The history of jazz: "black music" that conquered the whole world. What is jazz, the history of jazz The history of the development of jazz

"Jazz" message will briefly help you prepare for music lessons and deepen your knowledge in this area. Also, the report on jazz will tell a lot of detailed information about this form of musical art.

Jazz Message

What is Jazz?

Jazz is a form of musical art. The birthplace of jazz is the USA, where it originated in the 20th century in the process of synthesis of European and African cultures. Then this art spread throughout the planet.

Jazz is a lively, amazing music that has absorbed the rhythmic African genius and the treasures of many years of playing ritual and ritual chants and drums. His story is dynamic, unusual and filled with wonderful events that influenced the musical world process.

Jazz was brought to the New World by slaves, the peoples of the African continent. They often belonged to different families and for a better understanding of each other created a new musical direction with blues motives. Jazz is believed to have originated in New Orleans. The first record was recorded on February 26, 1917 at Victor Studios, New York. With the composition of the group "Original Dixieland Jazz Band" his march around the world began.

Jazz features

The main characteristics of this musical direction are:

• The beat is a regular pulse.
• Polyrhythm, which is based on syncopated rhythms.
• improvisation.
• Timbre row.
• Colorful harmony.
• Swing is a set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture.

Several performers can improvise at the same time. Members of the ensemble interact with each other in an artistic way and "communicate" with the public.

Jazz styles

The stylistic diversity of jazz since its inception is amazing. Let's name only the most common types of jazz:

• Vanguard. Originated in 1960. Harmony, rhythm, meter, traditional structures, program music are inherent in it. Representatives - Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp.
• Acid Jazz. It's a funky style of music. The emphasis is not on words, but on music. Representatives - James Taylor Quartet, De-Phazz, Jamiroquai, Galliano, Don Cherry.
• Big Bend. Formed in the 1920s. It consists of such orchestral groups - saxophones - clarinets, brass instruments, rhythm section. Representatives - The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Benny Goodman And His Orchestra.
• Bop. Formed in the 1940s. It is characterized by complex improvisations and fast tempos, which are based not on a change in melody, but on a change in harmony. Jazz bebop performers - drummer Max Roach, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell.
• Boogie Woogie. This is an instrumental solo that combines elements of jazz and blues. Born in the 1920s. Representatives are Alex Moore, Piano Red and David Alexander, Jimmy Yancey, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Pine Top Smith.
• Bossa Nova. This is a unique synthesis of Brazilian samba rhythms and cool jazz improvisation. Representatives are Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz and Charlie Bird.
• classical jazz. Developed at the end of the nineteenth century. Representatives - Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, The Beatles.
• Swing. Formed at the turn of the 1920s - 30s. It is characterized by a combination of European and Negro forms. Representatives - Ike Quebec, Oscar Peterson, Mills Brothers, Paulinho Da Costa, Wynton Marsalis Septet, Stephane Grappelli.
• Mainstream. This is a rather new kind of jazz, which was characterized by a certain interpretation of musical works. Representatives - to Ben Webster, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Buck Clayton.
• northeastern jazz. Originated in the early twentieth century in New Orleans. The music is hot and fast. Northeastern jazz representatives - Art Hodes, drummer Barrett Deems and clarinetist Benny Goodman.
• Kansas City style. Newfangled style originated in the late 1920s in Kansas City. It is characterized by the penetration of a piece of blues coloring into live jazz music and an energetic solo. Representatives - Count Basie, Benny Moten, Charlie Parker, Jimmy Rushing.
• West Coast Jazz. Originated in the 1950s in Los Angeles. Representatives are Shorty Rogers, saxophonists Bud Shenk and Art Pepper, clarinetist Jimmy Giuffrey and drummer Shelly Mann.
• Cool. It began to develop in the 1940s. This is a less violent, smooth style of jazz. It is characterized by a detached, flat and homogeneous sound. Representatives - Chet Baker, George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, John Lewis, Leni Tristano, Lee Konitz, Tad Dameron, Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan.
• Progressive jazz. It was characterized by bold harmony, frequent seconds and blocks, polytonality, rhythmic pulsation, coloring.

Jazz today

Modern jazz has absorbed the traditions and sounds of the entire planet. There was a rethinking of the African culture that was its source. Among the representatives of modern jazz are: Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson, Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman and David Sanchez, Jeff Watts and Billy Stewart.

Although today jazz is a worldwide phenomenon, there are still special jazz places on the planet. These are the cities where the style or, better to say, this whole phenomenon arose and formed, the places where the largest jazz events take place, as well as the points on the map where the most relevant transformations of jazz are taking place right now.

Eternal Jazz Capitals

New Orleans (USA): how it all began

In the French Quarter of New Orleans today, like a hundred years ago, street musicians play everywhere, and not only during New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival or the Mardi Gras carnival, but also on all other days ... and nights

Perhaps the most un-American of all American cities is called the cradle of jazz for a reason. According to one source, jazz was born in the local shady neighborhood of Storyville. (Storyville) when, around 1895, among the brothels, drug dens and pubs, a black cornet player (a cornet is practically a modern pipe, it just looks a little different, and the instrument has a different mechanism for blocking holes in the tubes) Buddy Bolden (Buddy Bolden) assembled an ensemble to play the then fashionable ragtime, but with all the key elements of jazz. According to others - in 1917, when Nick La Rocca (Nick LaRocca) and his Original Dixieland Jass Band(no typos in the title, mind you) released the first ever jazz audio recording - Livery Stable Blues. Both musicians were natives of New Orleans.

However, in fact, it all started, probably not with them, but with the events held at the beginning of the 19th century every Sunday in the local Congo Square. (Congo Square) gatherings of hundreds of black slaves. On the one day of the week when they were free from work, the slaves played the melodies and rhythms of Africa, which they were never destined to see again, on simple musical instruments. Or maybe jazz began with funeral brass bands that passed through the streets of the city, and ensembles in dance halls. One way or another, it all happened right here - in a hot, shabby city, located at the mouth of the great Mississippi River.

NY (USA): place of growing up

One of the legendary places in New York - Harlem Concert Hall Apollo Theater, who has seen more stars since 1914 than other astronomers. Among them are jazz legends Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Art Blackie, Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and many, many others. And in addition to jazz, there was also soul, rock and roll, gospel. No wonder now Apollo more than a million tourists visit each year

Born in New Orleans, jazz soon took over all of America, and New York became its new focus. In the 1920s, which F.S. Fitzgerald was the first to call the Jazz Age (Jazzage), jazz sounded here not only in "decent" places like Carnegie Hall, but also in rather dangerous, semi-underground speakeasy bars with illegal booze. It was then that the legendary The Back Room And The Cotton Club, where one could meet still segregated African Americans, and deadly gangsters, and titans of the genre - for example, Duke Ellington, who regularly played with his orchestra in The Cotton Club for at least five years (since 1927) and often visited the club later.

The end of the Roaring Twenties did not end jazz in New York. On the contrary, in 1935 the legendary Village Vanguard, in 1949 - even more legendary birdland, the holy of holies of jazz, where, it seems, all the patriarchs of the style performed.
All these places, as well as hundreds of others, are open today - from large and world famous ones, like blue notes, to small type Smalls, very similar in atmosphere to those chthonic ones, originally from the 1920s and 1930s. Is it now impossible to smoke in them, but drinking, on the contrary, is possible, and more than legal.

Havana (Cuba): wind from the south

Jazz in Havana may not be as refined as in New York or in northern Europe, but it is closer to people and roots

There is no doubt that jazz has African roots, but already in childhood it experienced the strongest influence from Latin America, in particular from Cuba. It was from there that Spanish melodies and rhythms came to New Orleans and to the north, which blended perfectly with African ones. Thus, the habanera is clearly audible in the proto-jazz pieces of the second decade of the last century, and in the next decade, conga drums, bongos and other specific instruments begin to be used in jazz.

This is not surprising: there was already a ferry between New Orleans and Havana in those days twice a day, and there was active communication between the inhabitants, for the most part former slaves. By the mid-1940s, Afro-Cuban jazz emerged as a separate genre and acquired its leaders, one of which is Machito.

After World War II, the great American musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker paid attention to Afro-Cuban jazz, and Cuban elements penetrated into the jazz of the East Coast of the USA and strengthened there for many years, and in New York in the middle of the 20th century the development of the style was more active than in Cuba. But if you go anywhere for Afro-Cuban jazz today, then obviously not to New York, but there, to the homeland of the style. In clubs and small cafes, on the streets and on the terraces of shabby Havana, you can find both professional musicians and talented amateurs - jazz sounds here, like a century ago, like the music of ordinary people.

Paris (France): Throw Across the Ocean

On the small Lombard street, in the 1st and 4th districts of Paris, there are three main jazz clubs in the French capital at once - Le Baiser Sale, Le Duc des Lombards And Sunset/Sunside

American jazz moved to Europe during the First World War - with American soldiers. The newfangled style, along with swing and ragtime, fell in love with the capitals of the Old World, but was especially well received in the vibrant and cosmopolitan Paris. After the end of the Great War, black musicians from America were drawn to the French capital - not least because racial prejudice was practically absent in Paris, especially compared to New York. Jazz quickly captured the clubs of the city, as well as the minds and hearts of Parisians and, more broadly, Europeans. By the mid-thirties, local superstars appeared here - for example, the creator of gypsy jazz Django Reinhard and violinist Stefan Grappelli.

Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Tommy Iommi and many other famous musicians of the second half of the 20th century admitted that it was Reinhard who had a profound influence on them, and his music became one of the sound symbols of the 1930s.

During the Second World War, music in Paris did not stop - on the contrary, jazz was the link between occupied Paris and the outside world, and after 1945, not a single tour of the titans of style took place without a date in this city.

It's no surprise that jazz still sounds here today - be it the golden triangle of Lombar Street mentioned above. (Rue des Lombards), park lawns during Paris Jazz Festival in June - July or small underground places where professionals and amateurs gather to play and listen to music over a sandwich and a glass of wine.

Cape Town (South Africa): call of blood

The best time for a trip to Cape Tuan for music lovers is the end of March and the beginning of April. It was at this time, at the end of the South African autumn, the most comfortable time for walking around the city, that the , the fourth largest in the world and the largest in Africa. Every year it starts with a free concert on the main street of Greenmarket Square.

Where else to go for jazz, if not to the ancestral home of its creators, to Africa! The most suitable place for this today is Cape Town. This city is just like jazz: it is a fusion of various cultures: African, European, Asian - and the music here sounds appropriate. Moreover, the city is quite safe (compared to the rest of Africa) and in recent years attracts tourists not only with music, although music, especially jazz and especially on days Cape Town International Jazz Festival, that's enough.

In the afternoon, head to the Museum of Contemporary African Art (“African Tate Modern,” as the locals call it), stroll through the colorful Bo Cap area, go to the ocean beach or climb Table Mountain, and go clubbing in the evening - on Monday and Friday at Lounge 021 @ Swingers, where both African jazz and supranational experimental jazz are played, on Tuesday - in Asoka, where excellent cuisine, and every Sunday afternoon on the veranda Kloof Street House give a free concert. The rest of the days are waiting for you Thuthuka Jazz Cafe, Jackson Hall and dozens of other places where the most diverse jazz pairs perfectly with local wines.

Copenhagen (Denmark): dissenting opinion

Jazzhus Monmartre- the most famous jazz club in Copenhagen, but far from the only one. The inhabitants of Scandinavia and, in particular, Denmark love jazz and are proud of the contribution of their musicians to its development, and the Danish government even finances a special organization JazzDanmark helping Danish jazzmen and promoting them on the European and world stage

Scandinavian jazz is cold, sometimes piercing, detached. It is considered to be a relatively new trend, which originated in the late 1960s and flourished in the next decade, but jazz as a whole arrived early in the region: back in 1923, the Dane Waldermer Eiberg formed the first jazz orchestra, and a year later released the first jazz recording in Denmark and possibly throughout Scandinavia.

In the last four decades in Sweden, Denmark and especially Norway, musicians have been conducting bold experiments with form and sound (yes, free jazz has become very fond of harsh northern people), mixing styles and tools to create sounds. For example, Nils-Petter Molvaer, a frequent guest of the Moscow Jazz Festival, future jazz pioneer Niels-Petter Molvaer boldly and masterfully combines electronics and jazz improvisation, or Jan Garbarek, a saxophonist, who contributed to the meeting of jazz and Renaissance chorales.

The main, although far from the only jazz venue in the capital of the Danish kingdom is the legendary club Jazzhus Montmartre, which featured Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and many other musicians from around the world. It is also important because the largest and most famous event related to Scandinavian jazz and jazz in Scandinavia in general is Copenhagen Jazz Festival- Since 1979, it has also been held within these walls.

Festival capitals - the "big three"

The six cities that we have listed above are the permanent world capitals of jazz, but, in addition to them, there are also temporary, transitional ones. Such cities can be considered as cities in which the most famous, important and major jazz festivals take place once a year.

Montreal (Canada): the largest jazz festival in the world

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal annually gathers about 3,000 musicians from several dozen countries of the world and attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators. In 2004, the festival even entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in terms of the number of viewers - that year there were more than 2 million

Hundreds of concerts take place in clubs, concert halls and outdoor venues over a week and a half, with many events free to the public. This is such an important event for the city that many quarters in its central part are closed to car traffic during the festival and are completely given over to musicians and music lovers.

In 2018, the festival will take place from June 28 to July 7 - there is still time to buy tickets and plan your trip. If you don’t have time, you can go to Montreal in October, when the city hosts an alternative festival organized by jazz musicians in accordance with their vision and ideas. L'Off Jazz. It is, of course, smaller scale, but also very interesting.

Montreux (Switzerland): the largest in Europe and number two in the world

Montreux, a small town on the shores of Lake Geneva in the foothills of the Alps, has been attracting musicians from all over the world for the second century. At different times, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Freddie Mercury (a monument to him can be seen in the photo above) and David Bowie lived here. But at the beginning of July, every year, since 1976, the concentration of music in the clean mountain air has increased many times over: the city opens the second largest in the world after Montreal Montreux Jazz Festival.

Despite the "highly specialized" name, today the festival in Montreux is more than jazz: it attracts musicians playing in a variety of styles - from classical to rap - both professionals and beginners. For the latter even organized a competition.

Main feature Montreux Jazz Festival- diversity: here everyone can find an event to their liking: from free concerts in the park, where some musicians will replace others for several hours without a break, to private events taking place on a small boat sailing on the waters of Lake Geneva. This year, the 52nd Montreux Jazz Festival will be held almost simultaneously with the Montreal - from June 29 to July 14.

Monterey (USA): one of the oldest in the world

This year, for the 61st time since 1958, outdoors among the oaks in the California town of Monterey will be held Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the oldest regularly held jazz festivals in the world. How many legendary musicians have seen and heard legendary concerts these oaks - it seems that there was not a single major jazz name in the second half of the last century, which would not appear on the posters of the festival in Monterey.

Compared to the other two festivals in this section, Monterey seems quite small - only three days (this year September 21-23), only 8 hectares of territory and only two main venues, and there are not hundreds of musicians at all. But they are very different - veterans and very young, native Americans and visitors from Japan and Africa.

This year, among other things, will perform, for example, an orchestra of American sailors from New Orleans - 32nd Street Brass Band; they promise to create a Bourbon Street atmosphere on the West Coast during Mardi Gras.

Something important is going on here too.

Krakow (Poland)

The main jazz place behind the Iron Curtain was, without a doubt, Poland. Dozens of talented musicians from this country were well known in the USSR, and Polish jazz became an independent phenomenon with a unique sound and approach to composing and performing.

To get to know this phenomenon better, go to Krakow in the second half of July. First, there will be held Jazz Summer Festival, and secondly, at this time of the year it is best to walk and see the sights there (the city suffered little during the Second World War - the old buildings were perfectly preserved in it). And if you do not coincide with the festival, then you can easily find music to your taste in the Old Town, in parks and squares.

Tel Aviv (Israel)

Although jazz came to Palestine back in the days of the British Mandate, it became a truly serious and noticeable phenomenon on the world stage in the Middle East in the mid-1990s, not without the participation of well-known musicians Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Avi Lebovich.

Israeli jazz is interesting in that although it is made according to American patterns (a large number of Israeli jazzmen studied in the USA), it is saturated with an oriental flavor - there are unusual rhythms, harmonies that are strange to the European-American ear, and a wild pressure. And all because Israeli jazz has a history of klezmer, folk music of Eastern Europe, Morocco and Yemen.

Summer in Tel Aviv is uncomfortable due to the heat, so Tel Aviv Jazz Festival takes place in December (and in February, Eilat also organizes Red Sea Jazz Festival) is a great way to get acquainted with all the shades of the local exotic.

Tokyo, Japan)

The largest concentration of jazz lovers, according to some sources, is observed not at all in the USA or Norway, as one might think, but in Japan. Moreover, jazz did not penetrate the islands at all with American soldiers, as one might think again, but much earlier - back in the 1920s, when the first dance halls opened in Osaka and Kobe. And since Japanese culture is very peculiar, closed and with great distrust of phenomena penetrating from the outside, local jazz has a very specific Japanese or, more broadly, Asian sound, and echoes of folk songs or Buddhist prayers are heard in the plays.

It is not surprising that here, in addition to hundreds of other establishments, there is a branch of the New York club. blue notes and several major festivals - for example, Tokyo Jazz Festival, which this year will be held from 31 August to 2 September.

Istanbul, Turkey)

Turkey was lucky with jazz: its rapid spread around the world took place precisely during the decades of Europeanization of the country in the first half of the last century. The new style took root, fused with local and Islamic musical traditions in general, and produced a huge number of amazing performers and recordings. Today, jazz is in demand in the country no less than in the last century. This is guaranteed by at least two jazz festivals in Istanbul ( Akbank Caz Festivali Alexey Arkhipovsky

The main jazz event in Russia in the last ten years is the Usadba Jazz festival. Why is it? Firstly, because it is a showcase of what is happening in jazz on the territory of the countries of the former USSR, and we are talking not only about experienced musicians, but also about young and even children (the Jazz Kids Manor stage, competitions, master classes and other activities). Secondly, the festival is very diverse: there is a place for jazz musicians, rockers, and bluesmen in open areas, that is, any quality music. Thirdly, in recent years, "Usadba Jazz" is not only the usual Arkhangelskoye near Moscow, but also venues in five more cities of Russia. In general, to get acquainted with the jazz scene of the largest (but not the most jazzy, let's be honest) country in the world, there is no better place to find.

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Jazz is a unique phenomenon in the world musical culture. This multifaceted art form originated at the turn of the century (XIX and XX) in the United States. Jazz music has become the brainchild of the cultures of Europe and Africa, a kind of fusion of trends and forms from the two regions of the world. Subsequently, jazz went beyond the United States and became popular almost everywhere. This music takes its basis in African folk songs, rhythms and styles. In the history of the development of this direction of jazz, many forms and types are known that appeared as new models of rhythms and harmonics were mastered.

Characteristics of Jazz

The synthesis of two musical cultures made jazz a radically new phenomenon in world art. The specific features of this new music were:

• Syncopated rhythms that generate polyrhythms.
• Rhythmic pulsation of music - beat.
• Beat deviation complex - swing.
• Constant improvisation in compositions.
• A wealth of harmonics, rhythms and timbres.

The basis of jazz, especially in the early stages of development, was improvisation combined with a well-thought-out form (at the same time, the form of the composition was not necessarily fixed somewhere). And from African music, this new style took the following characteristic features:

• Understanding each instrument as a percussion.
• Popular colloquial intonations in the performance of compositions.
• A similar imitation of conversation when playing instruments.

In general, all areas of jazz are distinguished by their own local features, and therefore it is logical to consider them in the context of historical development.

The emergence of jazz, ragtime (1880-1910s)

It is believed that jazz originated among black slaves brought from Africa to the United States of America in the 18th century. Since the captured Africans were not represented by a single tribe, they had to find a common language with their relatives in the New World. This consolidation led to the emergence of a unified African culture in America, which also included musical culture. It was not until the 1880s and 1890s that the first jazz music emerged as a result. This style was driven by worldwide demand for popular dance music. Since African musical art was replete with such rhythmic dances, it was on its basis that a new direction was born. Thousands of middle-class Americans, who had no opportunity to master the aristocratic classical dances, began to dance to the piano in the ragtime style. Ragtime brought several future jazz bases to music. So, the main representative of this style, Scott Joplin, is the author of the element "3 against 4" (cross-sounding of rhythmic patterns with 3 and 4 units, respectively).

New Orleans (1910-1920s)

Classical jazz appeared at the beginning of the 20th century in the southern states of America, and specifically in New Orleans (which is logical, because the slave trade was widespread in the south).

African and Creole orchestras played here, creating their music under the influence of ragtime, blues and songs of black workers. After the appearance in the city of many musical instruments from military bands, amateur groups also began to appear. The legendary New Orleans musician and founder of his own orchestra, King Oliver, was also self-taught. An important date in the history of jazz was February 26, 1917, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band released its first own gramophone record. The main features of the style were also laid in New Orleans: a beat of percussion instruments, a masterful solo, vocal improvisation with syllables - scat.

Chicago (1910-1920s)

In the 1920s, called the "roaring twenties" by the classics, jazz music gradually enters mass culture, losing the titles "shameful" and "indecent". Orchestras begin to perform in restaurants, move from the southern states to other parts of the United States. Chicago is becoming the center of jazz in the north of the country, where free nightly performances by musicians are gaining popularity (during such shows there were frequent improvisations and third-party soloists). More complex arrangements appear in the style of music. The jazz icon of this time was Louis Armstrong, who moved to Chicago from New Orleans. Subsequently, the styles of the two cities began to be combined into one genre of jazz music - Dixieland. The main feature of this style was the collective mass improvisation, which elevated the main idea of ​​jazz to the absolute.

Swing and big bands (1930s-1940s)

The further rise in popularity of jazz created a demand for large orchestras to play danceable tunes. This is how swing appeared, representing characteristic deviations in both directions from the rhythm. Swing became the main stylistic direction of that time, manifesting itself in the work of orchestras. The execution of slender dance compositions required a more coordinated playing of the orchestra. Jazz musicians had to participate evenly, without much improvisation (except for the soloist), so Dixieland's collective improvisation is a thing of the past. In the 1930s there was a flourishing of such groups, which were called big bands. A characteristic feature of the orchestras of that time is the competition of groups of instruments, sections. Traditionally, there were three of them: saxophones, trumpets, drums. The most famous jazz musicians and their orchestras are Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington. The latter musician is famous for his commitment to Negro folklore.

Bebop (1940s)

Swing's departure from the traditions of early jazz and, in particular, classical African melodies and styles, caused discontent among history buffs. Big bands and swing performers, who were increasingly working for the public, began to be opposed by the jazz music of small ensembles of black musicians. The experimenters introduced ultra-fast melodies, brought back long improvisation, complex rhythms, and mastery of the solo instrument. The new style, positioning itself as exclusive, began to be called bebop. Outrageous jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie became the icons of this period. The revolt of black Americans against the commercialization of jazz, the desire to return to this music intimacy and uniqueness became a key point. From this moment and from this style, the history of modern jazz begins. At the same time, leaders of big bands come to small orchestras, wishing to take a break from large halls. In ensembles called combos, such musicians adhered to the swing style, but were given freedom to improvise.

Cool jazz, hard bop, soul jazz and jazz funk (1940s-1960s)

In the 1950s, such a genre of music as jazz began to develop in two opposite directions. Supporters of classical music "cooled" bebop, bringing back into fashion academic music, polyphony, and arrangement. Cool jazz has become known for its restraint, dryness and melancholy. The main representatives of this trend of jazz were: Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck. But the second direction, on the contrary, began to develop the ideas of bebop. The hard bop style preached the idea of ​​returning to the origins of black music. Traditional folklore melodies, bright and aggressive rhythms, explosive soloing and improvisation returned to fashion. In the style of hard bop are known: Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane. This style developed organically along with soul jazz and jazz funk. These styles approached the blues, making rhythmic a key aspect of their performance. Jazz funk, in particular, was introduced by Richard Holmes and Shirley Scott.

Jazz is a special kind of music that combines American music of previous centuries, African rhythms, secular, work and ritual songs. Fans of this kind of musical direction can download their favorite tunes using the site http://vkdj.org/.

Jazz features

Jazz is distinguished by certain features:

• rhythm;
• improvisation;
• polyrhythm.

He received his harmony as a result of European influence. Jazz is based on a particular rhythm of African origin. This style covers instrumental and vocal directions. Jazz exists through the use of musical instruments, which are of secondary importance in ordinary music. Jazz musicians must have the ability to improvise in solo and orchestra.

Characteristic features of jazz music

The main sign of jazz is the freedom of rhythm, which awakens in performers a sense of lightness, relaxation, freedom and continuous movement forward. As in classical works, this kind of music has its own size, rhythm, which is called swing. For this direction, constant pulsation is very important.

Jazz has its own characteristic repertoire and unusual forms. The main ones are blues and ballad, which serve as a kind of basis for all kinds of musical versions.

This direction of music is the creativity of those who perform it. It is the specificity and originality of the musician that forms its basis. It is not possible to learn it only from the notes. This genre depends entirely on the creativity and inspiration of the performer at the time of the game, who puts his emotions and soul into the work.

The main characteristic features of this music include:

• harmony;
• melodiousness;
• rhythm.

Thanks to improvisation, a new work is created every time. Never in life will two pieces performed by different musicians sound the same. Otherwise the orchestras will try to copy each other.

This modern style has many features of African music. One of them is that each instrument can act as a percussion instrument. When performing jazz compositions, well-known colloquial tones are used. Another borrowed feature is that the playing of the instruments copies the conversation. This kind of professional musical art, which changes greatly over time, has no strict boundaries. It is completely open to the influence of performers.

After Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent and Europeans settled there, ships of human traders increasingly followed the shores of America.

Exhausted by hard work, homesick and suffering from the cruel treatment of the guards, the slaves found solace in music. Gradually, Americans and Europeans became interested in unusual melodies and rhythms. This is how jazz was born. What is jazz, and what are its features, we will consider in this article.

Features of the musical direction

Jazz refers to music of African American origin, which is based on improvisation (swing) and a special rhythmic construction (syncope). Unlike other areas where one person writes music and another performs, jazz musicians are also composers.

The melody is created spontaneously, the periods of writing, performance are separated by a minimum period of time. This is how jazz comes about. orchestra? This is the ability of musicians to adapt to each other. At the same time, everyone improvises their own.

The results of spontaneous compositions are stored in musical notation (T. Cowler, G. Arlen "Happy all day long", D. Ellington "Don't you know what I love?" etc.).

Over time, African music was synthesized with European. Melodies appeared that combined plasticity, rhythm, melodiousness and harmony of sounds (CHEATHAM Doc, Blues In My Heart, CARTER James, Centerpiece, etc.).

Directions

There are more than thirty directions of jazz. Let's consider some of them.

1. Blues. Translated from English, the word means "sadness", "melancholy". Blues was originally a solo lyric song by African Americans. Jazz-blues is a twelve-bar period corresponding to a three-line verse form. Blues compositions are performed at a slow pace, some understatement can be traced in the texts. blues - Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and others.

2. Ragtime. The literal translation of the name of the style is broken time. In the language of musical terms, "reg" denotes sounds that are additional between the beats of the bar. The direction appeared in the USA, after they were carried away by the works of F. Schubert, F. Chopin and F. Liszt overseas. The music of European composers was performed in the style of jazz. Later original compositions appeared. Ragtime is characteristic of the work of S. Joplin, D. Scott, D. Lamb and others.

3. Boogie-woogie. The style appeared at the beginning of the last century. The owners of inexpensive cafes needed musicians to play jazz. What is musical accompaniment requires the presence of an orchestra, of course, but it was expensive to invite a large number of musicians. The sound of different instruments was compensated by pianists, creating numerous rhythmic compositions. Boogie features:

• improvisation;
• virtuoso technique;
• special accompaniment: the left hand performs a motor ostinant configuration, the interval between bass and melody is two or three octaves;
• continuous rhythm;
• pedal exclusion.

Boogie-woogie was played by Romeo Nelson, Arthur Montana Taylor, Charles Avery and others.

style legends

Jazz is popular in many countries around the world. Everywhere there are stars, which are surrounded by an army of fans, but some names have become a real legend. They are known and loved throughout. Such musicians, in particular, include Louis Armstrong.

It is not known how the fate of a boy from a poor Negro quarter would have developed if Louis had not ended up in a correctional camp. Here, the future star was recorded in a brass band, however, the team did not play jazz. and how it is performed, the young man discovered much later. Armstrong gained worldwide fame thanks to diligence and perseverance.

Billie Holiday (real name Eleanor Fagan) is considered the founder of jazz singing. The singer reached the peak of popularity in the 50s of the last century, when she changed the scenes of nightclubs to the stage.

Life was not easy for the owner of a range of three octaves, Ella Fitzgerald. After the death of her mother, the girl ran away from home and led a not too decent lifestyle. The start of the singer's career was the performance at the Amateur Nights music competition.

George Gershwin is world famous. The composer created jazz works based on classical music. The unexpected manner of performance captivated listeners and colleagues. Concerts were invariably accompanied by applause. The most famous works of D. Gershwin are "Rhapsody in Blues" (co-authored with Fred Grof), the operas "Porgy and Bess", "An American in Paris".

Also popular jazz performers were and remain Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis and others.

Jazz in the USSR

The emergence of this musical trend in the Soviet Union is associated with the name of the poet, translator and theatergoer Valentin Parnakh. The first concert of a jazz band led by a virtuoso took place in 1922. Later A. Tsfasman, L. Utyosov, Y. Skomorovsky formed the direction of theatrical jazz, combining instrumental performance and operetta. E. Rozner and O. Lundstrem did a lot to popularize jazz music.

In the 40s of the last century, jazz was widely criticized as a phenomenon of bourgeois culture. In the 1950s and 1960s, attacks on performers ceased. Jazz ensembles were created both in the RSFSR and in other Union republics.

Today, jazz is performed without hindrance at concert venues and in clubs.