Jazz Age and the Swing Era

1
Jazz Age and the Swing Era

• Big Bands and Swing Dancing!

2
Listening

• 1 Listen to the following songs from the
  Jazz/Swing era. What is your first response to
  what you hear? What do you think about this
  music?

3
Introductory Video

• 2 View the introductory video to the Jazz Age.
  List 3 main points of interest from the video.
• A.
• B.
• C.

4
Information

• 3 Why do you think jazz music became so
  popular after WWI?
• In the 1920s, jazz spread rapidly all across
  America. The rise of jazz was part of a new,
  postWorld War I optimism
• a prevailing sense that something new was
  happening, that America was finally breaking from
  European culture and coming into its own.
• Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald called the new era
  the Jazz Age.

5
Information

• 4 Describe Louis Armstrongs playing and vocal
  style.
• A very wide note range on his trumpet
• Brilliant tone
• Graceful, intense and passionate melodies
• Raspy singing voice and relaxed use of language
  in his singing.

6
Information

• 5 Why was Chicago so attractive to jazz
  musicians in the early 20th Century?
• Chicagos stockyards, stores, and factories, as
  well as its reputation as a rail and shipping
  hub, made the city a magnet for people seeking a
  new start.
• free of the extremes of prejudice common in the
  South.
• considered a big step toward economic and
  personal freedom

7
Information

• 6 What is prohibition and how did it affect
  jazz music?
• In 1920, Congress passed the 18th Amendment to
  the Constitution, which prohibited the bottling
  and consumption of alcohol, and for the next 13
  years
• But in Chicago, as elsewhere, many people ignored
  the law, and entrepreneurs and criminal gangs
  often joined forces to open nightclubs called
  speakeasies, where liquor, gambling, dancing, and
  jazz were the attractions
• Therefore, jazz musicians became more in demand!

8
Information

• 7 What is stride piano playing and what jazz
  pianists played this style?
• pianists James P. Johnson and Willie The
  Lion Smith. Johnson and Smith played a style
  called stride
• Fast form of piano playing in which the left hand
  quickly moves between bass notes and chords while
  the right hand creates a series of variations on
  the melody.
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vKDMOkgSdy3Efeatur
  erelated

9
Information

• 8 How did the radio affect jazz music?
• Thanks to radio and the gradual resurgence of the
  market for records, what had once been purely
  regional styles could now be heard in living
  rooms in almost any part of America.

10
Information

• 9 How did the big band swing leader, Benny
  Goodman challenge segregation?
• He hired pianist Teddy Wilson, with whom hed
  already recorded, to be featured in a trio
  setting (with Goodman himself and drummer Gene
  Krupa) in the spring of 1936
• Just a bit later made it a quartet by adding the
  brilliant vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.
• Benny Goodmans orchestra was one of the most
  successful swing bands, thanks in part to the
  brilliant arrangements of the African-American
  composer and bandleader Fletcher Henderson.

11
Benny Goodman Orchestra

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vr2S1I_ien6A

12
Information

• 10 What two major events in the early 40s
  affected jazz musicians/music?
• Americas entry into World War II after the
  Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,
  1941
• Musicians of fighting age from all over the
  country were drafted into military service.
• In the late summer of 1942, the musicians union
  called a strike against the record companies,
  demanding that musicians be fairly compensated
  for radio and juke box play of recordings. For
  almost two years, no new instrumental music was
  recorded for commercial issue.

13
Pioneers

• Count Basie - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vTYLbr
  ZAko7E

                                Pianist and
bandleader Count Basie at the Aquarium, New York
City, c. 1946-1948. Courtesy of William P.
Gottlieb.
14
Count Basie

• 11- Who was Count Basie and what would you say
  is his one significant contribution to jazz
  music?
• Ive always played happy music, William Count
  Basie once said. Music that people can tap their
  feet to.... Thats what I intend to keep on
  playing. He kept that pledge for nearly fifty
  years.

15
Duke Ellington

• The Duke - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vcb2w2m1J
  mCYfeaturerelated

16
Duke Ellington

• 12 - Who was Duke Ellington and what would you
  say is his one significant contribution to jazz
  music?
• American composer, pianist, and big band leader
• Ellington wrote over 1,000 diverse jazz
  compositions

17
Duke Ellington cont.

• Each of his compositions
• love songs and dance tunes
• ballet and film scores
• orchestral suites and choral works

18
Ella Fitzgerald

• Ella Fitzgerald - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vP
  bL9vr4Q2LU

19
Ella Fitzgerald

• 13 Who was Ella Fitzgerald and what would you
  say is her one major contribution to jazz music?
• American jazz and song vocalist
• She was known for her purity of tone, impeccable
  diction, phrasing and intonation, and a
  "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly
  in her scat singing.
• A master of scat singing

20
Benny Goodman

• Big Band Leader

21
Benny Goodman

• 14 - Who is Benny Goodman?
• American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and
  bandleader widely known as the "King of Swing"
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vt4yGKj23jgQfeature
  related

22
Benny Cont.

• Along the way, Goodman popularized the clarinet
  as a solo instrument, became a respected
  classical soloist, organized a series of
  hard-swinging small ensembles, and helped
  establish jazz in Americas concert halls.

23
Billie Holiday

• 15 Who is Billie Holiday and why is she so
  important to jazz history?

24
Billie Holiday cont.

• American jazz singer and songwriter
• Holiday had a big influence on jazz and pop
  singing
• Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz
  instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of
  manipulating phrasing and tempo
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vh4ZyuULy9zs

25
Final Listening Activity from the Jazz Era

• Describe how the band and soloists interact with
  each other.
• Tell me what you hear more of the left hand
  playing the bass notes and chords or the right
  hand playing the improvised melody.
• Describe the rhythms, riffs (short melodic
  phrases played repeatedly over a series of
  chords) or any call and response that you hear in
  this music.

26
Review 1

• Louis Armstrong made a significant contribution
  to the development of the improvised jazz solo
  and popular singing styles

27
Review 2

• Prohibition helped the development of jazz
  because speakeasies employed musicians

28
Review 3

• Which of the following three events are in the
  correct chronological order?
• the Great Depression, the Jazz Age, World War II
• radio DJs become celebrities, World War II, Louis
  Armstrongs Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings
• growth of big bands in the 30s 40s, attack
  against Pearl Harbor, musicians union strike
  against record companies

29
Review 4

• In the 1920s and 1930s, jazz developed most
  rapidly in urban areas with growing immigrant and
  African-American populations

30
Review 5

• A style of piano playing in which the left hand
  alternates between bass notes and chords and the
  right hand plays melody and improvisation is
  called stride piano playing

31
Review 6

• Radio and recording were most significant in
  spreading the popularity of jazz music.

32
Review 7

• When Benny Goodman hired Teddy Wilson and Lionel
  Hampton he helped break down racial barriers by
  performing with an integrated band.

33
Review 8

• The rhythm section of the band is made up of
  piano, bass and drums.

34
Review 9

• During World War II singers began to be more
  popular than jazz instrumentalists in part
  because musicians didnt record due to their
  boycott of the recording industry.

35
Test Review Jazz/Swing Era

• 1. Why did jazz become so popular after WWI?
• 2. Choose 2 words to describe Louis Armstrongs
  musical style.
• 3. What two cities became attractive to jazz at
  the early part of the 20th century?

36
Test Review continued

• 4. How did prohibition affect jazz music?
• 5. Listen to the following song and tell what
  type of jazz piano playing you hear.
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vKDMOkgSdy3Efeatur
  erelated
• 6. What did radio do for jazz?

37
Test review continued

• 7. What jazz musician challenged segregation and
  how did he do it?
• 8. What two events in the early 40s affect jazz
  musicians and jazz music?

38
Test review continued

• 9. Who are the following people, what did they
  contribute to jazz and how would you describe
  their music?
• Benny Goodman http//www.neajazzintheschools.org/l
  isten/listenpop.php?tkcd1_t38
• Count Basie http//www.neajazzintheschools.org/lis
  ten/listenpop.php?tkcd1_t36

39
Test review continued/artists

• Duke Ellington http//www.neajazzintheschools.org/
  listen/listenpop.php?tkcd1_t32
• Ella Fitzgerald http//www.neajazzintheschools.org
  /listen/listenpop.php?tkcd1_t45
• Billie Holiday http//www.neajazzintheschools.org/
  listen/listenpop.php?tkcd1_t44

40
Test review continued

• 10. What two things did Louis Armstrong
  contribute to the development of jazz?
• 11. What is a rhythm section made up of?
• 12. Why did jazz singers become more popular
  during WWII?

41
Discussion Question

• Discuss the following questions
• How did the movement of African Americans to
  northern cities affect the development of jazz?
  What impact did radio and recording have on the
  development of jazz? How would jazz music have
  been different without these events?
• Why did New York and Chicago become centers of
  jazz after New Orleans? What qualities or
  characteristics did these cities have that might
  have influenced the growth of jazz?

42
Discussion

• Is the best music also the most popular music?
  How does music become popular? Do the media make
  music popular, or do consumers choose what is
  popular? Jazz music, before and during World War
  II, was the most popular music in the country.
  Discuss how social, political, and technological
  trends helped make jazz popular.