Jazz Heritage/The Roots of Jazz
AFRICAN ROOTS
African culture and life is centered around the tribe or village. They identified with that particular tribe and participated in all of its functions. It was and is definitely, to use a 1998 word, interactive. Everyone participated in some way. This was very true with the musical activities of the tribe. No one sat back and just listened. African music was very functional and tied to everyday events in the village. They did not build concert halls, but rather, gathered wherever music was needed. There are songs for every type of occassion from births to deaths, from marriages to clearing a path to chopping down a tree. Music serves as a kind of social glue that binds people together. Although there were what we might call "professional" musicians that did travel from village to village, they were an addition to the musical life of the village. The participatory nature of the African culture can be seen today in Black churches and Pentecostal churches throughout the United States.
CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRICAN MUSIC
1. It involves the body. Clapping, swaying to the beat, pounding a stick on the ground, dancing, etc. are all examples of how people participated. And remember everyone joined in, not just the musicians.
2. Everyone sang. This is also another manifestation of using the body.
3. Although there are many different types of African instruments,chordophones, idiophones, aerophones,to name just a few, the predominant instrument was the drum. Drums came in all sizes and shapes. Made from gourds, hollowed out logs, an animal skin stretched across the opening, they were the foundation of African music. At the heart of African music is rhythm, and it is this aspect of the music that we find in jazz. Not exact African rhythms, but the emphasis on rhythm. African drummers created polyrhythms and cross rhythms that gave the music its driving force. To demonstrate this establish a beat, then divide the class in half and have one half clap twice to one beat and the other half, three times to one beat. This is a very "tame" polyrhythm. Two against three. It is the presence of very complicated polyrhythms that gives African music its sometimes seemingly unorganized sound. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each drum had a very set rhythm that when heard by itself was very clear, but when added to many other drums with their own set rhythms, produced a very complex musical tapestry.
4. The musical scale that is found in most African music is the pentatonic scale. (On a piano play C D E G A) This is a five note (pent) scale that is also found in the music of Japan, Scotland, Mexico, Peru, and many more.
5. There is something in a lot of African music that we identify by the name: call and response. This practice involves a leader singing or chanting a melody and the rest of the group responding in a prescribed way. This can be found in Jazz and in a slightly different fashion in many churches.
6. The vocal characteristics of African music included all types of voices, all kinds of vocal manipulation, raspy tone, buzzes in the voice, falsetto and bending tones. In other words there was no attempt at finding and producing a pure vocal sound. People expressed themselves vocally with whatever came out. This characteristic can be heard in almost every blues singer you can name.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES
The main influence that we can attribute to Europe lies in the area of instrumentation and harmony. The effect of this will be seen much clearer a bit later. Harmonically, the diatonic scale which is prevalent in Western music was an expansion of the pentatonic scale found in African music. The classical/Western concept and practice of chords and chord progressions was also a major area of influence. In the area of instrumentation, the instruments that we would consider to be symphonic in nature, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, etc. would eventually find there way into the hands of individuals who did not necessarily have the classical/European background.
NEW ORLEANS/THE BIRTHPLACE
GEOGRAPHIC FACTS
New Orleans seems tailor-made for the birthplace of jazz due to many factors, one of which was where it was situated. New Orleans lies at the end of the Mississippi River which provided a ready-made highway for not only people to come to New Orleans, but for jazz to be exported from the city. The Mississippi River touched many states including several slave states which factored into the diverse population. New Orleans was a bustling seaport, a center of commerce that was a gateway to thje Caribbean. These geographic facts certaily had a tremendous influence on all aspects of New Orleans life as we will soon learn.
DEMOGRAPHIC
New Orleans is trul;y a unique city. Having been under the flags of Spain and France before it became a part of the USA, there were many, many different ethnic groups that were a part of the city’s makeup. Each of these groups contributed to the overall culture of the city.
CREOLES
Again, there are several definitions of the word "creole". For our purposes Creoles were people of French or Spanish ancestry who were born in the New World. They were highly educated, provided the best for their children, including music lessons and supported the musical and cultural activites of this bustling city.
CREOLES OF COLOR
One custom that was French in origin allowed the men to keep mistresses. Many chose light skinned women of mixed blood that were plentiful in the South. This produced a kind of lower class of "black" creoles. In fact in Louisiana there was a very explicit way of categorizing "black" creoles based on the amount of Negro blood that one had . For instance, 50% white, 50% black was a mulatto.
The black creoles, because they resulted from the union of Creoles and light skinned women, originally were accepted into white society and had the same rights and privileges. Around 1894, the Louisiana Legislature passed a law that said that anyone with African blood was considered a Negro. The ultimate result of this law was that the "black" creoles were pushed out of white society and eventually became fused with the black culture This fact more than any other provided the impetus for the new music we call jazz.
SLAVES/FREED SLAVES
As we all know, slaves were uprooted from their homeland and brought to this country with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs. However, within themselves they brought their culture including their musical practices and heritage. ( Remember the African roots of the vocal tradition and the emphasis on rhythm.) New Orleans was a haven for escaped slaves and freed slaves. They met on Sundays in a place called Congo Square. There they were allowed to dance, sing, play drums and generally participate in their African culture. Of course, many people came and just watched.
CULTURAL INFLUENCES
This where it all comes together. New Orleans at the turn of the century was a bee hive of musical activity. Symphony orchestras, opera companies, musicales, brass bands and a myriad of other musical ensembles. There was also a tremendous party atmosphere that continues to this very day. This atmosphere provided a tremendous amount of work for musicians, especially in the red light district of New Orleans called Storyville. The presence of several brass bands and the fact that many Army bands were de-activated in New Orleans provided many cheap musical instruments that found their way into the hands of blacks who previously had no access to them.
The Creoles and "black" Creoles (before they lost their status) were the trained musicians. They were the orchestra players, they gave their children music lessons. They were in the mainstream of musical activity. The blacks (slaves) on the other hand were not a part of this but had their own traditions that ,at least for now, were largely vocal. Except for Sunday at Congo Square drums were not allowed because the white masters associated drums with rebellion.
When the "black" creoles began to come into contact with the black slave culture there was a coming together of two separate and distint musical styles and cultures. This amalgamation of styles over time had a direct influence on how the music was played. The African field holler, the call and response, the rhythmic emphasis, the highly interactive nature all found their way into Jazz. The next few lessons will examine in detail several different styles of jazz and you will be able to see how these events affected the music and how it is still affecting it today.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts