The History of Jazz

1
The History of Jazz

• Americas original art form

2
Jazz Music

• Originated in the 1920s in New Orleans
• Characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing,
  call and response, and improvisation
• Picture is of Bourbon Street in New Orleans

3
Origins of jazz

• West African Folk Music
• European Classical Form and Harmonies
• New Orleans Marching Bands
• The Blues
• Influences of other styles of modern music

4
Jazz Instruments
5
Styles ( Eras) Of Jazz Music

• 1880s to 1910
• 1910-1920
• 1920-1945
• 1943-1952
• 1955-1969
• 1970-1986
• 1987-present

6
Ragtime Music

• 1897 Harlem Rag
• 1899 Maple Leaf Rag
• 1902 The Entertainer
• 1906 Frog Legs Rag
• 1919 Bohemia Rag

• Tom Turpin
• Scott Joplin
• James Scott
• Joseph Lamb

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Ragtime Music

• 1897 starts the influence of Ragtime
• Ragtime predated the availability of sound
  recordings so its popularity was by word of
  mouth.
• Was distributed by sheet music

• With industrialization, railroad construction its
  popularity quickly spread
• Piano rolls and player pianos play an important
  role with ragtime music

8
Ragtime Music

• Invention of the phonograph helped spread ragtime
  music and helped the music industry
• Stride piano is an important aspect of Ragtime
  music that had a direct influence on modern music
  today

• Primarily written for piano but towards the mid
  1910s, some songs were arranged for different
  ensembles thus leading the way into Dixieland
  music

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Styles of Ragtime Music

• Cakewalk-popular in 1904, music is intended to
  represent of dance contests where the prize is a
  cake
• Two-Step-Popular in 1911, dance craze that was
  popular in the early 1900s

• Ragtime Song- version of ragtime music that was
  influential to Irving Berlin, American composer,
  influential in early Hollywood and Broadway

10
Styles of Ragtime Music

• Classic Rag- Style made popular by Scot Joplin,
  main style of ragtime music
• Fox-Trot- dance style started in 1913, became
  popular in 1920s

• Stride Piano- emerged after WW1 fast paced moving
  bass line, direct influence on early Rock Roll

11
Ragtime Revivals

• 1950s better recording devices were invented so
  older songs were recorded on record and published
  causing a revival in popularity
• 1970s- Joshua Rifkin recorded a series of Scott
  Joplin music and won a Grammy, re-introduced
  Joplins music to the public
• New York Public Library released a 2 volume set
  of Scott Joplin music which introduced a new
  audience to his music
• 1974- the movie The Sting staring Robert Redford
  and Paul Newman used Scott Joplin songs as its
  theme songs.

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Scott Joplin

• Father Of Ragtime
• 1899 Maple Leaf Rag
• Most Famous Ragtime Song
• 1902 The Entertainer

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Scott Joplin

• Best known ragtime musician and composer
• Father of Ragtime music
• 1891-Part of a minstrel troupe
• 1895 started selling his music

• Worked as a pianist in Maple Leaf and Black 400
  gentlemen clubs
• 1899 Sold his most famous piece Maple Leaf Rag to
  John Stark
• Boosted his popularity and made ragtime famous
• Treemonisha- opera based on ragtime music

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The Maple Leaf Rag

• Named after a bar Joplin worked at in Sedalia
  Missouri
• ragtime's biggest hit
• The success of the Maple Leaf Rag sparked a
  nationwide ragtime craze.

• 1899 Publication of the Maple Leaf Rag
• becomes a nationwide best-seller
• 1903 The first recording of Maple Leaf Rag is
  made, in Minneapolis

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The Entertainer

• 1902 The Entertainer
• Featured in the 1973 movie the sting featuring
  Paul Newman and Robert Redford

• Helped to launch a ragtime revival which
  increased the popularity of ragtime music
• Song influenced John Williams to write the
  cantina song in Star Wars

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Joseph Lamb

• Influential Composer
• 1908 Met Joplin
• 1908 Sensation
• 1919 Bohemia Rag

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Joseph Lamb

• White influential ragtime musician and composer
• Self taught musician
• Big fan and influenced by Joplin
• 1908- New York, was purchasing Scott Joplin music
  in record store when he met Scott Joplin
• Introduced to John Stark

• Lambs music was published for the next decade
• 1908- Sensation
• 1914- Cleopatra Nightingale
• 1919 Bohemia Rag
• When popularity of Ragtime faded, decided to work
  as an accountant
• 1950s revival had him come out of retirement and
  start performing again

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James Scott

• 1902 worked for Charles Dumars and met Joplin
• 1903 A summer Breeze
• 1906 Frog Legs Rag

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James Scott

• One of the big three composers of ragtime music
• Born in Neosho Missouri
• 1902 worked in music store of Charles Dumars as
  menial labor
• Showed musical ability so Dumars published his
  music
• A Summer Breeze in 1903
• 1906 moved to St. Louis
• Met Scott Joplin and John Stark

• 1906 Frog Legs Rag
• 1914 moved to Kansas City
• Married, taught music, directed theater orchestra
• Talking movies began so he lost his first
  fortune. Wife died, bad health
• Continued to compose until Starks retirement in
  1922

20
Tom Turpin

• Father of St. Louis Ragtime
• 1896 Harlem Rag
• First Politically Powerful African Americans in
  St. Louis

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Tom Turpin

• Ragtime composer and businessman
• Opened saloon in St. Louis which became a meeting
  place for musicians
• First African American to publish a ragtime song
  Harlem Rag in 1897
• Other famous song was St. Louis Rag

• Owned several businesses in St. Louis, theater,
  saloons, gambling houses
• Was a deputy sheriff and one of the first
  politically powerful African Americans in St.
  Louis.
• His influence on local music earned him the
  nickname Father of St. Louis Ragtime.

22
John Starks

• Was the publisher of the most famous ragtime
  composition from the 1900s-1920s
• Money he earned by publishing Maple Leaf Rag
  enabled him to increase his publishing company
• Moved from Sedalia Missouri to St. Louis and
  finally to New York
• He and Scott Joplin moved together

• One of the first music Promoters and Advertisers
• persistently challenged the musical (and racial)
  prejudices that prevented true ragtime from
  receiving its due.
• Competed against Tin Pan Alley Producers

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Tin Pan Alley
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Tin Pan Alley

• Was the popular music publishing center of the
  world from around 1885 to the 1920's
• Before it was established, publishers were
  scattered all over the country
• these early publishers played important roles in
  the printing and distribution of sheet music.
  Most music publishers also published church
  music, music instruction books, study pieces and
  classical items for home and school use.

• After the Civil War, people started to play the
  piano.
• By 1887 500,00 young Americans were learning the
  piano
• The demand for sheet music was great.
• Publishers decided to consolidate in New York.
• New York was becoming a cultural center in the
  United States.
• Performers lived there, music thrived there,
  musical trends happened there

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Tin Pan Alley

• Thomas B. Harms (Harms, Inc. started in 1881)
• Isadore Witmark. M. Witmark Sons published
  their first sheet music I'll Answer That Question
  Tomorrow in 1885.
• Soon every major music publisher in America had a
  presence in what would become Tin Pan Alley
• Irving Berlin, Inc., Remick Music Co., Robbins
  Music Corp, and E. B. Marks Music Company

• These visionaries concentrated almost exclusively
  on popular music, and the key to their success
  was their use of market research to select music
  and the use of aggressive marketing techniques to
  sell the product.
• Song composers were hired under contract giving
  the publisher exclusive rights to popular
  composer's works

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Tin Pan Alley

• The market was surveyed to determine what style
  of song was selling best
• Then the composers were directed to compose in
  that style.
• a song was actually tested with both performers
  and listeners to determine which would be
  published and which would go to the trash bin

• music was becoming an industry more than an art
• Song pluggers (performers who worked in music
  shops playing the latest releases,) were hired
• Performers were persuaded to play the new songs
  in their acts to give the music exposure to the
  public

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Tin Pan Alley

• 28th street between 5th Avenue and Broadway. This
  street (28th) became known as "Tin Pan Alley.
• the first to establish themselves in the area
  known as Tin Pan Alley was most probably Leo
  Feist, a corset salesman who had a penchant for
  writing catchy lyrics

• In 1897 Feist rented a room at 1227 Broadway and
  with a piano and a partner began the music
  publication business with his first song, Does
  True Love Ever Run Smooth.
• The name symbolizes the sound of the many pianos
  being pounded in publisher's rooms which was
  characterized as sounding as though hundreds of
  people were pounding on tin pans.

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Tin Pan Alley

• vaudeville replaced the minstrel show as the most
  popular form of stage entertainment
• enormous amounts of money were to be made from
  the sale of songs popularized by these shows
• In the first two decades of its existence, Tin
  Pan Alley produced a succession of songs,
  remarkable from a commercial standpoint and for
  their endurance in American culture.

• Large numbers of songs from this period became
  widely known and are a part of our traditions
  even today.
• Give My Regards To Broadway (1904), Shine on
  Harvest Moon (1908,), Down by the Old Mill Stream
  (1910) and Let Me Call You Sweetheart

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Tin Pan Alley

• The lyrics of music from this period suggest that
  the USA was a peaceful, happy and prosperous
  place.
• The many songs about the past describe warm
  memories of happy and innocent times in rural or
  small town settings.
• The persistent image of one of the happiest and
  least troubled times in American history has been
  derived largely from these songs.
• Compare those images to today's music which is
  mostly in an urban setting with very disturbing
  and violent images.

• Tin Pan Alley was not about love peace and
  happiness, it was about selling songs.
• There were no altruistic desires on the part of
  the publishers to solve the problems of society
  nor were they attempting to create a happy world
• provide musical entertainment that allowed people
  to escape the realities of the hardships of life
  and their own life's troubles.

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Tin Pan Alley

• the publishers of Tin Pan Alley not only
  established an industry that continues in grand
  tradition but they also are responsible for the
  beautiful music and covers we enjoy today
• what remains of Tin Pan Alley was put up for sale
  and the buildings will most probably be razed to
  make way for "progress."

• The buildings, at 47, 49, 51, 53 and 55 West 28th
  Street, are being sold as a group for - hold on
  to your hat in these cacophonous economic times -
  a mere 44 million."

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The Minstrel Show
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The Minstrel Show

• a theatrical entertainment consisting of songs,
  dances, comic turns, etc., performed by a troupe
  of actors wearing black face make-up
• troupe, company - organization of performers and
  associated personnel
• corner man, end man - a man at one end of line of
  performers in a minstrel show carries on
  humorous dialogue with the interlocutor

• interlocutor, middleman - the performer in the
  middle of a minstrel line who engages the others
  in talk
• minstrel - a performer in a minstrel show

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The Minstrel Show

• The most popular musical stage shows of the early
  and mid 19th Century,
• In the US they began in the 1840s
• Both white and black performers donned blackface,
  and audiences of all colors loved it.
• minstrel shows were the first form of musical
  theatre that was 100 American-born and bred.

• performing songs and skits that sentimentalized
  the nightmare of slave life on Southern
  plantations
• By the end of the Civil War the minstrel show had
  become world famous and respectable
• Between 1750 and 1843, over 5,000 theater and
  circus productions included blackface.

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The Minstrel Show

• Some of the most famous songs in American
  history--Dixie, Camp town Races, Oh Susannah, My
  Old Kentucky Home--began as minstrel songs.
• Thomas "Daddy" Rice caused a nationwide sensation
  by donning burnt cork to perform the song "Jump
  Jim Crow" on stage.
• "Jim Crow" turned out to be more than a popular
  song. It became the name of one of minstrelsy's
  stock comedy characters, and a by-word for
  legalized racial oppression.

• three stock characters were among several that
  reappeared in minstrel shows throughout the
  nineteenth century.
• "Jim Crow" was the stereotypical carefree slave
• "Mr. Tambo" a joyous musician,
• Zip Coon" a free black attempting to "put on
  airs" or rise above his station

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The Minstrel Show
36
The Minstrel Show

• Dan Emmett, Frank Bower, Frank Pelham and Billy
  Whitlock became the first troupe to offer a full
  evening of blackface variety entertainment.
• Most historians mark this production as the
  beginning of minstrelsy.

• Most of the entertainment was improvised
• They insulted each other, they baited each other,
  they made mincemeat of the language, they took
  the audience into their fun, and, in one night,
  they added a new form to show business in America

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The Minstrel Show

• in the twentieth century, several of the most
  famous minstrels were actually black me who wore
  makeup--the most famous being Bert Williams, who
  performed in blackface into the 1920s.
• The first talking picture, "The Jazz Singer,"
  (1927) was a blackface film

• Minstrel shows continued to be popular well into
  the 1950s,
• High schools, fraternities and local theater
  groups would often perform minstrel shows in
  blackface.
• It became unpopular as African Americans
  asserted more political power in the 1950s.

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The Minstrel Show

• The long-running radio series Amos n' Andy
  featured two white actors impersonating
  contemporary black characters that were direct
  descendants of "Zip Coon" and "Jim Crow.
• Stephen Foster- American song writer of Camp town
  Races," "My Old Kentucky Home," "O Susanna

• Minstrel star Dan Emmett composed the unofficial
  Southern anthem "Dixie.
• George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin.
• Al Jolson- most famous actor who got his start in
  a minstrel show
• Jolson immortalized blackface in several films,
  including the talking landmark The Jazz Singer
  (1928).

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The Minstrel Show

• Jolson said that blackface gave him the emotional
  freedom he needed to take risks as a performer
• In the first half of the 20th Century, he was
  billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer
• last star of minstrelsy
• legend in vaudeville,

• Al Jolson had dozens of top selling recordings
• Became the first talking film star
• Was a popular presence on network radio.

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The Minstrel Show

• The bizarre minstrel show might be easier to
  understand in modern terms.
• Think of white rappers, or white rock musicians
  who play blues-derived music.
• When they imitate black musicians, are they
  expressing admiration, or are they just stealing?
  

• Are they sincerely trying to come to some
  understanding of cultural difference, or are they
  just engaging in minstrel parody without the make
  up
• Similarly, are black musicians who play to a
  predominantly white audience, particularly those
  produced by Sean "Puffy" Combs, doing something
  similar to what Bert Williams did?

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Vaudeville

• In the 1880s after the Industrial Revolution,
  people started to concentrate in cities and towns
  instead of rural communities
• Looking for higher paying jobs and more
  opportunities of success
• Worked hard and long hours and wanted to be
  entertained after hours
• variety shows were too coarse for women or
  children to attend,

• minstrel shows were already declining in
  popularity
• In a world where phonographs, film, radio and
  television did not yet exist, something new was
  needed to fill the gap.
• Vaudeville also tried to bridge a social gap that
  had divided American audiences
• Vaudeville was developed by entrepreneurs seeking
  higher profits from a wider audience.

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Vaudeville

• Tony Pastor-Invented Vaudeville in 1881
• music and comedy" designed for family audiences
• Pastor showcased the finest talents on the
  variety stage, giving crucial opportunities to
  future stars
• Pastor never expanded beyond his small theatre
  near Union Square.

• A place families could call home for their
  entertainment
• Pastor's "clean" variety show was an instant
  success, drawing an enthusiastic audience from
  all age groups and classes including some of
  the most influential people in New York. 

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Vaudeville

• Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward F Albee made a
  quick fortune with unauthorized productions of
  Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
• started build a chain of ornate theatres across
  the northeastern United States
• they instituted a policy of continuous multiple
  daily performances, which they called
  "vaudeville."

• vaudeville spread through the United States,
  major theatre chains or circuits were built
• By 1907 Vaudeville was earning 30 million a year
  
• A successful act toured for forty or more weeks a
  year, doing "one nighters," split-weeks or weekly
  stands depending on a theatres size

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Vaudeville

• In 1919, when the average factory worker earned
  less than 1,300, a small time circuit performer
  playing a forty-two week season at 75 per week
  earned 3,150 a year.
• The most celebrated vaudeville house of the early
  1900s was New York's Victoria

• The Orpheum Circuit- The Palace Theatre
• An act could be anything that was inoffensive and
  entertaining. A performer's gender, race and
  appearance were no barrier to success,
• While singers and dancers were part of every
  bill, the specialty acts set vaudeville apart

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Vaudeville

• mind readers
• instrumentalists
• escape artists
• flash acts - any "showy" act boasting its own
  lavish set, a large chorus, special effects, etc.
  
• high divers

• quick-change artists
• strong men
• living statuary
• contortionists
• balancing acts
• freak acts - anyone acting crazy or silly -
  eccentric dancers, etc.

46
Vaudeville

• Houdini
• Hadji Ali would swallow water kerosene, then
  spew kerosene onto open flames, followed by the
  water to put the flames out. Not pretty, but
  audiences were fascinated.
• W.C. Fields
• Will Rogers
• Babe Ruth

• Douglas Fairbanks
• Judy Garland
• George Burns
• Abbot Costello
• The Three Stooges
• Kate Smith
• Mickey Rooney

47
Vaudeville

• As stars got more popular they went on to bigger
  projects
• Movies started to gain popularity
• audiences tastes changed and vaudeville theaters
  started to change over to movie theaters
• 1930s talking movies
• Great Depression

• vaudeville singers and comics found a new home on
  radio, where "variety shows" offered something
  like audio vaudeville
• Vaudeville led to the immergence of family
  friendly entertainment on radio, television, and
  movies
• Ed Sullivan Show
• Leave it to beaver
• Carol Burnet show
• Vaudeville was precursor to Broadway and Motion
  Pictures

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TOBA

• Theater Owners and Booking Agency
• Black version of Vaudeville
• vaudeville had black and white performers sharing
  the same stage as early as the 1890s
• Most southern states did not allow blacks and
  whites to sit in the same theatre

• the only venues below the Mason-Dixon Line that
  welcomed "colored" customers in the early part of
  the 20th Century
• offered all-black bills for all-black audiences
• It was the only way they could reach the
  appreciative black audiences of the deep South

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Mason Dixon Line
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TOBA

• Ethel Waters - who went on to Broadway and film
  stardom
• Ma Rainey - jazz vocalist
• Bert Williams - Ziegfeld Follies star
• Bessie Smith - jazz vocalist
• Bill "Bojangles"Robinson - tap dance legend
• Many jazz artists got their start in TOBA

• black audiences saw the same kinds of acts found
  in standard vaudeville
• Faded in popularity due to the Great Depression

51
Jim Crow Laws

• 1865- Period called reconstruction Government
  provided civil right protection for African
  Americans
• 1877- End of reconstruction and withdraw of
  federal troops from the south
• Legislature of the south passed the Jim Crow Laws
• Prohibited African Americans from using same
  facilities as whites
• Supported racial segregation

• Jim Crow comes from minstrel song called Jump Jim
  Crow written in 1828 performed by Thomas
  Dartmouth Daddy Rice
• 1896-Plessy vs. Ferguson-resulted in 58 years of
  legal discrimination
• 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education - Thurgood
  Marshal
• 1954- Supreme court overturned Plessy vs Ferguson
• 1964-Modern Civil Rights Act