Jazz History

One of the challenges faced in post-secondary jazz education across the GTA is finding qualified instructors who are familiar with dialogical methods for teaching African American jazz histories. More specifically, finding and hiring African American instructors whose musical genealogy can be delineated from “black” oral/aural histories and can draw from these historicities. Unless the narratives of this music are unpacked, analyzed and taught from its internal elements, which embodies the symbiosis and synthesis of African American dance, theatrics, poetics and American black English that encapsulates the “African American-ness” in jazz, then there remains a risk that this folk music will become more and more diluted. Consequently, it is my belief that current music educators across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) should consider alternative methods of pedagogy if students are to understand the historicity— the historical authenticity of this African American folk music. The idea for this study originated from my observation of a lack of “African American-ness”—African American narratives not being used as a pedagogical tool in post-secondary jazz curricula across the GTA. Therefore, this multi-case study will lead to the creation of an alternative curriculum that incorporates new teaching methods based on African American narratives. Dr. Barry Harris is one such educator who incorporates new teaching methods based on African American narratives. Therefore, I seek to unpack and analyze the musical and social upbringing that contributed to African American jazz pianist and educator Dr. Barry Harris’  primary contribution to jazz education, which is his concept of movement, while also expanding upon it.  When these antecedents of Harris’  concept of movement have been analyzed, they will use them as a compliance for the cultivation and filling in of gaps in post-secondary jazz curricula across the GTA.

This article examines the music and the poetics of Jelly Roll Morton, the Creole pianist-composer-bandleader, in the light of the complex relationships between white, creoles, and blacks in the early twentieth century America. Morton’s relationship with Afro-American culture was ambivalent: on the one hand he underlined his separation from it and emphasized, as a distinct  of his New Orleans Creole identity, how much he owed to the European musical tradition; on the other hand he was totally at home in the world of professional Afro-American jazz, becoming a reference point in that tradition. His specific background allowed him to master two distinct musical vocabularies: one based on respect for the written score and the composer’s choices, the other on the improvisation techniques he learned in Afro-American communities.
The cultural identity and musical background of Morton’s fellow musicians became relevant to his activity as a bandleader, especially with regard to the relationship between written and improvised elements in small ensemble work; but in scholarship on Morton there are few analyses that depart from specific cases to consider how these aspects influenced the preparation of a performance. This article reconstructs the various phases that led to the preparation of Oh, Didn’t He Ramble, recorded by Morton in 1939 with a group of nine musicians from different backgrounds. The manuscript parts, which Morton carefully prepared for the recording session, are now preserved in the Historic New Orleans Collection. They provide a very rare document in this field of study and make it possible to compare the music as notated and as actually performed during the recording session. In order to prepare the parts, Morton had to know the musical and cultural background o f each member of his ensemble ; in order to calibrate each performer’s individual contribution, he used a different type of notation for each part, matching each musician’s peculiarities.

Annuario del Premio DAMS 2002, a cura di Paolo Granata, Milano, Lupetti, 2003
Originaly published in «Il Saggiatore musicale», X, 2003/2, pp. 287-315

La chiarezza della scrittura si accorda, è il caso di dirlo, con la limpidezza di una storia semplice e insieme d'eccezione. Non a tutti infatti capita di cominciare a suonare la tromba nella banda di un paesino sardo e trovarsi dopo alcuni anni ad essere considerato tra i più importanti e celebrati jazzisti contemporanei della scena internazionale. Non vorrei però dare l'impressione che con il racconto autobiografico Paolo Fresu abbia inteso rinnovare a modo suo il genere delle biografie di uomini illustri e di successo, così in voga già nella tradizione del self-help ottocentesco, e ancora ben salda nella cultura contemporanea. Si capisce, spesso le biografie delle star o dei vip attraggono anche per questo, e piace a chi legge scoprire i presunti segreti dell'ascesa dell'uomo qualunque ai gradini della fama e della notorietà, con il relativo contorno di duro lavoro, fatiche, e occasioni che si sono astutamente sapute sfruttare. Non so, mi viene in mente Madonna; o anche Briatore. Il mito di volere è potere e dell'uomo che si fa da sé perdura e si trasforma. E invece no. La memoria di Fresu, scritta quasi tutta al semplice imperfetto, sembra nascere innanzitutto dalla necessità di esprimere una gratitudine: quella di un «miracolato» scampato al gioco ambiguo della sorte di un incidente mortale, che appunto così ringrazia della vita che ha vissuto. Autore consapevole del piacere della scrittura, che per diletto ha praticato spesso in italiano e soprattutto in sardo, a Fresu la scrittura piace anche «perché sa di suono». Così egli la rende partecipe del linguaggio con cui ha scelto di esprimersi meglio, quello della musica jazz appunto, per raccontare «una storia normale che altrimenti, dopo quella mattina d'autunno, sarebbe rimasta solo nelle note della mia tromba». Attraverso la musica delle sue parole scopriamo con lui non solo le vicende di una carriera, ma soprattutto il mondo e la cultura che lo hanno nutrito e circondato. L'incrocio di destini nella nativa Berchidda, le campagne e le trebbiatrici, le vigne, i tronchi dei sugheri, le processioni, le scuole, i maestri del conservatorio di Cagliari. Che non rimangono folklore oleografico e nostalgico, ma linfa che darà vita alla modernità delle sperimentazioni del suo jazz. La novità della sua matura concezione di suono e silenzio viene infatti da «una visione che prendevo direttamente dalla terra, dalla realtà del paese e della campagna». E scopriamo pure come nella vita dell'arte un incontro mancato, anzi l'Incontro mancato, quello naturalmente con il mito di Miles Davis, anziché un insuccesso possa diventare quasi per paradosso il rapporto più intenso e decisivo per la scoperta di sé, della propria via musicale e del proprio stile. Intanto l'orizzonte si allarga, e diventa Siena, con Rava, e l'Italia importante della cultura, dalla Vanoni a Fo alla poetessa Patrizia Vicinelli, da cui nasceranno straordinarie collaborazioni fra canto, gesto, suono e parole. E i viaggi e l'Europa, e la Cina e l'Africa. La musica diventa il linguaggio intorno al quale organizzare idee, e scopriamo Fresu promotore di manifestazioni e associazioni, come la sua «Time in Jazz», «una sfida umana e creativa e senza fine, spesso estenuante, ma che ogni volta gratifica, emoziona e riempie di gioia». Agli appassionati di Jazz, e soprattutto ai lettori che viceversa non ne sanno nulla, agli appassionati dell'arte e dei suoi linguaggi, e a tutti i curiosi, io direi di leggerlo.

Gillespie y Pozo fusionaron el Jazz y la música cubana. Mario Bauza, Machito y Graciela crearon el Cubop o Latin Jazz, el antecedente directo de la SALSA. Historia del Jazz. Parte XLIX
https://salsaconcausa.blogspot.com/2019/05/gillespie-y-pozo-fusionaron-el-jazz-y.html

Technology has been influencing the way music is produced, distributed and consumed since the printing revolution in Europe. YouTube technology is the most influential influence on the music world in our day, changing almost every aspect of how music is presented and perceived. The article discusses some of the most obvious aspects of the YouTube revolution, and some of the less obvious ones, aiming to help in creating a basis for further discussion and research.

Maksim Górki (1868 – 1936), cujo nome verdadeiro era Aleksei Maksímovitch Peshkov, foi um escritor russo naturalista, comunista e precursor do realismo soviético. A obra de Górki deu origem ao que se chama de literatura proletária, e ele tomou parte ativa na remodelagem da cultura na União Soviética, inclusive por meio da crítica literária e do jornalismo opinativo, como é o caso do presente artigo, publicado no jornal Pravda, nº 90, de 18 de abril 1928. Nele, Górki destila veneno contra o jazz e fenômenos morais que relaciona com ele e considera característicos da decadência da sociedade capitalista, contrapondo-os à exaltação do trabalho e dos avanços científicos e culturais do homem, em especial do homem proletário. O artigo não reflete apenas a opinião isolada de Górki, mas um posicionamento que se solidificou nos órgãos oficiais soviéticos com relação ao jazz, e serve como material de pesquisa para compreender a ideologia cultural da época stalinista.

Jimmie Blanton (1918-1942), best known for his tenure with Duke Ellington between 1939 and 1941, is by many considered to be one of the most influential bassists in jazz history. He has been widely studied, resulting in a paradigmatic depiction of his life and music. But a closer look reveals that all studies on Blanton focus on a single year, from November 1939 and November 1940, of his six-year career as a performer. Thus, a paradox is born. While many believe to profoundly understand Blanton’s music through the writings that abound, many of its aspects remain ‘hidden’, and only a partial and unnuanced narrative of this musician surfaces. Using 1941, Blanton’s final year with Ellington, as a case study, I will unravel the reasons, several of which are extra-musical, behind this period’s omission and detail its far-reaching consequences, which continue to pervade literature on the bassist to this day.

This is an unpublished essay that I circulated privately in September 2005, several weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the City of New Orleans.  Having lived in the Big Easy while in college and having made it and its culture and its people an important part of my life, I was aghast at calls by people unfamiliar with the city to allow for its demise.  This was before it became known to the country that the reason that the city was devastated was the failure of its levees to hold and protect the city and not because of many other factors.

“Ellingtonian” Jimmie Blanton (1918-1942) is no doubt one of the most influential bassists in jazz history. His legacy lives on to this very day, with for example John Clayton being inspired by Ray Brown, who in turn was directly influenced by Blanton. But despite this far-reaching influence most bass methods, history books, and teachers only focus on part of his rich legacy: his solo innovations. Creative and educational as these solos may be, this focus leaves his equally imaginative accompaniments (walking bass, two-beat, ballad style, etc.) virtually unexplored. In this lecture I will introduce some “lost lessons” that can be learned from Blanton, even for today’s bassists. In the first part I will highlight several innovations of his comping style, some of which even foreshadowed Scott LaFaro’s revolutionary style of twenty years later. In the second part I will focus on some “non-musical” aspects, such as his right hand posture, and its influence on sound projection and timbre. As such I will reveal some “new” sides of a bassist you thought you knew, and demonstrate today’s practical relevancy of Blanton’s enduring legacy. As a bonus, this session is filled with unique photos and never-before-heard tracks of Blanton and his contemporaries.
!!! EXTRA: This presentation will include the ONLY KNOWN FILM FOOTAGE of Jimmie Blanton performing, shown in public for the very first time. Special thanks to Mark Cantor for his permission to show this clip !!!

This book presents a provocatively new interpretation of one of New Orleans' most enigmatic traditions, the Mardi Gras Indians. By interpreting the tradition in an Atlantic context, Dewulf traces the " black Indians " back to the ancient Kingdom of Kongo and its war dance known as sangamento. He shows that good warriors in the Kongo kingdom were per definition also good dancers, masters of a technique of dodging, spinning and leaping that was crucial in local warfare. Enslaved Kongolese brought the rhythm, dancing moves and feathered headwear of sangamentos to the Americas in performances that came to be known as " Kongo dances. " By comparing Kongo dances on the African island of São Tomé with those in Latin America, the Caribbean and Louisiana, Dewulf demonstrates that the dances on New Orleans' Congo Square were part of a much broader Kongolese performance tradition. He links that to Afro-Catholic mutual-aid societies that honored their elected community leaders or " kings " with Kongo dances. While the public rituals of these brotherhoods originally thrived in the context of Catholic procession culture around Epiphany and Corpus Christi, they transitioned to carnival as a result of growing orthodoxy within the Church. Dewulf's groundbreaking research suggests a much greater impact of Kongolese traditions and of popular Catholicism on the development of African-American cultural heritage and identity. His conclusions force us to radically rethink the traditional narrative on the Mardi Gras Indians, the kings of Zulu and the origins of black participation in Mardi Gras celebrations.

http://www.ulpress.org/item_224/From-the-Kingdom-of-Kongo-to-Congo-Square.php

O presente artigo ressalta aspectos históricos e sociais da presença do jazzna música brasileira a partir da análise de alguns elementos formais e intrínsecos aomaterial musical encontrado no acervo do grupo
Tupynambá Jazz-band,
que atuou nacidade de Ponta Grossa, Paraná, no início da década de 1930. Pretende-se, assim, observar alguns fatores que fixaram a formação
Jazz-band
, como também, relacionar os estilosmusicais do período com atenção especial para a presença do
Fox-trot
como manifestaçãoartística criadora de uma rede de relações e trocas que tiveram reflexos no Paraná e naformação da cultura local

Intervista comparsa su Alias de Il Manifesto il 23 02 2013 con il grande storico inglese sul jazz del ventesimo secolo.

Interview with the great historian about jazz of the 20th century. Published by Alias de Il Manifesto il 02 - 23 - 2013

Hablar o escribir de jazz siempre es polémico ya que la música ha formado parte importante en la historia de la humanidad. Desde su comienzo hasta nuestros días ha ido evolucionando, creando nuevos géneros y estilos como el Jazz, Blues o el Rock. El jazz, el género que abordare en este trabajo, es un tipo de expresión urbana que empezó a afianzarse en los cafés de los negros de Nueva Orleáns a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. El jazz fue para Estados Unidos una de sus mejores tarjetas de identidad y todos los historiadores musicales coinciden en señalarlo como su contribución más importante al mundo de la cultura.

Mixing facts and fiction, Hollywood screen biographies have told the lives of popular music icons at least since The Jazz Singer (1927). However, biopics construct narratives that deal problematically with issues of race. This article aims to describe how representations of African American musicians have changed from 1970s ‘black jazz biopics’ (Gabbard 1996) to more recent films on rock, hip hop and rhythm ’n’ blues acts. On one hand, I analyse the way 1970s music biopics constructed a peculiar new narrative about race and popularity. On the other hand, I show the extent to which films such as Tina (1993), Ray (2004) and Notorious (2009) have subtly modified the racialized distinctions of former biopics, placing black musicians within a cinematic mythology which historically had been reserved to white subjects. The shift from jazz to other music genres, thus, is related to significant changes in biopics’ narratives and visual strategies. However, I argue that music biopics still deal with a distinctive notion of ‘the popular’ (Williams 1983), which frames blackness as otherness and whiteness (Dyer 1997) as just ‘human nature’.

(first publication by Jazz Research Journal and Equinox)

Stefano Zenni
Conservatorio di Bologna e New York University

Conferenza con ascolti musicali
Lunedì 12 marzo, ore 14:30 Auditorium (U12), via Vizzola 5

Abstract
Il jazz è una musica nata ed evolutasi per effetto dalle migrazioni: di individui (schiavi e liberi), strumenti, stili, idee, libri, supporti tecnologici. Musica geografica, di comunità e culture che si spostano da un continente all'altro o da un quartiere all'altro di una città. La geografia e lo studio delle diaspore ci consentono di comprendere più a fondo le origini molteplici del jazz e le dinamiche che ne hanno consentito una diffusione globale. Con l'ausilio di mappe, cartine e numerosi ascolti, Stefano Zenni ci introduce ad una nuova visione globale del jazz.

Discussant:
Fulvio Carmagnola, Università di Milano Bicocca
Paolo Manasse, Università di Bologna

La conferenza inaugura il progetto CISEPS “La diffusione dei tratti culturali”, che mira a innescare dibattiti interdisciplinari mettendo in evidenza problemi comuni e specificità tra economia, filosofia, antropologia, geografia, storia, biologia e molti altri campi. Pensare in termini di tratti culturali -­‐ caratteristiche che dipendono in qualche misura dall’apprendimento sociale -­‐ non significa voler esaurire i processi culturali, bensì pensare in modo critico modelli e metafore scientifiche per studiare la cultura.
Per saperne di più: cultural.traits@gmail.com

CISEPS
http://dipeco.economia.unimib.it/ciseps/
ciseps@unimib.it

This article explores how iconography can be a useful analytical tool, and in the process help to demystify the lives and music of so-called jazz icons. I will start by illustrating how a narrative around jazz bassist and Ellingtonian Jimmie Blanton (1918-1942) grew that posits him as an artistic hero in the pantheon of jazz history. Next I will highlight some problems that arise with such canonization and examine two case studies focused on Blanton, one based on statements historian Gunther Schuller made in regard to the bassist’s right hand posture, and a second one focusing on his tone in relation to his physical position within the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In both cases visual sources are used to gain a better understanding of Blanton’s performance technique, which in turn aids to nuance his iconic framing.

In this brief paper I would like to illustrate the mutual influence of Classical and Jazz music through two
compositions written by American composers Scott
Joplin (1867/68 - 1917) and Gunther Schuller (1925
- 2015). While the first dedicated his whole life to
be considered a ”legitimate” composer of Western-
European Classical music, instead of a ”mere” Rag-
time player, the latter took the effort to create a synergy between the new Jazz idiom of his time and
compositional techniques, like Schoenberg’s 12-tone
system. Unfortunately both Joplin and Schuller’s efforts got lost in the ”losers” side of Music History
and their compositions received bitter critics from
both jazz and classically trained musicians, public
and critics.

Odd meters were experimented variously in the album Time Out by Dave Brubeck Quartet. The audiences accepted it widely during the launching period especially the tunes “Take Five” composed by Paul Desmond and “Blue Rondo à la Turk” composed by Dave Brubeck. This article discuses how odd meters become more acceptable in jazz which has been nominated by duple and quadruple meters for long. Ranging the musicians from Fats Waller, James Reese Europe, and Stan Kenton to Jonathan Kreisberg, Maria Schneider, and Hiromi Uehara. It shows the history of time signature usage in jazz, development, and the relationship between early and contemporary irregular meter approaches.

Pablo  Sorozábal  (1897-1988)  was  one  of  the  most  successful  and  innovative  stage  composers  in  the contemporary Spanish tradition of zarzuela and operetta. Moreover, some conspicuous traits of the early jazz of the twentieth centuryare included in his rich theatrical catalogue. In fact, he had been in direct touch with the new American trends from his young years as a musician in his hometown, Donostia/San Sebastián–a cosmopolitan vacation spot of the Belle Époque. During the 1920s, he studied and worked in Germany, where American influence was particularly noticeable amongthe young authors of Zeitoper. All  this  experience  would  be  developed  on  stage  during  the following decades,  in  a  witty  and  personal way. Jazz sounds appear there as a considered and meaningful resource, forming a semiotic isotopy with well defined formal and expressive attributes, consistent with the broader conventions of the time. Thus, a study of this repertoire allows us to understand more about the origins, context and cultural significance of the introduction of jazz in Spain and Europe.

2017. El jazz se inventó en 1917. La afirmación es discutible, por no decir desacertada, pero la opinión de las personas que estuvieron allí también cuenta. Es que la canción “Livery Stable Blues” de la Original Dixieland Jass Band se publicó en marzo de 1917 y, por convención, arbitraria como toda convención, obtuvo la medalla de primera grabación comercial de jazz. La banda venía de Nueva Orleans, Louisiana, en el sur de Estados Unidos, pero había obtenido cierto reconocimiento en los clubes de Chicago y Nueva York, en el norte, donde estaban la fama, los contratos y el dinero. Nadie en Nueva Orleans consideraba a ese sonido una primicia; hacía décadas que se lo escuchaba en las calles, las casas y las cantinas. Un siglo más tarde, en Nueva Orleans, el jazz es cultura hegemónica: puede darte oxígeno al igual que puede asfixiarte. El jazz es capaz de edificar un universo concluso y estático en el que cada uno desempeña un papel más o menos previsible. También es capaz de crear los puentes de fuga.

A paper delivered at the “Architect of the Jewish Future: A Conference on the Life, Work, and Legacy of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan.” At Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., March 2014.

Mordecai Kaplan's understanding of Art was communal in focus, and thus from the from the perspective of artists, limited. The legacy regarding the Arts, however, continues to be visionary. "On one hand, Jews as individuals continue to be in the forefront of the farthest reaches of the worlds of Art, music, dance, film, and multimedia. On the other hand, Jews appear to collectively and institutionally support work that is generally the most comfortable and familiar, and thus often the most conservative... Truly, Kaplan’s optimism continues to inspire, challenge, and maybe rebuke, when we recall his observation, more than 65 years ago, that “we are only at the very beginning in the process of creating a modern Jewish art.”

The thesis is devoted to the research and periodisation of the Latvian jazz history from 1922
through 1940. The aim of the research was to study the jazz history in Latvia up to 1940, examining
it from a historical, socially political and musicological aspect.

Based on French philosopher and professor of aesthetics Étienne Souriau’s concept of “inter-worlds,” that is, realities emerging at the interstices and thresholds of different media, this essay applies a novel multimodal methodology to reveal the importance of music in Florine Stettheimer’s work. By uncovering the presence of tango in Stettheimer’s 1912 sketches for a ballet, and establishing jazz as a central preoccupation in Stettheimer’s painting Asbury Park South (1920) and in her poems “Asbury Park” and “New York,” the author situates popular music at the center of the modernist experience, inhabited by figures like Vaslav Nijinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Stettheimer. This essay contributes to the knowledge and understanding of popular music in modernism and it introduces a multimodal methodological approach, constituting a model of interdisciplinary scholarship.

The Art of Jazz, by Alyn Shipton, explores how the expressionism and spontaneity of jazz spilled onto its album art, posters, and promotional photography, and even inspired standalone works of fine art.  John Edward Hasse contributes a Foreword.

This paper examines specific musical elements of Clifford Brown’s improvised solo on “Hot House”, from the recording “Live at the Bee Hive". Solos from live recordings, such as this one, give a window into the history and existence of the art of extended improvisation from an era before such solos were being documented in studio sessions. Clifford Brown used the extended format to develop musical ideas and display a variety of techniques which add coherence and interest over this longer time frame.
Citing examples from the score, I have discussed and detailed his use of the following features:
1. Thematic Development and the Variety of Techniques Used to Achieve It 2. Rhythmic Tendencies and Contrasts
3. Phrasing Structure and Pacing
4. Melodic Construction and Intervallic Shapes
5. Harmonic Approach
6. Trumpet-Specific Instrumental Devices
In addition, I have mentioned other aspects of this solo which I consider to be important, and have described them with detailed analysis.

Noel Calefs  Kriminalroman "L’Ascenseur pour l’échafaud" (1956) hat sich durch die gleichnamige Verfilmung von Louis Malle  (1958) sowie die im Auftrag des SWR produzierte Hörspieladaption von Walter Adler (1999) zu einem Medienverbund entwickelt.
Dieser Medienverbund bildet den Gegenstand der folgenden Untersuchung. Hierbei stehen für das Noir-Genre typische Elemente, Motive und Figurenzeichnungen im Zentrum der Überlegungen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern Motive des Noirs wie Entfremdung, Einsamkeit und Angst sowie menschliche Abgründe wie Mord, Eifersucht und Egoismus in den Literaturunterricht integriert werden können.

This paper is an analysis of Brad Mehldau's solo on the Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie composition "Anthropology," itself based on George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm." The focus is on devices deployed by Mehldau to break free form the traditional harmonic underpinning of "rhythm changes."