first

significant exponent, Pinetop Smith (1904-1929). This rolling,

eight-to-the-bar bass style was popular at house parties in the Windy

City

and became a national craze in 1939, after three of its best

practitioners,

Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, had been presented

in concert at Carnegie Hall.

KANSAS CITY SOUNDS

Johnson was from Kansas City, where boogie-woogie was also popular.

The midwestern center was a haven for Jazz musicians through-out the

rule of Boss Pendergast, when the city was wide open and music could

be

heard around the clock.

The earliest and one of the best of the K.C. bands was led by Bennie

Moten (1894-1935). By 1930 it had in its ranks pianist Count Basie

(1905-1984) who'd learned from Fats Waller; trumpeter-singer Oran (Hot

Lips) Page (1908-1954), one of Louis Armstrong's greatest disciples;

and

an outstanding singer, Jimmy Rushing (1903-1972). The city was to put

its

imprint on Jazz during the `30s and early `40s.

DEPRESSION DAYS

The great Depression had its impact on Jazz as it did on virtually all

other

facets of American life. The record business reached its lowest ebb in

1931. By that year, many musicians who had been able to make a living

playing Jazz had been forced to either take commercial music jobs or

leave

the field entirely.

But the music survived. Again, Louis Armstrong set a pattern. At the

helm

of a big band with his increasingly popular singing as a feature, he

recast

the pop hits of the day in his unique Jazz mold, as such artists as

Fats

Waller and Billie Holiday (1915-1959), perhaps the most gifted of

female

Jazz singers would do a few years later.

Thus, while sentimental music and romantic "crooners" were the rage

(among them Bing Crosby who had worked with Paul Whiteman and

learned more than a little from Jazz), a new kind of "hot" dance music

began to take hold. It wasn't really new, but rather a streamlining of

the

Henderson style, introduced by the Casa Loma Orchestra which featured

the arrangements of Georgia-born guitarist Gene Gifford (1908-1970).

Almost forgotten today, this band paved the way for the Swing Era.

THE COMING OF SWING

As we've seen, big bands were a feature of the Jazz landscape from the

first. Though the Swing Era didn't come into full flower until 1935,

most

up-and-coming young jazzmen from 1930 found themselves working in big

bands.

Among these were two pacesetters of the decade, trumpeter Roy (Little

Jazz) Eldridge (1911-1989) and tenorist Leon (Chu) Berry (1908-1941).

Eldridge, the most influential trumpeter after Louis, has a fiery

mercurial

style and great range and swing. Among the bands he sparked were

Fletcher Henderson's and Teddy Hill's. The latter group also included

Berry, the most gifted follower of Coleman Hawkins, and the brilliant

trombonist Dicky Wells (1909-1985).

Another trend setting band was that of tiny, hunchbacked drummer Chick

Webb (1909-1939), who by dint of almost superhuman energy overcame

his physical handicap and made himself into perhaps the greatest of

all Jazz

drummers. His band really got under way when he heard and hired a

young girl singer in 1935. Her name was Ella Fitzgerald (b. 1917).

THE KING OF SWING

But it was Benny Goodman who became the standard-bearer of swing. In

1934, he gave up a lucrative career as a studio musician to form a big

band

with a commitment to good music. His Jazz-oriented style met with

little

enthusiasm at first. He was almost ready to give it up near the end of

a

disastrous cross-country tour in the summer of `35 when suddenly his

fortunes shifted. His band was received with tremendous acclaim at the

Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles.

It seems that the band's broadcasts had been especially well timed for

California listeners. Whatever the reason, the band, which included

such

Jazz stars as the marvelous trumpeter Bunny Berigan (1908-1942) and

drummer Gene Krupa, not to mention Benny himself, now scored success

after success. Some of the band's best material was contributed by

arrangers Fletcher Henderson and his gifted younger brother Horace.

As the bands grew in popularity, a new breed of fan began to appear.

This

fan wanted to listen as much as he wanted to dance. (In fact, some

disdained dancing altogether.) He knew each man in each band and read

the new swing magazines that were springing up--Metronome, Down Beat,

Orchestra World. He collected records and listened to the growing

number

of band broadcasts on radio. Band leaders were becoming national

figures

on a scale with Hollywood stars.

OTHER GREAT BIG BANDS

Benny's arch rival in the popularity sweepstakes was fellow

clarinetist

Artie Shaw (b.1910), who was an on-again-off-again leader. Other very

successful bands included those of Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey,

whose co-led Dorsey Brothers Band split up after one of their

celebrated

fights.

First among black bandleaders were Duke Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford

(1902-1947). The latter led a highly disciplined and showmanship-

oriented

band which nevertheless spotlighted brilliant jazz soloists, among

them

saxophonists Willie Smith and Joe Thomas and trombonist Trummy Young

(1912-1984). The man who set the band's style, trumpeter-arranger Sy

Oliver (1910-1988), later went with Tommy Dorsey.

A newcomer on the national scene was Count Basie's crew from Kansas

City, with key soloists Lester Young and Herschel Evans (1909-1939) on

tenors, Buck Clayton (1912-1992) and Harry Edison (b.1915) on

trumpets, and Jimmy Rushing and Billie Holiday (later Helen Humes) on

vocals.

But important as these were (Lester in particular created a whole new

style

for his instrument), it was the rhythm section of Basie that gave the

band

its unique, smooth and rock-steady drive--the incarnation of swing,

Freddie Green (1911-1987) on guitar, Walter Page (1900-1957) on bass,

and Jo Jones (1911-1985) on drums and the Count on piano made the

rhythm section what it was. Basie, of course, continued to lead

excellent

bands, but the greatest years were 1936-42.

EXIT THE BIG BANDS

The war years took a heavy toll of big bands. Restrictions made travel

more difficult and the best talent was being siphoned off by the

draft. But

more importantly, public tastes were changing.

Ironically, the bands were in the end devoured by a monster they had

given birth to: the singers. Typified by Tommy Dorsey's Frank Sinatra,

the vocalist, made popular by a band affiliation, went out on his own;

and

the public seemed to want romantic ballads more than swinging dance

music.

The big bands that survived the war soon found another form of

competition cutting into their following--television. The tube kept

people

home more and more, and inevitably many ballrooms shut their doors for

good in the years between 1947 and 1955. By then it had also become

too

expensive a proposition to keep 16 men traveling on the road in the

big

bands' itinerant tradition. The leaders who didn't give up (Ellington,

Basie,

Woody Herman, Harry James) had something special in the way of talent

and dedication that gave them durability in spite of changing tastes

and

lifestyles.

The only new bands to come along in the post-war decades and make it

were those of pianist-composer Stan Kenton (1912-1979), who started

his

band in 1940 but didn't hit until `45; drummer Buddy Rich (1917-1987),

a

veteran of many famous swing era bands and one of jazzdom's most

phenomenal musicians, and co-leaders Thad Jones (1923-1990), and Mel

Lewis (1929-1990), a drummer once with Kenton. Another Kenton

alumnus, high-note trumpeter Maynard Ferguson (b. 1928), has led

successful big bands on and off.

THE BEBOP REVOLUTION

In any case, a new style, not necessarily inimical to the big bands

yet very

different in spirit form earlier Jazz modes, had sprung up during the

war.

Bebop, as it came to be called, was initially a musician's music, born

in the

experimentation of informal jam sessions.

Characterized by harmonic sophistication, rhythmic complexity, and few

concessions to public taste, bop was spearheaded by Charlie Parker

(1920-1955), an alto saxophonist born and reared in Kansas City.

After apprenticeship with big bands (including Earl Hines'), Parker

settled

in New York. From 1944 on, he began to attract attention on

Manhattan's

52nd Street, a midtown block known as "Swing Street" which featured a

concentration of Jazz clubs and Jazz talent not equaled before or

since.

BIRD

Bird, as Parker was called by his fans, was a fantastic improviser

whose

imagination was matched by his technique. His way of playing (though

influenced by Lester Young and guitarist Charlie Christian (1916-

1942), a

remarkable musician who was featured with Benny Goodman's sextet

between 1939-41), was something new in the world of Jazz. His

influence

on musicians can be compared in scope only to that of Louis Armstrong.

Parker's principal early companions were Dizzy Gillespie, a trumpeter

of

abilities that almost matched Bird's, and drummer Kenny Clarke

(1914-1985). Dizzy and Bird worked together in Hines' band and then in

the one formed by Hines vocalist Billy Eckstine (1914-1993), the key

developer of bop talent. Among those who passed through the Eckstine

ranks were trumpeters Miles Davis (1927-1991), Fats Navarro

(1923-1950), and Kenny Dorham (1924-1972); saxophonists Sonny Stitt

(1924-1982), Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), and Gene Ammons

(1925-1974); and pianist-arranger-bandleader Tadd Dameron (1917-1965).

Bop, of course, was basically small-group music, meant for listening,

not

dancing. Still, there were big bands featuring bop--among them those

led

by Dizzy Gillespie, who had several good crews in the late `40s and

early

to mid-50's; and Woody Herman's so-called Second Herd, which included

the cream of white bop--trumpeter Red Rodney (b. 1927), and

saxophonists Stan Getz (1927-1993), Al Cohn (1925-1988) and Zoot Sims

(1925-1985), and Serge Chaloff (1923-1957).

BOP VS. NEW ORLEANS

Ironically, the coming of bop coincided with a revival of interest in

New

Orleans and other traditional Jazz. This served to polarize audiences

and

musicians and point up differences rather than common ground. The

needless harm done by partisan journalists and critics on both sides

lingered on for years.

Parker's greatest disciples were not alto saxophonists, except for

Sonny

Stitt. Parker dominated on that instrument. Pianist Bud Powell

(1924-1966) translated Bird's mode to the keyboard; drummers Max

Roach and Art Blakey (1919-1990) adapted it to the percussion

instruments. A unique figure was pianist-composer Thelonious Monk,

(1917-1982). With roots in the stride piano tradition, Monk was a

forerunner of bop--in it but not of it.

JAZZ-ROCK FUSION

In the wake of Miles Davis' successful experiments, rock had an

increasing impact on Jazz. The notable Davis alumni Herbie

Hancock (b. 1940) and Chick Corea (b.1941) explored what soon

became known as fusion style in various ways, though neither cut

himself off from the jazz tradition. Thus Hancock's V.S.O.P., made

up of `60s Davis alumni plus trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pursued

Miles’ pre-electronic style, while Corea continued to play acoustic

jazz in various settings. Keith Jarrett(b. 1945), who also briefly

played with Davis, never adopted the electronic keyboards but flirted

with rock rhythms before embarking on lengthy, spontaneously

conceived piano recitals. The most successful fusion band was

Weather Report, co-founded in 1970 by the Austrian-born pianist

Joe Zawinul (b. 1932) and Wayne Shorter; the partnership lasted

until 1986. The commercial orientation of much fusion Jazz offers

little incentive to creative players, but it has served to introduce

new young listeners to Jazz, and electronic instruments have been

absorbed into the Jazz mainstream.

New York - The Jazz Mecca

New York City is the Jazz capital of the world. Jazz musicians can

be found playing at jam sessions, smoky bistros, stately concert halls,

on street corners and crowded subway platforms. Although the music was

born in New Orleans and nurtured in Kansas City, the Big Apple has long

been a Mecca for great Jazz. From the big band romps of Duke Ellington

and Count Basie at The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to the Acid Jazz jam

sessions downtown at Giant Step, New York continues to serve as the

proving grounds for each major Jazz innovator.

52nd Street - The Street That Never Slept

Between 1934 and 1950, 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues was

the place for music. The block was jam-packed with monochromatic five-

story brownstone buildings in whose drab and cramped street-level

interiors there were more clubs, bars and bistros than crates in an

overstocked warehouse. 52nd Street started as a showcase for the small-

combo Dixieland Jazz of the speakeasy era then added the big-band swing

of the New Deal 30s. Before its untimely demise, hastened by changing

real estate values, The Street adopted the innovations of bop and cool.

So in just a few hours of club hopping, a listener could walk through the

history of Jazz on 52nd Street. Favorites included pianist Art Tatum,

singer Billie Holiday, tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie and

his Big Band, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, pianist Errol Garner, trumpeter

Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Minton's Playhouse - Birthplace of Bebop

In the early 1940s, a group of Jazz revolutionaries gathered at an

uptown club called Minton's Playhouse. Through a series of small group

jam sessions frequented by musicians in their teens and early twenties,

a new music called Bebop was born, sired by alto saxophonist Charlie

"Bird" Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Thelonious Monk.

Bird was generally regarded as the intuitive genius and improviser of the

group, his magic sound and awesome technique changing the face of Jazz.

Diz was the conscious thinker and showman, a man who spent a lifetime

charming audiences worldwide. Monk was the creative clearinghouse and

refiner, a musical iconoclast whose compositions became legendary.

At first, Bebop's eccentric starts and stops, and torrents of notes

played at machine-gun tempos jarred listeners and proved devilishly

difficult to play. But by the late 1940s, when big-band swing had

declined, bop matured and became the Jazz standard.

Birdland - Jazz Corner of the World

Miraculously, just as 52nd caved in, Birdland opened on Broadway. For

more than a decade, from 1949-1962, the survival formula was memorable

double and triple bills, commencing at 9pm and sometimes lasting untill

dawn. Descending the stairs to the jammed basement nitery, a listener

would encounter a racially mixed throng, primed for an evening of high

octane musical invigoration. To add to the excitement, Birdland's

colorful host was Pee Wee Marquette, a uniformed midget. Riding the final

crest of the Bebop wave, Birdland was a musical oasis for accomplished

improvisors where the finest jazz on planet earth was presented with a

minimum of pretense. The club has let it all hang out ambiance encouraged

musicians to stretch the boundaries with spirited audience

encouragement. Live radio broadcasts from the club, hosted by Symphony

Sid, compounded the excitement.

JAZZ TODAY

Diversity is the word for today's Jazz. Various aspects of freedom

have

been pursued by the many gifted musicians connected with the AACM

(American Association for Creative Musicians), a collective formed in

1965 under the guidance of the pianist-composer Richard Muhal Abrams

(b. 1930). Among the groups that have emerged, directly and

indirectly,

from the AACM are the Art Ensemble of Chicago and The World

Saxophone Quartet, and notable musicians of this lineage include

trumpeter Lester Bowie (b. 1941), reedmen Anthony Braxton (b.1945),

Joseph Jarman, Julius Hemphill, Roscoe Mitchell and David Murray,

and violinist Leroy Jenkins, Ornette Coleman has continued to go his

own

way, introducing a unique fusion band, Prime Time, collaborating with

guitarist Pat Metheny (b. 1954), and celebrating occasional reunions

with

his original quartet.

Quite unexpectedly, but with neat historical symmetry, a new wave of

gifted young jazz players has emerged from New Orleans, spearheaded by

the brilliant trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961), who joined Art

Blakey's

Jazz Messengers--a bastion of the bebop tradition--in 1979. Also an

accomplished classical virtuoso, Marsalis was soon signed by Columbia

Records and became the most visible new Jazz artist in many years.

Articulate and outspoken, he has rejected fusion and stressed the

continuity of the Jazz tradition. His slightly older brother, Branford

Marsalis (b. 1960), who plays tenor and soprano sax, was a member of

Wynton's quintet until he joined with rock icon Sting's band for a

year. He

has since led his own straight-ahead jazz quartet. As his replacement

with

Blakey, Wynton recommended fellow New Orleanian Terence Blanchard

(b. 1962), who later formed a group with altoist Donald Harrison also

from New Orleans, as co-leader.

Many other gifted players have emerged during the present decade --

too

many to list here. Many have affirmed their roots in bebop, and some

have

reached even further back to mainstream swing (such as tenorist Scott

Hamilton (b. 1954), and trumpeter Warren Vache, Jr. [b. 1951]), but

almost all, even when choosing experimentation and innovation, operate

within the established language of jazz. As in the other arts, Jazz

seems to

have arrived at a postmodern stage.

We ought not to overlook the increasingly important role being played

by

women instrumentalists, among them Carla Bley, JoAnne Brackeen, Jane

Ira Bloom, Amina Claudine Myers, Emely Remler and Janice Robinson.

The durability of the Jazz tradition has been symbolically affirmed by

two

events: the Academy Award nomination of Dexter Gordon, the seminal

bebop tenor saxophonist, for his leading role in the film Round

Midnight,

and the widely acclaimed appearances of Benny Carter, approaching his

90th birthday, at the helm of the American Jazz Orchestra (an ensemble

formed in 1986 to perform the best in Jazz, past and present) both as

a

player and composer.

And one may also take heart at the qualitative as well as quantitative

growth of Jazz education in this country, and the active involvement

of so

many fine performing artist in this process.

SUMMING UP

No one can presume to guess what form the next development in Jazz

will

take. What we do know is that the music today presents a rich panorama

of sounds and styles.

Thelonious Monk, that uncompromising original who went from the

obscurity of the pre-bop jam sessions in Harlem to the cover of TIME

and

worldwide acclaim without ever diluting his music, once defined jazz

in his

unique way:

"Jazz and freedom," Monk said, "go hand in hand. That explains it.

There

isn't anymore to add to it. If I do add to it, it gets complicated.

That's

something for you to think about. You think about it and dig it. You

dig it."

Jazz, a music born in slavery, has become the universal song of

freedom.

Jazz History - Periods, Styles

Batchelor, Christian: This thing called Swing ; a

study of Swing music and the Lindy Hop, the original Swing dance.

London 1997.

Belaire, David C. G.: A guide to the big band era.

1997.

Bergerot, Franck & Arnaud Merlin: The story of jazz ; bop and beyond.

New York 1993.

Berlin, Edward A.: Ragtime ; a musical and cultural history. Reprint

(1980). Berkeley, Calif. [etc.] 1984.

Boyd, Jean A.: The jazz of the southwest;an oral

history of Western Swing. Austin, Tex.1998.

Budds, Michael J.: Jazz in the 60s ; the expansion of musical

resources and techniques. Expanded ed. Iowa City, Ia. 1990.

Carver, Reginald & Lenny Bernstein: Jazz profiles ;

the spirit of the nineties. New York 1998.

Cockrell, Dale: Demons of disorder ; early blackface

minstrels and their world. Cambridge 1997.

Collins, R.: New Orleans jazz ; a revised history ; the development of

American music from the origin to the big bands. New York 1996.

Corbett, John: Extended play ; sounding off from John

Cage to Dr. Funkenstein.Durham, N.C. 1994.

Dean, Roger T.: New structures in jazz and improvised

music since 1960. Milton Keynes 1991

Deffaa, Chip: Swing legacy foreword by George T.

Simon. Metuchen, N.J. [etc.] 1989.

Deffaa, Chip: Voices of the jazz age ; profiles of 8

vintage jazzmen. Wheatley 1990.

DeVeaux, Scott: The birth of Bebop ; a social and

musical history. Berkeley, Cal. [etc.] 1997.

Erenberg, Lewis A.: Swingin' the dream ; big band

jazz and the rebirth of American culture. Chicago, Ill. [etc.] 1998.

Feather, Leonard: The encyclopedia yearbooks of Jazz.

Reprint (1956 & 1958). New York 1993.

Feather, Leonard: The passion for jazz. Reprint

(1980). New York 1990.

Fernett, Gene: Swing out ; great Negro dance bands.

Reprint (1970). New York 1993.

Goldberg, Joe: Jazz masters of the 50s. Reprint

(1965). New York [1983].

Gottlieb, William P.: The golden age of jazz. New &

revised ed. San Francisco, Cal. 1995.

Griffiths, David: Hot jazz ; from Harlem to

Storyville. Lanham, Md. [etc.] 1998.

Grudens, Richard: The best damn trumpet player ;

memories of the big band era & beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1996.

Grudens, Richard: The music men ; the guys who sang

with the bands and beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1998.

Grudens, Richard: The song stars ; the ladies who

sang with the bands and beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1997.

Hadlock, Richard: Jazz masters of the 20s. Reprint

(1965). New York 1988.

Hall, Fred: Dialogues in Swing ; intimate

conversations with the stars of the Big Band era. Ventura, Cal. 1989.

Harrison, Daphne Duval: Black pearls ; blues queens of the 1920s. New

Brunswick, N.J. [etc.] 1990.

Hennessey, Thomas J.: From jazz to swing ; Afro-

American jazz musicians and their music, 1890-1935. Detroit, Mich.

1994.

Jasen, David A. & Gene Jones: Spreadin' rhythm around ; black popular

songwriters, 1880-1930. New York 1998.

Jones, Leroi: Black music. Reprint (1967). New York

1998.

Jost, Ekkehard: Europas Jazz 1960-1980. Frankfurt 1987.

Kennedy, Don: Big Band Jump personality interviews. Atlanta, Ga. 1993.

Kennedy, Rick: Jelly Roll, Bix and Hoagy ; Gennett studios and the

birth of recorded jazz. Bloomington, Ind. [etc.] 1994.

Koerner, Julie: Big bands. New York 1992.

Koerner, Julie: Swing kings. New York 1994.

Kofsky, Frank: John Coltrane and the jazz revolution

of the 1960s. New York 1998.

Korall, Burt: Drummin' men ; the heartbeat of jazz ;

the Swing years. New York 1990.

Litweiler, John: The freedom principle ; jazz after

1958. Reprint (1984).New York 1990.

Lock, Graham: Chasing the vibration ; meetings with

creative musicians. Exeter 1994.

Morgan, Thomas L. & William Barlow: From Cakewalks to

concert halls; an illustrated history of African American popular

music from 1895 to 1930. Washington, D.C. 1993.

Nicholson, Stuart: Jazz, the 1980s resurgence.

Reprint (1990) of: Jazz, the modern resurgence. New York 1995.

Nicholson, Stuart: Jazz-Rock, a history. New York

1998.

Owens, Thomas: Bebop ; the music and its players. Reprint (1995). New

York [etc.] 1996.

Piazza, Tom: Blues up and down ; jazz in our time. New York 1997.

Rosenthal, David H.: Hard bop ; jazz and black music 1955-1965.

Reprint (1992).New York 1993.

Russell, Bill: New Orleans style compiled & ed. by

Barry Martyn & Mike Hazeldine. New Orleans, La. 1994.

Scanlan, Tom: The joy of jazz : Swing era, 1935-1947.

Golden, Col. 1996.

Schuller, Gunther: Early jazz ; its roots and musical development.

Reprint (1968). New York [etc.] 1986.

Spellman, A: B.: Four lives in the bebop business.

Reprint (1966). New York 1985.

Stewart, Rex: Jazz masters of the 30s. Reprint

(1972). New York [1982].

Stowe, David W.: Swing changes ; Big Band jazz in New

Deal America. Reprint (1994). Cambridge, Mass. 1996.

Tracy, Sheila: Bands, booze and broads. Reprint

(1995). Edinburgh (etc) 1996.

Van der Merwe, Peter: Origins of the popular style ; the antecedents

of twentieth-century popular music. Reprint (1989) Oxford 1992.

Vincent, Ted: Keep cool ; the black activists who

built the jazz age.London [etc.] 1995.

Waldo, Terry: This is Ragtime. Reprint (1976). New York

1991.

Walker, Leo: The wonderful era of the great dance

bands. Reprint (1964). New York 1990.

Wilmer, Valerie: As serious as your life; the story

of the New Jazz. Reprint (1987).London 1998.

Wyndham, Tex: Texas shout ; how Dixieland Jazz works. Seattle, Wash.

1997.

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