Education
Music 271: 4/25/07I: The Blues: A: Form:• Solo vocalist accompanied by a guitar, small jazz ensemble, Big Band, guitar based ensembles, etc.• Sing the blues is to get rid of the blues• Most of the early singers were men from the south• 1920s: African-American women singers of the blues began their rise• Twelve-Bar Blues: Strophic forms usually in 5-6 stanzas (most vocal, at least one instrumental in many instances)• Three four-measure phrases: A - A’ - B• A: 2mm (I) + 2 mm (I) Singer → Instrument Call Response• A’: 2mm (IV) + 2mm (I)• B: 2mm (V) + 2mm (I)• Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith were among the first blues singers B: Role of call and response: C: The multiple opportunities for Signifyin’:II: Compositions surveying Jazz to c1945:• c1900-c1925: New Orleans Jazz• Outdoors: Parades• Celebratory Parades: (Political campaigns, Social clubs, Saints’ days, and other religious occasions)• Funereal Parades: (Dirges and hymns prior to internment, Jazz numbers after internment)• Dances: (Two-step (Ragtime’s Dance), Fox and other “Trots”)• Indoors: Dances• A: The New Orleans Parade Band: “Lord, lord, lord”: the Olympia Brass Band:B: New Orleans Jazz in Chicago: Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five: “West End Blues”: Jazz went up the IC railroad, not the Miss. riverC: The Duke Ellington Orchestra: “Old Man Blues”:III: Crawford’s discussion of developments in Jazz after WWII:• Ch. 30: p.390• Louis Armstrong: Did more to alter Jazz history than any other player, focused on the improvisation, expanded the range of the trumpet above the treble staff• Introduced Scat singing, but did not invent it: nonsense syllables in place of words• Late 1920s - beginning of 1940s, Jazz evolves into the Big Band style• Centers of Jazz became New York and Kansas City, Missouri• KC: Count Bassie• NY: Duke Ellington Orchestra - wrote pieces to feature individual players in his band, wrote over 1000 pieces•