King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

284 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Similarities between jazz music and blues

Although Dippermouth Blues by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band was called blues in its title, it might be closer to jazz since it contained elements from ragtime and brass band music in addition to blues.

Like blues, it had harmonic progression and was strophic with a bridge undoubtedly added by the composers. The entire tune was the same sequence of chords, consisting of 12 bars or measures played repeatedly. There were no vocals (except for a shout near the end of the piece), so I could not tell if there were defining characteristics such as a three-line stanza with the first line repeated, improvisation, call and response, bent pitches, or a personal story told by the melody. If a version of Dippermouth Blues with vocals existed, it was not played by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. …show more content…

However, the instrument “ragging” changed throughout the piece. That seemed unusual, as ragtime was normally played on a solo piano. Certain works have been modified to be play by big bands, though, and those may have included multiple instruments syncopating.

Like brass band music, there was an emphasis on brass instruments and percussion. A trombone, cornet, and drums can be easily distinguished in this piece. However, a piano, clarinet, and bass also play in this work. These instruments that are not traditionally included in brass band music, but they do produce key sounds in jazz music.

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

Show More
Related

  • Joe King Oliver: The Most Important Man In Jazz History

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joseph Nathan Oliver, also known as King Oliver, was THE MOST important person in all of jazz history. Joe was born on May 1885, Abend, La. Joe was a Bandleader, composer, and soloist cornet/trumpet player that arose from New Orleans. Oliver was also the mentor of Louis Armstrong and together, they changed jazz and American music forever.

    Read More

  • What Role Does Blues Play In Today's Music

    1711 Words  | 4 Pages

    Like mentioned before, blues did evolve around early jazz in which it from bands and gospel choirs. Also, when the bands of country blues moved around to different cities, it took on very different characteristics. Blues started spreading everywhere, are there were different kinds of blues in which many people inhabited. There was Memphis blues, St. Louis blues, and the Louisiana blues, in which many people took on different styles of the blues. This shows that the style of blues had peregrinated to all over the United

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Music In Sonny's Blues

    1608 Words  | 4 Pages

    Perhaps the blues was representation of optimism and faith for the entire city of Harlem and all of African-American descent. Music is portrayed fluently and abundantly throughout the entire story of “Sonny’s Blues”. Despite the fact that Sonny frequently plays the piano, there is always a juke box playing, the “humming an old church song”, a “jangling beat of a tambourine”, a tune being whistled, or a revival meeting with the singing of religious words (Baldwin 293-307). The repetition of music in the short story is a realistic portrayal of how regular the blues, musically and emotionally, was present in an African-American’s life during the era of racial discrimination. Flibbert explains that the rooted, burdensome emotion felt by African Americans is difficult to put to words, other than describing it as the blues. He best defines the blues as “a mental and emotional state arising from recognition of limitation imposed-in the case of African-Americans-by racial barriers to the community” (Flibbert). Though a definite definition exists, the blues cannot simply be construed. To cope with this unexplainable feeling of blue, the African-American folk genre of jazz music was created. Finally, the blues was something African-Americans owned and that the white man could not strip them of. Though music appears to show up at the most troublesome times in “Sonny’s Blues”, it brings along “a glimmer of life within the

    Read More

  • Jazz Concert Report

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Themes Of Sonny's Blues

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    For the author, the blues are more universal than a specific type of music. The narrator describes that the blues are "the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph." With this quote, the story "Sonny's Blues" is actually a blues piece: it starts with the suffering that the two brothers face, continues with their developing communion, and ends with brotherly love and triumphs over loneliness and suffering. The story "Sonny's Blues" is like Sonny's actual music, because it tries to bring people together and, through that link of grace and understanding, to relieve suffering. The author is not playing the blues but actually putting it down in writing. The title "Sonny's Blues" doesn’t describe the music Sonny plays but it tells Sonny's story of suffering and overcoming his obstacles, through his music.

    Read More

  • Duke Ellington

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ellington's other innovations include the use of the human voice as an instrument, such as in "Creole Love Call" (1927). He also placed instruments in unusual combinations, illustrated in the piece "Mood Indigo" (1930). When the orchestra performs this piece, three soloists stand out in front of the stage, playing three different instruments. Improvisation is a big part of Ellington’s music. One of Ellington orchestra’s signature tunes is "Take the ‘A’ Train" (1941).

    Read More

  • Distinctive Styles Of Jazz Essay

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ragtime originated in the southern U.S. during the late 1800 's. This music is made up by the vibrant rhythms that are often associated with African dancing. Scott Joplin was a great pianist from the era of ragtime. But as time when on the culture of jazz transitioned into a blues style. The blues style was another important influence on the development of jazz. Usually blues vocalists sang with the background instrumentation such as guitar, piano, and sometimes harmonica. One very important famous blues musician was Bessie Smith, she had a great impact on the blues era. As time went on jazz continued to change throughout history. The next jazz style was Dixieland aka traditional jazz that rose up in the early 20th Century. Dixieland jazz was a combination of blues, ragtime, and brass band. The common instruments in a Dixieland jazz-style group included clarinet, trumpet-cornet, trombone, and the saxophone. Normally the rhythm section included the banjo, drums, piano, tuba or string bass. Unlike blues Dixieland was usually performed without a vocalist. A few of Dixieland most talented jazz musicians were trumpeter Louis Armstrong, trumpeter Bix Beiterbecke and pianist Jelly Roll Morton. The Dixieland jazz phase died down when the Big band came along. Big band was a very popular style. A big band is an ensemble of 10 or more musicians. The Big Band played instruments such as saxophones, trumpets, piano,

    Read More

  • Understanding Deep Blues

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Mississippi Delta was known for its fertile environment, perfect for growing the abundance of the nation’s cotton crop. Not only was the Delta known for its flourishing cotton supply, but for its budding music scene as well. Derivative from native African music, the blues blends together the use of old African language, tonal singing methods and the personal trials and tribulations of life in the south. Blues musicians of the Delta used their talents in order for to escape the tumultuous life of a sharecropper and make their way north. The blues was a perfect way for musicians like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and countless others, to escape the racism and unfairness that plagued the south after the Civil War. The success of the blues would have never reached a worldwide magnitude if it was not for this “Great Migration” to the north, and the willingness of open minded record executives, taking a chance on some black musicians from the south. If it was not for these musicians, who knows who could have inspired bands like The Rolling Stones, the Band or even the Beatles. The shape of Rock and Roll today derives from music that cultivated from the Mississippi Delta. The music of the blues carries generations of history and African culture through it the simplest guitar riffs and the shortest line of lyrics. Palmer’s book details how the forever evolving genre that is the blues impacted decades of music while teaching people from all walks of life what it meant to be living a life of hardship in the Mississippi Delta, post-Civil War.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Ragtime In The Emergence Of Jazz

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Emergence of Jazz was the result of varying musical styles that were established due to an especially high intensity of musical activity in New Orleans during the 1800s, originally for the entertainment of social dancers. Two primary genres of music that played an essential role in contributing to what is known as Jazz, include “blues” and “ragtime”, these genres of music both carried imperative value in the creation of Jazz, however, each has its own set of normality’s that distinguish one from the other. Moreover, both there is an extensive amount of contributors that helped each genre to expand on a much greater scale. Despite blues and ragtime having different musical elements, together each had a lasting impact in the development of

    Read More

  • West End Blues: Louis Armstrong's Impact On Jazz Music

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    “West End Blues” begins with a 12-second trumpet solo that displayed Armstrong’s wonderful range and demonstrated the syncopated styling unique

    Read More

  • Billie Holiday

    1345 Words  | 3 Pages

    Teachout, Terry. "John Hammond's jazz." Commentary 122.3 (2006): 55+. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

    Read More

  • The Roots Of Blues Music

    434 Words  | 1 Pages

    The blues of that time was called country blues. It was a mixture of African

    Read More

  • Louis Armstrong and The Jazz Mecca

    2225 Words  | 5 Pages

    "Welcome to Jazz.com." Oliver, Joe 'King' – Jazz.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Influence of Jazz on American Culture

    1953 Words  | 4 Pages

    New Orleans has always been a big music town, for there has always been brass bands that played in the streets for parades, or for families to give comfort during a funeral.... ... middle of paper ... ... (The Influence of Jazz & Blues on Modern Music.”).

    Read More

  • Black Music in Toni Morrison's Jazz

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jazz is the best-known artistic creation of the Harlem Renaissance. “Jazz is the only pure American creation, which shortly after its birth, became America’s most important cultural export”(Ostendorf, 165). It evolved from the blues. In the formally standardized, instrumentally accompanied form of “city blues”(as opposed to the formally unstandardized and earlier “country blues”), the blues was to become one of the two major foundations of 1920s jazz (the other being rags). City blues tended to be strophic songs with a text typically based on two-line strophes (but with the first line of each strophe’s text repeated, AAB) and a standard succession of harmonies underlying each strophe’s melody.... ...

    Read More

More about King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

Open Document