Listening assignment - Essay Example

Listening assignment The of the song is d Hot house and it is here performed by Charlie parker and dizzy Gillespie. The music is totally instrumental with no vocals in it. The instruments being used in the compilation are the trumpet, saxophone, the trombone, the piano, trumpet, drums, guitar, tenor sax and acoustic bass.The style is most definitely bebop and this is the trend setting composition by dizzy Gillespie and Charlie parker which put bebop on the map. It is different from all that came before it in that it has a solo that is not connected to the main rhythm body but is totally independent.

The Trumpeter pushes the limits of the trumpet as he plays fast and melodic lines in all of the instruments registers. This creates a fast and nimble feel to the composition and gives the characteristic cool feel of the song. The trumpet provides the trendy fast tune from which he sets the solo that is independent from the rest of the melody and rhythm.The piano provides a quirky and unique harmony which helps to push the limits of the jazz composition beyond what had been there before bebop. The focus of the drummer is on using the cymbal as the main element for time-keeping in his drum set.

This has served to allow a more flexible and freer sound which in turn gives the soloist room in which he experiments and with the rhythm. The end result is a very unique collaboration between the drummer and the soloist.In my opinion, the solo is very successful as it is done in a very ingenious way leading the whole band in the creation of the rhythmic melody that is so mellow and captivating. The description of the melody as being cool is very accurate and on point. The solo progresses through the whole performance through an intricate build up that starts off a bit slow and mellow and has several crescendos in the course of the performance until it reaches the climax where it becomes the most dominant melody in the whole rhythm guiding the listeners all along the performance in an entrancing and captivating dominating performance which still allows for the other melody components to shine through.

The bebop rhythm runs through the performance and it is the clearest example of how the bebop era began in jazz music. The composition is soul full and very inspirational as well and the instrumentation is perfect and deserves to be taken as the trend setting performance it was.ReferencesDu Noyer, Paul .”The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music “1st ed. Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing 2003. p. 130. Rosenthal, David. “Hard bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965”. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.