Week 8 - WWII - 50's

Question 1

Charlie Parker

Answer 1

‘Bird’
Alto saxophone is considered one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.
- born in Kansas City is father abandoned his family he played in the bands of the 30s with Buster Smith Jay McShann and Billy Eckstein
- arrived in New York City in 1942 and took part in jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse
- started playing at the three deuces on 52nd St. with Dizzy Gillespie. Celebrated virtuoso by 1945
- with much success his heroin addiction and drinking were too much Parker died at age 34 in 1955

Question 2

Minton’s Playhouse

Answer 2

Jazz venue on W. 118th St.

Question 3

John Gillespie

Answer 3

Diz or dizzy

• premier jazz trumpeter cocreator with Charlie Parker of the bebop style in the 1940s.
• Born in South Carolina one music scholarships early on and learn several instruments can I play with cab Calloway Billy Eckstein and others
• known for bebop, collaborations with mambo king Machito, and his inflated cheeks technique

Question 4

Thelonious Monk

Answer 4

Premier pianist and composer and originator of bebop

• Born in North Carolina and he was for his family moved to New York City where he would remain for the rest of his life
• pioneered be bop styles with dizzy and bird at Mantons Playhouse signed with blue note records in 1940
• in the early 1950s monks cabaret license was unfairly revoked when a friend was arrested for possession of narcotics. Staying at home, monk created many great compositions in relative seclusion
• reemerged in little late 50s and gave many concerts including some at Carnegie Hall

Question 5

John Cage

Answer 5

• Born in 1912 in LA it was a student of Schoenberg
• inventor of the prepared piano.
• embraced Zen Buddhism and begin to focus on areas of silence
• fascinating percussion pieces such as the first construction featuring what are gongs thunder sheets and other metallic percussions
• he was intrigued by the idea of chance
• in the 30s wrote imaginary landscapes performed entirely on turntables

Question 6

Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky

Answer 6

• Prolific composers at Columbia University who pioneered electroacoustic music composition is in the US in the early 1950s
• gave first concert of electroacoustic music in 1952 at the Museum of modern Art in New York City

Question 7

Conlon Nancarrow

Answer 7

Innovative composer a complex and lightning tempo music for the player piano

Question 8

Bebop

Answer 8

Pioneered by Dizzy Gillespie Charlie Parker and Thelonious monk and Bud Powell, once they met up at Minton’s Playhouse.

• nicknamed bebop for the sound at the end
• many of the bebop songs might be regarded as the deconstructions of older swing tunes
• famous monk quote after following concert he was unhappy with he said that he had “made all the wrong mistakes.”
• New sound on the drums invented by Max roach and Kenny Clarke sustained ride cymbal and loud syncopated accents on bass drums described as dropping bombs
• Miles Davis ended up replacing Dizzy Gillespie and birds group

Question 9

Composers of the 40s and 50s

Answer 9

On the heels of the patriotic Americana style defined by Roy Harrison Erin Copeland were several developments which “thickened the plot”

• serialism
• electronics
• new technology

Question 10

Technology and electronics

Answer 10

In the early 50s to composers at Columbia University Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky created first electro-acoustic playing with tape recordings and speed to create sounds of flutes, pianos and voices.
- they gave a huge landmark concert in 1952 at the MOMA

• Conlon Nancarrow - player piano so fast no human could play it