Posted in: Jazz by DDiddy on May 4th, 2008 | 0 Comments
People hear the catchy sound at a nightclub in the back of alleyways. They also hear it at concert halls. Compared, they sound different. However, they are both the same. It’s called Jazz. Jazz is a certain type of music which has its own way of being played, such as swing, and its own history. Jazz has an awesome arrangement of instruments, a cool history, and many fantastic forms.
The instruments of jazz are a key component to jazz (pk). One instrument is the trumpet, which has been called the “royal instrument of jazz”. It’s been called this because the trumpet is usually assigned the lead of the piece (Berendt 183-193). The trumpets are featured in marching bands, funeral bands, dance bands, and jazz bands (Fordham 56-58). Not only is there the trumpet, but also two relatives of the trumpet, the cornet and flugelhorn. The cornet slowly got replaced by the trumpet because of the trumpet’s greater range and its ever-growing possibilities (Berendt 183-185). The sound of the trumpet could be as unique as improvisation of the players sharing ideas in a jam session and creating new ideas (Fordham 56-58). In more modern jazz forms, the flugelhorn has been chosen because of its beautifully flowing sound (Berendt 183-185).
The trombone is also an important instrument in jazz (pk). The trombone began as a harmony and rhythm instrument, and in early jazz, it was almost as if it were nothing more than a blown bass (Berendt 190-195). Another source states that the first jazz role for the trombone was to really open up the melody lines for other brass instruments in New Orleans music, and it also doubled as a bass. In the coming of Big Bands, it played a supportive and solo role, and its tonal flexibility gave it vivid effects. When Bebop came around, the trombone had to keep up, which allowed trombonists to acquire outstanding techniques to mirror trumpets and saxophones (Fordham 56-62).
The ideal jazz instrument was one that is as expressive, yet is as mobile, as the clarinet, and the saxophone met this need. People who played saxophone back in New Orleans were actually regarded as odd people (Berendt 200-210)! The alto and tenor saxophones were big around the 1930s and 1940s. The heavier tenor gave a broad swing to the music of the big bands, punchy funk to blues, and also poignancy to hard bop and the 1960 New Thing. The clarinet was also put into jazz but fell of it after the 1940s. This was when Bebop confirmed the rise of the saxophone. The clarinet was still influential all the way from New Orleans and it harnessed accessibility for expressive bluesness or high-register wailing. (Fordham 63-69).
When the person in European concert music would hear drums, they would think, “oh, just another noise maker” but that was their very purpose in European concert music (Berendt 220-230). When the Africans arrived here, they gave some dominance to rhythm and melody that was held in the west (Fordham 72-73). When people think about it, music just kind of “happens” and it would not break down if the drums were left out; however, music would be disrupted if music was unable to be measured in the beat of the drummer who is swinging. Rhythm is very important to all jazz, and music in its entirety (Berendt 220-230). Drummers of the 1960s have very complex styles to jazz, merging bop and free approaches, punk, hip hop, and Latin rhythms (Fordham 72-73). There were apparently no drum solos in the early days of jazz, for the fact that there was no individuality, and it was used and made to mark beats steadily as possible. Then jazz could have added tension though the individuality of the drummer (Berendt 220-230).
