AtiBlog: Jazz Notes V

After a couple of posts about "what is jazz?", "where did it come from?" and the basic jazz philosophy, it might be a good time to introduce key jazz styles along with their major performers and highlighted recordings.

One could argue that I have omitted "Blues" and "Ragtime" in the historical development of jazz however these two genres definitely need their own dedicated posts on this blog (soon hopefully).
Now here, I will be trying to make an introduction to the styles that have been widely accepted as jazz and jazz only.

Dixieland (Combo Jazz):

Almost all jazz historians have a consensus that the earliest jazz form is "Dixieland" or "Combo Jazz". We can also justify this view with the differences of this form versus "Blues" and "Ragtime".
With the Dixieland style, musicians started to use their liberties with the tunes and the accompaniments in their performances. They began to use new ideas which were more important than the tunes themselves. Obviously, this style had its roots in blues, ragtime, gospel and brass band music , but starting from the early 1920s, the music and the formal structure were becoming totally something new...

The primary feature of Dixieland was "collective improvisation" that is, rather than solo improvisation, musicians improvised all together and at the same time. Therefore the complexity in music increased significantly compared to its predecessors.
Another distinction was about the rhythmic feeling of the music, it was more relaxed and loose, like making way to the swing form.
Also the instrumentation was richer, generally a Dixieland band was formed with trumpet or cornet, trombone, clarinet, bass or tuba, drums, piano and banjo or guitar players.

Original Dixieland Jass (Jazz) Band in 1917 playing "Livery Stable Blues"

As can be imagined, Dixieland jazz began in New Orleans. Initially, performing bands were mostly "marching bands" or "funeral bands". The first jazz recording was also made by a Dixieland band in 1917 (that you can watch in the above video) in Chicago. That is why we do not have many examples how the New Orleans early jazz sounded like due to the fact that there was almost no recording made in New Orleans...

The best known musicians of the time that were the true pioneers of Dixieland, were Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, Joe "King" Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke on trumpet/cornet, Sidney Bechet, on clarinet, Jelly Roll Morton on piano, and Kid Ory on trombone.

After the first jazz recording made in 1917 by the "Original Dixieland Jazz Band" (an all white group), the African-American musicians started to look for recording opportunities as well. And this was the beginning of the Chicago jazz scene. The city offered these musicians many opportunities to take stage and/or to record. Most Dixieland music we can hear today comes from the mid 1920s and from the records made in Chicago.

As we can hear from these recordings, the instruments used in this jazz style had somewhat specific roles, for example; trumpet or cornet almost always played the melody, clarinet made this melody more decorated via playing many notes. The trombone usually enriched the bass line but sometimes helped for a richer melody. Piano, banjo or guitar mostly played the chords. Bass was used for the bass line and the drums provided the beat for the band.

Following the shift to Chicago from New Orleans, the style started to change. become less collective improvised and more solo improvised. The balance and the interplay in collective improvisation that was the main characteristic of early jazz receded in Chicago. Musicians began longer, more complex but solo improvisations. The reason can be the increasing freedom or differing skill sets between musicians.

Dixieland also had cultural impacts on the American society as well. It was the reflection of African-Americans' freedom cry (slavery days were over but one can hardly say that they had civil rights). Improvisation enabled them to show their freedom by playing whatever, whenever and however they wanted.

Remember at those times jazz was the number one popular music so it had a wide appeal to almost everyone. It was the music to listen to and to dance to. It was happy and highly entertaining.

If you would like to listen more fine examples of Dixieland here is a list of some big artists that I like;