Charles Mingus creates an appropriately named jazz bop tune in his song “Boogie Stop Shuffle”. His band is comprised of Willie Dennis on the trombone, John Handy, Shafi Hadi, and Booker Ervin on saxophones, Horace Parlan on the piano, Charles Mingus himself playing the bass, and Dannie Richmond taking on the drums. The song has quite a fast tempo and a very hot feeling is created throughout. Boogie Stop Shuffle gets it’s name from the way the bass transitions from stop time to shuffle and then back again as the song progresses. The boogie part of the name becomes very apparent right at the very beginning. Polyphonic texture is employed heavily by Mingus and his band, and the song begs the listener to engage with it and catch all of the different …show more content…
Of the five minutes, I believe that the most interesting segments are the first solo and the last minute or so; I will be analyzing these particular portions in depth. From the very start, this song is hot and fast. To open, the entire band plays a fast phrase that follows the 12 bar blues scale and this phrase remains central throughout the entirety of the song. The bass and piano hold this phrase while the horns transition into a separate rhythm to compliment it. These two phrases are repeated until the beginning of the first saxophone solo at :56. During this solo the bass transitions to a shuffle line while the piano compliments. The other horns join in with riffs after the first two choruses of the solo. The solo continues for another two choruses with the whole band playing before it is rounded off. The final minute of the song begins with a repeat of the third, fourth, and fifth choruses. In the final 20 seconds, things begin to get very interesting. The horns hold the last note of the chorus as the rhythms comes to a sharp halt. The horns engage in a brief agglomeration of notes that exhibits a strong use of polyphony and could be described as somewhat hectic. The drummer begins to shine with a solo of his own which he continues for the final seconds of the song, before resolving the entire song with a final
The music of jazz became an important aspect of American culture in the early 20th century. The crisp syncopation of ragtime and the smooth tunes of the blues seeped into American mainstream music through dance halls and saloons and later through ballrooms. Instruments like the piano, trumpet, trombone and clarinet became important and symbolized the “swing-feel” of jazz because of their capability to syncopate and improvise precisely. With the help of the booming recording industry, musical geniuses were discovered and their talent and contributions to the emergence of jazz spread throughout the entire country. Such musicians include composer, arranger and pianist Jelly Roll Morton who heavily influenced the development of early jazz by his unique piano style, his “invention” of musical notation for jazz, and his compositions that have become the core in the jazz repertory. Because the style was new and different and so successful in drawing in large audiences, musicians around the world tried to mimic it. Furthermore, Morton’s masterpieces were the first to show notation for complicated jazz music and thus, formed the basis for standard notation in jazz compositions today.
"Dizzy" Gillespie was a trumpet player, composer, bandleader and politician of mostly the early 40's to mid 50's. This was a time period in Jazz called Bebop, Bop or sometimes known as Rebop. Bebop got its name from the musical language musicians would speak to one another while trying to explain a rhythm. "Bop, Bop, Doba sho ba, Bop, Bop." this was also a common style of singing which was first introduced by Louis Armstrong, called scatting (Kerfeld, 137). This fast tempo music was pioneered by saxophonist Charlie Parker, drummer Max Roach, pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter "Dizzy" Gillespie. Gillespie was one of the chief innovators of this new style of music as well as an important figure to all musicians to follow him and international figure for the United States.(Kerfeld, 137)
In the mid 1930s, Benny Goodman sparked the beginning of the Swing Era of jazz music shortly after leading his first band, which was monumental to the development of jazz. This marked a transition from the early Jazz Age, which resulted from combining aspects of ragtime and blues music over the previous two decades. Through Goodman’s live performances at various gigs and NBC’s radio show Let’s Dance, he gained increased recognition as a jazz performer and band leader. Following his pivotal Palomar Ballroom gig in Los Angeles, Goodman’s music inspired teenagers to create dances to accompany his new jazz style. As a result, his music grew to gain national acclaim and popularity among many different types of people. Goodman greatly influenced
In the 1940s, Mingus had made great strides in developing his style of composing and playing, creating works such as Mingus Fingers, which was performed by the Lionel Hampton orchestra and recorded. In this composition, the bass has a prominent role in developing the theme, an unusual departure from the bass' normal function of keeping time.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Jazz is referred as “America’s classical music,” and is one of North America’s and most celebrated genres. The history of Jazz can be traced back to the early era of the 20th century of the U.S. “A History of Jazz” presents From Ragtime and Blues to Big Band and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. A strong rhythmic under-structure, blue notes, solos, “call-and response” patterns, and
Hip-Hop: from the live performances to the lyrics this here brought up many thoughts in my head. I attended a concert on April 2016 and several other old school concerts at the Queen Mary, front row VIP area which included; Debbie deb, Cover girls, Vanilla ice and so on. Going to an old school/hip-hop concert the songs and experiences as a whole are different with every time. New school hip-hop is narrative and with this you can receive the same lyrical experience every time, as for the concert the experience is the same as the next. I am not saying that an old school concert isn’t different in its own way but I do think their not so far apart performance wise. Example going to a “Drake” concert is more narrative compared to an old school
In summary, Dippermouth Blues by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band is a jazz piece presenting key features, such as harmonic progression, strophic form, syncopation, and emphasis on brass instruments and percussion, from all of jazz’s predecessors: blues, ragtime, and brass band
Potato Head Blues is written in a 32 bar form typical of the Dixieland style period and features a stop time section with iconic developmental solos on clarinet and trumpet including one of Louis Armstrong’s most famous solo over the stop-time section of the form. The song begins with polyphony between the clarinet and the trumpet. The piece also makes use of a large dynamic range as well as abundantly using inflections and individual expression in playing style. After the introduction, an initial verse is played by Armstrong on the trumpet for 16 bars, followed by Johnny Dodds playing his inspiring 32 bar clarinet solo over the full ABAC form. This is followed by a 3 bar banjo break which leads into the famous stop-time solo played by Louis Armstrong. This solo takes place over the full ABAC form and features Armstrong playing on the beat for the first half of the solo and meeting the downbeat of each second bar. Armstrong then seems to completely ignore the pulse and plays an intensely syncopated solo which then leads back into the collective improvisation over the AC form for 16
“West End Blues” begins with a 12-second trumpet solo that displayed Armstrong’s wonderful range and demonstrated the syncopated styling unique
The music in this song is so dense and is paired beautifully with the deep tone of Bill Medley’s voice. The song begins with little to none background music but by 22 seconds into the song Phil adds a tambourine. Then, almost immediately Phil adds additions of the orchestra such as the cello. By the chorus, Phil is utilizing the entire orchestra which creates a dense sound behind the lead vocals and back up vocalist of The Righteous Brothers. After the chorus, the orchestra is still being used, but he tones it down a little in order to secure the intensity of the chorus. If he was to use the entire orchestra at full potential throughout the whole song, the chorus would not have as much effect. The last verse of the song includes very little instruments in the back ground. However, the music progressively builds with the lyrics of the song in order to end the song on an intense and dramatic
The next transition is the first verse, spanning from 0:06 to 0:53. The guitar and the vocalist play in key with each other and the vocalist sings lyrics that tell a story of a young man that prepares to go to war. The chorus lasts from 0:53 to 1:20. The singer and the guitar are still the only sounds to be heard and the singer’s lyrics match the theme of the song. After the chorus, there is another verse from 1:20 to 2:06 and a second chorus from 2:06 to 2:36.
Listening to the melodious tune, “Pithecanthropus Erectus,” by Charles Mingus, had my heart racing at times. The first time I heard this song, I felt like Mingus was simply improvising. The melody is very distinctive to most jazz songs I’ve heard. While listening to his music continuously, I began to notice that the tune would change drastically from time to time. It started slowly and sounding smooth, then it would spontaneously burst with, what I consider an “off-beat” melody and towards the ending, it “perished”.
The majority of the pieces featured a rather slow steady beat, provided by the drum and the piano, while the other instruments (mainly the brass section) were used to play the main motif along with some minor ornamentations. The third song they played, one of my favorites, was simply a steady 4/4 tempo kept by the drum, with some minor variations. The saxophone and trumpets took turns drifting in and out to carry the melody. The saxophone player delivered an entertained solo which consisted of very light and amusing trills, this created a very soothing and relaxing
...nt from lower pitch sound to high pitch, showing various pitches they can make. They differed in style when they went solo. Ron Eschete mixed high and low pitch sound very irregularly and each tone seemed very distant like Monk?s style. Todd Johnson rhythm and tone was more smooth and close to each other, giving impression of cool jazz style. The other element is a swing feeling. This can be described as a feeling that makes you want to dance, clap your hands, of tap your feet. During the concert, as I looked around in the audience, I could see people bobbing their heads, and tapping their feet. Due to the fast tempo, the Ron Eschete Trio?s music just made people want to dance even though it sounded smooth and mellow.
The jazz band I observed played a series of six different songs. Although all the songs were categorized as jazz, each song had its own special style and sound to it. The band consisted of three different players. Paul Meyers, the guitarist and composer, Andy Eulau, the bassist, and Dave Rataczak, on drums. The songs performed were entitled “Love for Sale” by Cole Porter, “Once I Loved” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Stars” by Paul Meyers, “Blues for Mel” also by Paul Meyers, “Last Night When We Were Young” by Harold Arlen, and “Samba Novo” by Luis Eca.