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Beat, Bebop, Birth of the Cool: (Fifties)

Constance Valis Hill

in Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History

This chapter begins with the tap challenge between the Peg Leg Bates and Hal LeRoy on The Ed Sullivan Show and ends with a challenge between dancers Bob Fosse and Tommy Raal in My Sister Eileen. The ... More

This chapter begins with the tap challenge between the Peg Leg Bates and Hal LeRoy on The Ed Sullivan Show and ends with a challenge between dancers Bob Fosse and Tommy Raal in My Sister Eileen. The 1950s, beginning with the death of Bill Robinson, has been commonly referred to as the decade of tap dance’s decline, when tap dance waned in popularity as the number of live performances diminished. Tap dancers found themselves out of jobs; and venues for tap performances shifted from the stage to television. As the steady rhythms of 1940s swing gave way to the dissonant harmonics and frenzied rhythmic shifts of bebop, big bands downsized into jazz combos, which further diminished work for tap dancers. As the decade laid to rest the half-century jigging tradition represented by Robinson, tap dance was regenerated and transfigured by bebop, thus to be resurrected into a modern jazz expression.Less

Jazz Clubs Come and Go

Williams Martin

in Jazz Changes

Recently, the Jazz Gallery, a huge New York jazz club, which had a doubtful career for a couple of years, finally closed for good. Business at other clubs was reportedly poor, and there had been ... More

Recently, the Jazz Gallery, a huge New York jazz club, which had a doubtful career for a couple of years, finally closed for good. Business at other clubs was reportedly poor, and there had been constant suggestions from the owners about “putting in some strippers.” The history of such places—particularly in New York and also in other big cities—has been directly tied to the evolution of the music. And most jazz clubs have come and disappeared as new styles have risen, became popular, and declined in their following. There is realistic evidence that the sign that there would be some business flops in clubs featuring contemporary jazz came about a couple of years ago.Less

John Lewis: Spontaneous Restraint

Williams Martin

in Jazz Changes

John Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer most famous for being the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The Modern Jazz Quartet, in its quarter of a century history, had risen to ... More

John Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer most famous for being the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The Modern Jazz Quartet, in its quarter of a century history, had risen to prominence as the most renowned, most critically acclaimed, and most durable small ensemble in the history of jazz. It is one of the greatest ensembles ever to have existd, that is other than the Duke Ellington orchestra. Lewis also provided the musical score to the documentary “De I'eau et de I'espoir” (Of Water and Hope), which tackles the assistance of American in Morocco's water conservation.Less

West Side Story, Modern Jazz, and Musical Commitment

Katherine Baber

in Leonard Bernstein and the Language of Jazz

Chapter 5 shows that the use of jazz to articulate conflict is crucial to the structure and message(s) of West Side Story. Jazz proves to be a flexible conceptualization as Bernstein incorporates the ... More

Chapter 5 shows that the use of jazz to articulate conflict is crucial to the structure and message(s) of West Side Story. Jazz proves to be a flexible conceptualization as Bernstein incorporates the stylistic vocabulary of modern jazz--particularly bebop and cool--bringing new associative meanings based on the sense of artistic and political opposition associated with those styles. Given jazz’s culture of commitment in the civil rights era, and Bernstein’s own statements on the arts and social or political obligation, West Side Story emerges as not just a statement but also as a form of activism.Less

Sex Mob and the Carnivalesque in Postwar Jazz

David Ake

in Jazz Matters: Sound, Place, and Time since Bebop

This chapter discusses the carnivalesque, which is one of jazz's “lower” manifestations, and is largely derived from literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin believed that the carnivalesque can ... More

This chapter discusses the carnivalesque, which is one of jazz's “lower” manifestations, and is largely derived from literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin believed that the carnivalesque can help people understand or make sense of the improper outbursts in the supposedly serious setting of recent jazz, while it also reveals other meanings and practices which are common throughout the genre. The chapter focuses on several sounds and images offered by the band Sex Mob, and shows how a carnivalesque aesthetic still persists in modern times to stop the severe, elitist, or solipsistic attitudes of modern jazz.Less

The MJQ in Europe

Williams Martin

in Jazz Changes

“European Concert” is a two-record set performed by the Modern Jazz Quartet in Sweden. The performance in general is very near to perfection. It is a like an anniversary set in that the Quartet was ... More

“European Concert” is a two-record set performed by the Modern Jazz Quartet in Sweden. The performance in general is very near to perfection. It is a like an anniversary set in that the Quartet was formed nearly ten years ago at a recording session for which its four original members were gathered. The quartet comprises of John Lewis, piano and musical director; Milt Jackson, vibraphone; Percy Heath, bass; and Connie Kay, drums. They discovered that they enjoyed playing together very much and they decided to continue. The remarkable feat is that they continue to play with the same passion and commitment to improvisation that they had at the start, and with an magnificent increase in expressive range and sensitive group interplay.Less

Travels with Charlie Christian: Between Region and Nation

in Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams: Place, Mobility, and Race in Jazz of the 1930s and ’40s

This chapter analyzes the electric guitarist Charlie Christian, a key swing-era jazz soloist who was deeply influential to a generation of musicians. The development of Christian's musical style was ... More

This chapter analyzes the electric guitarist Charlie Christian, a key swing-era jazz soloist who was deeply influential to a generation of musicians. The development of Christian's musical style was the result of a real physical journey from the Southwest to the nationn, and he was most celebrated by jazz historians for the central role he played in the development of “modern jazz.” “Flying Home” was one of the earliest recordings of Christian as a new member of Benny Goodman's organization. With its evocation of great distance and speed, this song depicted Christian's new life far from Oklahoma City. His solos on “Flying Home” were musical experiences of different types of movement. Moreover, Christian's musical development was intertwined with a real physical journey from the Southwest to the nation. His music was also an omen of wartime mobility and migration.Less

Ailey Celebrates Ellington

Thomas F. DeFrantz

in Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture

This chapter discusses the interest of Alvin Ailey in the history of African American musical forms, especially modern jazz. He collaborated with various classically trained jazz musicians for his ... More

This chapter discusses the interest of Alvin Ailey in the history of African American musical forms, especially modern jazz. He collaborated with various classically trained jazz musicians for his jazz ballet including Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Keith Jarrett. But the bulk of his jazz ballets, a total of eleven, was created to the music by Duke Ellington. Ailey explained that he hoped to align his own ascent to that of Ellington, who regularly made acknowledgements for his work beyond traditional categories of musicianship.Less

Recording with Bags

Williams Martin

in Jazz Changes

Milt “Bags” Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist. He is known for his swinging solos when he became a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his inclination for collaboration with other hard bop ... More

Milt “Bags” Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist. He is known for his swinging solos when he became a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his inclination for collaboration with other hard bop and post-bop musicians. The chapter tackles the time when Jackson was to record a brass orchestra comprising of four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, three French horns, and a rhythmic section. Musical scoring was provided by Melba Liston, a brass player, trombonist, as well as an arranger, working with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basic, and Quincy Jones. Liston is just one of the few women composers and instrumentalists who had penetrated successfully in any genre of jazz.Less

The Generators

Larry Kart

in Jazz in Search of Itself

This chapter aims to emphasize that jazz is a music whose nature and growth has been crucially shaped by the ways in which musicians who think of themselves as jazz musicians react to the music of ... More

This chapter aims to emphasize that jazz is a music whose nature and growth has been crucially shaped by the ways in which musicians who think of themselves as jazz musicians react to the music of other musicians who play jazz. It divides jazz music and musicians into three distinct generations, beginning with the likes of Jelly Roll Morton and Bessie Smith who were key participants in and witnesses to the process whereby jazz came to be, and came to be regarded as, a self-sustaining form of music. The likes of Art Tatum and Johnny Hodges belonged to the second generation, the members of which clearly knew of and were reacting to the first generation. The third generation is itself divided into those who found themselves making music that virtually had to be called modern jazz in relation to what had come before and those who did not cross the temperamental and stylistic divide into self-conscious modernism.Less

Ray McKinley (1910–)

Ray Mckinley

in Drumminʼ Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz The Swing Years

Ray McKinley, as well as having great humor, he brought the light touch to music more frequently than many of his colleagues. His effectiveness stems from masterful and highly creative time-keeping ... More

Ray McKinley, as well as having great humor, he brought the light touch to music more frequently than many of his colleagues. His effectiveness stems from masterful and highly creative time-keeping and a deep sense of the musical. McKinley is generally considered a singer of rhythm and novelty songs first, then a band leader next, and finally a drummer. Most of his fans regard him primarily as an entertainer. McKinley has done little to dispel his image as a multiple threat. It is drumming, however, that best reveals who and what he is. Rhythm is basic to everything he does. Key recordings with the Dorsey Brothers and with Jimmy Dorsey in the 1930s, with Will Bradley and the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band in the first half of the 1940s, and with his own bands and groups since then, tell his story well.Less

Recording to Hard Drive: Producing Digitally, 1991–2013

Michael Jarrett

in Pressed for All Time: Producing the Great Jazz Albums from Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday to Miles Davis and Diana Krall

When digital audio workstations (DAWs) do not multiply recording options to unthinkable levels of over-choice, they have simplified and automated tasks that were exceedingly difficult and time ... More

When digital audio workstations (DAWs) do not multiply recording options to unthinkable levels of over-choice, they have simplified and automated tasks that were exceedingly difficult and time consuming to execute on analog tape. But they have informed jazz production most profoundly in the smallest sorts of ways. Fixing the little stuff that once marred, otherwise stellar, performances is now very quick and easy. A number of jazz recordings discussed in this chapter were not recorded digitally, and when they were, many of their producers merely treated digital tape and hard drives as the new, perhaps "improved," analog tape. Much of the time, in the world of jazz production a potentially revolutionary technology is just added to—and conceptualized in terms of–what was already available.Less