NEW ORLEANS JAZZ AND DIXIELAND 1910 - 1940

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NEW ORLEANS JAZZAND DIXIELAND1910 - 1940
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New Orleans Jazz

• 1890s in New Orleans
• The first black jazz bands were large marching
  bands called upon to play for funeral processions
  and Mardi Gras

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• James Reese Europe
• One of the most influential American musicians of
  the early 20th century

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James Reese Europe1881-1919

• Violin student of Enrico Hurlei, Asst. Dir. U.S.
  Marine Band
• 1904 - directed music for several all-black shows
• 1910 - organized more than 100 black musicians
  into the Clef Club
• 1913, 1914 - recorded for RCA Victor

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James Reese Europe

• Called The Paderewski of syncopation
• Emergence of the Fox Trot
• Europe enlisted in the 15th New York Regiment
  (the 369th Infantry) in 1917
• The Hell Fighters
• Recruited black musicians, trained them, wrote
  music for them, and went to Europe

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James Reese Europe

• A multiple function band
• Marching and drilling
• Evening concerts
• hymns
• dances
• The players introduced complex rhythms and
  idiosyncratic articulation

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James Reese Europe

• Paris, August, 1918
• Theatre des Champs-Elysees
• Tuileries Gardens - 50,000 people
• Now called the 369th U.S. Infantry Jazz Band,
  they returned to America
• The Band that Played the Hell Fighters on to
  Victory

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369th Hell Fighters Band

• The Band that Set all France JAZZ MAD
• Activities in U.S.
• Manhattan Opera House concert
• 24 discs for Pathe
• Tour of the Unites States

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• May 9, 1919, Europe was stabbed to death by
  Herbert Wright, one of his drummers

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Castle House Rag

• Europes Society Orchestra, Febr. 10, 1914
• Europe organized the Clef Club, a sort of union
  and fraternity
• Europe came to national attention with the
  release of 4 Victor records through Vernon and
  Irene Castle
• This composition is not a rag, but rather a Trot
  and One-Step

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Castle Walk

• Composed by Europe and Ford T. Dabney
• Febr. 10, 1914
• Instrumentation includes
• Banjos, mandolins, violins, clarinet, cornet,
  traps, and drums

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Memphis Blues

• March 7, 1919composed by W.C. Handy and W. George
  Norton
• Illustrates improvisation (or hot) playing by a
  large band

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The Storyville District

• A district created in 1898 by Alderman Sidney
  Story outside of which prostitution would be
  prohibited
• Music was constantly heard throughout the
  district
• At its peak, Storyville employed
• 2200 prostitutes
• 70 professional gamblers
• 30 piano players
• And had as many as 230 houses

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The Storyville District

• The experiment was very successful, but the
  district was closed by the federal government in
  1917 and all the buildings were demolished
• The new Storyville district recaptures the
  architecture and atmosphere of the original

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Dixieland

• Dixieland Instrumentation included
• Cornets or trumpets
• Clarinets
• tailgate trombones
• Tubas, banjos, and drums
• Smaller groups formed to play in bars in
  Storyville

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Collective Improvisation

• Dixieland came from these bands but the rhythm
  section might include a string bass and piano
  instead of tuba
• Collective improvisation is the essence of
  Dixieland
• The three lead instruments (the horns) improvise
  contrapuntal melodies over the steady beat of the
  rhythm section

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Dixieland

• Followed certain patterns and formulas
• The beat is in flat-four (4/4 time)
• Early masters include
• Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson, Freddie Keppard
• The term Dixieland came into use in the 1920s

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Original Dixieland Jass Band

• Band members
• Nick LaRocca, trumpet
• Larry Shields, clarinet
• Eddie Edwards, trombone
• Tony Sbarbaro, drums
• Henry Ragas, piano

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Dominic Nick LaRocca 1889-1961

• Claimed to have invented jazz
• Formed the ODJB in New Orleans in 1914
• They called themselves Americas First Jazz Band
• The band came to Chicago under the name Steins
  Dixie Jass Band
• Name changed to the Original Dixieland Jass Band
  in 1917
• LaRocca retired from music after 1938 and became
  a building contractor in New Orleans

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Firsts

• FIRST ever jazz record made by this band for
  Columbia and Victor Records in 1917!
• RESPONSIBLE for securing the name "jazz" (music
  style name) as we know it today!  (In 1917 the
  ODJB was responsible for securing the musical
  term JAZZ as a musical definition term.  Prior to
  the ODJB recording the music of the time was
  known as Ragtime and many other style names but
  not jazz.  There were three or four other groups
  that used the name jass within their band name
  dating back to 1914, but the term was used more
  in general language slang and was not used to
  describe a musical style until the ODJB secured
  it with their recording in 1917.)
• FIRST jazz band to sell over 1.5 million Victrola
  records worldwide within the year of its release!
  (This event introduced millions of people
  worldwide to JAZZ for the very first time.)
• FIRST jazz band to travel to Europe in 1919!
• FIRST jazz band to appear in a motion picture!
  ("The Good For Nothing", 1917 Peerless
  Productions, Distributed by World Pictures,
  Directed by Carlyle Blackwell and Produced by
  William Brady.)
• FIRST jazz band ever to perform for US servicemen
  during WWI!

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Dixieland

• The OriginalDixielandJass Band
• Billed themselves as the originators of Jazz
• The recordingLivery Stable Blues, coupled
  with Dixie Jass Band One Step was the first
  Jazz record ever released (February 26, 1917) for
  the Victor Talking Machine Company

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Buddy Bolden

• Often called the first jazz musician
• Born in 1877
• Formed a band in 1895
• Placed in an institution in 1907
• Died in 1931
• No recordings

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• King Oliver, who joined Keppard in Chicago, made
  the first major impact in the North

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Joe King Oliver1885 - 1938

• Born in New Orleans
• 1899 joined a boys brass band (cornet)
• 1901 blinded in one eye
• 1907 lead cornetist
• Melrose Brass Band
• Magnolia Band
• Eagle Band

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King Oliver

• Mentor and teacher to Louis Armstrong
• 1917, when Storyville closed down,
• Oliver joined Bill Johnson in Chicago
• 1921 he went to California and played with
• Kid Ory (San Francisco)
• Jelly Roll Morton (LA)
• His own band (Oakland)

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The Creole Jazz Band

• 1922 returned to Chicago
• Sent for Louis Armstrong to fill out in his most
  famous band
• The combination of Oliver and Armstrong
• The band became the envy of the jazz world
• First successful recordings by a black jazz band

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The Worlds Greatest Jazz Cornetist

• Oliver billed himself
• His new band, the Dixie Syncopators recorded a
  series of Race records for Vocalion
• Deadman Blues, West End Blues
• Oliver turned down a contract at The Cotton Club
  (Duke Ellington accepted)
• Oliver cut his last record for Victor in 1931

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King Oliver

• Toured the South
• Victimized
• Bus breakdowns and accidents
• Caught in a blizzard in West VA
• Oliver suffered from
• Musical disappointments
• pyorrhea
• High blood pressure

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King Oliver

• Could not afford medical treatment
• Ran a fruit stand
• Became a janitor for a pool hall
• Died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 8, 1938
• Swing was now king

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Sidney Bechet 1897-1959

• Choice of unusual instrument the soprano
  saxophone
• Timbre
• Vibrato
• Born in New Orleans in 1897
• Musical family
• Opera
• instruments

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Sidney Bechet

• Age 6 - clarinet lessons
• Teenager - played with
• Bunk Johnson
• Louis Armstrong
• King Oliver
• Freddie Keppard
• Could not read music

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Sidney Bechet

• Greatest New Orleans reed man
• Became a star in France
• Europe in 1919
• Joined Ellington in 1932, tutored Johnny Hodges
• Southern Taylor Shop in Harlem
• Opened a music school in Brooklyn after the war
  1951 France
• Married the third time
• Life mag.

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Blue Horizon - 1944 SCCJ 1-11

• The band
• Clarinet - Sidney Bechet
• Trumpet - Sidney De Paris
• Trombone - Vic Dickenson
• Piano - Art Hodes
• Bass - George Pops Foster
• Drums - Manzie Johnson
• Recorded by the Bluenote Jazzmen, 12/44

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Blue Horizon

• .00 Slow blues tempo the snare drum is played
  with the brushes the clarinet plays in the low
  register with a wide vibrato the piano can be
  heard in the background.
• .42 2nd chorus the trombone responds to the
  clarinet.
• 1.25 3rd chorus A new melodic idea using large
  intervals is introduced other horns provide a
  slow Dixie-like texture.
• 2.08 4th chorus The piano plays a tremolo the
  clarinet moves to a higher register.
• 2.53 5th chorus Blue notes are emphasized in
  the solo.
• 3.35 6th chorus The clarinet plays in the
  extreme high register a heavy, driving beat is
  supplied by the drums and the pipano the
  trombone continues responding this is the most
  climatic chorus.
• 4.13 Ending.
• 4.20 End.

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Edward Kid Ory 1886-1973

• Creole
• Homemade instruments
• Picnics
• Employed the greats in his band
• King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong
• LA after WWI
• Chicago in 1924
• LA in 1929

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Kid Ory on Trombone

• 1945 Time The Kid Comes Back
• Movies
• Struttin with Some Barbeque
• The Band
• Cornet - Louis Armstrong
• Trombone - Kid Ory
• Clarinet - Johnny Dodds
• Piano - Lil Armstrong
• Banjo - Johnny St. Cyr

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Struttin with Some Barbeque SCCJ 1-15

• .00 Introduction, the verse of the song cornet
  takes the lead, all others accompany with
  collective improvisation.
• .14 Beginning of the main melody, the chorus, or
  principal strain.
• .34 2nd chorus.
• .52 Banjo fill.
• .54 Clarinet solo, low register, melody is
  structured around main chordal notes banjo plays
  a flat-four pattern.
• 1.11 Solo break.
• 1.13 Trombone solo flat-four banjo with accents
  on 2nd and 4th beats of each measure the piano
  plays only on the accented beats.

• 1.30 Solo break for the trombone.
• 1.33 Cornet solo with chords on only the 2nd and
  4th beat5s of each measure (stop time), a
  different feeling to solo over.
• 1.50 Double-time fill (solo break).
• 2.03 Cornet plays a ragtime melody pattern.
• 2.10 Syncopated tutti rhythm.
• 2.15 Collective improvisation over a flat-four
  banjo part.
• 2.33 Banjo fill.
• 2.45 Syncopated tutti rhythm returns and becomes
  softer until the ending.
• 2.59 End.

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Additional Listening

• Jelly Roll Mortons Red Hot Peppers
• Granhpas Spells SCCJ 1-8
• Dead Man Blues SCCJ 1-7
• Black Bottom Stomp SCCJ 1-6
• Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra
• I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues SCCJ 1-20
• Bix Beiderbecke (Frankie Trumbauer and His
  Orchestra)
• Riverboat Shuffle SCCJ 1-22
• Singin the Blues SCCJ 1-21