What exactly is jazz? According to Virgil Thomson, the American critic and composer, “Jazz, in brief, is a compound of (a) the fox-trot rhythm, and (b) a syncopated melody over this rhythm” [1]. An understanding of the elements of jazz allows the listeners to further appreciate the very art that has defined American culture for generations. Critical to the development of jazz are African and European music, brought by the foreigners who sought a better life in the New World and who were sold to into slavery, respectively. Originally from New Orleans around the 1890s, Jazz remains today as a remarkable type of art form that is crucial to American culture and history. It primarily came from two musical predecessors: the blues and ragtime. A major
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The blues possessed an easier form, in which harmonies were not changed often and there were as little as three chords in a piece at once. This three-chord format proved to be extremely influential in the structure of future jazz compositions. One of the most notable pieces was W.C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues”, which was made up of simply twelve measures. Handy, notable known as “the daddy of all blues”, perfectly demonstrated the development of jazz from blues: “We didn’t call it jazz before the ‘Memphis Blues’, but that blues is remembered by many musicians allowing each musician to ‘do his stuff’ at the break in the last strain – the first jazzing [1].” In addition to three chord structure, chord progression and blue notes were also elements that influenced jazz. In Tirro’s “Jazz: A History”, he further captures the power of Blues as one of the principal elements of jazz: “On the 1920s and 1930s, when jazz developed so rapidly, the blues mode became dominant in the performance of all the music adapted by jazz musicians to their purposes, and the slurred thirds, fifths, and sevenths (the seeking and failing) characterized jazz improvisation [3]”. It is noticeable to see the progression of the blue notes, with its characteristic slurred notes, in the development of many jazz …show more content…
Ragtime, like the blues, was extremely popular around 100 years ago and was only disliked by people of high society, due to its mixed background. To put it simply, the rhythm of ragtime was “black or African, the harmony and melody was white or European, and the ending result was American [2].” Also, rag was heavily in whorehouses, saloons, and eventually concert halls; the very definition of the word rag was slang for “dance” [2].” Therefore, ragtime and blues came from very different cultural backgrounds with dissimilar purposes. People played and listened to ragtime for entertainment. Unlike the blues, the common folk listened to ragtime to “put on a happy face, not to feel your pain [2].” One of the most famous musicians of ragtime was James Reese Europe, a band leader who achieved great heights during ragtime’s peak in popularity. His band, “the Hellfighters”, was acclaimed for their songs of “agility, variability of tone, odd intervals, and widened tone range; the French called Europe’s music jazz [5].” This was the reason why Europe was deemed the “Father of Jazz,” it was his music that was first called by that name [5]. Ragtime remains as an integral part of the development of jazz, and various elements of rag are still distinguishable in jazz music. The next generation of jazz legends, such as Duke Ellington, was influenced
The blues possessed an easier form, in which harmonies were not changed often and there were as little as three chords in a piece at once. This three-chord format proved to be extremely influential in the structure of future jazz compositions. One of the most notable pieces was W.C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues”, which was made up of simply twelve measures. Handy, notable known as “the daddy of all blues”, perfectly demonstrated the development of jazz from blues: “We didn’t call it jazz before the ‘Memphis Blues’, but that blues is remembered by many musicians allowing each musician to ‘do his stuff’ at the break in the last strain – the first jazzing [1].” In addition to three chord structure, chord progression and blue notes were also elements that influenced jazz. In Tirro’s “Jazz: A History”, he further captures the power of Blues as one of the principal elements of jazz: “On the 1920s and 1930s, when jazz developed so rapidly, the blues mode became dominant in the performance of all the music adapted by jazz musicians to their purposes, and the slurred thirds, fifths, and sevenths (the seeking and failing) characterized jazz improvisation [3]”. It is noticeable to see the progression of the blue notes, with its characteristic slurred notes, in the development of many jazz …show more content…
Ragtime, like the blues, was extremely popular around 100 years ago and was only disliked by people of high society, due to its mixed background. To put it simply, the rhythm of ragtime was “black or African, the harmony and melody was white or European, and the ending result was American [2].” Also, rag was heavily in whorehouses, saloons, and eventually concert halls; the very definition of the word rag was slang for “dance” [2].” Therefore, ragtime and blues came from very different cultural backgrounds with dissimilar purposes. People played and listened to ragtime for entertainment. Unlike the blues, the common folk listened to ragtime to “put on a happy face, not to feel your pain [2].” One of the most famous musicians of ragtime was James Reese Europe, a band leader who achieved great heights during ragtime’s peak in popularity. His band, “the Hellfighters”, was acclaimed for their songs of “agility, variability of tone, odd intervals, and widened tone range; the French called Europe’s music jazz [5].” This was the reason why Europe was deemed the “Father of Jazz,” it was his music that was first called by that name [5]. Ragtime remains as an integral part of the development of jazz, and various elements of rag are still distinguishable in jazz music. The next generation of jazz legends, such as Duke Ellington, was influenced