chapter 1 lecture notes

1. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#1
Call and Response (The Riff)
• “Song of the Hunter” (African)
• “How I Got Over” (Gospel)
• “Taps Miller” (Swing Era Jazz)
• “Get A Job” (Doo Wop)
• “Rock Around The Clock” (Rockabilly)
• “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (Motown)
• “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” (Metal Roots)

2. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#2
Natural Scales and Blue Notes
• “Aint Goin’ Down” (Blues)
• “Move on Up” (Gospel)
• “Driftin’ Blues” (Smooth Urban Blues)
• “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (Soul)
• “Black Dog” (Metal Roots)

3. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#3
• Layered Rhythms, Polyrhythms,
Syncopation
• Untitled African Percussion
• “Tumbao De Coqueta” (Cuban)
• “Samba Importado” (Brazilian”
• “For Once In My Life” (Soul)”
• “Sex Machine” (Funk)

4. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#4
Percussive Approach To Sound
• Untitled Halam (Senegalese 5-string)
• Untitled banjo (American)
• “Flying Home” (Swing Era)
• “Gospel Train” (Gospel)
• “Summertime” (Soul)
• “The Sun Don’t Shine” (Rap)

5. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#5
Human Voice Important Model for
Instrumental Sound
• “Strawberries” (Work Song)
• Miles Davis (Jazz)
• B.B. King (Blues)
• “The Mooche” (Early Jazz)
• “I Can’t Quit You Baby” (Metal Roots)

6. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#6
Music is Communal & Functional
Work Songs
• “Black Betty” Leadbelly (Work Song)
• “Rosie” (Work Song)

7. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#7
Buzzing/Roughening of Sound
• “Funeral Song” (African)
• “God Moves on the Water” (Blues)
• “Maybeline” (Early Rock)
• “Satisfaction” (British Invasion)
• “Iron Man” (Metal)

8. 8 African Musical Characteristics
#8
Hand Clapping
• “Dance of the Witch Doctor” (African)
• “Sit Down Servant” (Gospel)
• “Shake Rattle and Roll” (R&B)
• “Discofied” (Disco)

9. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
v Census 1790 - 750,000 African-Americans
v 59,000 freemen
Music for Dance
• From the Colonial Period
• Violin is common instrument
• “Negro Jig” published Scotland 1782

10. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
Military Bands
• Earliest record 1723 Nero Benson,
trumpeter
• Battle of Bunker Hill 1775, Barzillai Lew,
drummer/fifer among the first killed
• 1778 laws offered freedom for slaves
enlisting in the Army

11. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
Religious Music
• Cotton Mather, Society of Negroes 1693
• 2nd Awakening/Great Awakening, camp
meetings; “new songs with repetitive
phrases”
• Ring Shout, blend of African & Christian
• Spirituals, Fisk University 1867

12. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
Slave Celebrations
• ‘Lection Day (1750-1850)
• Pinkster Day (Pentecost Sunday)
• Congo Square, New Orleans (1786-1862)

13. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
Professional Musicians
• Frank Johnson, Philadelphia, toured
England 1838, presented a silver cornet by
Queen Victoria
• Circus & tent show bands

14. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
Work Songs
• Preserved melodic styles (natural scales,
blue notes, circumlocution, call & response)
• Allowed to survive because they were
functional
• One of the roots of the Blues

15. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
Minstrel Shows
• “black face” entertainment gradually grew
• “Jim Crow” created by Thomas Rice 1828
• 1st 1843 Virginia Minstrels (New York)
• 1844 Christy Minstrels set the format
• Beginning to fade by 1870
• Post-war employment for African-Americans

16. Survival of African Musical
Characteristics
African-American Musical Theater
• African Grove Theater 1821-28 (New
York)
• 1898 African-American shows begin to
appear on Broadway, 1st “Clorindy, or the
Origin of the Cakewalk” ends 1910
• 1921 “Shuffle Along” began the trend again

17. Ragtime
African-American songs known as “Coon
Songs” (1830s-),“Cakewalk” (1890s)
Ragtime (1897)

18. Coon Songs 1830-1910
Used as Required Composition for the
“Ragtime Championship of the World 1900

19. Cakewalk
A Popular Dance, “high-steppin”
Competition: Madison Square
Garden 1892
Expression “That Takes the Cake”

20. Cake Walk Photo 1890s

21. Ragtime (1897-1917)
African American Piano Style
Definition:
• Syncopated piano music
• Two beats per measure, 16 measure sections
• Right hand plays syncopated melody often in the
pattern: 3-3-2, 2xs faster that left hand
• Left hand plays “boom-chick” (bass note-chord)
• Rondo form

22. Classic Ragtime: Scott Joplin
(1869-1917)
Term used to distinguish from “Tin Pan” alley
compositions
Most famous Ragtime Composer
“Maple Leaf Rag” (1900)
Also wrote a ballet and 2 operas
Most famous opera is “Treemonisha”

23. Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
Form AABBACCDD
A - first melody
B - second melody
C - third melody
D - fourth melody

24. Ragtime Bands
Bands arranged piano rags
“At A Georgia Camp Meeting” (Sousa)
“Castle Cake Walk” (Europe)

25. James Reese Europe
Clef Club Orchestra
Chosen by Dancers Vernon & Irene Castle
WW I Conducted 369th Hellfighter’s Band,
brought “jazz” to France

26. James Reese Europe

27. Vernon & Irene Castle

28. Classic Ragtime to Stride Piano
Classic Ragtime usually considered
pre-jazz because it was written(without
improvisation)
Stride Piano was 1st jazz piano style
began to fade in late 1930s
• Left hand “boom-chick” (bass - chord)
• Right hand improvised melody

29. Stride Piano
James P. Johnson
‘Father of Stride”
• “Carolina Shout”
(1921), often
considered 1st jazz
piano recording
• Also wrote classical
compositions

30. Stride Piano
Thomas Fats Waller
Master showman
• “Handful of Keys”
• “Christopher
• Columbus”
Wrote important jazz
tunes

31. Stride Piano Fats Waller

32. Stride Piano Fats Waller

33. Boogie Woogie
Piano Style beginning in 1928
The term pre-dates the piano style
Left hand plays repeated pattern “Eight to
the bar”
Usually in Blues Form
1st recording is Pinetop Smith
Jimmy Yancy
Pete Johnson 1938 Concert

34. Blues
A Romanticized Subject
Began to be Recognized End of 19thC.
Developed from Work Songs and (some
say) Spirituals
Combined with Ragtime circa 1895 to
Create Jazz

35. Blues Archeology
Blues Spread once it met
the Music Business
1. 1902 Ma Rainey
“Mother of the Blues”
added Blues to her
Minstrel Act

36. Blues Archeology
2. 1903 W. C. Handy “Father of the Blues”
First heard the blues (p. 18)

37. Blues Archeology
3. 1909 W. C. Handy writes“Memphis Blues”
(for mayoral race)
4. 1912 “Memphis Blues” is Published, others
also publish Blues
5. 1916 First Recorded Blues

38. Blues Archeology
6. 1917 First Instrumental Blues Recorded,
Original Dixieland Jass Band “Livery
Stable Blues”
7. 1920 First African-American Recording of
the Blues. Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues”
8. 1923(24) First Country Blues Recorded

39. Blues Styles in the 1920s
“Classic” City Blues and Country Blues
City Blues Recorded First
Country Blues developed First

40. “Classic” City Blues Form
12 Bars of Music
3 Basic Chords
Repetition of the First Vocal Line
“St. Louis Blues” Bessie Smith

41. City Blues
Is a Female Dominated Style
It was Professional Entertainment
Mamie Smith was a Theater Performer
before she recorded “Crazy Blues” in 1920
Accompaniment by Piano and/or Jazz Band

42. Mamie Smith & Her Jazz
Hounds

43. City Blues Singers
Ma Rainey “Mother of the Blues”
Bessie Smith “Empress of the Blues”

44. Country Blues
A Male Dominated Style
Self-Accompanied on Guitar
Used “Approximately” 12 Bars of Music
Performed at Smaller Gatherings, often by
Itinerant Street Performers
“Match Box Blues” Blind Lemmon Jefferson
“Revenue Man Blues” Charlie Patton

45. Country Blues Singers
Blind Lemon Jefferson
1st country blues whose records sold well
Robert Johnson, Satanic Myth
1930s, the end of the country blues trend.
Major influence on British rockers
Leadbelly
Discovered by Lomax, influenced the
Greenwich Village Folk scene

46. Country Blues Styles
Mississippi Delta
Piedmont
Texas

47. Mississippi Delta Blues
Thought to be the oldest form
Bottle Neck Guitar Style
Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson (but)

48. Texas Blues
Use of single line melodies
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Leadbelly

49. Piedmont Blues
 Atlanta & Southeast
• Closer to Ragtime Guitar
• Barbecue Bob (1927-8)
• Blind Boy Fuller (19930s)

50. The “Classic” Blues Form
vocal line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..] instrumental answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
(chord 1)
|| — — — — || — — — — || — — — — || — — — — ||
repeat vocal line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] instrumental answer . . . . . .. . . … . . .. … ]
(chord 2) (chord 1)
|| — — — — || — — — — || — — — — || — — — — ||
vocal line #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . ] instrumental answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . ]
(chord 3) (chord 1)
|| — — — — || — — — — || — — — — || — — — — ||
“Back Water Blues” “Black Snake Moan”

51. Early 1930s
Country and City Blues Begin to Combine
LeRoy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell
• Male
• Piano Blues & Single Line Guitar
• Polished
• “Midnight Hour Blues”

52. 1930s Blues
Kansas City Blues Shouter, jazz based
Joe Turner, Kansas City late 1930s. 1950s
was considered a Rhythm & Blues singer
Blues Shouter style was adopted by rock
singers

53. Blues 1940s Jump Bands
Jump Bands were scaled down swing bands
Extensive riffs
Louis Jordan, major hits in the 1940.
• 9 of the top 15 were Jordan’s (1946)
• Became model for Bill Haley (used the
same record producer)
• “Choo Choo Ch-Boogie

54. Blues Late 1940s
• Chicago Blues
• Electrified Mississippi Delta Blues
• Used Bottle Neck Style Guitar
• Chess Records (Chess Brothers)
• Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield)

55. Blues: Muddy Waters
Born on Plantation
Recorded Country Blues 1941 for LOC
Moved to Chicago 1946
“Hard Day Blues”

56. Other Chicago (Detroit) Blues
Howlin’ Wolf
• From the Delta
• Memphis Radio Show
John Lee Hooker, Detroit
• From the Delta
• Step Father played w/Charlie Patton
• “Boogie Chillun”

57. 1940s Smooth Urban Blues
Jazzy & Relaxed
Usually Piano Based
Nat King Cole, piano/singer
Ray Charles began in this style

58. Electric Guitar Urban Blues
1940-1950
T-Bone Walker (Texas)
• 1st recorded electric guitar blues
B. B. King (Memphis)
• Copied T-Bone’s style
“B. B. Boogie”