2. Importance of
Recordings
• In 1917, the first records labeled as "Jazz" were
recorded. Today, we still listen to songs like the ones
recorded back in the early 1900's and learn from them. In
Avatar, they listen to the voices of the Navi’s ancestors to
learn their history. Recordings of jazz are where we go to
get new ideas or see how great artists of the past style their
solos to go along with the song. Jazz artists are influenced
by these "voices" from the past and show it through their
music.
This is part of one of the first recordings in the history of jazz.
It’s called Livery Stable Blues and is written by the Original
Dixieland Jass Band.
3. Tenor Madness
• Sonny Rollins recored Tenor Madness in 1956. He called upon a
youngster named John Coltrane to play with him. “Coltrane, at the
time was fairly unknown. Yet he blew Sonny out of the water!” says
expert musician, Zack Pitt-Smith, “It was kind of like a passing of
the baton. Coltrane was taking Sonny’s spot in the jazz world.”
In this section of Tenor Madness (1956) you hear John
Coltrane’s first solo on the album.
4. Maple Leaf Rag
• Maple Leaf Rag, by Scott Joplin, was one of the
first songs recorded to have a jazz feel to it. It was
recorded on a pianola cylinder which is also called
a player piano. It has levers that allow the
performer to control how the song is played, but it’s
basically playing itself.
5. Chimes Blues
• Chimes Blues was recorded by King Oliver’s
Creole Band. But the important thing about it was
that it featured jazz’s first improviser, Louis
Armstrong, on the cornet playing his first recorded
solo ever. And it’s because of recordings that we
can still hear the beginnings of Louis’ impact on
jazz.
This bit of Chimes Blues contains Armstrong’s first solo.
6. Jazz At Massey Hall
• On May 15, 1953, “The Quintet” (Charlie Parker,
Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, And
Bud Powell) performed a concert at Massey Hall in
Toronto. Mingus and Roach’s record label
recorded the whole thing. It is still talked about by
artists today and is regarded as “The Greatest Jazz
Concert of All Time.”
Here, you are listening to part of Dizzy
Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia
7. Autumn Leaves
• Cannonball Adderley was an exceptional alto
saxophonist. He was adored by Miles Davis so
much that Davis mad an extremely rare
appearance as a guest artist on Adderley’s 1958
album, Somthin’ Else. Hearing Davis in a band
besides his own taught other younger artists a lot
because for the first time they were hearing Miles
Davis with a normal rhythm section, not his
extremely talented rhythm section.
In this section of autumn leaves you hear
part of miles Davis’s solo.
