Jazz In America

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Jazz In America

• Lesson 7 Avant Garde / Free Jazz Fusion

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Avant Garde/Free JazzReaction to Cool and Hard
Bop

• 1959-1970
• Free Jazz was a reaction to everything that
  happened before it
• Swing, Bebop, Cool, Hard Bop were based on
  predetermined chord progressions, standard forms,
  and choruses
• Free Jazz was not

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Avant Garde/Free JazzReaction to Cool and Hard
Bop

• Free Jazz musicians freed themselves from these
  constraints, improvising solely on the emotion
  of the moment
• Traditional values of melody, harmony, rhythm
  were discarded, providing more freedom for the
  soloist
• The idea of what jazz was supposed to be (and
  even what music was supposed to be) were laid
  to the wayside

4
Avant Garde/Free JazzReaction to Cool and Hard
Bop

• Free Jazz allowed for the exploration of new
  tonal colors, sounds, and emotions
• From its earliest roots, jazz has been related to
  and represented the freedom
• To explore new musical horizons
• To improvise in unorthodox ways
• From the musical past
• From traditional melodies
• From common practice scales, chords, rhythms

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Avant Garde/Free JazzReaction to Cool and Hard
Bop

• Pushed the limits of what musicians could play
  what audiences would accept
• Widened the emotional and expressive parameters
  of jazz
• Became even more Afro-centric than Hard Bop
  became modern by returning to the primitive

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Avant Garde/Free JazzPerformance Practices

• Size and instrumentation was more varied
• Music was not based on traditional chords, forms,
  or structures
• Music was atonal
• Atonal lacking tonality not based on an
  accepted, somewhat predictable series of notes
  and chords

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Avant Garde/Free JazzPerformance Practices

• Concept of pitch and intonation varied with each
  musical experience
• Use of rhythm was highly varied, often with no
  steady pulse

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Avant Garde/Free JazzOrnette Coleman
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Avant Garde/Free JazzArt Ensemble of Chicago
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FusionJazz Musicians Fuse Jazz Rock

• 1969-1990
• Rapid maturation of rock during this time, jazz
  rock were ripe for a merger
• Experimentation with electronic instruments, rock
  rhythms, long vamps, and rock riffs
• Sophistication virtuosity of jazz w/ raw power
  emotion of rock

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FusionReaction to Free Jazz

• Musicians resented art-for-arts-sake attitude
  of Free Jazz
• Fusion appealed to a broader spectrum of tastes
• Fusion strived to reach and affect its audience

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FusionReaction to Free Jazz

• Free Jazz was cerebral Fusion was physical
• Free Jazz was acoustic Fusion was electric
• Bitches Brew Miles Davis landmark album that
  launched Fusion

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FusionPerformance Practices

• Size and instrumentation varied
• Jazz Instruments trumpet, saxophone, acoustic
  bass
• Rock Instruments electric guitar, electric bass,
  keyboards synthesizers
• Groups often employed multiple electronic
  keyboard players percussionists

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FusionPerformance Practices

• Utilized amplification, synthesizers, reverb,
  distortion effects, and other electronic devices
• Characterized by collective improv, high energy,
  heavy drama, long compositions/performances
• Repertoire was almost exclusively original
  material
• Combined with other musical elements from funk,
  soul, and (especially) Latin

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FusionImportant Figures

• Miles Davis, Trumpet
• Weather Report
• Herbie Hancock, Piano
• Chick Corea, Piano
• John McLaughlin, Electric Guitar
• Jaco Pastorius, Electric Bass

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Smooth Jazz

• 1970 Today
• A simpler, more listenable commercial style of
  music
• Fuses jazz with black pop songs, blues, RB,
  soul, funk, rock, etc.
• Main focus sell recordings
• Many pop jazz performers are excellent straight
  jazz players
• Less sophisticated than other forms feel good
  emotional content

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Smooth Jazz

• George Benson, Guitar
• Dave Grusin, Piano
• David Sanborn, Alto Sax
• Spyro Gyra
• Grover Washington, Saxophones

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Cultural ImplicationsAvant Garde/Free Jazz

• Jazz musicians remained at the forefront
• From its roots, jazz has been about freedom Free
  Jazz is a direct outgrowth of this
• Jazz was transformed because of the world around
  it
• Social trauma, civil tumult, cultural
  behavioral changes, drugs, W of MD

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Cultural ImplicationsAvant Garde/Free Jazz

• Arts were transformed
• Free verse poetry, abstract art, circular novels,
  modern dance, Free Jazz
• Free Jazz fit into a post WWII world, filled with
  questioning of behavior, art, order, and even
  reality
• Reflected a growing movement towards Afro-centric
  spirituality

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Cultural ImplicationsAvant Garde/Free Jazz

• Reflected both black pride and black anger
• Use of dissonant harmonies, simple chant-like
  tunes
• Able to express a vulnerability and fragility
  that black political militants could not express

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Cultural ImplicationsFusion

• Developed in the late 60s out of the most
  confusing and pessimistic time for jazz and
  American Society
• Was the stage for new cultural roles in jazz
  brought on by Americans search for meaning in
  their lives
• Against communism, North Vietnam, poverty
• For civil rights, racial equality, and the
  American Dream

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Cultural ImplicationsFusion

• Americas faith in progress shaken
• Continuous images of bloodshed, waste, corruption
• Postwar feelings of affluence, righteousness, and
  liberal progress were thwarted
• America responded to societys strife by turning
  inward, giving rise to the me generation
• Music became a vehicle for Americans search for
  satisfaction
• Music styles reflected Americas various
  sub-cultures no longer a shared experience

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Cultural ImplicationsFusion

• Smooth Jazz was associated with the
  uncommitted, private, detached lifestyles of a
  1970s fragmented mass public
• New cultural trends took the urgency and protest
  out of music many social revolutions that began
  in the 60s were continued and realized
• Fusion would be heard in movies and TV shows

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Jazz Education

• 1970s people became more aware of Jazzs
  importance to Americas history and culture
• Jazz has become increasingly legitimized in
  formal academia
• University jazz studies programs proliferated in
  the 1970s, 80s, 90s
• Jazz is practiced side by side with classical
  music
• You can earn bachelors, masters, and doctoral
  degrees in jazz studies

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Jazz Education

• Because jazz encompasses so many musical styles,
  the study of jazz provides practical training for
  budding professional musicians
• Joint Houses of Congress passed a resolution
  declaring jazz an American National Treasure
  jazz education has henceforth been considered
  American art education