Harlem jazz- a definition referring to music performed by ensembles and musicians whose activities were associated with the Harlem area of ​​New York, the center of the development of Negro jazz art in the 2nd half of the 1920s and early 1930s. Here a new way of playing the piano called "stride" arose - these are pianists James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and others.

Gospel songs- monophonic spiritual hymns of North American blacks, which became widespread in late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century in large industrial
centers in the USA Their theme is borrowed from the Gospel, they are performed with piano, organ, guitar or without accompaniment. "Gospel Queen" - Mahelia Jackson.

"Dirty tones" (dirty tones)- the term denotes a specific Negro way of sound production, characteristic of jazz, mainly on wind instruments, expressed in deliberately impure intonation. Typical of the Negro emotional style of performance.

Jug (jug)- Primitive Negro musical instrument, which became widespread in the so-called "spasm bands", where he served as a bass instrument.

Jazz rock (jazz rock)- style contemporary jazz developed in the late 1960s. and representing a synthesis of elements of jazz and rock music. It is characterized by collective improvisation, the use of complicated rhythms and the widespread use of power tools. Ensembles of this type consisted, as a rule, of a rhythm group using elements of rhythm
rock music, and a melodic group that gave the compositions a jazz flavor. In our country, the jazz-rock ensemble "Arsenal" under the direction of Alexei Kozlov (since 1973) was widely known.

Jive (jive)- jazz musicians often use this term instead of the concept of "swing".

Jump- a term indicating the nature of the performance: to play in moderately fast
tempo with sharp accents in the accompaniment. Typical of many jazz
plays played by big bands in the 1930s.

Jam session- a casual creative meeting of jazz musicians in a narrow circle of colleagues and friends, during which they improvise on the themes of well-known melodies for their own pleasure, without pursuing any commercial goals, exchange experiences and new ideas, experiment, demonstrating the growth of performing skills and
ingenuity. At such meetings, the concepts of future directions of jazz were born, as well as new bands appeared.

Jitterbug (jitterbug) - Negro Improspected fast dance with elements of acrobatics, popular at the turn of the 1930s-1940s.

Jubilee (jubilee)- vocal form religious music North American blacks
developed in the 2nd half of the 19th century from the religious hymns of the whites. Characterized by emotional polyphonic singing with accentuated rhythm.

Juke box (juke box)- a jukebox, which is a player with a set of records, which was installed in cafes or restaurants. Came into fashion in the 1930s. in the US and later in Europe.

dixieland- the name of the jazz ensembles of the New Orleans style, which consisted of white musicians. This word comes from a common American
folklore designation of the US South.

Drive- the term denotes an energetic performance ("with pressure") by a musician or orchestra of any jazz work, achieved by using
specific metro-rhythms, phrasing, etc.

East Coast Jazz (East Coast jazz)- a direction in modern jazz that developed in the mid-1950s. and spread mainly among Negro musicians
East Coast of the United States, centered on New York. It includes styles
hard bop and soul jazz.

Calypso (calypso)- a dance that originated on the island of Trinidad (West Indies). Musical size - 4/4. In the mid 1950s. gained popularity in America and Europe thanks to the recordings on the record made by the famous black singer and film actor Harry Belafonte.

Country and Western (country and western, C&W)- a kind of folk music of white inhabitants of the Southwestern United States. These are rural songs and dances (country) and folklore cowboy ballads of the "Wild West" (western) Among popular artists- Johnny Cash, Jimmy Rogers and
others

Quickstep (quickstep)- Fast paced dance. Developed from the foxtrot in the mid-1920s. Musical size - 4/4.

Cakewalk (sakewalk)- dance at the pace of a fast march. Has an acutely syncopated rhythm
to ragtime. Musical size - 2/4. It originated as a folk dance of North American blacks in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Combo (combo)- small instrumental jazz ensemble (up to ten musicians).
The term originated in the 1940s. from the word "combination" (of instruments).

Corus (chorus), or square is an improvisation this topic, packed into the number of bars of this theme. That is, the “square” is equal in duration to the topic and is based
on its harmonic chart. It is an integral part of the main form of improvisation in modern jazz music.

Cool (cool)- "cool" style of modern jazz, which arose in the late 1940s - early 1950s, and became widespread mainly among musicians of the next, higher intellectual level. Elements of European composing technique were actively used in it. characteristic feature cool style is a calm manner of playing and
"cold" method of sound production on wind instruments, which excludes vibrato. Here, polyphony is used much more widely, as a result of which the role of the arranger has increased.

Mambo (mambo)- a dance of Latin American origin, a kind of fast rumba, musical size 4/4. It originated in the 1940s and gained popularity in the US and Europe in the 1950s.

Mainstream (mainstream)- the main flow. The term began to be used in relation to the swing period, in which performers managed to avoid the clichés that had once been established in this style and continued to develop the traditions of tonal Negro jazz, introducing elements of improvisation into it. It also applies to post-war jazz performers who have remained faithful to these traditions and use some of the means of expression inherent in modern jazz. The mainstream is characterized by a simple but expressive melodic line, traditional harmony and a clear rhythm with a pronounced drive.

Modal jazz (modal jazz), it is also modal - a direction in modern jazz that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which is characterized by free improvisation, based not on a melodic theme or its chord sequence, but on an arbitrary series of sounds interconnected only by a fret .

New Orleans jazz (New Orleans jazz)- historically the first style of jazz that arose in New Orleans (see also "dixieland")

Off-beat (off-beat)- shifting emphasis from strong beats bars (1st and 3rd) to weak ones (2nd and 4th). This technique came to jazz from African music and is typical mainly for melodic instruments.

Progressive- a style direction in modern jazz that arose in the mid-1940s. and characterized by experiments in the field of synthesis of jazz and European compositional technique, which was reflected in the work of some big bands (Stan Kenton, Boyd Rayburn).

Music section publications

They were the first to play jazz

Jazz musical world was presented by the meeting of two cultures - European and African. On an international wave in the early 20s of the twentieth century, the musical direction burst into the Land of the Soviets. We recall the performers who were the first to play jazz in the USSR.

Valentin Parnakh with his son Alexander. Photo: jazz.ru

Valentin Parnakh. Photo: mkrf.ru

"The first in the RSFSR eccentric orchestra of jazz bands of Valentin Parnakh" debuted on stage in October 1922. It was not just a premiere, but the premiere of a new musical direction. Revolutionary for the music of that time, the group was assembled by a poet, musician and choreographer, who lived in Europe for six years. Parnach heard jazz in a Parisian cafe in 1921 and was shocked by this innovative musical direction. He returned to Soviet Union with a set of instruments for a jazz band. We only rehearsed for a month.

On the day of the premiere, the future writer and screenwriter Yevgeny Gabrilovich, actor and artist Alexander Kostomolotsky, Mechislav Kaprovych and Sergey Tizenhaizen gathered on the stage of the Central College of Theater Arts - the current GITIS. Gabrilovich was sitting at the piano: he played well by ear. Kostomolotsky played drums, Kaprovych played saxophone, Tizengeizen played double bass and foot drum. All the same, double bassists beat the rhythm with their feet - the musicians decided.

At the first concerts, Valentin Parnakh told the audience about the musical direction and that jazz is a combination of the traditions of different continents and cultures into one "international fusion". The practical part of the lecture was enthusiastically received. Including Vsevolod Meyerhold, who was not slow to offer Parnakh to assemble a jazz band for his performance. Popular foxtrots and shimmys were featured in The Magnanimous Cuckold and D.E. Energetic music came in handy even at the May Day demonstration in 1923. “For the first time, a jazz band participated in state celebrations, which has not happened in the West until now!” trumpeted the Soviet press.

Alexander Tsfasman: jazz as a profession

Alexander Tsfasman. Photo: orangesong.ru

Alexander Tsfasman. Photo: muzperekrestok.ru

The works of Franz Liszt, Heinrich Neuhaus and Dmitri Shostakovich coexisted harmoniously with jazz melodies in the work of Alexander Tsfasman. While still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, which the musician later graduated with a gold medal, he created the first professional jazz group in Moscow - AMA Jazz. The first performance of the orchestra took place in 1927 at the Artistic Club. The team immediately received an invitation from one of the most fashionable venues at that time - the Hermitage Garden. In the same year, jazz first appeared on the Soviet radio. And it was performed by musicians Tsfasman.

“The tired sun tenderly said goodbye to the sea” sounded in 1937 from a record recorded by the ensemble of Alexander Tsfasman already under the name “Moscow Guys”.

For the first time in the Union, the well-known tango of the Polish composer Jerzy Petersbursky "Last Sunday" to the words of the poet Joseph Alvek was heard in a jazz arrangement. The soloist of the Tsfasman Jazz Ensemble Pavel Mikhailov was the first to sing about the gentle farewell of the sun and the sea. WITH light hand musicians hit for all time was another recording from the same disc - about an unsuccessful date. “So tomorrow, in the same place, at the same hour”, - the whole country sang after the jazz ensemble.

“Those who have ever listened to the play of A. Tsfasman will forever keep in their memory the art of this virtuoso pianist. His dazzling pianism, combining expression and grace, acted magically on the listener.

Alexander Medvedev, musicologist

Although Alexander Tsfasman was engaged in a jazz ensemble, he did not leave a solo program, he acted as a pianist and composer. Together with Dmitry Shostakovich, Tsfasman worked on the music for the epic film "Meeting on the Elbe", and then, at the request of the composer, performed his music for the film "Unforgettable 1919". He also became an author jazz music, which sounded in the famous play "Under the rustle of your eyelashes" puppet theater Sergei Obraztsov.

Leopold Teplitsky. Jazz Classics

Leopold Teplitsky. Photo: history.kantele.ru

Leopold Teplitsky conducted symphony orchestras at silent film screenings at the Hermitage and Lux ​​cinemas in St. Petersburg while still studying at the conservatory. In 1926, the People's Commissariat sent young musician to Philadelphia to perform International Exhibition. In America, Teplitsky heard symphonic jazz - the music of this direction was performed by Paul Whiteman's orchestra.

When Leopold Teplitsky returned to the USSR, he organized the "First Concert Jazz Band" from professional musicians. Classics sounded in jazz arrangement - music by Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Gounod. He played a jazz band and works by contemporary American authors - George Gershwin, Irving Berlin. So Leopold Teplitsky found himself at the forefront of professional Leningrad jazz in the 1930s. Leonid Utyosov called him "the first of the domestic musicians who showed a jazz game."

The first performance of jazzmen took place in 1927. The concert was preceded by a lecture "Jazz Band and Music of the Future" by musicologist and composer Iosif Schillinger. Special interest The audience was also aroused by music unusual for those years, and the soloist - pop and jazz singer from Mexico Coretti Arle-Titz. The team's success did not last long: in 1930, Leopold Teplitsky was arrested and convicted under the article "espionage". He was released two years later, but Teplitsky did not stay in Leningrad - he moved to Petrozavodsk.

Since 1933, the musician worked as the chief conductor of the Karelian symphony orchestra, but did not leave jazz - he played with an academic orchestra and a jazz program. Teplitsky performed with his new team in Leningrad as part of the Decade of Karelian Art. In 1936, with the participation of the musician, a new group, Kantele, appeared, for which Teplitsky wrote the Karelian Prelude. The ensemble became the winner of the First All-Union Radio Festival of Folk Art in 1936. Leopold Teplitsky remained to live in Petrozavodsk. The festival of jazz music "Stars and Us" is dedicated to the memory of the famous jazzman.

Leonid Utesov. "Song Jazz"

Leonid Utesov. Photo: music-fantasy.ru

Leonid Utesov. Photo: mp3stunes.com

A loud premiere at the turn of the 1930s was Leonid Utesov's Tea Jazz. Fashionable musical direction with the light hand of the famous variety artist, who left the commercial school for the sake of music, acquired the scale of a theatrical performance. Utyosov became interested in jazz during a tour to Paris, where the Ted Lewis Orchestra impressed the Soviet musician with its "theatricalization" in the best traditions of the music hall.

These impressions were embodied in the creation of Tea Jazz. Utyosov turned to the virtuoso trumpeter, academic musician Yakov Skomorovsky, who also seemed interested in the idea of ​​a jazz orchestra. Gathering musicians from the Leningrad theaters, "Tea Jazz" in 1929 performed on the stage of the Leningrad Maly Opera House. This was the first composition of the team, which did not work for long and soon moved to the Leningrad Radio in the "Concert Jazz Orchestra".

Utyosov recruited a new composition of "Tea Jazz" - the musicians staged entire performances. One of them - "Music Store" - later formed the basis famous movie, the first Soviet musical comedy. Painting by Grigory Alexandrov Funny boys» with Lyubov Orlova in leading role was released in 1934. She became popular not only at home, but also abroad. was inspired by jazz music in 1933 when he heard Duke Ellington's "Dear Old South" tune. Impressed, Lundstrem painted the arrangement, gathered a team, and sat down at the piano himself. Two years later, the musician conquered Shanghai, where he lived at that moment. So decided further fate: Abroad, Lundstrem studied at the same time at the Polytechnic Institute and the Music College. His orchestra played jazz classics and music Soviet composers in jazz arrangement. The press called Lundstrem "the king of jazz in the Far East."

In 1947, the musicians decided to move to the Soviet Union - in full force, with their families. Everyone settled in Kazan, where they studied at the Conservatory. However, a year later, a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU was issued, condemning "formalism in music." The team returned to their homeland to become the state jazz team of the Tatar ASSR, but the musicians were assigned to the opera house and cinema orchestras. Together they performed only at rare one-time concerts.

"Deep penetration into the nature of jazz performance, into its classical traditions, on the one hand, and the desire to contribute to this genre, using national folklore, by creating and performing original jazz works and arrangements, on the other - this is the creed of the orchestra."

Oleg Lundstrem

Only the thaw brought jazz back to the stage. In the year of its 60th anniversary, Oleg Lundstrem's orchestra entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest continuously existing jazz orchestra. The musician also had a chance to meet with the author of that same “Dear Old South” when Duke Ellington came to Moscow in the 1970s. Oleg Lundstrem kept the record all his life, which gave him a love of jazz.

Jazz is a genre of music that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. Character traits jazz - improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms, and a unique set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture - swing.

Jazz is a kind of music that arose on the basis of the blues and spirituals of African Americans, as well as African folk rhythms, enriched with elements of European harmony and melody. The defining features of jazz are:
- sharp and flexible rhythm based on the principle of syncopation;
- wide use of percussion instruments;
- highly developed improvisational beginning;
-expressive manner of performance, characterized by great expression, dynamic and sound intensity, reaching ecstatic.

Origin of the name jazz

The origin of the name is not fully understood. Its modern spelling - jazz - was established in the 1920s. Before that, other variants were known: chas, jasm, gism, jas, jass, jaz. There are many versions of the origin of the word "jazz", including the following:
- from the French jaser (to chat, to speak in a tongue twister);
- from English chase (chase, pursue);
- from the African jaiza (the name of a certain type of drum sound);
- from Arabic jazib (seducer); from the names of legendary jazz musicians - chas (from Charles), jas (from Jasper);
- from onomatopoeia jass, which imitates the sound of African copper cymbals, etc.

There is reason to believe that the word "jazz" was used as early as the middle of the 19th century as a name for an ecstatic, encouraging cry among blacks. According to some sources, in the 1880s it was used by New Orleans Creoles, who used it in the sense of "speed up", "speed up" - in relation to fast syncopated music.

According to M. Stearns, in the 1910s this word was common in Chicago and had "not quite a decent meaning." In print, the word jazz occurs for the first time in 1913 (in one of the San Francisco newspapers). In 1915, it entered the name of T. Brown's jazz orchestra - TORN BROWN "S DIXIELAND JASS BAND, which performed in Chicago, and in 1917 appeared on a gramophone record recorded by the famous New Orleans orchestra ORIGINAL DIXIELAND JAZZ (JASS) BAND.

Jazz styles

Archaic jazz (early jazz, early jazz, German archaischer jazz)
Archaic jazz - a collection of the oldest, traditional types jazz created by small ensembles in the process of collective improvisation on the themes of blues, ragtime, as well as European songs and dances.

Blues (blues, from English blue devils)
Blues is a type of Negro folk song whose melody is based on a clear 12-bar pattern.
The blues sings about deceived love, about need, the blues is characterized by a compassionate attitude towards oneself. At the same time, the lyrics of the blues are imbued with stoicism, mild mockery and humor.
In jazz music, the blues developed as an instrumental dance piece.

Boogie-woogie (boogie-woogie)
Boogie-woogie is a blues piano style characterized by a repetitive bass figure that defines the rhythmic and melodic possibilities of improvisation.

Gospel (from English Gospel - Gospel)
Gospels - religious tunes of North American blacks with texts based on the New Testament.

Ragtime (ragtime)
ragtime - piano music, based on the "beat" of two mismatched rhythmic lines:
- as if broken (sharply syncopated) melody;
-clear accompaniment, sustained in the style of a swift step.

Soul
Soul is Negro music associated with the blues tradition.
Soul - vocal style black music, which arose after the Second World War on the basis of rhythm and blues and gospel music traditions.

Soul jazz (soul-jazz)
Soul jazz is a type of hard bop, which is characterized by an orientation to the traditions of the blues and African American folklore.
Spiritual
Spiritual - an archaic spiritual genre of choral singing of North American blacks; religious chants with texts based on the Old Testament.

Street-edge (street-cry)
Street edge - archaic folk genre; a type of urban solo labor song of street peddlers, represented by many varieties.

Dixieland, dixie (dixieland, dixie)
Dixieland is a modernized New Orleans style characterized by collective improvisation.
Dixieland is a jazz group of (white) musicians who adopted the manner of performing Negro jazz.

Zong (from English song - song)
Zong - in the theater of B. Brecht - a ballad performed in the form of an interlude or an author's (parody) commentary of a grotesque nature with a plebeian vagabond theme close to jazz rhythm.

Improvisation
Improvisation - in music - the art of spontaneously creating or interpreting music.

Cadence (Italian cadenza, from Latin Cado - I end)
A cadenza is a free improvisation of a virtuoso nature, performed in an instrumental concerto for a soloist and orchestra. Sometimes cadenzas were composed by composers, but often they were left to the discretion of the performer.

Scat (scat)
Scat - in jazz - a type of vocal improvisation in which the voice is equated with an instrument.
Scat - instrumental singing - a technique of syllabic (textless) singing, based on the articulation of syllables or sound combinations that are not related in meaning.

Hot (hot)
Hot - in jazz - a characteristic of a musician who performs improvisation with maximum energy.

New Orleans jazz style
New Orleans style of jazz - music characterized by a clear two-beat rhythm; the presence of three independent melodic lines, which are carried out simultaneously on the cornet (trumpet), trombone and clarinet, accompanied by a rhythmic group: piano, banjo or guitar, double bass or tuba.
In the works of New Orleans jazz, the main musical theme is repeated many times in various variations.

Sound (sound)
Sound is a jazz style category that characterizes the individual sound quality of an instrument or voice.
The sound is determined by the method of sound production, the type of attack of the sound, the manner of intonation and the interpretation of the timbre; sound is an individualized form of manifestation of the sound ideal in jazz.

Swing, classic swing (swing; classic swing)
Swing - jazz, arranged for extended variety and dance orchestras (big bands).
Swing is characterized by the roll call of three groups of wind instruments: saxophones, trumpets and trombones, creating the effect of rhythmic buildup. Swing performers refuse collective improvisation, the musicians accompany the soloist's improvisation with a pre-written accompaniment.
Swing reached its peak in 1938-1942.

Sweet
Sweet is a characteristic of entertaining and dance commercial music of a sentimental, melodic-lyrical nature, as well as related forms of commercialized jazz and "ojazzed" popular music.

symphonic jazz
Symphonic jazz is a jazz style that combines features symphonic music with elements of jazz.

Modern jazz (modern jazz)
Modern jazz is a collection of jazz styles and trends that have emerged since the late 1930s after the end of the period classical style and the swing era.

Afro-Cuban jazz (German afrokubanischer jazz)
Afro-Cuban jazz is a style of jazz that developed towards the end of the 1940s from combining elements of bebop with Cuban rhythms.

Bebop, bop (bebop; bop)
Bebop is the first style of modern jazz that developed by the early 1930s.
Bebop is a direction of Negro jazz of small ensembles, which is characterized by:
-free solo improvisation, based on a complex sequence of chords;
-use of instrumental singing;
-modernization of the old hot jazz;
- a spasmodic, unstable melody with broken syllables and a feverish-nervous rhythm.

Combo (combo)
Kombo is a small modern jazz orchestra in which all instruments are soloists.

Cool jazz (cool jazz; cool jazz)
Cool jazz - a style of modern jazz that emerged in the early 50s, updating and complicating the harmonies of bop;
In cool jazz, polyphony is widely used.

Progressive (progressive)
Progressive is a stylistic direction in jazz that arose in the early 1940s on the basis of the traditions of classical swing and bop, associated with the practice of big bands and large orchestras of the symphonic type. Widely using Latin American melodies and rhythms.

Free jazz (free jazz)
Free Jazz is a style of contemporary jazz associated with radical experiments in harmony, form, rhythm and improvisation techniques.
Free jazz is characterized by:
- free individual and group improvisation;
- the use of polymetry and polyrhythm, polytonality and atonality, serial and dodecaphone technique, free forms, modal technique, etc.

Hard bop (hard bob)
Hard bop is a style of jazz that originated in the early 1950s from bebop. Hard bop is different:
- gloomy rough coloring;
- expressive, hard rhythmic;
-increasing blues elements in harmony.

Chicago style of jazz (chicago-still)
Chicago style of jazz is a variant of the New Orleans jazz style, which is characterized by:
- more rigorous compositional organization;
- strengthening solo improvisation (virtuoso episodes performed by various instruments).

Variety Orchestra
Variety band - a type of jazz band;
instrumental ensemble performing entertainment and dance music and pieces of jazz repertoire,
accompanying performers of popular songs and other pop genre masters.
Usually a variety orchestra includes a group of reed and brass instruments, piano, guitar, double bass and a set of drums.

Historical note on jazz

Jazz is believed to have originated in New Orleans between 1900 and 1917. A well-known legend says that from New Orleans, jazz spread across the Mississippi to Memphis, St. Louis, and finally to Chicago. The validity of this legend in Lately has been questioned by a number of jazz historians, and today there is an opinion that jazz originated in the Negro subculture simultaneously in different places in America, primarily in New York, Kansas City, Chicago and St. Louis. And still old legend apparently not far from the truth.

First, it is supported by the testimonies of old musicians who lived during the period of jazz's emergence outside the Negro ghettos. All of them confirm that the New Orleans musicians played very special music, which other performers readily copied. The fact that New Orleans is the cradle of jazz is also confirmed by records. Jazz records recorded before 1924 are made by musicians from New Orleans.

The classical jazz period lasted from 1890 to 1929 and ended with the beginning of the "swing era". It is customary to refer to classical jazz: the New Orleans style (represented by the Negro and Creole directions), the New Orleans-Chicago style (which arose in Chicago after 1917 in connection with the move here of most of the leading Negro jazzmen of New Orleans), Dixieland (in its New Orleans and Chicago varieties ), a number of varieties of piano jazz (barrel house, boogie-woogie, etc.), as well as jazz trends related to the same period that arose in some other cities of the South and Midwest of the United States. Classical jazz, together with certain archaic style forms, is sometimes referred to as traditional jazz.

Jazz in Russia

The first jazz orchestra in Soviet Russia was created in Moscow in 1922 by the poet, translator, dancer, theater figure Valentin Parnakh and was called "Valentin Parnakh's First Eccentric Jazz Band Orchestra in the RSFSR". The birthday of Russian jazz is traditionally considered October 1, 1922, when the first concert of this group took place.

The attitude of the Soviet authorities to jazz was ambiguous. At first, domestic jazz performers were not banned, but harsh criticism of jazz and Western culture was widespread. In the late 40s, during the struggle against cosmopolitanism, jazz bands performing "Western" music were persecuted. With the onset of the "thaw", the repressions against the musicians were stopped, but the criticism continued.

The first book about jazz in the USSR was published by the Leningrad publishing house Academia in 1926. It was compiled by musicologist Semyon Ginzburg from translations of articles by Western composers and music critics, as well as his own materials, and was called "Jazz Band and contemporary music» The next book about jazz was published in the USSR only in the early 1960s. It was written by Valery Mysovsky and Vladimir Feyertag, called "Jazz" and was essentially a compilation of information that could be obtained from various sources at that time. In 2001, the St. Petersburg publishing house "Skifia" published an encyclopedia "Jazz. XX century. Encyclopedic reference book. The book was prepared by the authoritative jazz critic Vladimir Feiertag.

After Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent and Europeans settled there, ships of human traders increasingly followed the shores of America.

Exhausted by hard work, homesick and suffering from cruel attitude guards, slaves found solace in music. Gradually, Americans and Europeans became interested in unusual melodies and rhythms. This is how jazz was born. What is jazz, and what are its features, we will consider in this article.

Features of the musical direction

Jazz refers to music of African American origin, which is based on improvisation (swing) and a special rhythmic construction (syncope). Unlike other areas where one person writes music and another performs, jazz musicians are also composers.

The melody is created spontaneously, the periods of writing, performance are separated by a minimum period of time. This is how jazz comes about. orchestra? This is the ability of musicians to adapt to each other. At the same time, everyone improvises their own.

The results of spontaneous compositions are stored in musical notation (T. Cowler, G. Arlen "Happy all day long", D. Ellington "Don't you know what I love?" etc.).

Over time, African music was synthesized with European. Melodies appeared that combined plasticity, rhythm, melodiousness and harmony of sounds (CHEATHAM Doc, Blues In My Heart, CARTER James, Centerpiece, etc.).

Directions

There are more than thirty directions of jazz. Let's consider some of them.

1. Blues. Translated from English, the word means "sadness", "melancholy". Blues was originally a solo lyric song by African Americans. Jazz-blues is a twelve-bar period corresponding to a three-line verse form. Blues compositions are performed at a slow pace, some understatement can be traced in the texts. blues - Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and others.

2. Ragtime. The literal translation of the name of the style is broken time. On the tongue musical terms"reg" denotes sounds that are additional between the beats of the measure. The direction appeared in the USA, after they were carried away by the works of F. Schubert, F. Chopin and F. Liszt overseas. The music of European composers was performed in the style of jazz. Later original compositions appeared. Ragtime is characteristic of the work of S. Joplin, D. Scott, D. Lamb and others.

3. Boogie-woogie. The style appeared at the beginning of the last century. The owners of inexpensive cafes needed musicians to play jazz. What is musical accompaniment requires the presence of an orchestra, of course, but it was expensive to invite a large number of musicians. sound different instruments the pianists compensated by creating numerous rhythmic compositions. Boogie features:

• improvisation;
• virtuoso technique;
• special accompaniment: the left hand performs a motor ostinant configuration, the interval between bass and melody is two or three octaves;
• continuous rhythm;
• pedal exclusion.

Boogie-woogie was played by Romeo Nelson, Arthur Montana Taylor, Charles Avery and others.

style legends

Jazz is popular in many countries around the world. Everywhere there are stars, which are surrounded by an army of fans, but some names have become a real legend. They are known and loved throughout. Such musicians, in particular, include Louis Armstrong.

It is not known how the fate of a boy from a poor Negro quarter would have developed if Louis had not ended up in a correctional camp. Here, the future star was recorded in a brass band, however, the team did not play jazz. and how it is performed, the young man discovered much later. world fame Armstrong acquired through diligence and perseverance.

Billie Holiday (real name Eleanor Fagan) is considered the founder of jazz singing. The singer reached the peak of popularity in the 50s of the last century, when she changed the scenes of nightclubs to the stage.

Life was not easy for the owner of a range of three octaves, Ella Fitzgerald. After the death of her mother, the girl ran away from home and led a not too decent lifestyle. The start of the singer's career was a performance at music competition amateur nights.

George Gershwin is world famous. The composer created jazz works based classical music. The unexpected manner of performance captivated listeners and colleagues. Concerts were invariably accompanied by applause. The most famous works of D. Gershwin are "Rhapsody in Blues" (co-authored with Fred Grof), the operas "Porgy and Bess", "An American in Paris".

Also popular jazz performers were and remain Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis, etc.

Jazz in the USSR

The emergence of this musical trend in the Soviet Union is associated with the name of the poet, translator and theatergoer Valentin Parnakh. The first concert of a jazz band led by a virtuoso took place in 1922. Later A. Tsfasman, L. Utyosov, Y. Skomorovsky formed the direction of theatrical jazz, combining instrumental performance and operetta. E. Rozner and O. Lundstrem did a lot to popularize jazz music.

In the 40s of the last century, jazz was widely criticized as a phenomenon of bourgeois culture. In the 1950s and 1960s, attacks on performers ceased. Jazz ensembles were created both in the RSFSR and in other Union republics.

Today, jazz is performed without hindrance on concert venues and in clubs.

Jazz has its origins in the mixture of European and African musical cultures that began with Columbus, who discovered America for Europeans. African culture, represented by black slaves transported from the western coast of Africa to America, gave jazz improvisation, plasticity and rhythm, European culture - melody and harmony of sounds, minor and major standards.

There is still debate about where jazz music was first performed. Some historians believe that this musical direction originated in the north of the United States, where Protestant missionaries converted blacks to the Christian faith, and they, in turn, created a special kind of spiritual chants "spirituals", which were distinguished by emotionality and improvisation. Others believe that jazz appeared in the southern United States, where African-American musical folklore managed to maintain its originality, only because the Catholic views of the Europeans who inhabited this part of the mainland did not allow them to contribute to a foreign culture, which they treated with contempt.

Despite the difference in the views of historians, there is no doubt that jazz originated in the United States, and New Orleans, which was inhabited by free-thinking adventurers, became the center of jazz music. On February 26, 1917, it was here in the Victor studio that the first gramophone record of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band with jazz music was recorded.

After jazz firmly settled in the minds of people, its various directions began to appear. Today there are more than 30 of them.
Some of them:

Spirituals

One of the founders of jazz is Spirituals (English Spirituals, Spiritual music) - spiritual songs of African Americans. How the genre of spirituals took shape in the last thirds of XIX centuries in the USA as modified slave songs among the blacks of the American South (in those years the term "jubilize" was used).
The source of Negro spirituals are spiritual hymns brought to America by white settlers. The theme of the spirituals was biblical stories adapted to specific conditions Everyday life and everyday life of Negroes and were subjected to folklore processing. They combine the characteristic elements of African performing traditions (collective improvisation, characteristic rhythm with a pronounced polyrhythm, glissand sounds, untempered chords, special emotionality) with the stylistic features of American Puritan hymns that arose on the Anglo-Celtic basis. Spirituals have a question-answer structure, expressed in the dialogue of the preacher with the parishioners. Spirituals significantly influenced the origin, formation and development of jazz. Many of them are used by jazz musicians as themes for improvisations.

Blues

One of the most common is the blues, which is a descendant of the secular music-making of American blacks. The word "blue", in addition to the most well-known meaning "blue", has many translation options that fully characterize the features of the musical style: "sad", "melancholy". "Blues" has a connection with the English expression "blue devils", meaning "when cats scratch their souls." Blues music is unhurried and unhurried, and the lyrics always carry some understatement and ambiguity. Today, blues is most often used exclusively in instrumental form, as jazz improvisations. It was the blues that became the basis of many outstanding performances by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Ragtime

Ragtime is another specific direction of jazz music that appeared at the end of the 19th century. The name of the style itself is translated as "torn time", and the term "rag" means the sounds that appear between beats of the measure. Ragtime, like all jazz, is another European musical hobby, which was taken by African Americans and performed in their own way. It is fashionable at that time in Europe romantic piano school, whose repertoire included Schubert, Chopin, Liszt. This repertoire sounded in the USA, but in the interpretation of African-American blacks, it acquired more complex rhythm, dynamism and intensity. Later, improvisational ragtime began to be turned into notes, and its popularity was added by the fact that every self-respecting family had to have a piano, including a mechanical one, which is very convenient for playing a complex ragtime melody. Cities where ragtime was the most popular music destination were St. Louis and Kansas City and the town of Sedalia, Missouri, in Texas. It was in this state that the most famous performer and ragtime composer Scott Joplin. He often performed at the Maple Leaf Club, from which the name of the famous ragtime "Maple Leaf Rag", written in 1897, comes from. Others famous authors and ragtime performers were James Scott, Joseph Lamb.

Swing

In the early 1930s, the economic crisis in the United States led to the disintegration of a large number of jazz ensembles, leaving mainly orchestras playing pseudo-jazz commercial dance music. an important step in stylistic development there was an evolution of jazz into a new, cleaned and smoothed direction, called swing (from the English "swing" - "swing"). Thus, an attempt was made to get rid of the slang word "jazz" at that time, replacing it with the new "swing". Main Feature swing has become a bright improvisation of the soloist against the backdrop of complex accompaniment.

Great jazzmen about swing:

"Swing is what real rhythm is to me." Louis Armstrong.
"Swing is the feeling of speeding up the tempo even though you're still playing at the same tempo." Benny Goodman.
"An orchestra swings when its collective interpretation is rhythmically integrated." John Hammond.
"Swing is meant to be felt, it's a feeling that can be passed on to others." Glenn Miller.

Swing required musicians to have good technique, knowledge of harmony and principles of musical organization. Main form such music-making - large orchestras or big bands, which gained incredible popularity among the general public in the second half of the 30s. The composition of the orchestra gradually acquired a standard form and included from 10 to 20 people.

Boogie Woogie

In the era of swing, a specific form of blues performance on the piano, which is called "boogie-woogie", gained particular popularity and development. This style originated in Kansas City and St. Louis, then spread to Chicago. Boogie-woogie was adopted by Southern pianists from banjo and guitar players. Pianists performing boogie-woogie are characterized by a combination of "walking" bass, performed by the left hand and improvisation for blues harmony. right hand. The style dates back to the second decade of this century, when pianist Jimmy Yancey played it. But it gained real popularity with the appearance on the general public of three virtuosos "Mid Lux" Lewis, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, who turned boogie-woogie from dance music into concert music. Further use of boogie-woogie took place in the genre of swing and then rhythm and blues orchestras and largely influenced the emergence of rock and roll.

Bop

In the early 1940s, many creative musicians began to acutely feel the stagnation in the development of jazz, which arose due to the emergence of a huge number of fashionable dance-jazz orchestras. They did not strive to express the true spirit of jazz, but used replicated preparations and techniques of the best bands. An attempt to break out of the impasse was made by young, primarily New York musicians, which include alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, drummer Kenny Clarke, pianist Thelonious Monk. Gradually, in their experiments, a new style began to emerge, which received the name "bebop" or simply "bop" with Gillespie's light hand. According to his legend, this name was formed as a combination of syllables with which he hummed the musical interval characteristic of bop - the blues fifth, which appeared in bop in addition to the blues thirds and sevenths. The main difference of the new style was the complicated and built on other principles of harmony. The super-fast pace of performance was introduced by Parker and Gillespie in order to keep out non-professionals from their new improvisations. The complexity of building phrases compared to swing primarily lies in the initial beat. An improvisational phrase in bebop might start on a syncopated beat, maybe on a second beat; often the phrase played out already famous topic or the harmonic grid (Anthropology). Among other things, a shocking demeanor has become a hallmark of all bebopites. Gillespie's curved "Dizzy" trumpet, the behavior of Parker and Gillespie, Monk's ridiculous hats, etc. The revolution that bebop made turned out to be rich in consequences. At an early stage of their work, boper were considered: Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, George Shearing and many others. Of the founders of bebop, only the fate of Dizzy Gillespie was successful. He continued his experiments, founded the Cubano style, popularized Latin jazz, opened the world to the stars of Latin American jazz - Arturo Sandoval, Paquito DeRivero, Chucho Valdes and many others.

Recognizing bebop as music that required instrumental virtuosity and knowledge of complex harmonies, jazz instrumentalists quickly gained popularity. They composed melodies that zigzagged and rotated according to chord changes. increased complexity. Soloists in their improvisations used notes that were dissonant in tonality, creating music that was more exotic, with a sharper sound. The appeal of syncopation led to unprecedented accents. Bebop was best suited to play in a small group format such as quartet and quintet, which proved to be ideal for both economic and artistic reasons. Music flourished in urban jazz clubs, where audiences came to listen to inventive soloists rather than dance to their favorite hits. In short, bebop musicians turned jazz into such art form, which turned perhaps a little more to the intellect than to the feelings.

With the bebop era came new jazz stars, including trumpeters Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis, saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Johnny Griffin, Pepper Adams, Sonny Stitt and John Coltrane, and trombonist JJ Johnson.

In the 1950s and 1960s, bebop went through several mutations, including hard bop, cool jazz, and soul jazz. small format musical group(combo), which usually consisted of one or more (usually no more than three) wind instruments, piano, double bass and drums, remains the standard jazz composition today.

progressive jazz

In parallel with the emergence of bebop, a new genre is developing in the jazz environment - progressive jazz, or simply progressive. The main difference of this genre is the desire to move away from the frozen cliche of big bands and outdated, worn out techniques of the so-called. symphonic jazz introduced in the 1920s by Paul Whiteman. Unlike the boppers, the creators of progressive did not seek to radically abandon the jazz traditions that had developed at that time. Rather, they sought to update and improve swing phrase-models, introducing into the practice of composition the latest achievements of European symphonism in the field of tonality and harmony.

The greatest contribution to the development of the concepts of "progressive" was made by the pianist and conductor Stan Kenton. From his first works, the progressive jazz of the early 1940s actually originates. The sound of the music performed by his first orchestra was close to Rachmaninoff, and the compositions bore the features of late romanticism. However, in terms of genre, it was closest to symphojazz. Later, during the creation famous series his albums "Artistry", elements of jazz had already ceased to play the role of creating color, but were already organically woven into musical material. Along with Kenton, credit for this belongs to his best arranger, Pete Rugolo, a student of Darius Milhaud. Modern (for those years) symphonic sound, specific staccato technique in the playing of saxophones, bold harmonies, frequent seconds and blocks, along with polytonality and jazz rhythmic pulsation - that's distinctive features this music, with which Stan Kenton entered jazz history for many years, as one of its innovators, who found a common platform for European symphonic culture and bebop elements, especially noticeable in pieces where solo instrumentalists seemed to oppose the sounds of the rest of the orchestra. It should also be noted that Kenton paid great attention to the improvisational parts of soloists in his compositions, including the world-famous drummer Shelley Maine, double bassist Ed Safransky, trombonist Kay Winding, June Christie, one of the best jazz vocalists of those years. Stan Kenton has maintained his fidelity to the chosen genre throughout his career.

In addition to Stan Kenton, also contributed to the development of the genre interesting arrangers and instrumentalists Boyd Ryburn and Bill Evans. A kind of apotheosis of the development of progressive music, along with the already mentioned "Artistry" series, one can also consider a series of albums recorded by Bill Evans' big band together with the Miles Davis ensemble in the 1950s-1960s, for example, "Miles ahead", "Porgy and Bess" and "Spanish Drawings". Shortly before his death, Miles Davis turned to the genre again, recording old Bill Evans arrangements with the Quincy Jones Big Band.

hard bop

Around the same time that cool jazz was taking root on the West Coast, jazz musicians from Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York began to develop harder, heavier variations on the old bebop formula, dubbed Hard bop or hard bebop. Closely resembling traditional bebop in its aggressiveness and technical demands, the hardbop of the 1950s and 1960s was based less on standard song forms and began to place more emphasis on blues elements and rhythmic drive. Incendiary soloing or improvisational prowess, together with a strong sense of harmony, were attributes of paramount importance to brass players, the drums and piano became more prominent in the rhythm section, and the bass took on a more fluid, funky feel.

In 1955, drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver formed The Jazz Messengers, the most influential hardbop group. This constantly improving and developing septet, which worked successfully until the 1980s, brought to jazz many of the main performers of the genre, such as saxophonists Hank Mobley, Wayne Shorter, Johnny Griffin and Branford Marsalis, as well as trumpeters Donald Bird, Woody Shaw, Wynton Marsalis and Lee Morgan. One of the biggest jazz hits of all time, Lee Morgan's 1963 tune, "The Sidewinder" was performed, albeit somewhat simplistic, but definitely in a solid bebop dance style.

soul jazz

A close relative of hardbop, soul jazz is represented by small, organ-based mini-compositions that emerged in the mid-1950s and continued to perform into the 1970s. Blues- and gospel-based soul jazz music pulsates with African-American spirituality. Most of the great jazz organists entered the scene during the soul jazz era: Jimmy McGriff, Charles Erland, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Les McCain, Donald Patterson, Jack McDuff and Jimmy "Hammond" Smith. They all led their own bands in the 1960s, often playing in small venues as trios. The tenorsaxophone was also a prominent figure in these ensembles, adding its own voice to the mix, much like a gospel preacher's voice. Luminaries such as Gene Emmons, Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine, Eddie "Tetanus" Davis, Huston Pearson, Hank Crawford and David "Dump" Newman, as well as members of ensembles Ray Charles The late 1950s and 1960s are often regarded as representative of the soul jazz style. The same applies to Charles Mingus. Like hardbop, soul jazz was different from West Coast jazz: The music evoked passion and a strong sense of togetherness rather than the loneliness and emotional coolness of West Coast jazz. The fast-paced melodies of soul jazz, thanks to the frequent use of ostinato bass figures and repetitive rhythmic samples, made this music very accessible to the general public. Soul jazz-born hits include, for example, pianist Ramsey Lewis's The In Crowd (1965) and Harris-McCain's Compared To What (1969). Soul jazz should not be confused with what is now known as "soul music". Despite partial gospel influences, soul jazz grew out of bebop, and soul music's roots go straight back to rhythm and blues, which had been popular since the early 1960s.

Cool Jazz (Cool Jazz)

The term cool itself appeared after the release of the album "Birth of the Cool" (recorded in 1949-50) by the famous jazz musician Miles Davis.
In terms of sound production, harmonies, cool jazz has much in common with modal jazz. It is characterized by emotional restraint, a tendency towards rapprochement with composer music (strengthening the role of composition, form and harmony, polyphonization of texture), the introduction of symphony orchestra instruments.
Outstanding representatives of cool jazz are trumpeters Miles Davis and Chet Baker, saxophonists Paul Desmond, Jerry Mulligan and Stan Getz, pianists Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck.
Cool jazz masterpieces include such compositions as "Take Five" by Paul Desmond, "My Funny Valentine" by Gerry Mulligan, "Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk by Miles Davis.

modal jazz

Modal jazz (English modal jazz), a direction that arose in the 1960s. It is based on the modal principle of organizing music. Unlike traditional jazz, in modal jazz the harmonic basis is replaced by modes - Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, pentatonic and other scales of both European and non-European origin. In accordance with this, a special type of improvisation has developed in modal jazz: musicians look for development stimuli not in changing chords, but in emphasizing the features of the mode, in polymodal overlays, etc. This direction is represented by such outstanding musicians as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, George Russell, Don Cherry.

free jazz

Perhaps the most controversial movement in the history of jazz emerged with the advent of free jazz, or the "New Thing" as it was later called. While elements of free jazz existed within musical structure jazz long before the term itself, most original in the "experiments" of such innovators as Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell and Lenny Tristano, but only by the end of the 1950s, through the efforts of such pioneers as saxophonist Ornette Coleman and pianist Cecil Taylor, this direction took shape as independent style.

What these two musicians, along with others including John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and communities like the Sun Ra Arkestra and a group called The Revolutionary Ensemble, did was a variety of structural changes. and feel for the music. Among the innovations introduced with imagination and great musicality was the abandonment of the chord progression, which allowed the music to move in any direction. Another fundamental change was found in the area of ​​rhythm, where "swing" was either redefined or ignored altogether. In other words, pulsation, meter and groove were no longer an essential element in this reading of jazz. Another key component was associated with atonality. Now the musical saying was no longer built on the usual tonal system. Shrill, barking, convulsive notes completely filled this new sound world. Free jazz continues to exist today as a viable form of expression, and in fact is no longer as controversial a style as it was at the dawn of its inception.

Funk

Funk is another popular style of jazz in the 70s and 80s. The founders of the style are James Brown and George Clinton. In funk, a diverse set of jazz idioms is replaced by simple musical phrases consisting of blues shouts and moans taken from saxophone solos by such performers as King Curtis, Junior Walker, David Sanborn, Paul Butterfield. The word funk was considered slang, it means to dance so as to get very wet. Jazzmen often used it, referring to the audience as a request to dance and move actively to the accompaniment of their music. Thus, the word "funk" was assigned to the style of music. The dance direction of funk determines its musical features, such as a downbeat rhythm and pronounced vocals.

The formation of the genre took place in the mid-80s and is associated with the fashion for the use of samples from jazz-funk of the 70s among DJs playing in nightclubs in the UK. One of the trendsetters of the genre is considered to be DJ Jills Peterson, who is often credited with the authorship of the name "acid jazz". In the US, the term "acid jazz" is almost never used, the terms "groove jazz" and "club jazz" are more common.

acid jazz (acid jazz)

Acid jazz peaked in popularity in the first half of the 1990s. At that time, in addition to synthesis dance music and jazz included jazz-funk of the 90s (Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies, James Taylor Quartet, Solsonics), hip-hop with jazz elements (recorded with live musicians or jazz samples) (US3, Guru, Digable Planets), jazz experiments musicians with hip-hop music (Miles Davis' Doo Bop, Herbie Hancock's Rock It), etc. After the 1990s, the popularity of acid jazz began to decline, and the traditions of the genre were later continued in new jazz.

Its direct psychedelic ancestor is Acid Rock.

It is believed that the term "acid jazz" was coined by Gilles Petterson, a London-based DJ and founder of the eponymous record label. In the late 80s, the term was popular among British DJs playing similar music, who used it as a joke, implying that their music was an alternative to the then popular acid house. Thus, the term has no direct relation to "acid" (that is, LSD). According to another version, the author of the term "acid jazz" is the Englishman Chris Bangs (Chris Bangs), known as one of the members of the duet "Soundscape UK".

Jazz is a style of improvisation. The most important type of improvised music is folklore, but unlike jazz, it is closed and aimed at preserving traditions. Jazz dominates. creativity, which, combined with improvisation, gave rise to many styles and trends. So the songs of dark-skinned African-American slaves came to Europe and turned into complex orchestral works in the style of blues, ragtime, boogie-woogie, etc. Jazz became a source of ideas and methods that actively affect almost all other types of music from popular and commercial to academic music our century.

The article includes an excerpt from the article "About Jazz" - The Union of Composers Club and extracts from Wikipedia.