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Latin Jazz

In the 1950s and ’60s American dancehall bands, which had for decades mainly performed dances and compositions that originated in the U.S., began to actively communicate with Latin musicians and add Latin dances like the mambo, samba and cha-cha-cha to their repertoires. Bebop band leaders like Dizzy Gillespie also wove Latin elements into their music, and in turn American jazz began to appear all over Latin America, fusing with Latin rhythms to become “Latin Jazz.” Latin jazz was syncopated like American jazz but didn’t emphasize the same beats, giving the music a different feel. The form introduced Latin instruments into jazz bands such as congas and bongos (both Afro-Cuban), the claves, the timbales and even the cowbell.

Latin bandleaders like TITO PUENTE, ARTURO SANDOVAL and PAQUITO D’RIVERA became popular in the U.S. in this time, as did a new trend, one that blended Brazilian samba with jazz, called “bossa nova” (which, conveniently, literally translates as “new
trend.”) American saxophone player STAN GETZ performed with Brazilian bossa nova musicians such as ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM and JOÃO GILBERTO and receives due credit for popularizing the style in the U.S.

[Watch Tito Puente (on timabales) perform live in Montreaux in 1980 | Watch saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera perform live in Bern 1992 | Watch Arturo Sandoval and his band play, “Mam Bop,” in 1998 | Watch saxophone player Stan Getz share bossa nova with California in 1983]

Bebop

 

[wpspoiler name=”Thelonious Monk performs Straight No Chaser in 1965″ open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler] In the 1940s a new jazz style called “Bebop” emerged somewhat as a counter-movement to Big Band. Bebop ensembles were small–five or six musicians at most, most often featuring drums, bass, piano, trumpet and sax–and performed complicated arrangements that often featured irregular rhythms. These compositions were fascinating to hear but were not made for the dance hall.

Bepop’s virtuosic musicians communicated with each other and with audiences through fast and frenzied improvisation. Trumpeter DIZZY GILLESPIE–he of the amazingly stretchable cheeks and alto saxophone player CHARLIE “BIRD” PARKER, who first came to epitomize the intellectual/”hipster”/artist of the Beat Generation, then, sadly, the intellectual/”hipster”/artist who succumbed to substance abuse (PBS introduces you to
the life and times of Charlie Parker), pioneered bebop, taking advantage of the improvisational freedom the style afforded them as instrumentalists to bring the deep emotion of the blues back into jazz. Other jazz pioneers like idiosyncratic pianist and “High Priest of Bebop” THELONIOUS MONK advanced the genre with their unpredictable compositions. [Learn about Monk by watching the documentary “Straight, No Chaser.”|

Bebop as a jazz form came to maturity in the 1960s and then morphed and developed into other subgenres. For example, musicians like ART BLAKEY and the THE JAZZ MESSENGERS added a groovy, slightly more danceable edge to Bebop, weaving blues and gospel into their tunes. This genre became known as “Hard Bop.” Jazz heavyweights MILES DAVIS and JOHN COLTRANE, as well as trailblazing jazz guitarist WES MONTGOMERY, adopted this style and continued to harden the bop.

[Charlie Parker’s 1945 “Ko-ko” is widely considered to be the first bebop recording. (Dizzy
Gillespie joins him on trumpet.) | Watch Charlie Parker on alto sax and Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet perform “Hot House” in 1952 | Watch the Theonious Monk Quintet perform Monk’s composition, “Straight, No Chaser” in 1965 | Watch Art Blakey (on drums) and the Jazz Messengers performing Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” live in 1958 | Listen to John Coltrane’s hard bop classic, “Moment’s Notice” | Watch Miles Davis perform bebop classic, “Walkin” in 1967 | Watch Wes Montgomery’s wonderful performance of “I Love Blues“]

Bebop was primarily instrumental but every so often musicians sang their melodies, or variations on their melodies, in an improvised form of singing that mimicked their instruments. This type of singing, known as “SCAT,” uses vocables to play with and even enhance the melody. Among the conflicting accounts of the origin of the term “bebop,” is a theory posits that “be” and “bop” were common scat syllables that often appeared together. Popular band leaders like CAB CALLOWAY used scat as a way to involve the audience in the vocal part of his compositions often through call and response. Jazz vocalists like ELLA FITZGERALD developed their own version of scat singing, using the voice to imitate jazz instruments.

In class we’re going to try a little scat singing, improvising sounds, imitating instruments and calling and responding ’til the cows come home.

[Listen to Cab Calloway sing “The Scat Song” and also “Zaz Zuh Zaz,” which sounds a whole lot like the more lyrically bawdy, and more famous, “Minnie the Moocher” | Watch Ella Fitzgerald perform her scat-arific “One Note Samba” in 1969, a version of which we’ll hear in class.]

 

Big Band Jazz and Swing

The emergence of Dixieland jazz in the 1920s inspired larger bands to form and develop more extensive and standardized arrangements of Dixieland songs. These big bands–which became known, conveniently, as “Big Bands”–were composed of ten or more musicians who sat or stood in rows while they were performing, much more like
musicians in Western Classical orchestras than those of the free-flowing Dixieland ensembles.

Because of their numbers the bands often grouped their instrumentalists together, breaking the band into three sections:

— BRASS (trumpets, trombones)
— REEDS (clarinets, saxophones)
— RHYTHM (drums, bass, piano and eventually guitar)

From the mid-’30s on big bands played a kind of music called “swing,” which was bounding, rhythmic and was meant to inspire people to dance…and dance they did!!
Even during the darkest days of World War II–maybe because the days were so dark–American youth flocked to nightclubs and danced with wild abandon. In the process
they developed steps like the Lindy Hop, which developed in the late 1920s and early 1930s as a big band-era interpretation of the Charleston, which itself was a signature dance of the ’20s. The Lindy Hop is an exuberant partner dance characterized by a
“swing out,” during which partners flail outward away from each other and then flail just as enthusiastically back, all the while each holding the other’s hand. The dance is playful and acrobatic, and thrives on improvisation. Check out this contemporary Lindy Hop competition. Holy cow! (Also check out examples of swing dances like the Balboa as performed in the 1943 short film, “Maharaja: With Hal & Betty Takier,” the Collegiate shag
and the St. Louis shag.)

A side note: though “jitterbug” has come to be accepted as a term that refers to a wide variety of swing dances, echnically “jitterbug” is not a form of swing dance, but is actually a term that refers to someone who dances a swing dance–i.e., “that Jay Sand is a real jitterbug!” Band leader Cab Calloway is believed to have coined the term when he described swing dancers by saying, “They look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor.” That said, if you want to “learn how to jitterbug” you absolutely must watch “Groovie Movie” from 1944.

“The Swing Era” lasted for almost two decades, throughout the ’30s and ’40s, during which thousands of big bands performed all over the United States, featuring America’s
best jazz musicians, both white and African-American–though rarely in the same bands. Band leaders like PAUL WHITEMAN, who some revere as “The King of Jazz,” but who others criticize as a Western classical orchestra leader who co-opted African-American
music, BENNY GOODMAN and DUKE ELLINGTON developed enthusiastic followings in the U.S. and remained popular internationally through the ’60s.

[Watch Paul Whiteman’s orchestra in an early performance (1928), featuring coronet player Bix Beiderbecke (A link mainly for grownups: Learn the sad story Bix Beiderbecke in “Wake Up Bix“) | Watch Benny Goodman perform “Sing Sing Sing” at Carnegie Hall in 1955]

After World War II big band music became even more popular, giving a war-weary nation the opportunity to enjoy itself through dance. Those who weren’t able to make it to “big city” dance clubs would listen to big band radio broadcasts from ballrooms in New York City like the Savoy and Roseland. Band leaders like TOMMY DORSEY, GLENN MILLER and COUNT BASIE, and vocalists like BILLIE HOLLIDAY, ELLA FITZGERALD and FRANK SINATRA were as popular at the rock stars of today.

[Watch Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra play “Bugle Call Rag” and “Ole Miss” in 1940 | Watch Glenn Miller and his orchestra perform one of their greatest hits, “In the Mood,” in
1941| Watch Count Basie’s band featuring Joe Williams on “The Kraft Music Hall” performing “Blee Blop Blues” and “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home.” The music starts at 1:39 after the vintage Kraft ad | Watch Billie Holliday and Louis Armstrong perform “The Blues Are Brewin’” | Watch Ella Fitzgerald sing “For Once in My Life” live in Berlin in 1968 | Watch Frank “The Chairman of the Board” Sinatra at the top of his game, performing, “That’s Life.”]

In the ’50s big band fell increasingly out of favor as genres that focused on individual musicians like bebop, cool jazz and even rock became more popular. (Though Benny Goodman was certainly still all the rage in the Netherlands in 1959.) Some bands adapted, weaving these new forms into their compositions, but for the most part the big bands that continued primarily kept playing the greatest hits of the ’30s and ’40s. Big band drummer BUDDY RICH, who started with Tommy Dorsey’s band in the ’40s, was one of the more popular band leaders of the time, backing “comeback”
recordings of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, though he did play the majority of his late career big band shows at colleges and high school gyms rather than in dance clubs.

[Watch Buddy Rich perform with a not-so-big band on The Lenny Bruce Show in 1959 | Watch Buddy Rich drum like crazy with the Muppets in 1980]

Ragtime

 Ragtime originated from this mix of African-American, Western classical and “Spanish” forms in the late 1800s and early 1900s, primarily in bars in the red light districts of cities such as New Orleans and St. Louis, as a form of upbeat, dance-style piano music. Inspired by jigs and other dances played by African-American bands at the end of the 19th century, ragtime pianists composed syncopated melodies that fused the confident American marches of John Philip Sousa with the energetic polyrhythms of African music. [What is syncopation? What is polyrhythm?]

While popular black minstrel ERNEST HOGAN was the first musician to codify ragtime into sheet music so others could perform it–Hogan’s most popular compositions and performances stereotyped African-American culture in a way that even at the time were considered racist–composer and pianist SCOTT JOPLIN took ragtime from the realm of minstrels and also out of the red light district. His 1899 hit “Maple Leaf Rag” was more musically intricate than any other popular ragtime compositions; his 1902 “The Entertainer” elevated the form to the level of art.

Ragtime became less popular in 1917 when jazz emerged from New Orleans and captured the popular musical imagination, but it never really went away. Ragtime pianists like “JELLY ROLL” MORTON straddled the two worlds for several years, liberally borrowing from ragtime to lay the foundations for his early forays into jazz.

[Learn about the controversial life of Ernest Hogan | Listen to Scott Joplin’s “Solace” | Listen to Jelly Roll Morton perform Fingerbreaker.]

Guaracha (Cuba, Puerto Rico)

Guaracha is a form of music with bawdy lyrics originally meant to accompany dances that blended Spanish and African moves. The guaracha appeared first in Spain and became a staple of Cuban theater groups that toured Puerto Rico in the 1800s, which would play clever guaracha songs between acts of their performances to keep the audience entertained.

COUNTRY: Cuba, Puerto Rico (U.S.)
KEY INSTRUMENTS: Bass, Bongo, Congas, Cuatro, Guiro, Maracas, Piano, Tres, Trumpet

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How to sing with Jay each week in your home or classroom Support All Around This World on Patreon Enjoy interactive All Around This World lessons in your home or classroom

Bakersfield Sound

In the 1950s in Bakersfield, California, a small city a little more than a hundred miles north northwest of Los Angeles, honky tonk musicians like BUCK OWENS and LEFTY FRIZZELL joined one-time West Coaster Bob Wills in developing “The Bakersfield Sound,” which fused honky tonk with Western swing. Bakersfield Sound bands embraced amplification and electric instruments, giving the music an energetic, driving edge.

[Buck Owens explains why and shows us how he helped create the Bakersfield Sound | Watch Lefty Frizzell perform “Gone  Gone Gone”

Tropicalia (Brazil)

Tropicalia is a Brazilian cultural movement that developed in the late ’60s as a fusion of Afro-Brazilian traditional music, experimental poetry, ambitious visual art and rock ‘n roll.  Tropicalia pioneers like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (who served for several years as Brazil’s Minister of Culture) morphed over time into Brazil’s primary form of popular music, called Música Popular Brasileira.

More information: “What is the Tropicalia Movement” | “Constructing a Counterculture” | “The Story of Tropicalia in 20 Albums”

COUNTRY: Brazil
KEY INSTRUMENTS: Bass, Drum kit, Guitar, Keyboards

[mappress mapid=”16″ center=”-8, -60″ zoom=”3″]

How to sing with Jay each week in your home or classroom Support All Around This World on Patreon Enjoy interactive All Around This World lessons in your home or classroom

Ska

SKA is driving, danceable music that rose in 1950’s Jamaica, fusing Jamaican “mento” with American R&B. Ska became popular internationally in the 1960s, really took hold in early ’70s England where it fused with early punk, and is still popular today. We love this video clip from “This is Ska!,” a 1964 BBC documentary that introduced ska to a generation of British youth. After watching this bit you will want to watch the whole documentary. Here goes.

Ska music 101 | “This is ska!” | A brief history of ska | Variants of ska dancing/”skanking”

Timba

 

[wpspoiler name=”Los Van Van perform Temba, Tumba, Timba” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]

TIMBA is upbeat dance music that developed in the 1990s as a synthesis of Cuban jazz, rock, rumba, disco and funk. It’s a”street level” form whose lyrics focus on urban issues among Cuban youth. TIMBA has a similar tempo and rhythm to salsa and uses many of the same instruments, but the instruments are used somewhat differently. For example, so says Wikipedia’s entry on timba, “Salsa bassists have standardized on bombo-ponche bass tumbao. This is sometimes used in TIMBA, but much more often a clave-aligned tumbao is used, and it is often specific to the song in question, while the bombo-ponche tumbaos of salsa, by definition, always use the same rhythm from song to song. Most importantly, TIMBA bassists stop and start their tumbaos, one of the defining aspects of timba gears. In salsa, the bass tumbao is omnipresent.” Couldn’t be clearer! Seriously, while salsa bands rarely have a drum kit with a kick drum, in timba a drum kit is essential, or at least a timbale player adds a kick drum, which s/he plays while standing. Also, TIMBA is known for “crossing the clave,” meaning that some of the instruments may be playing the 3-2 clave while others will simultaneously be playing the 2-3 (look above for an overview of clave). Scandalous. Listen to La Timba Loca for an example.

Mambo

COUNTRY: Cuba, Mexico, United States

Mambo:
In the 1930s, Cuban big band musicians added some elements of son to danzón to form an up-tempo dance music called MAMBO. The mambo is based on the 3-2 clave and uses a 4/4 beat (look above and at the Everything is a Drum rhythmic overview for a hint about what this means), with a dancer counting “quick quick slow,” moving his/her feet on the second beat of the four beat phrase, shifting weight to the other foot on the third, and returning to the original foot on the fourth. In other words, “1-2-3, 5-6-7.” MAMBO became most popular not in Cuba, but in Cuban refugee communities in New York and Mexico City. About the MAMBO | In Havana, dancing the MAMBO

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