Chapter 3- The Origins of Jazz Flashcards
What two styles were jazz originated from?
Brass Band and Ragtime Piano of the 1800s
Which 3 cities did jazz become fully formed and recorded in?
New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago
What were the three essential trends that led to the birth of jazz?
- The practice of taking liberties with the melodies and accompaniments of tunes as they were being performed
- Taking liberties with tone qualities ex)musicians cutivated rough and raspy sounds to add to their collection of smooth tone qualities
- African Americans creating new kinds of music such as ragtime and the blues
What were the two characteristics of ragtime?
- Provided some of the jazz repertory
2. Made syncopated rhythms popular
What were three characteristics of the blues?
- provided another portion of jazz repertory
- popularized the practice of toying with a melody tone’s pitch to produce a soulful effect
- popularized the practice of manipulating the starting times for sung notes and phrases.
What were the delays in blues called?
rhythmic displacement
When Africans were brought over as slaves to the New World, were they allowed to bring musical instruments?
No
Africans who were brought over as slaves were not grouped with their own families or members of the same language community, hence were they able to perpetuate their musical customs?
No
Were slaves able to occasionally allowed to recreate their own music? and if so, where was one location in particular that this was allowed?
Yes, and New Orleans
In what century did the allowance of letting slaves recreate their own music begin to decline?
the twentieth century
With the situation, African musical tastes and practices could have easily died out and been overpowered by European tastes and practices (as slaves had to adhere to their masters’ musics). Why did European music often sound different when played in the New world by musicians of African ancestry?
They would create new forms of music and creative alterations of European music, thus retaining their African traditions which were robust. Modifying European church hymns, folk songs, and dance music to suit their own tastes and traditions.
List 6 ways in which African tastes and traditions were retained in the New World despite their contrast with the musical tastes and traditions of the majority culture
- [Children’s Games] Some children’s games were highly rhythmic and physical. A few used the player’s own body as a drum. Some children’s activities involved highly syncopated songs, a few of them which required juggling complicated rhythmic patterns
- [Church Hymns] African American church music kept a few African musical traditions alive. slaves has spiced up European church hymns by altering rhythm, adding pitch bends and new tone qualities. They also made otherwise bland, non-swinging phrases more rhythmically emphatic in their execution.
- [Imaginative Flexibility of pitch] Imaginative flexibility of pitch is also common. It is obvious in work songs and ways devised by workers for communicating in the fields called field hollers.
- [Undiluted African Music] There were examples of undiluted African music performed in public. Some African music was made in social-clubs that existed year round, particularly in New Orleans. They managed to keep African music and dance traditions alive since at least as early as the 1800s. These organizations; existence was made conspicuous during Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, though Mardi Gras is not their reason for being. They often comprised uninvited paraders appearing on side streets and after the officially sanctioned paraders has passed. Though dressed as Native American Indians, these paraders were African Americans, and their music was essentially African. Thy were informally known as Mardi Gas Indians.
- [The Blues] The popularity of blues singing since the end of the 1800s made African musical practices continuously accessible.
- [Fusion of African and Spanish music] Much of the music that was coming from Latin America and the Caribbean during the 1800s and the first part of the 1900s originated by fusing African and Spanish music. The popularity of this “Latin” music in the United States made African characteristics continuously available to Americans.
What are pitch bends?
purposeful raising or lowering of a tone’s pitch; usually done for coloration or expressive purposes
Which setting was jazz born?
New Orleans
Which country came to colonize in New Orleans first in 1718?
France
How many black slaves were brought in 1719?
147
In 1722, were there free blacks?
Yes
In 1763, France gave the territory of Louisiana to whom?
Spain
Under Spanish rule, whose language and customs were still most prominent?
France
In 1801, Spain gave Louisiana to whom? But what was the exception?
France, but Spain still continued to rule the territory until the United States bought it in 1803.
Which period can significant social patterns be traced back to?
The period of the Spanish Rule
During the period of Spanish Rule, list what occurred to develop these significant social patterns
- Marriage between different ethnic groups occurred frequently in Louisiana
- The Spanish freed many slaves, increasing the number of free blacks (1,147 by 1789)
- Free people of color began to be regarded as a class that was separate from the whites and the slaves. They had a class that was closer to that of whites.
- Light skinned women often became mistresses of white men and were set up as second families to the men in separate houses.
- The children of these mistresses were called Creoles of Color. Ancestry both part African and French.
What are white Creoles?
They were individuals who had backgrounds of Spanish and French
Who were referred to as Negros?
Only those who were blacks who had little or no white ancestry.
By 1810, how many free people of colour were there?
5000
With population changes in New Orleans, people of African or part-African ancestry became the largest ethnic group, and the small white (non-Creole) population were filled with fear. What did this minority group do to uphold themselves?
They captured business and government power. Then with this power, they made laws that took away status from the Creoles of Colour and eventually place them in the same position as Negroes.
Was there a sharp separation between the two groups of New Orleans residents who had African ancestry?
Yes
For Negroes, where did they live and what were their primary occupations?
They lived in a racially mixed neighbourhood, a large portion which was uptown. They worked primarily as house servants and unskilled labourers.
Where did the Creoles of Colour and White Creoles live? And what occupations did they hold?
Downtown in the area of New Orleans known today as the French Quarter. They were mostly well-educated, successful people- businessmen, doctors, landowners, and skilled craftsman
What language did the Creoles of Colour and White Creoles speak, and did they own slaves?
They spoke French, and yes, many owned slaves and required their slaves to know French
Describe the musical training and interest of people who were Creoles of Color
Children often received high quality musical training, even going to Paris for study at a conservatory. They maintained a resident symphony orchestra and supported an opera house. This reinforced the intensely musical orientation of New Orleans. In comparison with residents of other regions, they took the pleasures of music and dancing more seriously.
How many opera houses did New Orleans have?
Three, which is more than any other American city of comparable size
Creoles of Colour and White Creoles wholeheartedly favoured which music?
European. European concert traditions were maintained by the Creole music.
For the Negroes, what were their musical trainings and practices?
They retained aspects of African musical practices. Many musicians received formal training, but their music was less refined than the Creoles’. It may have included improvisation. And the vocal music contained new blends of European and African vocal traditions.
What are the two reasons in which the social history pertains to jazz?
- helps us to appreciate how exceptionally musical New Orleans was
- Gets us thinking about how people of African and European-African descent combined their own traditional tastes to create a new form of music in their new American homes.
Does the term “blues” refer to several different kinds of music or just one?
several
What was the first kind of blues?
Black folk music that develop long before outside observers noticed and took it seriously enough to describe it.
Do we know what black folk music sounds like? why?
Since it was long before the invention of the recording machine, we don’t know how all its roots and developmental stages sounded.
Did black folk music come from Africa? And if not, where was it developed?
No, it was developed in America by African slaves and their descendants.
What are the three vocal idioms in which researchers believe that blues originated from?
- Field hollers, which slaves devised from highly varied pitches and rhythms for the purpose of communicating among themselves while working in the fields.
- Ballads, which come partly from European traditions for songs that tell stories
- Music devised for dances, such as the ring shout
Performing the blues involves some of the same techniques that are used by singers and musicians who played stringed instruments in which two northern countries of West Africa?
Senegal and Gambia
