Road Trip USA: Exploring the Musical History of Six American Cities. Keith McCuaig Carleton University Learning in Retirement Program

Transcription

1 Road Trip USA: Exploring the Musical History of Six American Cities Keith McCuaig Carleton University Learning in Retirement Program

2 New Orleans, Louisiana Mardi Gras, Circa 1910

3 Features of Most Jazz Styles Fusion of African and European influences Wind instruments as primary soloists Syncopation Improvisation

4 Pre-jazz influences Ring Shouts Work Songs Folk Blues Tin Pan Alley Pop Marches Piano Ragtime

5 Ring Shouts African-American folk music Ex: Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers One of These Days (c ) Leader/group structure Heterophony Riffs and chants Body as percussion Improvisation Open-ended structure (form as the result of process: work, dance, march, etc.)

6 Work Songs Ex: Old Alabama - unknown prisoners (c ) Slave/prison labour Slow enough for the weakest to keep up Hammer/axe percussion

7 Folk Blues Acoustic guitar Post-Civil War (1865) Ex: Robert Johnson Me and the Devil Blues (1936) Complex blues man image Church and juke joint social dynamic New family and community stresses

8 Tin Pan Alley Pop Beginning of pop music as we know it (c. 1890s) Songwriters: mainly central European Jewish background Ex: Judy Garland Over the Rainbow (1939) AABA form/32 Bar Chorus Form/TPA Ballad form Importance to jazz: many jazz standards are TPA pop tunes The AABA form is also very common

9 Ex: Henry Fillmore Marches His Excellency (composed 1909) March form or Strain form: AABBCCDDEE, etc. Training, instruments Elaborating and decorating a basic melody with fills and variations 2/4 time, two step feel

10 Piano Ragtime Hugely popular late 19 th century Began as black piano style Became a style of band performance Piano Professor Ex: Scott Joplin Maple Leaf Rag (composed 1899) Ex: Jelly Roll Morton Maple Leaf Rag (1938)

11 Tin Pan Alley Ragtime Ex: Alexander s Ragtime Band Irving Berlin (1911) Stride bass, syncopated feel For commercial reasons, publishers often added word rag to anything with syncopation Ragtime was as much a dance craze as a musical style

12 New Orleans and Early Jazz Founded by French, 1718 Code Noir enacted 1724 Acadians arrived in Louisiana, 1755 Ceded to Spain, 1763 Sold to France, 1800 USA, 1803 LOTS of diverse cultural influences

13 New Orleans and Early Jazz Congo Square Est African-derived dance and music forms and styles Segregation Code: 1894 Storyville,

14 New Orleans and Early Jazz Ex: Ed and Lonnie Young Oree (1959-ish) Fife and drum Multiple cultural influences: African drumming, improvisation Syncopation Fife= military march

15 New Orleans Marching Bands Important to social life, as with everywhere in US Unique features: Haitian-flavoured drum line People not in the procession join in behind the parade and dance (second line) Improvisation Ex: Eureka Brass Band Funeral March

16 New Orleans and Early Jazz Term Jazz was originally used to describe way of playing ( jazzing a song, like ragging ) Involves hot playing, swing, improvisation Repertoire was marches, rags, pop and dance songs, blues Most distinctive element: polyphony breaks/stops in time also common

17 Buddy Bolden ( ) First person identified as N.O. jazz performer No recordings or transcriptions Only verbal and written accounts Peak c. 1905

18 Original Dixieland Jass Band Billed as creators of jazz All white First use of the term Dixieland Ex: ODJB Livery Stable Blues (1917) Considered first jazz recording

19 Dixieland as a sub-genre New Orleans Jazz By 1914 many black jazz musicians moved to Chicago (more on Great Migration later) Chicago became an important jazz centre by late 1910s/early 1920s

20 Joe King Oliver ( ) B. Louisiana; Cornet, composer Ex: King Oliver s Creole Jazz Band Dippermouth Blues (1923) Leading N.O. jazz band, based in Chicago Louis Armstrong on cornet Earliest black jazz recording 12 bar blues form

21 King Oliver s Creole Jazz Band

22 Early N.O. Jazz Standardized instrumental lineup Rhythm section: piano, drums, bass (usually brass), other horns, banjo Clarinet on lead Similar to marching bands, but smaller (only one of each instrument)

23 Limitations of Recording Technology Tinny sound and frequency response Live vs. recordings Balancing volumes tricky (louder instruments farther away from microphone ) Acoustic recording technology

24 Other important early N.O. jazz musicians Like, King Oliver, these musicians recorded and were based in Chicago (and they will be included in that city s section) Jelly Roll Morton Louis Armstrong

25 Memphis, Tennessee

26 First, what is Genre? Absolute? Grey areas? Changing? What purpose? Historically

27 Blues Very important to North American popular music history. Influenced all genres, especially rock and roll. Blues as we know it, stated after 1865 (what is the significance of this date?) Not recorded until 1920s, so there are many unknown aspects about the music.

28 Old saying Having the blues May come from blue devils, a term from Elizabethan England C Blues used to describe music, not just what we think of as blues music

29 Delta Blues Earliest form of blues Geographic origins of name Mississippi plantations

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31 The State of Mississippi (Memphis on top)

32 Delta Blues Often solo performers, usually men Acoustic guitar, sometimes banjo, mandolin Piano? Itinerant performers travelling around from plantation to plantation

33 Ex: Robert Johnson Me and the Devil Blues (1937) see lyrics Robert Johnson ( ) b. Hazlehurst, Mississippi One of the most well known delta blues singers Influence Crossroads legend, death

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35 Robert Johnson ( ) Who s the other guitar player? (Keith Richards) Thumb and finger style (guitar demo) Ex: Robert Johnson Sweet Home Chicago (1936) see lyrics 2 recording sessions: 1936 San Antonio, Texas hotel room 1937 Dallas, Texas, makeshift studio

36 12 Bar Blues Form Beats and bars as measures of musical time. What is a chord What do we mean by chord changes (a.k.a. harmony).

37 12 Bar Blues Form Bar Chords I IV I V IV (T) Lyrics a a b Guitar Res. Res. Res.

38 Sam Phillips ( ) DJ, studio owner, producer Memphis Recording Service Field recordings Vanity recordings License recordings for other labels Sun Records opens c. 1952

39 Sun Records Initially lots of black blues singers: Howlin Wolf BB King Rufus Thomas Then focused on white singers: Elvis Presley Jerry Lee Lewis Johnny Cash Roy Orbison

40 BB King b. Bernclair, Mississippi Endless tours Ex: BB King She s Dynamite (1951)

41 Blues/R&B/Early Rock n Roll Blues origins White and Black originators Race and Genre labels Credit

42 R&B/Early Rock n Roll Ex: Ike Turner s Kings of Rhythm Rocket 88 (1951) originally credited to Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (JB was Ike s sax player and sang this song) Sun Records 1 st Rock n Roll song? Distorted guitar

43 Elvis Presley ( ) B. Tupelo, Mississippi Moved to Memphis 1948 Wide range of influences Vanity record for mama Marion Keisker

44 Elvis (cont.) Callback was an audition and recording Starlite Wranglers Scotty Moore (guitar) Bill Black (bass) Ex: Elvis Presley That s All Right (1954) Dewey Phillips

45 Elvis (cont.) That s All Right needed a B-side Ex: Bill Monroe Blue Moon of Kentucky (1946) Ex: Elvis Presley Blue Moon of Kentucky (1954) Sold 20,000 as a local record Sun trend of having an R&B and country side 10 Elvis singles, each sells more than last R&B or country?

46 Slapback echo Regularly used by Sam Phillips Recording is played back right away for a quick, single echo Ex: Elvis Presley Blue Moon (1954) Pop aesthetic, vulnerable vocals

47 Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-) Sun s other big star Wild man of rock n roll Piano master Ex: Jerry Lee Lewis Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On (1957)

48 Johnny Cash ( ) One of the most influential country singers Other genres Original gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg Ex: Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues (1957)