During the 19th century, music was an important means for black slaves to express their lives and feelings on plantations in the southern United States.
Since the end of 19th century, jazz has been based on traditional British and American music, mixed with blues, ragtime and other music types, and it is a product of "mixed blood".
American black music has preserved a lot of African characteristics, with obvious rhythm characteristics, and retained the characteristics of collective improvisation.
The combination of this tradition and the music of the new residence-mostly vocal music-resulted in not only a new sound but a brand-new musical expression.
The most famous African-American music is religious.
White people also listen to these beautiful and moving songs, but they are more fashionable than those sung in rural black churches.
gospel music, as people know it today, more accurately reflects the emotional strength and sense of melody of early African-Americans, rather than the religious inheritance of Fisk Jubilee Singers' music in the first decade of the 2th century.
Other early musical forms, including work songs, nursery rhymes and dance music, which can be traced back to the slavery era, have become important musical heritages, especially considering that under the system at that time, musical activities were severely restricted.
the birth of Blues
After slavery was abolished and slaves were liberated, African-American music developed rapidly.
The abandoned instruments of the military band and the newly acquired freedom of migration form the basis of jazz: brass music, dance music and blues.
As a musical form, blues seems simple, but it can actually have almost endless changes. It has always been an important part of any kind of jazz, and it has successfully maintained its own independent existence.
It can be said that today's rock music would not be possible without Bruce.
Briefly explain the characteristics of the general blues: it is composed of music with eight or twelve bars as a segment, and the lyrics are tight. The reason for its melancholy (blue) feature is that the "mi" sound and "si" sound in the scale are lowered by a semitone.
Actually, blues is a secular music form corresponding to religious music.
In the late 198s, black brass bands, dance bands and concert bands appeared in most southern cities in the United States.
At the same time, black music in the northern United States tends to be European.
during this period, Ragtime began to take shape.
although ragtime mainly plays on the piano, some bands have begun to play it.
the golden age of ragtime was from 1898 to 198, but its time span was actually very large and its influence was endless.
in 2, it was discovered again. The new ragtime is characterized by charming melody and extensive use of syncopation, but its blues factor is almost gone.
ragtime is closely related to early jazz, but it is certain that the rhythm of ragtime is relatively stable.
Scott Joplin(1868-1917) is the most famous composer of Ragtime.
Other famous Ragtime masters include James Scott, Louis Chauvink EubieBlake (1883-1983), Joseph Lamb, etc. Although the latter is white, he fully absorbed the connotation of this music form.
New Orleans played a key role in its birth and development.
here, the early history of jazz is studied and recorded more deeply than in other places.
During the period from 1895 to 1917, jazz in New Orleans may be more and better than other places, but this does not mean that New Orleans is the only place that produced jazz.
The music produced in every southern American city with a considerable number of blacks should be regarded as a kind of early jazz.
W.C. Handy (1873-1958), a blues composer and collector, appeared in Memphis.
Other cities include Atlanta and Baltimore.
At that time, New Orleans stood out from the crowd because of its very open and free social atmosphere.
People of different faiths and races can communicate with each other, so there are rich musical traditions in this easy-to-communicate environment, including French, Spanish, Irish and African.
In this way, it is not surprising that New Orleans has become a fertile ground for jazz.
If the statement that New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz is exaggerated, but it is still true, it is totally nonsense to say that jazz was born in the red light district.
Although New Orleans did legalize prostitution and thus produced some of the most exquisite and tasteful "sports houses" in the United States, the music played in these places, if any, was only piano solos.
actually, people first heard jazz in a quite different place.
At that time, it was striking that there were many societies and fraternity organizations in New Orleans. Most of them sponsored or hired a band to play in different occasions, such as indoor or outdoor dances, picnics, store opening ceremonies, birthdays or anniversary parties.
Of course, playing jazz is also a feature of the funeral procession, which is still the case today.
According to tradition, the band * * * is playing solemn marches and sad hymns at the church gate, leading the funeral procession to the cemetery slowly.
On the way back, people stepped up, and the elegy was replaced by brisk marches and ragtime.
This parade always attracts many people to watch, which is of great significance in the development of jazz.
It was at this time that the trumpeters and clarinet players showed their creative talents, and the drummers also played rhythmic beats, which became the basis for making the beat swing.
Generally speaking, jazz is in two beats, two or four beats per bar.
This double-beat rhythm background always exists in the bass, which makes jazz have a stable and regular rhythm foundation.
above the rhythmic bass, there are melody, harmony and counterpoint parts with irregular stress positions, and their commonly used syncopation effect forms a strong contrast with the regular bass parts.
In these early bands, most of the musicians were craftsmen (carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, etc.) or workers who performed music on weekends or holidays and earned a little money.
The first famous musician in New Orleans was the first jazz musician Buddy Bolden(1877-1931), who was a barber.
He played cornet and formed a band in the late 189s.
He may be the first person to combine the root and rough blues with traditional band music, which is of great significance in the history of jazz development.
Bolden was admitted to a * * * performance in Mardi Gras for a psychotic episode, and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital for stubborn patients.
It is said that he has recorded records, but it has not been confirmed so far.
What we know about his music comes from the memories of other musicians who heard him perform when they were young.
Bunk Johnson(1889-1949) played the second cornet in Bolden's last band.
In the last ten years of his life, Bunk Johnson was one of the greatest contributors to people's renewed interest in classical jazz in New Orleans.
He is an outstanding storyteller with a colorful personality.
Most of the legendary stories in New Orleans are related to him, but what he tells himself is mostly exaggerated.
Many people, including some experienced jazz fans, believe that early jazz musicians were self-taught geniuses, thinking that they didn't know music and didn't have a day of music lessons.
this statement is romantic, but it is far from the truth.
Almost all the important figures in early jazz have a solid foundation in orthodox music at least, and some of them have deeper attainments.
Even so, their innovative spirit in the use of musical instruments is still unique.
The most obvious example is Joseph Oliver(1885-1938), a cornet player and band leader.
He used all kinds of things he could find, including drinking cups, buckets filled with sand, and plastic water plugs in bathtubs, to make his cornet play a variety of timbre changes.
Freddie Keppard(1889-1933) was Oliver's main competitor. Keppard didn't use mute equipment, which made him proud to be the best cornet player in New Orleans.
Koppard was also the first New Orleans native to bring jazz to other parts of the United States. In 1915, he performed a vaudeville in new york with the Original Creole Orchestra.
By about 1912, the instruments of typical jazz bands included cornet (or trumpet), trombone, clarinet, guitar, double bass and drums.
(Because it is inconvenient to carry, the piano is seldom used).
Jazz gives the impression that banjo and tuba stand out. In fact, it was several years before jazz bands began to use them, because early recording technology could not pick up the softer guitar and bass.
In the jazz band at that time, the cornet was the lead player, and the trombone echoed with it in a sliding way in the bass area, and the clarinet played a decorative role in both.
The clarinetist was the earliest improviser in jazz, and Sidney Bochet (1897-1959) was one of them.
He became a skilled musician before he was ten years old. Later, he turned to playing treble saxophone.
He was also the first jazz musician to become famous abroad.
he visited England and France in 1919 and Moscow in 1927.
most jazz musicians claim that their music has no other names except ragtime and syncopated sounds.
jazz was first used by the band of trombone player Tom Brown, a white man from New Orleans.
He used this word in Chicago in 1915. The origin of the word
is unknown, and its original meaning has always been controversial.
The first band that used the word "jazz" and made it popular was also a white band, and it also came from New Orleans, which was the "Original Dixieland Jazz Band".
This band achieved great success in 1917 and 1918. They were more or less the first jazz band to record records.
most of the members of this band have worked in the band of "Dad" Jack Laine(1873-1966).
Jack Laine is a drummer and is considered as the first white jazz musician.
In any case, the characteristics of music fusion in New Orleans are obvious.
Some African-Americans who are not too dark have "mixed" into white bands.
By 1917, many important jazz musicians left New Orleans for the north, including both blacks and whites.
The reason is not the closure of the notorious red light district in New Orleans, but simply economic reasons.
The European War made American industry flourish. Like millions of workers, these musicians flocked to the north, where they could find a better job.
When Oliver invited Armstrong to join his band in Chicago, Zhiruge became the new jazz center of the world.
Although new york is a place where the Original Dixieland Jazz Orchestra (ODJB) has achieved great success, and the atmosphere of dancing with music caused by them is popular for a while, it seems that the bands in new york only inherited the acrobatic style of ODJB, but did not learn its musical essence.
they just imitate (the first and most successful one is Ted Lewis).
At that time, there were very few southern musicians in new york, so they couldn't bring the pure style of New Orleans.
But things are different in Chicago, where there are a lot of musicians from New Orleans.
The prohibition of alcohol has just been abolished, and the nightlife in this city can be described as colorful.
The Creole Jazz Band by Joseph Oliver, the King, is much better than other bands here, especially after Louis Armstrong came to Chicago in 1922.
This band represents the last glory of the classical jazz ensemble style in New Orleans, and also heralds the beginning of a new style.
In addition to these two cornet players, other stars in the orchestra include the Dodds brothers, namely clarinetist Johnny Dodds (1892-194) and drummer Baby Dodds(1898-1959).
Baby Dodds raised the subtlety and intrinsic motivation of jazz drum rhythm to a new level. Together with another New Orleans-born drummer, Zutty Singleton (1897-1975), he brought the concept of "swing" to jazz drum performance.
But the "missionary" of swing music is undoubtedly Louis Armstrong.
The first jazz record
Creole Jazz Orchestra began to make records in 1923. Although it was not the first New Orleans black band to make records, it was the best.
Their records are widely distributed all over the country, and the influence of the band on other musicians is also great.
two years ago, the Sunshine Orchestra of trombone kid ory (1886-1973) became the first orchestra to make jazz records, but they did it in a humble California company.