What is jazz?

Now, anyone hearing this music, anyone on any civilized part of this earth, East
or West, pole to pole, would immediately say that is jazz. We are going to try
to investigate jazz. Not through the usual historical approach of up the river from
New Orleans, etc. but through approaching the music itself. We are going to
examine the musical intimate of jazz to find out once and for all what it is that
sets it apart from all other music.

Jazz is a very big word. It covers a multitude of sounds, all the way from the
earliest blues * to dixieland bands * to charleston bands * to swing bands * to
boogie woogie * to crazy bop * to cool bop * to mambo * and much more. It is all
jazz and I love it all.

I love jazz because of his humour. Jazz really plays around with notes in
a way that other music doesnt always. We usually say playing music,
playing piano, guitar. We usually use the word play to refer to handle
a musical intrument usually. But jazz has some of the amusement
connotation of the word play.

Jazz has fun with notes. It is

enterteinment in its truest sense.

But the thing I like best about jazz is that it is an original form of
emotional expression. Its unique. It is never completely sad or
completely happy. For instance even the deepest blues.

(All music comes from folk music and folk music comes from the earth.
Jazz is almost completely a players art, depending on improvisation rather than
composition. This means that the player of jazz is himself the real composer)
We have to know what it is. I propose to share with yousome of the things I
know and love about jazz
What are the elements that make that jazz?

Lets take this blues (we heard before) and find out what it is made of.
Now, what are the elements that make that jazz?

First of all, there is the element of MELODY:

Western music in general is based melodically speaking on scales: major
and minor, mainly. But there is a special scale for jazz which is a
variation of the major scale. In jazz, this scale gets modified two different
times: the third and the fifth notes get lowered. Those two changed notes
are referred to as BLUE NOTES. So instead of a phrase which ordinarily
would go something like this *, which is not particularly jazzy, we would
get, using blue notes, this phrase * which begins to show jazz quality.

But this called jazz scale is used only melodically, in the harmony,
underneath, we still use our old unflatted notes. And that causes a
dissonance that happen between the tune and the chords, which
provides a tru jazz sound. Jazz musicians are always using these two
dissonant notes together and there is a reason. They are really searching
for a note that there isnt at all. One that lies somewhere between the two
notes and the note is called a quarter tone. The quarter tone comes
straight from Africa, which is the cradle of jazz and where quarter tones
are a everydays staff. As far as we cant produce it with our instruments
we have to aproximate it by playing together the two notes on each side
of it. The real note is somewhere between them.
Now, just to show how important these so cold blue notes are to jazz lets
hear the same blues played without them, using only the plain notes of
the major scale.
There is something missing, isnt there?

But even more important than melody in jazz is the element of rhythm.
Rhythm is the first thing you associate with the word jazz, after all. There
are two aspects to this point, the first being the BEAT. The beat is what

you hear when the drummer plays the bass drum or when the bass
player plays his bass. The beat goes on from the beginning to the end of
any song, two or four of them to a bar. But more interesting is the rhythm
going on over the beat, rhythmic figures which depend on something
called SYNCOPATION. (A good way to understand syncopation is
thinking a hard beat that goes along and at a moment of shock misses
the beat and causes a physical reaction). Technically, syncopation means
the removal of an accent where you expect one or the placing of an
accent where you least expect one. In either case there is the element of
surprise and shock. The bosy responds to this shock either by
compensating for the missing accent or by reacting to the unexpected
one.
Now, where do we expect accents? Always on the first beat of a bar, on
the downbeat. If there are two beats on a bar, one is going to be strong
and one is going to be weak, exactly as in marching: LEFT-right, LEFTright even if there are four beats on a bar is still like marching: HOP-twothree-for, HOP-two-three-forThere is always this natural accent on one.
Take it away and there is a simple syncopation.ONE-two-three-four,
three-four,

-two-

-two-three-four. This missing accent of the beat evoques a body

responds.
Now the other way to make a syncopation is exactly the revers: put an
accent on a weak beat, the second or the fourth, where it does not belong,
like this: one-TWO-three-FOUR, one-TWO-three-FOUR, one-TWO-threeFOUR. This is what we all do when we listen to jazz, claping our hands or
snapping our fingers on the off-beat: one-TWO-three-FOUR. (chasq)
(Between one beat and another there are shorter and weaker beats, and
when these get accents, the shock is correspondingly greater. Since the
weaker the beat you accentuate, the greater the surprise. Lets take eight of
these beats in a bar: ONE-two-three-four-five-sex-seven-eight. The normal
accent would fall on one and five: ONE-two-three-four-FIVE-sex-seveneight. In stead, lets put a big accent in a real weak one wich is is the fourth:
ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six-seven-eight.)

Of course, the strongest syncopation would be obtained by doing both things

at one: putting an accent on a weak beat and taking away the accent from
the strong fifht beat entirely (led zeppelin).
Now that youve heard what syncopation is like lets see how the same blues
we heard before would sound without it *
It sounds squared, doesnt it?

Jazz would not be jazz without its special tonal colors. These colors are
many, but they mainly come from the quality of the negro singing voice.
For instance, when Louis Armstrong plays his trumpet, he is only doing
another version of his own voice. The instruments imitating the voice is
the essence of improvisation. Improvisations develop from this kind of
voice imitation.

You have ceirtanly heard jazz played by non jazz orchestras and wondered
what was missing: the coloration.
Well, there you have it: melody, rhythm, tonal color, harmony. In each
department there are especial features that make music sound jazzy.
Lets now put them all together

IMPROVISATION: a song doesnt become jazz until it is improvised. And

here you have the real core of all jazz: improvisation. Do you remember I
said Jazz is a players art, rather than composers?. This is the key: it is
the player who by improvising makes jazz.

What does improvising mean? It means that you take a tune, keep it in mind
with his melody and harmonyand then you make it up (go to town) by adding
ornaments or figurations or by making variations.

This stuff of improvising together gives rise to the style called dixieland,
where everyone is improvising together.
You see how exciting this can be.
Here in jazz are the beginnings of serious North American music.

JAZZ IN THE CONCERT HALL

American composers begin trying to get some of the excitement of jazz feeling,
American feeling into the symphonic music.
JOURNEY INTO JAZZ
PIONEERS OF AMERICAN MUSIC
THERE WAS A BIG SHOCK IN THE AIR
GEORGE GERSHWIN, LEONARD BERNSTEIN (AIN)
2. QUE ES LA MSICA AMERICANA
We are going talk about WHAT MAKES AMERICAN MUSIC SOUNDS
AMERICAN?
And just to start with, lets hear American music
I dont think there is anybody in this class who wouldnt know that music is
American music. Not only is the tittle clear, which as you know is and not
because the composer, was American. But is in the music itself: it sounds
american, it smells American, it makes you feel American when you hear it.
Now, WHY IS THAT? What makes certain music seem to belong to America.
Thats wahat we are going to try ot today.
Almost every country or nation has some kind of music that belongs to it, and
sounds right natural for its people. So, when a nation has its own kind of music,
we call that music NATIONALISTIC. Sometimes it is just FOLK MUSIC, very

simple songs, or sometimes nor even songs but just invocations for rain or
sorts of primitive chantings: tarantella from Italy, a reel from Ireland. So, the
moment you hear at that music, you know it is Irish, Italian, and so on.
Now, can you tell me what country makes this music youo think of?
What country is that? Right!
You are so smart today!
It has a folk song in it.
When this music is played in the country it belongs to, all the people listening to
it feel that it belongs to them.
What about America?
Thats a problem, because
They have different kinds of ancestors (forefathers)
MELTING POT: BRITISH, ITALIANS, JEWISH, DUTCHS, SPANISH, SWEDISH
NORTH AMERICANS COME FROM EVERYWHERE. SO, WITH ALL THOSE
DIFFERENTS FOREFATHERS THEY HAVE. WHAT IS IT THAT THEY ALL
AMERICANS HAVE IN COMMON?
WHAT CAN THEY CALL THEIR AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC?
North American is a very young country compared with the European countries.
So their folk music is still very young compared
Actually, their authentic American Music begin at the middle-late XIX century.
Until then, most music imitated European music. However, they wanted to find
their own music and writing their own American music
A Czechoslovakian composer named Dvorak visited the USA and was amazed
(surprised) to find all the American composers wrote the same kind of music he
did. So he told them: why dont you use your folk music when you write? Indian
music. So, in order to show them how it could be done, Dvorak made up some
indian themes and negro themes and wrote a symphony called New World
Symphony. But he was forgeting the most important thing: that indian music
has nothing to do with most of them. Their forefathers were not indians. The
problem is that it doesnt sound American, it sounds Czech.
Im sure you all know the second movement of the symphony, wich is the most
famous part.

In spite of that, Dvorak made an important impression on the American

composers and started writing this way.
After the First World War something very special came into American music. Do
you know what it is? Jazz was born and it changed everything because, finally,
there was an american folk music that belonged to all Americans. Jazz was
everybodys music.
At last there was something like American folk music that eveybody understood.
Jazz influence became a part of their lives: everybody used to dance the foxtrot
back in the twenties, etc.
NOW LETS SEE HOW THIS CHANGE TOOK PLACE:
-

for instance, take the rythms of jazz. The thing that makes jazz rhythm so
special is something called syncopation, wich means getting an accent
where you dont expect one, getting a strong beat where you have a
weak beat.

Lets try and see if we can do syncopation together: we are all going to clap
together, regular beats. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 without getting faster, without
getting slower, just keep it steady. While you do that, Im going to play a
syncopated charleston rhythm with accents in the unexpected places,
between the right places.
Lets try again.
Have you heard this syncopated rhythm?
That was the charleston in the twenties
Now, lets change the whole thing: Ill do the regular steady beat while you
do the charleston. (lets see how were gonna do it).
Wonderful! I could feel the jazz everywhere.
There are many sides in American music as many different people are: all
those ethnic groups, and personalities from all over the world that make up
USA. Heritages. Is like those different accents there are in a speech.