Jazz Music in 1920: The Evolution of an Art Form
Contents
Jazz music in 1920 was in the midst of a major evolution. The genre was growing and changing rapidly, and new styles were emerging. This was a time of great creativity and innovation in jazz, and many of the most important figures in the history of the genre were active during this period.
Origins of Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as ” America’s classical music”. Jazz has been described as the ” sound of surprise”, characterized by “a strong and absorbed interest in new harmonic and melodic possibilities”.
African American music
African American music is a basis for the development of jazz. The term “ jazz “ first referred to African American music in Chicago around 1915. African American music was originally a blend of West African and European music traditions that were brought over by slaves in the early 1600s. This type of music was usually sung in work songs or spirituals and was often improvised. The use of blue notes, call and response, and polyrhythms are all rooted in African musical tradition. In the early 1900s, New Orleans became a hub for this type of music, which was often played in brothels and bars. The first recorded use of the word “ jazz “ was in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times.
European music
Although most Americans think of Jazz as a purely American phenomenon, it actually has its roots in European music. Specifically, Jazz was influenced by a type of music called “blues,” which was developed by African-American slaves in the American South. The blues is a form of music that uses improvisation, or making up music as you go along. This type of musical improvisation is what would eventually become one of the defining characteristics of Jazz.
Jazz began to develop in the early 1900s, and by the 1920s, it had become its own distinct genre of music. Jazz reached its peak in the 1920s, with artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman becoming household names.
One of the things that made Jazz so popular in the 1920s was its rebellious nature. Jazz was seen as a “funky” and “dangerous” form of music that went against the grain of traditional American values. This rebel image only added to Jazz’s appeal, and helped to make it one of the most popular genres of music in the country.
The Birth of Jazz
Jazz music in 1920 was truly the start of something new. This was the era where jazz artists started to experiment with the form and style of music. They took the traditional sounds of African American music and fused it with the blues to create a new sound. This new sound was exciting and fresh, and it quickly caught on with the public.
New Orleans
The term “jazz” first came into common usage in the early 1920s, but it was not until 1925 that the first jazz recordings were made. The music was developed by African American musicians in the South, who blended their own cultural traditions with influences from Europe and the Caribbean.
New Orleans, Louisiana, was a particularly fertile ground for the new music, due to its blending of cultures. The city was home to a large community of free people of color, who were able to create their own musical traditions without restrictive laws or social customs. In addition, New Orleans was a major port city, which meant that it was exposed to a variety of musical influences from around the world.
The earliest jazz recordings were made by New Orleans-based musicians, such as trumpeter Jelly Roll Morton and clarinetist Sidney Bechet. These artists brought jazz to a national audience and helped to establish New Orleans as the Birthplace of Jazz.
The Jazz Age
In the early 1920s, jazz was still largely a regional phenomenon, with New Orleans as its birthplace and Chicago, Kansas City, and New York as its main centers. But over the next few years, as the music became more popular and more widely available on phonograph records and radio broadcasts, it began to exert a powerful influence on young people all over the country. In 1925, a reporter for the African-American newspaper Chicago Defender wrote that “jazz is now America’s national folk music—the music of young America.”
The popularity of jazz was also boosted by the zeitgeist of the Roaring Twenties, with its focus on youth, freedom, and pleasure. Jazz was seen as the perfect soundtrack for this carefree era of flappers and Prohibition. As one writer put it, “Jazz seemed to step out of time into a world where there were no past or future—only an eternal present.”
The rise of jazz coincided with a boom in the recording industry. In 1922, there were just under two million phonograph records sold in the United States; by 1929, that number had jumped to over fifteen million. This increase in sales was due in part to the growing popularity of radio (which created new markets for recorded music) and to the increasing affordability of phonographs (thanks to innovations like electric motors and vinyl records). The recordings of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and other jazz stars helped to spread the gospel of jazz around the country and around the world.
Jazz also benefited from changes in American society during the 1920s. The end of World War I brought an influx of soldiers from all over the country (and all over the world) into cities like New York and Chicago. These soldiers were exposed to new styles of music—including jazz—and they brought these styles back home with them when they returned home from combat. The rise of Jazz Age also coincided with increases in both immigration and urbanization; as more people moved into cities, they were exposed to new forms of entertainment, including jazz clubs and dance halls.
The Evolution of Jazz
In the early 1920s, jazz was a rapidly developing art form that was influenced by both Ragtime and the blues. Jazz musicians began to experiment with new ways to improvise, and they developed their own unique style of playing. This led to the creation of different jazz subgenres, such as New Orleans jazz, Chicago jazz, and swing.
Swing
Swing became popular in the early 1920s, coinciding with the rise of jazz itself. This new type of music was characterized by its syncopated rhythms, which were achieved by playing shorter notes on the off-beats. This created a more relaxed feel than the previous styles of jazz and was perfect for dancing.
The first recorded use of the term “swing” was in 1925, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that the style really took off. The Swing Era is generally considered to have lasted from 1935 to 1945, and it saw the rise of some of the most famous jazz musicians ever, such as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie.
Swing continued to be popular after the war, but it began to incorporate more modern elements such as bebop. This new style developed in the 1940s and was characterized by its fast tempo and complex chords. It wasn’t long before swing gave way to bebop as the dominant style of jazz.
Bebop
Bebop is a style of jazz characterized by fast-paced, often complex and unpredictable melodies and rhythms. It emerged in the mid-1940s as a reaction against the more formal, big band-oriented style of swing jazz. Bebop’s defining feature is its use of “Bird voicings,” or chord progressions based on the work of Charlie “Bird” Parker.
In bebop, musicians often take turns improvising over the melody, rather than soloing all at once. This allows for more complex harmonic arrangements and encourages a greater sense of communication between band members. Bebop is also known for its use of “blue notes,” or notes that are slightly flattened or sharpened to create a sense of melancholy or tension.
Bebop has had a lasting impact on jazz, influencing subsequent styles such as hard bop, cool jazz, free jazz, and even hip hop. Many of bebop’s key figures are still celebrated today as some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, including Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Bud Powell.
Hard bop
By the mid-1950s, the hard bop style had emerged, characterized by compositions with a backbeat and sometimes incorporating elements of755e Blues and R&B. The greatest exponents of this style were Horace Silver, Art Blakey and Clifford Brown. Horace Silver’s best known works are “The Preacher” and “Filthy McNasty”. Art Blakey recorded numerous hard bop albums with the Jazz Messengers, although he also continued to record in other styles throughout his career. Best known among his many recordings are The Big Beat (1960) and Moanin’ (1958). Clifford Brown was one of the most influential trumpeters of the hard bop era; his best-known works are “Joy Spring” (1954) and “Daahoud” (1954).
Free jazz
During the 1950s, a new form of jazz began to emerge, known as free jazz. This style was pioneered by saxophonist Ornette Coleman, who developed a new approach to improvisation that emphasized spontaneity and freedom over traditional chord progressions and melodic structures. Free jazz quickly gained popularity among other young musicians, who were attracted to its improvised, experimental sound.
In the 1960s, free jazz began to evolve into a more experimental genre, as artists like saxophonist Albert Ayler and pianist Cecil Taylor pushed the boundaries of the music even further. Free jazz became increasingly avant-garde, incorporating elements of noise and atonality into the mix. This post-free jazz period saw the emergence of artists such as saxophonist Archie Shepp and pianist McCoy Tyner, who took the music in new directions.
Today, free jazz is regarded as one of the most important genres in jazz history. It continues to be a source of inspiration for musicians all over the world, and its influence can be heard in everything from contemporary classical music to rock and roll.
Jazz Today
Jazz fusion
In the late 1960s, jazz began to evolve away from its earlier style, becoming more experimental and influenced by rock and roll, funk, and rhythm and blues. This new style of jazz was called “jazz fusion.”
Some of the most famous jazz fusion bands included Miles Davis’ band, which featured Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Tony Williams on drums, and John McLaughlin on guitar. Other well-known jazz fusion bands included Weather Report and Return to Forever.
Jazz fusion was a very popular style of music in the 1970s, but by the 1980s, it had lost some of its popularity. However, many of the musicians who pioneered jazz fusion went on to have very successful careers in other genres of music.
Contemporary jazz
Contemporary jazz is a genre of music that combines elements of Jazz, R&B, Funk, and sometimes Hip-Hop. Contemporary jazz is usually played by small ensembles and is known for its complex, often challenging melodies and harmonies.
Contemporary Jazz first developed in the 1950s as a reaction to Bebop, which many musicians felt was becoming too abstract and far removed from the original feel of Jazz. Musicians such as Miles Davis, Horace Silver, and Thelonious Monk began to experiment with different tempos, rhythms, and harmonies, creating a new sound that would come to be known as Hard Bop.
Hard Bop was influential in the development of contemporary jazz; it added a greater focus on melody and groove, while still retaining the complex harmonies of Bebop. Many of the great contemporary jazz musicians got their start playing in Hard Bop bands, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Wayne Shorter.
In the 1960s, jazz began to evolve once again as musicians began experimenting with electronic instruments and using them to create new sounds. This period saw the birth of Fusion Jazz, which combined elements of Jazz with Rock and Funk. Miles Davis was once again at the forefront of this new style with his influential album Bitches Brew.
Fusion Jazz would go on to be tremendously popular in the 1970s, with bands like Weather Report and Return to Forever becoming household names. In the 1980s and 1990s, contemporary jazz continued to evolve, incorporating elements of Hip-Hop and World Music. Today, contemporary jazz is as popular as ever, with artists like Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Brad Mehldau, and Pat Metheny selling millions of albums worldwide.
