Jazz & Live electronic music

1. Jazz & Live Electronic Music
Live Electronics
Sjangerkunnskap og historie
hakon.kvidal@nmh.no

2. Jazz with pre-recorded tape music
• Jazz musicians began to experiment with the use
of electronic music around 1960.
• Initial experiments combined the playing of jazz
musicians with tapes made in the fashion of
musique concrete.
• By the mid- to late 1960s, jazz musicians began to
include the use of electronic instruments and
sound modifying devices in live performances.

3. Bernard Parmegiani: JazzEx (1966)
• Parmegiani, an early innovator from the French school of musique
concrete in Paris
• Electronic Instrumentation: Tape composition with jazz quartet.
• Parmegiani composed the tape music with a jazz quartet in mind,
assembling an arhythmic sequence of colorful tones and noises to
which he felt jazz musicians could freely improvise.
• This early experiment in combining jazz and electronic music was
accomplished before the commercial availability of music
synthesizers.

4. Listen for: the contrasting sounds of electronic music and jazz musicians and the
interaction between the two. Note the way in which the jazz players complement the
electronic sounds with their own unconventional techniques.
0:00 – 1:00 The piece begins with the frantic sounds of the sax and trumpet, accompanied
by a quietly scraping drone. This is followed by a passage of trumpet and
electronic tones that blend so well that they are almost indistinguishable. The
drummer and bass player join the fray.
1:01 - 2:00 There is a bass solo accompanied by a 2.5-second tape loop comprised of a
wavering drone. The loop creates a slow rhythm to which the bass player
responds.
2:01 - 3:00 At 2:04, the bass solo and electronic drone are interrupted by an eruption of the
sax and a short, rapid sequence of cascading electronic tones that blend with the
percussion. A sustained tone on the saxophone anticipates the entrance of a low-
pitched electronic tone at about 2:11 . The drone continues, unwavering, over
which the sax player solos. At about 2:50, the electronic tone increases in volume
and begins to waver with vibrato. At the same time, a thread of filtered white
noise begins to increase in volume. This excerpt ends with a flourish by the
quartet playing all at once, during which a sympathetic burst of white noise
accompanies the drummer's cymbals, and a touch of echo is added as the white
noise diminishes

6. Jazz Using Electronic Instruments in
Performance
• Herbie Hancock (1940-)
• Miles Davis Group late 60’s
• Exploration of synthesizers

7. Herbie Hancock and a bevy
of electronic keyboards
(1978), including
(clockwise from left) :
Oberheim Polyphonic
Yamaha Polyphonic
ARP 2600
Sequential Circuits Prophet
ARP String Ensemble
Hohner D6 Clavinet
Micromoog
Minimoog
ARP Odyssey (no. 2)
Polymoog.
(Photo: Kaz Tsuruta from
Columbia 34907)

8. Sextant (1973)
• Hancock's lineup for these
records introduced the
idea of a synthesizer
player as a sideman,
whose role was not only
that of soloist, but creator
of sonic backdrops and
effects to accompany
instrumental solos and
rhythm parts.
• Ex: Rain Dance

9. Live Electronic Music
• Precursor: Loudspeaker music, acousmatic
music
• Ex:
M.E.V. (Musica Elettronica Viva, Rome Italy)
Spacecraft (1967)
Recorded in Cologne in 1967 by Bryant,
Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum and Vandor.

10. Resources
• Thom Holmes: Electronic and Experimental
Music, Chapter 13
Its learning – Mustek51 - Litteraturmappa
• Playlist on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL
QTbzmQRH0BwFhnVk-gAPvmqZ8Vceiz55