THIRD STREAM, which more overtly blended jazz with Western classical music than other forms of jazz. Much of the early work of bassist Charles Mingus, such as the 1954 release, “Minor Intrusion,” is considered to be Third Stream. (Though you will also enjoy later, bluesier Mingus, such as “Devil Blues,” which we can see him and his band perform live at Monteaux in 1975.)
Here are twelve essential third stream performances.
[wpspoiler name=”Miles Davis and John Coltrane perform So What? in 1959″ open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]
Others of the many subgenres of jazz that developed in the ’50s and ’60s included MODAL JAZZ, in which musicians based their compositions not on a progression of chords, but on the relationship notes have to each other in “modes,” which are types of scales–“So What,” with Miles Davis on trumpet and John Coltrane on saxophone is a prime example.
[wpspoiler name=”Watch Miles Davis perform in 1959 with the Gil Evans Orchestra” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]
COOL JAZZ:
Another subgenre of jazz that developed throughout the 1940s was “Cool Jazz.” It was quieter, more subtle and more harmonic take on jazz than bebop; it took more cues from 20th century classical “art music” composers like Stravinsky and Debussy.The two main “cool jazz” pioneers were trumpeter MILES DAVIS and pianist/bandleader GIL EVANS, both of whom were undeniably cool.
Listen to “Jeru” from “Birth of the Cool,” a 1957 release of Davis recordings from 1949 and ’50 that epitomized “cool jazz.” | Watch Miles Davis (on trumpet) perform with the Gil Evans Orchestra in 1959 | As a bonus, watch Gil Evans perform in a funkier era, in Umbria, 1974. The song may not be “cool jazz,” but it’s definitely cool jazz]
“Soul music” blends the powerful spirituality of gospel with the deeply emotional grooves of “Rhythm & Blues,” which was the term record companies had begun to use in the ’40s to categorize forms of African American music, replacing the increasingly unconfortable “race records.” Using the term “soul” in reference to a song or singer implies more than just adherence to a particular musical genre, but the assertion that the musician–almost exclusively an African-American musician–brings a particular depth to his or her art, perhaps borne of historical struggles, maybe due to connection with a higher power.
“Soul music” as a term first became associated with RAY CHARLES, who brought a spiritual, Gospel-inspired emotion to his piano-based blues, and vocalist, preacher SOLOMON BURKE–“the Muhammad Ali of soul.” Passionate vocalists like Stax Records artist OTIS REDDING and gospel-soul artist MAVIS STAPLES, “soul blues” singer SAM COOKE, gospel/jazz/R&B singer/songwriter ARETHA FRANKLIN and even rhythm &
blues/rock ‘n’ roll legend ETTA JAMES, whose version of “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” we try to channel in class–watch this incredible performance of the 1962 hit–all virtually exploded with “soul.”
[Watch Ray Charles perform “I Believe to My Soul” in 1960 and “Hit the Road Jack” in 1961 | Watch Otis Redding sing “Try a Little Tenderness” | Watch Sam Cooke perform “Ain’t
That Good News” on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand | Enjoy Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers perform in Ghana in 1971 | Watch the Staple Singers, led this time by “Pops” on vocals, perform “Respect Yourself” in 1972 | Watch Aretha Franklin perform “I Never Loved a Man” in 1967 | Watch Solomon Burke singing “Cry to Me” live at the Long Beach Blues Festival.]
In the 1960s producer Berry Gordy’s Detroit-based Motown Records married soul with stellar songwriting to score over a hundred top ten hits. Often backed by a set of superb studio musicians known as the Funk Brothers, Motown artists like SMOKEY ROBINSON &
THE TEMPTATIONS, THE SUPREMES and GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS were soulful and groovy. STEVIE WONDER–first known as “Little Stevie Wonder”–also was a Motown artist whose career has expanded well beyond soul to envelop many other genres like funk and R&B.
[Watch Diana Ross and The Supremes sing a flawless “Stop in the Name of Love” at the Hollywood Palace in the mid-60s | Watch Smokey Robinson & the Temptations perform “Tracks of My Tears” in 1965 | Watch Gladys Night and Pips sing their classic, “Midnight Train to Georgia,” in 1973, accompanied by their classic dance moves | Watch Stevie Wonder reach “Higher Ground” in 1973]
By the early 1970s soul music had expanded to refer to the electrifying new sounds that developed in the politically, socially and racially charged times. Soul in the 1970s had a deep, groovy center, with activist/artists like CURTIS MAYFIELD intertwining their music with the struggles taking place in the street. At the same time, a television program, Soul Train, with its infinitely soulful host DON CORNELIUS, introduced American youth to soul, R&B and eventually funk artists like EARTH WIND & FIRE and THE COMMODORES.
[Watch Curtis Mayfield live in performance in 1972 | Watch EARTH, WIND & FIRE perform “Mighty Might,” on Soul Train in 1974 | Dig the Commodores performing “Too Hot Ta Trot” in 1977 (Note the wonderful costumes. Note the amazing glasses. Note Lionel Ritchie.)]
“Chicago blues” developed in the early part of the 20th century during the “Great Migration,” when African-Americans from the south–including some from Mississippi who played Delta blues–moved to northern cities like Chicago in search of work. While early Chicago blues musicians played their acoustic guitars and harmonicas on street corners, South Side clubs (that mainly catered to African-Americans) invited them to perform inside and added microphones and amplification so large crowds could hear them; soon, North Side musicians and audiences “discovered” blues and a thriving, highly commercial scene developed. By the ’40s Chicago blues artists started using a broader array of scales in their improvising than their Delta blues ancestors, advancing the genre beyond its original manifestation as an electrified form of down-home Southern blues.
[Watch bass player WILLIE DIXON perform “Sittin’ and Cryin’ the Blues” in 1963 | Watch HOWLIN’ WOLF play “Shake It For Me” | Watch SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON play harmonica on “Nine Below Zero“]
BIG BAND BLUES/”JUMP BLUES”:
“Jump” blues took the basic spirit and rhythms of boogie woogie and transformed them into a popular style of energetic, highly danceable music. While some big bands of the ’40s and ’50s played songs in the the jump blues style, most jump blues ensembles were a bit smaller–six or seven performers, featuring just three horns, especially a tenor saxophone and a rhythm section, rather than sixteen or more performers in a big band–and therefore less expensive to hire at swing dances and at nightclubs.
[Watch big band blues vocalist JIMMY RUSHING perform “Going to Chicago” with Benny Goodman’s big band supporting him. | Watch vibe player LIONEL HAMPTON and his band performing, “Flying Home” in 1957 |
Around the turn of the 20th century, guitar-based music with hard livin’-based lyrics developed in several parts of America’s South. Though both African American and white musicians played this music, for the most part the only distinguishing characteristic was what record companies called it: if the performer was white, it was “hillbilly music,” if black, it was a “race record.” Distinctions in style, instrumentation and rhythms did soon develop, and by the 1920s, African-American artists like W.C. Handy found themselves as the torchbearers of a new genre, performed by African Americans and mainly marketed to African-Americans, though, through a revolutionary new medium radio, accessible to everyone, called “the blues.”
Listen to the earliest recordings of the earliest African-American blues artists:
— W.C. HANDY: “Ole Miss Rag:
— BESSIE SMITH: “St. Louis Blues”
— MA RAINEY: “Shave ’em dry blues”
— TAMPA RED: “You Missed a Good Man“
[wpspoiler name=”Watch Miles Davis perform Santuary and Spanish Key” open=”true” style=”aatw-video” ][/wpspoiler] In the 1970s and ’80s jazz met rock in a modern form called “fusion’ or “jazz rock.” MILES DAVIS, pioneering yet another jazz genre, was essential in laying the groundwork for fusion by adding rock beats and electric instruments to several of his albums in the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s, causing much consternation among jazz purists. Pianists CHICK COREA and HERBIE HANCOCK, guitarist PAT METHENY and the jazz-rock ensemble WEATHER REPORT didn’t express consternation at all, embracing and advancing fusion by adding synthesizers, keyboards and highly processed woodwinds.
[Watch Miles Davis perform early fusion compositions “Sanctuary” and “Spanish Key” in 1970 | Watch Chick Corea and his band Return to Forever perform “Vulcan Worlds” in 1974| | Enjoy Weather Report’s “Birdland,” performed live in Germany in 1978 | Watch Pat Metheny perform “As It Is” | Watch Herbie Hancock perform “Cantaloupe Island” with Pat Metheny on guitar.]
TODAY’S JAZZ:
Today’s jazz is a “restless” genre that both infuses other genres such as rock, funk and hip hop and envelops them to expand its own horizions. Jazz may just as likely blend with hip hop to make both genres, unbelievably, even more cool–DIGABLE PLANETS‘ 1993 “Rebirth of Slick” is a great example of an uber-cool genre that became known as “ACID JAZZ“–or infiltrate elevators and grocery store sound systems everywhere, like the universally palatable–and therefore uncool?–SMOOTH JAZZ. (You’d disagree with the “uncool” label if you love KENNY G., seen here performing live with his son–clearly, his son–Max G.) Some contemporary jazz performers, such as avant-garde composer and saxophonist JOHN ZORN, blur boundaries between jazz and other genres, simultaneously mashing them all together and ripping them apart (watch Zorn perform “Karaim” in 2010)–while others, like jazz greats Barnford and Wynton Marsalis, return to jazz’s foundations as a base for their own work. (Watch Branford Marsalis perform “Cherokee” in 1991 | Watch Wynton Marsalis perform “Embraceable You.”) Since the late ’90s the term NUJAZZ has become a blanket term for jazz that eagerly blends with other styles, such as soul, electronica, house or hip hop. (Curious about NuJazz? Learn about the artists featured in the 2011 Toronto NuJazz Festival.)
We’re going to end our class by listening to “Radio Song” by bassist and vocalist ESPERANZA SPALDING. In 2011 Spalding was the first jazz musician to win the “Best New Artist” Grammy, surprising not only fans of Justin Beiber but also contemporary jazz fans who rarely see their favorite artists hit the mainstream. Spalding’s jazz is of many jazz genres at once and therefore doesn’t fit neatly into any of there. Where do you think Spalding will land? Decide for yourself after watching her perform “Radio Song” live on David Letterman in 2012.
[wpspoiler name=”Watch Ornette Coleman (on sax) and his Sextet perform in Germany in 1978.” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]
In the 1960s an experimental, seemingly chaotic form called “Free jazz” became popular among jazz musicians, though not as much among the general population. Free jazz was challenging and unhinged, a style of jazz in which all musicians in an ensemble may be improvising wildly at the same time with little regard for a chord progression. The horns in particular made jarring squeaks and squawks, and the drums very rarely kept everyone’s beat. (AVANT-GARDE JAZZ is a similar subgenre, though it features a more predetermined chord structure over which improvising takes place than free jazz.)
“Free jazz” musicians seemed to understand what other free jazz musicians were doing, affording leaders of the movement such as Texas-born, New Orleans and then Los Angeles-based saxophone player ORNETTE COLEMAN great respect for their mastery of the form. Others questioned whether there was a form at all to be found in Coleman’s expansive and, critics claimed, indulgent musical exploration. Coleman himself only claimed to be following the music he found in the world around him.
[Learn about Ornette Coleman’s energizing–and controversial–arrival at “The Five Spot” in New York City’s East Village in 1959 | W 1978 | Listen to Coleman explain his approach to music in this recent infterview: “Sound is to people what the sun is to light.”]
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]
