Road Trip USA - carleton.ca · • African drumming, improvisation ... parade and dance (second line) ... New Orleans Jazz • Dixieland as a sub-genre

Road Trip USA: Exploring the Musical History

of Six American Cities

Keith McCuaigCarleton University

Learning in Retirement Program

New Orleans, Louisiana

Mardi Gras,Circa 1910

Features of Most Jazz Styles

• Fusion of African and European influences

• Wind instruments as primary soloists

• Syncopation

• Improvisation

Pre-jazz influences

• Ring Shouts• Work Songs• Folk Blues• Tin Pan Alley Pop• Marches• Piano Ragtime

Ring Shouts• African-American folk musicEx: Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers – “One of These Days” (c.1959-1960)• Leader/group structure• Heterophony• Riffs and chants• Body as percussion• Improvisation• Open-ended structure (form as the result of

process: work, dance, march, etc.)

Work SongsEx: “Old Alabama”

- unknown prisoners (c.1947-1948)• Slave/prison labour• Slow enough for the weakest to keep up• Hammer/axe percussion

Folk Blues

• Acoustic guitar• Post-Civil War (1865)Ex: Robert Johnson – “Me and the Devil Blues” (1936)• Complex blues man image• Church and juke joint social dynamic• New family and community stresses

Tin Pan Alley Pop• Beginning of pop music as we know it (c. 1890s)• Songwriters: mainly central European Jewish

backgroundEx: Judy Garland – “Over the Rainbow” (1939)• AABA form/32 Bar Chorus Form/TPA Ballad form

• Importance to jazz: many “jazz standards” are TPA pop tunes

• The AABA form is also very common

MarchesEx: Henry Fillmore –

“His Excellency” (composed 1909)• March form or Strain form:

AABBCCDDEE, etc.• Training, instruments • Elaborating and decorating a basic melody

with fills and variations• 2/4 time, two step feel

Piano Ragtime• Hugely popular late 19th century• Began as black piano style• Became a style of band performance• “Piano Professor”Ex: Scott Joplin – “Maple Leaf Rag” (composed 1899)

Ex: Jelly Roll Morton – “Maple Leaf Rag” (1938)

Tin Pan Alley RagtimeEx: “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” – Irving Berlin (1911)• Stride bass, syncopated feel• For commercial reasons, publishers often added

word “rag” to anything with syncopation

• Ragtime was as much a dance craze as a musical style

New Orleans and Early Jazz• Founded by French, 1718• Code Noir enacted 1724• Acadians arrived in Louisiana, 1755• Ceded to Spain, 1763• Sold to France, 1800• USA, 1803• LOTS of diverse cultural influences

New Orleans and Early JazzCongo Square• Est. 1817• African-derived dance and music forms and styles

Segregation Code: 1894

Storyville, 1897-1917

New Orleans and Early JazzEx: Ed and Lonnie Young – “Oree” (1959-ish)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6mRdPP6wRo&list=PLgkxKSMqHrc9yQurZVa7l5M9QWsSLpeHL

• Fife and drum

Multiple cultural influences: • African drumming, improvisation• Syncopation• Fife= military march

New Orleans Marching Bands• Important to social life, as with everywhere in USUnique features:• Haitian-flavoured drum line• People not in the procession join in behind the

parade and dance (second line)• ImprovisationEx: Eureka Brass Band Funeral Marchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N-kXBAP_WY

New Orleans and Early Jazz• Term “Jazz” was originally used to describe way of

playing (“jazzing” a song, like “ragging”)• Involves “hot” playing, swing, improvisation• Repertoire was marches, rags, pop and dance

songs, blues• Most distinctive element: polyphony• breaks/stops in time also common

Buddy Bolden (1877-1931)• First person identified as N.O. jazz performer• No recordings or transcriptions• Only verbal and written accounts• Peak c. 1905

Original Dixieland Jass Band• Billed as “creators of jazz”• All white• First use of the term “Dixieland”

Ex: ODJB – “Livery Stable Blues” (1917)• Considered first jazz recording

New Orleans Jazz• Dixieland as a sub-genre

• By 1914 many black jazz musicians moved to Chicago (more on Great Migration later)

• Chicago became an important jazz centre by late 1910s/early 1920s

• B. Louisiana; Cornet, composer

Ex: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band – “Dippermouth Blues” (1923)

• Leading N.O. jazz band, based in Chicago• Louis Armstrong on cornet• Earliest black jazz recording• 12 bar blues form

Joe “King” Oliver (1885-1938)

King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band

Early N.O. JazzStandardized instrumental lineupRhythm section: • piano, drums, bass (usually brass), other horns,

banjo

Clarinet on lead

• Similar to marching bands, but smaller (only one of each instrument)

Limitations of Recording Technology

• Tinny sound and frequency response• Live vs. recordings• Balancing volumes tricky (louder instruments

farther away from “microphone“)• Acoustic recording technology

Other important early N.O. jazz musicians

• Like, King Oliver, these musicians recorded and were based in Chicago (and they will be included in that city’s section)

• Jelly Roll Morton• Louis Armstrong

Memphis, Tennessee

First, what is “Genre”?

Absolute?Grey areas?Changing?

What purpose?Historically

Blues• Very important to North American popular

music history. Influenced all genres, especially rock and roll.

• Blues as we know it, stated after 1865 (what is the significance of this date?)

• Not recorded until 1920s, so there are many unknown aspects about the music.

• Old saying “Having the blues”

• May come from “blue devils,” a term from Elizabethan England

• C. 1900 “Blues” used to describe music, not just what we think of as blues music

Delta Blues

• Earliest form of blues

• Geographic origins of name

• Mississippi plantations

The State of Mississippi

(Memphis on top)

Delta Blues

• Often solo performers, usually men• Acoustic guitar, sometimes banjo, mandolin• Piano?• Itinerant performers – travelling around from

plantation to plantation

Robert Johnson (1911-1938)• b. Hazlehurst, Mississippi

• One of the most well known delta blues singers

• Influence

• Crossroads legend, death

Ex: Robert Johnson –“Me and the Devil Blues” (1937) see lyrics

Robert Johnson (1911-1938)• “Who’s the other guitar player?” (Keith Richards)• Thumb and finger style (guitar demo)

• Ex: Robert Johnson –“Sweet Home Chicago” (1936) see lyrics

• 2 recording sessions:• 1936 San Antonio, Texas hotel room• 1937 Dallas, Texas, makeshift studio

12 Bar Blues Form

• Beats and bars as measures of musical time.

• What is a chord • What do we mean by chord changes

(a.k.a. harmony).

12 Bar Blues FormBar 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Chords I IV I V IV (T)

Lyrics a a b

Guitar Res. Res. Res.

Sam Phillips (1923-2003)

• DJ, studio owner, producer

• Memphis Recording Service– Field recordings – Vanity recordings– License recordings for other labels

• Sun Records opens c. 1952

Sun RecordsInitially lots of black blues singers:• Howlin’ Wolf• BB King• Rufus Thomas

Then focused on white singers:• Elvis Presley• Jerry Lee Lewis • Johnny Cash• Roy Orbison

BB King• 1925-2015

• b. Bernclair, Mississippi

• Endless tours

Ex: BB King – “She’s Dynamite” (1951)

Blues/R&B/Early Rock n Roll

• Blues origins

• White and Black originators

• Race and Genre labels

• Credit

R&B/Early Rock n Roll

Ex: Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm –“Rocket 88” (1951) • originally credited to “Jackie Brenston and His Delta

Cats” (JB was Ike’s sax player and sang this song)

• Sun Records• 1st Rock ‘n’ Roll song?• Distorted guitar

Elvis Presley (1935-1977)• B. Tupelo, Mississippi• Moved to Memphis 1948• Wide range of influences• Vanity record for mama• Marion Keisker

Elvis (cont.)• Callback was an audition and recording• Starlite Wranglers

– Scotty Moore (guitar)– Bill Black (bass)

Ex: Elvis Presley – “That’s All Right” (1954)– Dewey Phillips

Elvis (cont.)• “That’s All Right” needed a B-sideEx: Bill Monroe – “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1946)Ex: Elvis Presley – “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1954)

• Sold 20,000 as a local record• Sun trend of having an R&B and country side• 10 Elvis singles, each sells more than last• R&B or country?

Slapback echo

• Regularly used by Sam Phillips• Recording is played back right away for a

quick, single echo

Ex: Elvis Presley – “Blue Moon” (1954)• Pop aesthetic, vulnerable vocals

Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-)• Sun’s other big star• Wild man of rock ‘n’ roll• Piano master

Ex: Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (1957)

Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

• One of the most influential country singers• Other genres• “Original gangsta rapper” – Snoop Dogg

Ex: Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues” (1957)