The history of the development of jazz is brief. Jazz music: features and characteristics
As one of the most revered forms of musical art in America, jazz laid the foundation for an entire industry, revealing to the world numerous names of genius composers, instrumentalists, and vocalists, and spawning a wide range of genres. The 15 most influential jazz musicians are responsible for a global phenomenon that has occurred over the last century in the history of the genre.
Jazz developed in the late years of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th as a direction that combines classical European and American sounds with African folk motives. The songs were performed with a syncopated rhythm, giving impetus to the development, and subsequently the formation of large orchestras for its performance. Music has taken a big step forward from ragtime to modern jazz.
The influence of West African musical culture is evident in what kind of music is written and how it is performed. Polyrhythm, improvisation and syncopation are what characterizes jazz. Over the past century, this style has changed under the influence of contemporaries of the genre, who contributed their performance to the essence of improvisation. New directions began to appear - bebop, fusion, Latin American jazz, free jazz, funk, acid jazz, hard bop, smooth jazz, and so on.
15 Art Tatum
Art Tatum is a jazz pianist and virtuoso who was practically blind. He is known as one of the greatest pianists of all time, who changed the role of the piano in the jazz ensemble. Tatum turned to stride to create his own unique playing style, adding swing rhythm and fantastic improvisation. His attitude to jazz music radically changed the importance of the grand piano in jazz as a musical instrument compared to its previous characteristics.
Tatum experimented with the harmonies of the melody, influencing the structure of the chord and expanding it. All this characterized the style of bebop, which is known to become popular ten years later, when the first records in this genre appeared. Critics also noted his impeccable playing technique - Art Tatum was able to play the most difficult passages with such ease and speed that it seemed his fingers barely touched the black and white keys.
14 Thelonious Monk
Some of the most complex and varied sounds can be found in the repertoire of the pianist and composer, one of the most important representatives of the era of the emergence of bebop and its subsequent development. His very personality as an eccentric musician helped popularize jazz. Monk, always dressed in a suit, hat and sunglasses, openly expressed his free attitude towards improvisational music. He did not accept strict rules and formed his own approach to writing essays. Some of his most brilliant and famous works are Epistrophy, Blue Monk, Straight, No Chaser, I Mean You and Well, You Needn't.
Monk's style of play was based on an innovative approach to improvisation. His works are distinguished by percussive passages and abrupt pauses. Quite often, right during his performances, he jumped up from the piano and danced while the other band members continued to play the melody. Thelonious Monk remains one of the most influential jazz musicians in the history of the genre.
13 Charles Mingus
The acclaimed double bass virtuoso, composer and band leader was one of the most extraordinary musicians on the jazz scene. He developed a new musical style, combining gospel, hard bop, free jazz and classical music. Contemporaries called Mingus "the heir to Duke Ellington" for his fantastic ability to write works for small jazz ensembles. In his compositions, all the members of the team demonstrated the skill of playing, each of whom was also not only talented, but was characterized by a unique style of play.
Mingus carefully selected the musicians who made up his band. The legendary double bass player was notable for his irascibility, and once he even punched trombonist Jimmy Knepper in the face, knocking out his tooth. Mingus suffered from a depressive disorder, but was not ready to put up with the fact that this somehow affected his creative activity. Despite this ailment, Charles Mingus is one of the most influential figures in jazz history.
12 Art Blakey
Art Blakey was a renowned American drummer and band leader who made a splash in drum kit style and technique. He combined swing, blues, funk and hard bop - a style that is heard today in every modern jazz composition. Together with Max Roach and Kenny Clarke, he invented a new way of playing bebop on drums. For more than 30 years, his band The Jazz Messengers has given a start to the big jazz of many jazz artists: Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter, Clifford Brown, Curtis Fuller, Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, etc.
The Jazz Ambassadors did not just create phenomenal music - they were a kind of musical training ground for young talented musicians like Miles Davis's band. Art Blakey's style changed the very sound of jazz, becoming a new musical milestone.
11 Dizzy Gillespie
The jazz trumpeter, singer, composer and band leader became a prominent figure during the bebop and modern jazz era. His trumpet style influenced the style of Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro. After spending time in Cuba, upon returning to the United States, Gillespie was one of the musicians who actively promoted Afro-Cuban jazz. In addition to his inimitable performance on a distinctively curved trumpet, Gillespie was recognizable by his horn-rimmed glasses and incredibly large cheeks as he played.
The great jazz improviser Dizzy Gillespie, like Art Tatum, innovated harmony. The compositions of Salt Peanuts and Goovin 'High were rhythmically completely different from previous works. Staying true to bebop throughout his career, Gillespie is remembered as one of the most influential jazz trumpeters.
10 Max Roach
Among the top ten 15 most influential jazz musicians in the history of the genre is Max Roach, a drummer known as one of the pioneers of bebop. He, like few others, influenced modern drumming. Roach was a civil rights activist and collaborated with Oscar Brown Jr. and Coleman Hawkins on the album We Insist! - Freedom Now, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Max Roach is a man of impeccable playing style, capable of playing extended solos throughout the entire concert. Absolutely any audience was delighted with his consummate skill.
9 Billie Holiday
Lady Day is the favorite of millions. Billie Holiday wrote only a few songs, but when she sang, she wrapped her voice from the first notes. Her performance is deep, personal and even intimate. Her style and intonation are inspired by the sounds of musical instruments that she has heard. Like almost all the musicians described above, she became the creator of a new, but already vocal style, based on long musical phrases and the tempo of their chanting.
The famous Strange Fruit is the best not only in Billie Holiday's career, but in the entire history of jazz because of the singer's soulful performance. She is posthumously honored with prestigious awards and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
8 John Coltrane
John Coltrane's name is associated with virtuoso playing technique, superb talent for composing music and a passion for discovering new facets of the genre. On the cusp of the origins of hard bop, the saxophonist achieved tremendous success and became one of the most influential musicians in the history of the genre. Coltrane's music was harsh and he played with high intensity and dedication. He was able to both play alone and improvise in an ensemble, creating solo parts of unthinkable duration. Playing the tenor and soprano saxophone, Coltrane was able to create melodic compositions in the style of smooth jazz.
John Coltrane is the author of a kind of "reboot bebop", incorporating modal harmonies. Remaining the main active figure in the avant-garde, he was a very prolific composer and did not stop releasing CDs, having recorded about 50 albums as a band leader throughout his career.
7 Count Basie
Revolutionary pianist, organist, composer and band leader Count Basie led one of the most successful bands in jazz history. In 50 years, the Count Basie Orchestra, including incredibly popular musicians such as Sweets Edison, Buck Clayton and Joe Williams, has built a reputation as one of America's most sought-after big bands. Count Basie, winner of nine Grammy awards, has instilled a love of orchestral sound in generations of listeners.
Basie has written many compositions that have become jazz standards, such as April in Paris and One O'Clock Jump. Colleagues spoke of him as tactful, modest and full of enthusiasm. Had it not been in the history of the count Basie orchestra jazz, the era of big bands would have sounded differently and probably would not have been as influential as it became with this outstanding band leader.
6 Coleman Hawkins
The tenor saxophone is a symbol of bebop and all jazz music in general. And thankful for that, we can be Coleman to Hawkins. Hawkins' innovation was vital to the development of bebop in the mid-forties. His contributions to the popularity of this instrument may have shaped the future careers of John Coltrane, and Dexter Gordon.
The composition Body and Soul (1939) became the standard of playing the tenor saxophone for many saxophonists. Other instrumentalists were also influenced by Hawkins - pianist Thelonious Monk, trumpet player Miles Davis, drummer Max Roach. His ability for extraordinary improvisation led to the disclosure of new jazz sides of the genre, which were not touched by his contemporaries. This partly explains why the tenor saxophone has become an integral part of the modern jazz ensemble.
5 Benny Goodman
Opens five of the 15 most influential jazz musicians in the history of the genre. The famous King of Swing led almost the most popular orchestra of the early 20th century. His 1938 Carnegie Hall concert is recognized as one of the most important live concerts in American music history. This show demonstrates the onset of the era of jazz, the recognition of this genre as an independent art form.
Despite the fact that Benny Goodman was the lead singer of a large swing orchestra, he also participated in the development of bebop. His orchestra was one of the first to bring together musicians of different races. Goodman was a staunch opponent of the Jim Crow Law. He even turned down a southern tour in support of racial equality. Benny Goodman was an active activist and reformer not only in jazz, but also in popular music.
4 Miles Davis
One of the central jazz figures of the 20th century, Miles Davis, was at the origin and oversight of many musical events. He is credited with pioneering the genres of bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, free jazz, fusion, funk and techno music. In constant search for a new musical style, he was always successful and was surrounded by brilliant musicians, including John Coltrane, Cannoball Adderly, Keith Jarrett, JJ Johnson, Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea. During his lifetime, Davis was awarded 8 Grammy awards and is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Miles Davis was one of the most active and influential jazz musicians of the last century.
3 Charlie Parker
When you think of jazz, you think of a name. Also known as Bird Parker, he was a pioneer of the jazz alto saxophone, bebop musician and composer. His fast playing, clear sound and talent as an improviser had a significant impact on the musicians of that time and our contemporaries. As a composer, he changed the standards for jazz music writing. Charlie Parker became the musician who cultivated the idea that jazzmen were artists and intellectuals, not just showmen. Many artists have tried to copy Parker's style. His famous playing techniques can be traced in the manner of many of today's novice musicians, who take as a basis the composition Bird, which is consonant with the nickname of the alt-sacosophist.
2 Duke Ellington
He was a grandiose pianist, composer and one of the most outstanding leaders of the orchestra. Although he is known as a pioneer of jazz, he excelled in other genres as well, including gospel, blues, classical and popular music. It is Ellington who is credited with making jazz a separate art form. With countless awards and prizes, the first great jazz composer never stopped improving. He inspired the next generations of musicians, including Sonny Stitt, Oscar Peterson, Earl Hines, Joe Pass. Duke Ellington remains an acclaimed jazz grand piano genius as an instrumentalist and composer.
1 Louis Armstrong
Undisputedly the most influential jazz musician in the history of the genre - known as Sachmo - is a trumpet player and singer from New Orleans. He is known as the creator of jazz and played a key role in its development. The striking abilities of this performer made it possible to build the trumpet into a solo jazz instrument. He is the first musician to sing and popularize scat. His low "thundering" timbre of voice was impossible not to recognize.
Armstrong's adherence to his own ideals influenced the work of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Louis Armstrong influenced not only jazz, but the entire musical culture, giving the world a new genre, a unique singing style and style of playing the trumpet.
Jazz is a direction in music, characterized by the combination of rhythm with melody. A separate feature of jazz is improvisation. The musical direction gained its popularity thanks to its unusual sound and the combination of several completely different cultures.
The history of jazz began in the early 20th century in the United States. Traditional jazz took shape in New Orleans. Subsequently, new varieties of jazz began to emerge in many other cities. Despite all the variety of sounds of different styles, jazz music can be immediately distinguished from another genre due to its characteristic features.
Improvisation
Musical improvisation is one of the main features in jazz, which is present in all its varieties. The performers create music spontaneously, they never think in advance, they don't rehearse. Playing jazz and improvising requires experience and skill in this area of music making. In addition, a jazz player must be mindful of rhythm and tonality. The relationship between the musicians in the group is of no small importance, because the success of the melody obtained depends on the understanding of each other's mood.
Improvisation in jazz allows you to create something new every time. The sound of music depends only on the musician's inspiration at the time of the game.
It cannot be said that if there is no improvisation in the performance, then this is no longer jazz. This kind of music-making went to jazz from African peoples. Since Africans had no idea about sheet music and rehearsal, music was passed on to each other only by memorizing its melody and theme. And each new musician could already play the same music in a new way.
Rhythm and melody
The second important feature of the jazz style is rhythm. Musicians have the ability to spontaneously create sound, as the constant pulsation creates the effect of liveliness, play, excitement. Rhythm also limits improvisation, requiring you to produce sounds according to a given rhythm.
Like improvisation, rhythm came to jazz from African cultures. But it is precisely this feature that is the main characteristic of the musical movement. The early performers of free jazz completely abandoned rhythm in order to be completely free to create music. Because of this, the new direction in jazz was not recognized for a long time. The rhythm is provided by percussion instruments.
Jazz inherited the melody of music from European culture. It is the combination of rhythm and improvisation with harmonious and soft music that gives jazz an unusual sound.
After Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent and Europeans settled there, ships of merchants in living goods increasingly followed to the shores of America.
Exhausted by hard work, homesick and suffering from the brutal attitude of the warders, the slaves found solace in the music. Gradually, Americans and Europeans became interested in unusual melodies and rhythms. This is how jazz appeared. What is jazz, and what are its features, we will consider in this article.
Features of the musical direction
Jazz includes music of African American origin, which is based on improvisation (swing) and a special rhythmic structure (syncope). Unlike other genres, where one person writes music and the other performs, jazz musicians act as composers at the same time.
The melody is created spontaneously, the periods of writing, performance are separated by a minimum period of time. This is how jazz comes out. 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 saved in musical notation (T. Coler, G. Arlen “Happy all day”, D. Ellington “Don't you know what I love?”, Etc.).
Over time, African music has been synthesized with European music. Melodies appeared that combined plasticity, rhythm, melody and harmony of sounds (CHEATHAM Doc, Blues In My Heart, CARTER James, Centerpiece, etc.).
Directions
There are more than thirty styles of jazz. Let's take a look at some of them.
1. Blues. Translated from English, the word means "sadness", "melancholy". Initially, a solo lyric song of African Americans was called the blues. Jazz blues is a twelve-bar period corresponding to a three-line poetic form. Blues compositions are performed at a slow pace, there is some understatement in the lyrics. blues - Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, etc.
2. Ragtime. The literal translation of the style name is torn tense. In the language of musical terms, "reg" denotes additional sounds between beats of a measure. The direction appeared in the USA, after overseas carried away by the works of F. Schubert, F. Chopin and F. Liszt. The music of European composers was performed in the jazz style. Later, original compositions appeared. Ragtime is typical for the works of S. Joplin, D. Scott, D. Lamb and others.
3. Boogie-woogie. The style appeared at the beginning of the last century. The inexpensive cafe owners needed musicians to play jazz. That such a musical accompaniment presupposes the presence of an orchestra, it was understood by itself, but inviting a large number of musicians was expensive. The sound of different instruments was compensated by pianists, creating numerous rhythmic compositions. Boogie is distinguished by:
- 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 what the fate of the boy from the poor Negro quarter would have been if Louis had not been sent to a correctional camp. Here the future star was enrolled 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 her peak of popularity in the 50s of the last century, when she changed the scenes of nightclubs to theatrical stage.
Life was not easy for the owner of a three-octave range, Ella Fitzgerald. After the death of her mother, the girl ran away from home and did not lead a very decent life. The start of her career as a singer was a performance at the Amateur Nights music competition.
George Gershwin is world famous. The composer created jazz pieces based on classical music. The unexpected manner of performance captivated the audience and colleagues. Concerts were invariably accompanied by applause. The most famous works of D. Gershwin - "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 direction in the Soviet Union is associated with the name of the poet, translator and theater-goer Valentin Parnakh. The first concert of a jazz band under the guidance of 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. Rosner 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 50s and 60s, attacks on performers stopped. Jazz ensembles were created both in the RSFSR and in other union republics.
Today jazz is performed unhindered in concert halls and clubs.
Soul swing?
Probably everyone knows how the composition sounds in this style. This genre originated in the early twentieth century in the United States of America and represents a certain combination of African and European culture. The amazing music attracted attention almost immediately, found its fans and quickly spread around the world.
It is quite difficult to convey a jazz musical cocktail, since it combines:
- bright and lively music;
- inimitable rhythm of African drums;
- church chants of Baptists or Protestants.
What is jazz in music? It is very difficult to define this concept, since at first glance, incompatible motives sound in it, which, interacting with each other, give the world unique music.
Peculiarities
What are the characteristics of jazz? What is jazz rhythm? And what are the features of this music? Distinctive features of the style are:
- certain polyrhythmia;
- constant beat ripple;
- a set of rhythms;
- improvisation.
The musical range of this style is colorful, bright and harmonious. Several separate timbres are clearly traced in it, which merge together. The style is based on a unique combination of improvisation with a premeditated melody. Improvisation can be done by one soloist or by several musicians in an ensemble. The main thing is that the overall sound is clear and rhythmic.
Jazz history
This musical direction has developed and formed over the course of a century. Jazz arose from the very depths of African culture, as black slaves, who were brought from Africa to America to understand each other, learned to be one. And, as a result, they created a unified musical art.
The performance of African melodies is characterized by dance movements and the use of complex rhythms. All of them, together with the usual blues melodies, formed the basis for the creation of a completely new musical art.
The whole process of combining African and European culture in jazz art began at the end of the 18th century, continued throughout the 19th century and only at the end of the 20th century led to the emergence of a completely new direction in music.
When did jazz appear? What is West Coast Jazz? The question is rather ambiguous. This direction appeared in the south of the United States of America, in New Orleans, approximately at the end of the nineteenth century.
The initial stage in the emergence of jazz music is characterized by a kind of improvisation and work on the same musical composition. It was played by the main trumpet soloist, trombone and clarinet performers in conjunction with percussion musical instruments against the background of marching music.
Basic styles
The history of jazz began quite a long time ago, and as a result of the development of this musical direction, many different styles have appeared. For example:
- archaic jazz;
- blues;
- soul;
- soul jazz;
- scat;
- New Orleans jazz style;
- sound;
- swing.
The birthplace of jazz has left a big imprint on the style of this musical direction. The very first and traditional type created by a small ensemble was archaic jazz. The music is created in the form of improvisation on the themes of the blues, as well as European songs and dances.
Blues can be considered a rather characteristic direction, the melody of which is based on a clear beat. This kind of genre is characterized by a compassionate attitude and glorification of lost love. At the same time, light humor can be traced in the texts. Jazz music means a kind of instrumental dance piece.
Traditional Negro music is considered to be the direction of soul, directly related to the blues traditions. New Orleans jazz sounds quite interesting, which is distinguished by a very accurate bipartite rhythm, as well as the presence of several separate melodies. This trend is characterized by the fact that the main theme is repeated several times in different variations.
In Russia
In the thirties, jazz was very popular in our country. What is blues and soul, Soviet musicians learned in the thirties. The attitude of the authorities to this direction was very negative. Initially, jazz performers were not banned. However, there was a rather harsh criticism of this musical direction as a component of the entire Western culture.
In the late 1940s, jazz bands were persecuted. Over time, the repression against the musicians stopped, but criticism continued.
Interesting and addicting facts about jazz
The homeland of jazz is America, where various musical styles were combined. For the first time, this music appeared among the oppressed and disenfranchised representatives of the African people, who were forcibly taken away from their homeland. During the rare hours of rest, the slaves sang traditional songs, accompanying themselves with clapping their hands, since they did not have musical instruments.
At the very beginning, it was real African music. However, over time, it changed, and motives of religious Christian hymns appeared in it. At the end of the 19th century, other songs appeared, in which there was a protest and complaints about their lives. Such songs began to be called blues.
The main feature of jazz is considered to be free rhythm, as well as complete freedom in the melodic style. Jazz musicians had to be able to improvise individually or collectively.
Since its inception in the city of New Orleans, jazz has managed to go through a rather difficult path. It spread first in America, and then throughout the world.
Top Jazz Artists
Jazz is a special kind of music filled with unusual ingenuity and passion. She knows no boundaries or limits. Famous jazz performers are able to literally breathe life into music and fill it with energy.
The most famous jazz performer is Louis Armstrong, who is revered for his lively style, virtuosity, and ingenuity. Armstrong's influence on jazz music is invaluable as he is the greatest musician of all time.
Duke Ellington made a great contribution to this direction, as he used his musical group as a music laboratory for conducting experiments. Over the years of his creative activity, he wrote many original and unique compositions.
In the early 80s, Winton Marsalis became a real discovery, as he preferred to play acoustic jazz, which made a splash and provoked a new interest in this music.
Introduction
Once the editor-in-chief of the most famous American jazz magazine "Down Beat", which is distributed in 124 countries of the world, a reporter asked during an interview: "What is jazz?" “You have never seen a person get caught so quickly on the spot by such a simple question!” This editor later said. Unlike him, any other jazz figure, as an answer to the same question, could tell you about this music for two hours or more, without explaining anything concretely, since in reality there is still no precise, short and even the same time of complete and objective definition of the word and the very concept of "jazz".
But there is a huge difference between the music of King Oliver and Miles Davis, Benny Goodman and the Modern Jazz Quartet, Stan Kenton and John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Dave Brubeck. Many components and the very constant development of jazz over 100 years have led to the fact that even yesterday's set of its exact characteristics cannot be fully applied today, and tomorrow's formulations may be diametrically opposed (for example, for Dixieland and Bebop, swing big band and combo jazz rock).
There are also difficulties in defining jazz. the fact that they always try to solve this problem head-on and talk about jazz with many words with little result. Obviously, it could be solved indirectly by defining all those characteristics that surround this musical world in society, and then it will be easier to understand what is in the center. At the same time, the question "What is jazz?" is replaced by "What is meant by jazz?" And then we discover that this word has very different meanings for different people. Each person fills this lexical neologism with a certain meaning at his own discretion.
There are two categories of people using this word. Some people love jazz, while others are not interested in it. Most jazz lovers have a very wide use of this word, but none of them can determine where jazz begins and ends, because everyone has their own opinion on this matter. They can find a common language with each other, but each is convinced that he is right and knows what jazz is, without going into details. Even the professional musicians themselves, who live in jazz and regularly perform it, give very different and vague definitions of this music.
The endless variety of interpretations does not give us any chance to come to a single and indisputable conclusion that this is jazz from a purely musical point of view. Nevertheless, a different approach is possible here, which was proposed in the second half of the 50s by the world famous musicologist, President and Director of the New York Institute for Jazz Research Marshall Stearns (1908-1966), who invariably enjoyed unlimited respect in jazz circles of all countries of the Old and the New World. In his excellent textbook The History of Jazz, first published in 1956, he gave his definition of this music from a purely historical point of view.
Stearns wrote: “First of all, wherever you hear jazz, it is always much easier to recognize it than to describe it in words. traditions - Western European and West African - that is, the actual fusion of white and black culture.And although in the musical respect the European tradition played a predominant role here, the rhythmic qualities that made jazz such a characteristic, unusual and easily recognizable music undoubtedly lead its origin from Africa. Therefore, the main components of this music are European harmony, Euro-African melody and African rhythm. "
But why did jazz originate in North America, and not in South or Central, where there were also enough whites and blacks? After all, when they talk about the homeland of jazz, America is always called its cradle, but at the same time they usually mean just the modern territory of the United States. The fact is that if the northern half of the American continent was historically inhabited mainly by Protestants (British and French), among whom there were many religious missionaries seeking to convert blacks to the Christian faith, then in the southern and central part of this vast continent, Catholics predominated (Spaniards and the Portuguese), who looked at black slaves just like draft animals, not caring about the salvation of their souls. Therefore, there could not have been a significant and deep enough interpenetration of races and cultures, which in turn had a direct impact on the degree of preservation of the native music of African slaves, mainly in the field of their rhythm. Until now, in the countries of South and Central America, there are pagan cults, secret rituals and unrestrained carnivals are held accompanied by Afro-Cuban (or Latin American) rhythms. It is not surprising that it is in this rhythmic respect that the southern part of the New World has already noticeably influenced all world popular music in our time, while the North has given something different to the treasury of modern musical art, for example, spirituals and blues.
Consequently, Sterns continues, in the historical aspect, jazz is a synthesis obtained in the original from 6 fundamental sources. These include:
1. Rhythms of West Africa;
2. Work songs (field hollers);
3. Negro religious songs (spirituals);
4. Negro secular songs (blues);
5. American folk music of the past centuries;
6. Music of minstrels and street brass bands.
Origins
The first forts of white people in the Gulf of Guinea on the coast of West Africa appeared already in 1482. Exactly 10 years later, a significant event took place - the discovery of America by Columbus. In 1620, the first black slaves appeared on the modern territory of the United States, who were conveniently transported by ships across the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa. Over the next hundred years, their number has grown there to one hundred thousand, and by 1790 this number had increased tenfold.
If we say "African rhythm", then we must bear in mind, of course, that West African blacks have never played "jazz" as such - we are talking only about rhythm as an integral part of their life in their homeland, where it was represented by a ritual "chorus of drums "with its complex polyrhythmia and much more. But slaves could not take any musical instruments with them to the New World, and at first in America they were even forbidden to make homemade drums, examples of which could only be seen in ethnographic museums much later. In addition, none of people of any skin color is born with a ready-made sense of rhythm, it's all about traditions, i.e. in the continuity of generations and the environment, therefore, Negro customs and rituals were preserved and transmitted in the United States exclusively orally and from memory from generation to generation of African American Negroes. As Dizzy Gillespie said: “I don’t think that God can give someone more than others if they find themselves in the same conditions. You can take any person, and if you put him in the same environment, then he life's journey will definitely be similar to ours. "
Jazz originated in the United States as a result of the synthesis of numerous elements of the resettled musical cultures of the peoples of Europe, on the one hand, and African folklore, on the other. These cultures had fundamentally different qualities. African music is improvisational in nature, it is characterized by a collective form of music-making with strong polyrhythm, polymetry and linearity. The most important function in it is the rhythmic beginning, the rhythmic polyphony, from which the effect of cross rhythm arises. The melodic, and even more the harmonious beginning, in African music-making is developed to a much lesser extent than in European. Music for Africans has more applied value than for Europeans. It is often associated with work activities, with rituals, including worship. The syncretism of different types of arts affects the nature of music making - it does not appear independently, but in conjunction with dance, plastics, prayer, and recitation. In an excited state of Africans, their intonation is much more free than that of Europeans, chained into a normalized scale. Call & response singing is widely developed in African music.
For its part, European music made its rich contribution to the future synthesis: melodic constructions with a leading voice, modal major-minor standards, harmonic possibilities and much more. In general, relatively speaking, African emotionality, an intuitive beginning, collided with European rationalism, especially manifested in the musical politics of Protestantism.