When interviewed, many famous “popular” musicians like Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown say they were influenced by the jazz records their parents used to play in their homes. That’s true for many people, both famous and otherwise, who love music. The exact origin of jazz music is difficult to pinpoint. What is sure is that it came about as a result of a mixing of musical cultures. When Africans were brought to America as slaves, they influenced American culture with their own.
In New Orleans in the mid-1800’s, African-Americans started to experiment with European musical instruments. Some of the first songs they experimented with were hymns from church. By the end of the 19th century, the piano was introduced as an instrument for producing jazz music. Unlike the saxophone or the trumpet that only play single notes, the piano plays chords. This added a new dimension to the jazz combo.
Slave emancipation coincided with the emergence of ragtime, a type of music that threw the conventional system of metrical beats into disarray. Instead, its rhythms were syncopated, which means they didn’t conform to a conservative beat succession system. Ragtime encouraged the listener to get up and move to the music.
Piano music came to the forefront in ragtime, giving way to stride piano where the right hand plays the melody along with supporting chords and runs and fills while the left plays bass notes and chords and rhythm. Stride featured more improvisation and swing notes than ragtime. Scott Joplin, known at the time as the King of Ragtime, talked learning to pick up the “swing” of the music as you play. Swing was the next form of jazz than evolved from ragtime.
The early twentieth century saw the growth of jazz music in New Orleans, as more and more jazz combos played in the city’s clubs and bars. The first few jazz bands began recording their music at this time. By then, the piano had become an integral part of the jazz combo.
The Prohibition Era of the 1920’s didn’t slow the jazz bands down. In fact, it was during this era that the greats like Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington and Earl Hines emerged. Hines was probably the most influential pianist of the time, playing in the “Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five” band while cultivating a solo career.
Swing hit big in the 1930’s. It was bigger than ragtime, and songs often carried on for several minutes as each band member got a chance to play a solo. A party wasn’t a party without a big swing band belting out song after vibrant song, and soon swing was all over the radio in the United States.
Swing faded during the conflict of World War Two. Many band members were off fighting in the conflict. Bebop developed from swing during this time. Pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk rose as two of the great jazz pianists of the era. In the 1940’s and 50’s, cool jazz became popular, with pianist Bill Evans claiming a place in music history as one of the most inventive and creative jazz pianists of century.
The 1960s were all about free love, stringy hair and the beginning of Latin jazz and jazz fusion. Many Cuban and Brazilian musicians put their cultural stamp on American jazz and gave birth to a new genre. Jazz fusion came about with the electrification of jazz through the use of synthesizers, keyboards and electric guitars. They blended with brass instruments and the piano for a totally new sound.
Today, jazz is still one of the most influential music forms in the world. Jazz music has asserted itself as a contemporary force in the music world, and the success of current jazz artists is a testament to that.
Posts Tagged ‘jazz’
The Birth of Jazz: When & Where & How Was It Born, And Who Were Its’ Parents?
Thursday, November 6th, 2008Andre Previn, Triple Threat: Composer, Jazz Pianist, Symphony Conductor
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Andre Previn is a German-born pianist, conductor, and composer. From arranging and composing Hollywood film scores to his multiple marriages which sparked many musical inspirations, Andre Previn’s life was never dull.
I can still remember the excitment of hearing him for the first time on the radio, then rushing into Fowler’s Music Store in Auburn (my home town) to buy his new album “My Fair Lady” in which he took those great tunes and played them in his unique classical-jazz style (with help from drummer Shelly Mann and basist LeRoy Vinegar), then playing it over and over again and trying to imitate his style on songs such as “On The Street Where You Live”, “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”, “Get Me To The Church On Time” and others. I was terrible (or worse) but as I look back it certainly helped in my development.
Andre Previn is a German-born pianist, conductor, and composer. Born April 6, 1929, in Berlin, Previn was born to a Jewish family. In 1939, the Previn family immigrated to the United States; however, Previn did not become a citizen of the United States until 1943. At his high school graduation from Beverly Hills High School in 1946, he played a duo with Richard M. Sherman, who played the flute.
From 1950’s until recently, Previn has recorded and toured as a jazz pianist. He has worked with Shelly Manne, Benny Carter, Dinah Shore, and Julie Andrews over the course of his career. Previn frequently appeared on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show in the 1960’s. In 1966, Julie Andrews and Andre Previn collaborated on a Christmas carol album.
About 21 years after his high school graduation, the Houston Symphony Orchestra was in the market for a new music director. Previn soon filled that need. However, the London Symphony Orchestra wanted him, too. In 1968, Andre Previn became the tenured principal conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra, and he served there for 11 years. During his time with the London Symphony orchestra, he appeared on a television program called “Andre Previn’s Music Night.”
Although he was tenured with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra needed a music director. Previn decided to take on that role as well from 1976 though 1984. Working with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, another television program was born, “Previn and the Pittsburgh.” During this time, he worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as their principal conductor. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra named Andre Previn as their music director, but he resigned from that strenuous role in April 1989.
Previn’s first opera performance was A Streetcar Named Desire, which premiered in 1998 at the San Francisco Opera. Following the opera, Previn focused on vocal, chamber, and orchestral music with the occasional recordings of jazz.
Previn adapted and conducted many arrangements in the Hollywood spectrum. He did stage-to-screen adaptations for My Fair Lady, Kismet, Porgy and Bess, and Paint Your Wagon. From 1949 through 1970, Previn assisted with music in the following films: The Music Lovers, Inside Daisy Clover, Two for the Seesaw, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Bells are Ringing, Elmer Gantry, Silk Stockings, It’s Always Fair Weather, Bad Day at the Black Rock, Kiss Me Kate, Three Little Words, and The Secret Garden. Gigi, the 1958 Academy Award winning film, also featured many special works from Previn.
Previn, like many other amazing, multitalented artists, has received many acknowledgements and awards. Among his personal awards, he has received 13 Academy nominations and four Oscar victories. He also holds seven Grammy Awards. Andre Previn became an honorary Knight of the Order of British Empire in 1996; however, due to lack of citizenship in the Commonwealth, the title of “sir” cannot appear before his name. He instead puts the letters KBE with his name to indicate the honor.
In 1998, Previn received the Kennedy Center Honors for his classical music and opera contributions. 2005 marked the year that Previn received the International Glenn Gloud Prize for his achievements. On May 13, 2008, Previn received the London Symphony Orchestra’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Andre Previn is still touring. In April 2008, he performed in Rome at Italy’s Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia. On June 22, Previn performed with the London Symphony Orchestra and Anne Sophie Mutter in London at the Barbican Hall. August appearances include performances at the Koussevitsky Music Shed in Lenox, MA. Massachusetts’s Symphony Hall will host Andre Previn on October 2 through October 4 and October 7. November will be the month that Previn is in Seattle at the Benaroya Hall. On December 21, Previn will return to London’s Barbican Hall for his last performance of the year. Even at the age of 79, Andre Previn KBE is still as active in the music genre as ever.
Great Jazz Pianists and Their Contributions to Jazz History
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Some of the greatest piano players in history became known for
their proficiency in jazz. Technicality and a heavy reliance upon
the ability of the musician to improvise makes jazz piano one of
the hardest styles to learn. That does NOT mean, however, that it can’t be learned, but to get to the highest rungs a pianist must have lots of talent, a great ear, and the ability to improvise.
The birth of jazz music in the early 1900s was a significant
period in musical history. Many of those who are considered among
the greatest jazz pianists of all times were pioneers of the
genre during this period. Jazz evolved from musical styles that
African slaves brought to America.
Therefore, its inception can largely be attributed to the early
African-American community. African-American pianists, such as
Scott Joplin and Ernest Hogan, are considered to be among the
fathers of ragtime music. Although the ragtime era only lasted a
few years, it was a precursor to, and contemporary of, the jazz
era.
Many of the earliest and greatest jazz pianists were African
American. For this reason, jazz music had something of a stigma
to overcome. While many embraced jazz as a new and exciting
genre, others couldn’t. The emancipation of African slaves was
still a fresh memory, and many people still carried strong
attitudes of racism. Anything that was perceived as “negro” (such
as jazz music) was inferior at best and “of the devil” at worst.
Jazz’s public image changed slowly over the first two or three
decades of the 20th century. Great African-American jazz pianists
of the early to mid 1900s were instrumental in helping transform
the perception of jazz. African-American artists like Erroll
Garner, Theoloius Monk, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Oscar
Peterson brought a level of class to the genre that was
undeniable. In fact, the Count Basie orchestra was pivotal to the
jazz culture of New York for half a century.
Noteworthy musicians in and of themselves, they also provided
back-up for critically acclaimed singers like Billie Holliday and
Big Joe Turner. Count Basie’s association with Ella Fitzgerald is
both historically and musically significant. The 1963 album the
two made together is remembered by critics as possibly the
greatest recording of her career. Count Basie also made
recordings with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett.
These match-ups lent even more credibility to jazz as a distinct
genre.
The evolution of jazz saw many changes over the ensuing decades.
More branches and sub-genres developed. In fact, jazz music fell
out of favor with the public for several years in the 1980s.
There was controversy within the musical community over the
fusing of so many different types of music with jazz. Some
purists viewed it as “watering down” the art form. Other
musicians and fans see jazz music as a culmination of many types
of music and view blending it with rock as simply another
variation generally known as “fusion”.
Contemporary jazz artists have brought jazz back around into
public favor in the 21st century. Today’s great jazz pianists,
like Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. and Norah Jones bear living
proof of this by number of albums sold. While some write off
their work as “pop” jazz, many believe they are instrumental in
keeping jazz alive in the new millennium.
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