A History of Jazz before 1930
The
music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined
elements of Ragtime, marching band music, and Blues. What differentiated Jazz
from these earlier styles was the widespread use of improvisation, often by
more than one player at a time. Jazz represented a break from Western musical
traditions, where the composer wrote a piece of music on paper and the
musicians then tried their best to play exactly what was in the score. In a
Jazz piece, the song is often just a starting point or frame of reference for
the musicians to improvise around. The song might have been a popular ditty or
blues that they didn't compose, but by the time they were finished with it they
had composed a new piece that often were unlike the original
song. Many of these virtuoso musicians were not good sight readers and some
could not read music at all, never the less their playing thrilled audiences
and the spontaneous music they created had a joy and sense of adventure
that was an exciting and radical departure from the music of that time. The
first Jazz was played by African Americans and Creole musicians in New Orleans.
The cornet player Buddy Bolden is generally considered to be the first real
Jazz musician. Other early players included Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, and
Clarence Williams. Although these musicians names are unknown to most people,
then and now, their ideas are still being elaborated on to this day. Most of
these men could not make a living with their music and were forced to work to get by. The second wave of New Orleans Jazz musicians like Joe
"King" Oliver, Kid Ory, and Jelly Roll Morton formed small bands,
that took the music of these older men and increased the complexity and dynamic
of their music, as well as gaining greater commercial success. This music
became know as "Hot Jazz", because of the often very fast speeds.
During
that time another branch of art became important to African Americans: poetry!
So click if you want to learn more about that!
In the following decades, some brilliant jazz artists
became famous for their virtuoso way of “living” their music. Among them are
Louis Armstrong and Aretha Franklin, who are the personalities these pages are
dealing with in the following.
ARETHA FRANKLIN-THE ATLANTIC YEARS
The daughter of the Rev.C.L.Franklin,
Aretha was born in Memphis, Tennessee on March 25, 1942. Both her parents
were musical and sung gospel. As a teenager, she too sang gospel with her two
sisters Carolyn and Erma. She even made some Gospel records for JVB, a small
Chicago label. After moving to New York she was to sign for CBS records. Nine albums
were published on Columbia, over the next eight years, with only two minor hits.
It has been suggested that a loss of many hundreds of dollars had
occurred over this period. When her contract come up for renewal in 1966
Atlantic records took her on.
In February 1967, Jerry
Wexler, the Atlantic producer came to record Aretha's first session which was
to produce the classic "I Never Loved A Man (the way I love you)".
After the first day's session,
they were on the plane heading back to New York. Many versions of the story
exist but it would appear that Ted White, Aretha's husband was upset with a
member of the horn section who he accused of making a pass at Aretha. This
caused an upset, and despite Rick Hall sacking the musician, the session
collapsed. Aretha was not to record there again. Jerry Wexler had what was to
be a soul master piece in the bag, together with a half finished 'B' side, to
take back to New York. Jerry was very excited and had some acetates cut from
the tapes, he played it to all the black DJ's that he knew, the reaction was
incredible.
It made the top ten as did
the next seven singles, the Queen of Soul was born.
King Curtis was to work on
many arrangements with Aretha over the next few years until his death in 1971.
Aretha covered many great tunes, Respect, Satisfaction, Natural Woman,
I Say A little Prayer, See-Saw, Don't Play That Song, Spanish Harlem
and many other fine singles .
Her early albums, I
Never Loved A Man, Aretha Arrives, Lady Soul, Aretha Now & Soul 69, chart
her greatness in the type of material she could sing, and interpret, once she
did a cover it would never be the same again. "When Aretha records a
tune", King Curtis commented, "she kills a copyright. Because once
she's worked out the way to do it, you're never going to come up with a better
approach. And it's dam sure you're not going to be able to improve on how she's
done it her way".
She brought success not
only for Atlantic records but she was also able to crossover from soul R&B
to pop from the start. She was around at the time when black music could get no
better and her appeal crossed all barriers.
Louis Armstrong
|
Who is Louis Armstrong? |
||
Louis Armstrong was born in a poor section of New
Orleans known as “the Battlefield” on August 4, 1901. By the time of his death
in 1971, the man known around the world as Satchmo was widely recognized as a
founding father of jazz – a uniquely American art form. His influence, as an
artist and cultural icon, is universal, unmatched, and very much alive today.
Louis Armstrong’s achievements are
remarkable. During his career, he:
Through the years, Louis entertained
millions, from heads of state and royalty to the kids on his stoop in Corona.
Despite his fame, he lived a simple life in a working-class neighborhood. To
this day, everyone loves Satchmo – just the mention of his name makes people smile. |
If you want to learn more about jazz visit the following website:
http://www.darmstadt.de/kultur/musik/jazz/index-us.htm
(in English)
http://www.darmstadt.de/kultur/musik/jazz/index.htm
(in German)
