, bass instrument was not used so much because of banjo and piano being used; tuba could have got into the way of the recordings. However, due to huge groups, tuba was used instead of bass because at that time, tuba could be heard well. Since the players of tuba had to breathe while playing it, they mostly played one by one on every other beat. In those days, sole were very brief and rare. (2) In the years of New Orleans, the clarinet has already been liberated. In reality, the biggest clarinetists, therefore Johnny Dodds or Jimmie Noone Bechet were the genius since childhood who used to play clarinet in front of the ordinary public when they were teenagers. They have also performed with a number of top bands of those days. Bechat used to play only one main horn, virtuoso sax due to which he became popular. He was a passionate player. In 1923, New York, he made his one of the first recordings and was displayed as the one of the major jazz non-piano player who played on music like “Kansas City Man Blues.” Jazz became the dominant influence of American music industry by the pioneering efforts of Henderson, Armstrong, and Ellington etc during 1920s and 1930s. Musicians like Paul Whiteman, bandleader, used some more unique sets of melodic devices of jazz though they cannot be compared with the original jazz players. Orchestra of Whiteman attempted to fuse jazz with a very low classical music and was also premiered some symphonic pieces of jazz by the composer George Gershwin. However, since ragtime, classical music was very much admired by the jazz composers. Musicians of swing era also converted classical music into “the jazzed classical music” such as Ebony Rhapsody which was recorded by Ellington and many others. In return, the composers of concert music paid tribute to the jazz musicians for honoring such a wonderful work. However, during 1920s, drummer players faced a lot of problem. They were restricted for using full drumming set specifically the bass drum on the dates of the recording as it used to feel like that the balance of the recordings will be destroyed and will make the sound of other instruments unclear. Drummers had to convert themselves a bit percussionist by using other tools such as cowbells, woodblocks and sometimes they had to use washboards. Fortunately, in 1927, the recording techniques unrestricted the use of drumming sets on the recording. Dave Tough, Krupa and others were the leading drummers in New York. As well as the guitarists and bassists, their main role was to be an adjunct to the soloists as the real “star” instruments of that time were the pianists, horns as well as the singers themselves. (3) Before the advancement in guitars, banjo was much more used as it could be heard well. Most of the banjoists strummed their strings on each and every beat. One of the few superb banjo players was Harry Reser who could play banjo with the facility of a pianist. Since the electronic recording was discovered, banjo was rarely used as much more flexible guitar started to take over the music industry. Guitarist, Eddie Lang, who played from 1926 to 1933, was the one played single note solos along with complex chords. Due to this, he had a great demand in the industry for both jazz and other groups. His death, occurred in 1933, stopped him to become a world force for decades. Other guitarists like Lonnie Johnson and Dick McDonough only proved to be the finest guitarists after Lang. Along with complex chord guitars; alto sax instrument was also used for jazz recordings which gave somewhat sweeter sound to the music. As a lead horn, alto sax worked much better though it did not attracted main soloists until the emergence of Jimmy Dorsey took place in 1926. Dorsey soon joined Ellington and Benny Carter band by Johnny Hodges. Baritone sax was also used but was less noticeable until Harry Carney became the first jazz baritonist and joined Ellington’s band in 1927. (2) There were about three leading jazz violin soloists who established a widespread impression in 1920s. Stuff Smith and Eddie South recorded few titles and were much better recognized in the period of swing era. Above all was Joe Venuti who was the bested in the field of classical jazz. He was one of the major soloists of 1925 at the age of 22. He had often teamed up with Eddie Lang to present some of the heated violin guitar duets. After Eddie Lang died, in 1933 Joe Venuti continued to work though his band in the swing era was somewhat obscure, his profile became bit low after sometime. But few years later, Venuti made a comeback but died after a decade. (3) Conclusion During 1920s and 1930s, New York has been the focal point of the jazz world. Though, the music industry worked as a magnet that attracted musicians from many parts of the world. At the same time when jazz was on the heights of success, a lot of cabarets, night clubs and dance halls were established which created a shelter for the jazz musicians in the Midwest and South. However, after the success of Louis Armstrong, many other band leaders began to work with the jazz as solos. Soon, New York became swing crazy after the emergence of jazz into the music industry. Bibliography (1) Tyle, Chris. Jazz History in Standard Time. 2005. Jazz Standards. 7 April 2009 (2) Online Encyclopedia. The Pacesetters in New York Jazz of the 1920s. 2009. Net Industries. 7 April 2009 < http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/1873/THE-PACESETTERS-IN-NEW-YORK-JAZZ-OF-THE-1920S.html> (3) Vacher, Peter. Perfect Jazz - The Best Jazz From the 1920s, 30s, 40s. 1997. Past Perfect. 7 April 2009 Read More