notes

Question 1

swing era

Answer 1

• big band era
• preferred saxes to clarinets
• upright string bass preferred to tuba
• no collective improvisation
• greater instrumental virtuosity (speed, tone, intonation

Question 2

Edward Kennedy “duke” ellington

Answer 2

• composer, pianist, bandleader, arranger
• composed in different forms (popular songs, jazz standards, longer forms, jazz suites)
• orchestrated classical suites (nutcracker)
• complete musical scores for shows
• thought of himself “beyond category”

Question 3

ellington musicians

Answer 3

johnny hodges on alto sax
cootie williams on trumpet
jimmy blanton on bass

Question 4

William Thomas “Billy” strayhorn

Answer 4

• pianist
• complex relationship with ellington
• ASCAP members couldn’t broadcast songs over radio that’s why Ellington didn’t but Billy could because he wasn’t a member

Question 5

Johnny Hodges

Answer 5

-legendary sax player with ellington for years
-beautiful sound, wide vibrato and characteristic sliding from one note to another
-soulful blues and ballads
-ellington wrote music specifically with hodges in mind
“gets an idea thinks up countermelody ends up with new song”

Question 6

count basie

Answer 6

• pianist
• took over Benny Morena Kansas city orchestra
• played with tenor saxophonist Lester Young
• sparse tasteful light rhythmic
• first to switch chording to comping
• roulette years late 50s/early 60s

Question 7

Count Basie Rhythm section

Answer 7

responsible for bands unique well honed sound

• freddie greene (guitar) rock solid chording, stayed with basie for 50 years
• Jo jones drums
• Walter Paige bass

Question 8

Lester Young Prez

Answer 8

tenor sax
-nicknamed prez by billie holliday
-rose to prominence in basies band
-smooth effortless sound (cool jazz, west coast jazz)
-pork pie hat hipster language
“Goodbye Pork Pie hat” is Charles Mingus famous elegy written shortly after lester youngs death

Question 9

Mary Lou Williams

Answer 9

pianist composer arranger
1/11 children, wrote hundreds of compositions/arrangements
-joined elllingtons band at 15
-trained playing with Andy Kirks Clouds of joy
-could play any style
played with cecil taylor
-taught at duke

Question 10

Billie Holliday (elanora fagan)

Answer 10

one of greatest jazz singers of all time

• grew up in bmore
• looked up to armstrong and smith
• harlem nightclubs
• lester called her lady day
• revolutionary improvisation
• battled drugs alcohol and abuse
• statue of her in bmore

Question 11

Bebop

Answer 11

• modern jazz
• small groups
• fast tempos
• chord changes
• time moves over to ride cymbal (kenny clarke)
• less commercial appeal

Question 12

bebop luminaries

Answer 12

charlie parker alto sax
dizzy gillespie trumpet
bud powell piano
thelonious monk piano
max roach drums

Question 13

Charlie parker yard bird

Answer 13

alto sax and composer

• most important of bebop era
• melodic and harmonic imagination
• double time triple time
• improvised melodies over fast chord changes
• wrote popular times still famous
• battled heroin and alcohol addiction

Question 14

dizzy gillespie

Answer 14

trumpeter composer band leader
most important bebop trumpeter
-great agility in high register
-joined charlie parker
-made big band fusing afro cuban music with jazz
45 degrees upward trumpet became trademark
-“Anight in tunisia

Question 15

Bud Powell

Answer 15

pianist
-development of bebop 
-met thelonist monk young who introduced him to charlie parker and other prominent players 
-used to fast tempos
referred to as the bird
-in and out of mental institutions

Question 16

thelonius monk

Answer 16

pianist composer

• one of greatest composers
• improvisations feature dissonance and angular rhythmic and melodic twists
• still studied
• percussive approach to piano, extensive use of silences
• eccentric danced
• quartet with john coltrane
• straight no chaser
• good at checkers/chess