MELODY 

HARMONY 

RHYTHM

The tune; the lead vocal or instrumental line; lead singers or 

lead instrumentalists play melodies, or melodic lines.  

Usually involves the accompaniment to the melody, or a 

counter line to the melody such as a backup singer in pop 

music or a walking bass line in jazz

Rhythm involves many sophisticated elements, the most basic 

being the pace, or pulse of the notes.  Most people feel 

rhythm through drumming patterns, although the bass and 

guitar also provide additional rhythmic energy in jazz or 

popular music

¡ Pulse or TEMPO: the speed of the music (slow…..fast) 

¡ BEAT(S): rhythmic patterns are divided into beats; probably 95% 

of all popular and jazz music contains rhythmic patterns divided 

into 4-beat patterns.  An example of popular music that is NOT 

divided into 4-beat patterns is the waltz, whose rhythmic 

patterns are based upon a division of 3.  

¡ MEASURE OR BAR: a grouping of beats constitutes a measure or 

bar (both terms mean exactly the same thing in music).  If the 

rhythm is based upon 4-beat patterns, then a measure would 

contain 4 beats.  Within a measure, there are strong and weak 

beats: the strongest falling on the first and third beats of a 

measure (based upon 4-beat patterns) and the weak beats fall on 

two and four. 

SUB-CATEGORIES OF RHYTHM ¡ SYNCOPATION: one of the most important elements of jazz, 

syncopation involves stressing the weak beats rather than the 

strong beats in a measure resulting in rhythmic tension; 

complex syncopation involves stressing beats in-between the 

four primary beats (in a 4-beat rhythmic pattern). 

SUB-C

the character or quality of a sound.  It is 

what differentiates one instrument or voice from another, and 

instruments of the same type from one another. 

refers to the basic structure of a piece of music.  Many 

pieces are really a couple of phrases, repeated again and 

again with some variation.  These basic forms are sometimes 

augmented by additional musical material that functions as 

an introduction to a piece an interlude or an ending.

An interactive element of musical performance where one 

musician or group of musicians plays a statement (call) which 

is answered (response) by another musician or group of 

musicians

So What – Miles Davis 

Blues 

§ Minstrelsy/Popular Song 

§ Ragtime 

§ Brass Band Tradition

FIELD HOLLERS 

§ WORK SONGS 

§ RELIGIOUS SONGS (hymns, spirituals, ring dances etc.)

§ formalized 12 bar phrasing, a necessity of 

larger groups 

§ trained musicians meant the addition of 

intros etc. 

§ more refined and sophisticated than 

country blues 

§ woman were more popular than men, sex 

appeal, women's suffrage represented 

oppression, record labels saw the 

advantage 

§ Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith 

were leaders 

§ very popular on 1920's-30's radio, race 

labels created to promote the music 

“The Empress of the Blues” 

§ major figure in the 1920’s

§ Bessie was a world-renowned performer, well known as 

a vaudeville star  

§ transcended the “race” label market, was contracted to 

Columbia Records for whom she sold more records than 

any of their other performers in the 1920’s 

§ she studied opera singing and had strong technical 

skills, hitting notes dead center, using vibrato etc. 

§ powerful vocal style; Bessie Smith was a nationallyknown vaudeville star who toured the country 

performing the blues in large theaters without 

amplification 

basis for improvisation 

§ provided a standard repertoire of songs 

§ introduced blue notes 

§ instrumentalists used vocal inflections (scoops, smears, bent notes etc.)in 

an attempt to make their instrument sound like the human voice 

§ gave jazz its soul

§ The blues has maintained an identity separate from jazz

§ Jazz musicians must know how to play the blues; blues musicians 

do not necessarily play jazz

Featured mainly white performers who 

artificially blackened their skin and carried 

out parodies of African American music, 

dance, dress, and dialect 

§ From the 1840s through the 1880s, blackface 

minstrelsy rose to become the predominant 

genre of popular culture in the United States. 

§ Minstrelsy was the first expression of a 

distinctively American popular culture.

Led by white banjo virtuoso Dan 

Emmett (1815-1904), created a 

lengthy stage performance that 

featured a standardized group of 

performers: 

§ Mr. Interlocuter—lead performer who 

sang and provided patter between acts 

§ Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo—sat at either 

end of the line of performers

The most influential songwriter 

of American popular song 

during the nineteenth century 

¡ Composed around two hundred 

songs during the 1840s, 1850s, 

and early 1860s 

¡ Made song forms later used in 

20

th

 century popular music 

common to American audiences 

¡ “Oh! Susanna”,“Jeanie with the 

Light Brown Hair”,“Beautiful 

Dreamer

Military bands made up 

of brass instruments 

(e.g., trumpets, cornets, 

trombones, and tubas) 

spread rapidly during 

and after the Civil War. 

¡ Drew energy from the 

interaction of patriotism 

and popular culture 

¡ A town without a brass 

band was barely a town

America’s “March King”  

¡ The most popular bandleader 

of the late nineteenth and 

early twentieth centuries 

¡ Leader of the Marine Corps. 

Band and eventually of a 

successful private band which 

traveled the country 

¡ Composer of many famous 

marches, his most famous,  

Stars and Stripes Forever 

¡From the African-American term “to rag,” using 

syncopation, “ragging” the rhythm. 

¡Ragtime energized popular music in America by 

adding rhythmic vitality (syncopation) to the 

music.  

¡The basic patterns of ragtime music were 

transferred from the banjo. 

Emerged in the 1880s  

¡ Its popularity peaked in the decade after the turn of the century. 

¡ Ragtime initially was a piano music but gradually came to identify 

any syncopated music.  

¡ The term “ragtime” was used to describe any music that contained 

syncopation.  

¡ ragtime preceded jazz, yet continued to develop right along side 

it

¡ essentially a piano style, the piano was the center of home 

entertainment in the 1890’s. 

¡ The emerging sale of sheet music helped to popularize the music 

aspired to become a concert pianist, instead he roamed 

the south playing bar rooms

¡ settled in St. Louis in the 1890's, and began publishing 

compositions, eventually moved to New York

¡ the most important and influential ragtime composer, 

seen really as the culminating voice  

¡ his greatest recognition came from the 1973 movie, The 

Sting, whic h used his rag, The Entertainer, (whic h won an 

academy award)

¡ the first great ragtime composition, Maple Leaf  Rag, 

composed in 1899, sold over one million copies (named 

after the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri) 

The biggest media superstars 

of the World War I era 

§ Husband-and-wife dance team 

who did more than anyone to 

change the course of social 

dancing in America  

¡ Attracted millions of middleclass Americans into ballroom 

classes 

¡African American 

musician and 

bandleader  

¡The first African 

American to be offered 

a recording contract 

¡Associating with the 

Castles helped to cross 

racial boundaries.  

Wilbur Sweatman clarinet with the 

Emerson Trio, (piano and trombone) 

§ Uses secondary ragtime

syncopation and swooping blue 

notes 

§ Seen as a transitional recording 

from ragtime to jazz

the social, economic and political focal point of the 

South after the Civil War; all roads and railroads converged on the city 

along with ships from around the world making New Orleans a 

prosperous, vibrant city of blending cultures. It was a city that loved music 

and loved to dance

Creoles of  Color and free blacks formed a tight-knit society in New 

Orleans featuring their own social clubs, businesses, and professional 

organizations; many attended French schools and spoke French 

instead of English  

¡ Formal classical music training was available; this elite society 

presented classical music concerts through their own organization 

known as the Negro  Philharmonic Society, formed in the 1830’s the 

center of this activity was east of Canal Street in the French Quarter 

of New Orleans 

¡ On the flip side, black slaves lived in desperate poverty on the west 

side of Canal Street in the Uptown (“up” the Mississippi River)  area.  

located north of the French Quarter in what 

is now Louis Armstrong Park, former site of 

Congo Square 

§ 38 square city blocks containing well over 

200 brothels 

§ main thoroughfare was Bourbon Street 

The marching bands joined forces with the ragtime piano players, string 

orchestra bass, guitar and banjo players in the parks and dance halls of 

New Orleans as well as the cabarets of Storyville. 

¡ horn players learned the intricacies of ragtime and the soul of the blues 

¡ ragtime pianists learned the art of improvisation

more of each performance was improvised.   

§ rhythmic feeling was looser and more relaxed, thus anticipating jazz swing 

feeling 

§ it generated some of its own repertory of compositions 

§ its collectively improvised format created a more complex musical product 

than was typical in ragtime, blues or brass band music 

§ the earliest jazz was even more exciting than ragtime, blues or brass band 

music 

§ the origin of the term jazz (jass) is debated, sexual slang, jasmine perfume 

¡ Cornet - the primary melodic instrument 

¡ Clarinet - performs the high improvised line 

¡ Trombone - performs the low improvised line 

¡ Collective Improvisation - two or more musicians simultaneously 

improvising 

¡ Piano/Banjo - derived from the left hand function of ragtime piano 

playing, chords on beats 2 & 4 

¡ Tuba/Bass - derived from the left hand of ragtime piano playing, 

bass notes on beats 1 & 3 

¡ Drums - derived from the brass bands and ragtime orchestras, 

military march influence, yet improvised contrary lines to the main

§ first recognized important improviser of 

jazz in New Orleans 

§ most importantly, he was the first 

individual “personality” of jazz 

§ was said to have loosened-up the more 

legitimate playing, utilizing bluesy effects 

§ he was the first in the great New Orleans 

trumpet/cornet lineage  

§ no recordings exist, but he was said to 

have been very powerful and very soulful 

§ was institutionalized in 1906 with a 

mental disorder, never to perform again

James Reese Europe and his Society 

Orchestra (1914-1917) 

§ Trumpeter Freddie Keppard, the heir to the 

trumpet thrown following Buddy Bolden 

passed on the opportunity to make the first 

jazz recording in 1916 for fear his ideas 

would be stolen.Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) 

§ From New Orleans, the all white ODJB 

came to New York to play at 

Riesenweber’s Restaurant in 1917. They 

were a sensation.

born in New Orleans, he settled in Chicago in 

1923 following stints performing throughout the 

south and west coast 

¡ the first significant jazz pianist; he was also the 

first significant jazz composer with suc h early 

compositions as King Porter Stomp, Mr. Jelly Lord, 

Dead Man’s Blues and Grandpa Spells, many of 

whic h were performed by other bands

¡ introduced arranging practices in his small group 

that came to be imitated during the early stages 

of the history of big bands  

¡ combined written and improvised jazz, while still 

conveying the excitement that typified collectively 

improvised jazz 

“King" of jazz in New Orleans between 1912 

and 1917 following Freddie Keppard and 

Buddy Bolden 

§ between 1914 and 1917 he tutored a young New 

Orleans cornetist named Louis Armstrong, 

offering him whatever work he could not take 

§ with the close of Storyville in 1917, he traveled to 

Chicago working with various bands in bars and 

clubs 

§ in 1922, he re-formed his old band, The Creole 

Jazz Band, and invited Louis Armstrong to Chicago 

to join the group 

§ his band became a model for Chicago jazz, young 

musicians were in awe of the almost “psychic” 

means in which he and Armstrong performed 

together 

King Oliver – cornet (soloist)

§  -  Kid Ory - trombone

§  -  Johnny Dodds - clarinet

§  -  Lil Hardin - piano

§  -  Louis Armstrong - cornet

§  -  Warren "Baby" Dodds - drums/percussion

one of the finest Storyville clarinetists, 

Bechet, a Creole, was a first-rate 

musician and creative improviser 

¡ Perhaps the first virtuoso soloist in jazz

¡ after the close of Storyville in 1917, he 

spent time in New York before traveling 

to Europe in 1919 

¡ Introduced the soprano saxophone to 

jazz as an alternative to the clarinet 

¡ unlike American audiences who looked at 

the music as a novelty, Europeans took it 

seriously and heaped great praise upon 

Bechet who decided to make Paris his 

home 

The son of a renowned music teac her in Denver 

¡ In 1920, moved to New York City and started 

making recordings for Victor Records making Paul 

Whiteman Orc hestra famous nationally 

¡ In the 1920s the media referred to Whiteman as 

"The King of Jazz", a moniker he never ascribed to 

¡ Whiteman’s concept of Symphonic Jazz is 

c haracterized  by  his  commission  of  George 

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, whic h was premiered 

with George Gershwin at the piano. Another 

familiar piece in Whiteman's repertoire was Grand 

Canyon Suite, by Ferde Grofé. 

 band established the 

modern instrumentation of a swing 

band and set the early standards for 

arranging music; concepts still utilized 

today by contemporary big band 

composers and arrangers 

¡ formed his own band in 1923 utilizing, 

a basic six piece unit; he ultimately, 

for the most part, established the 

basic instrumentation that has survived 

to this day in big band writing 

¡ the band initially functioned as a 

pleasant dance band with only a 

minimal amount of jazz and 

improvisation 

pitted the sax section against the brass section (trumpets and 

trombones) to create a call and response format 

¡ developed effective block chord voicings within each section 

¡ introduced the concept of the soli: a featured section within the 

band playing the same written line in unison or block harmony 

¡ introduced the shout chorus which took on two forms: 

§ tutti shout chorus – the whole band plays the same thing in unison or block 

harmony with the lead melody 

§ call and response shout chorus – one section stating a riff which is 

answered by another section stating a different riff, building in intensity 

grew out of ragtime, taking on distinct characteristics that were 

the result of the competitive nature of the New York based piano players

more melodically complex and less reliant upon the 

blues tradition than ragtime, it reflected the urban pace of New York City  

pianists explored the complexity of whole-toned 

and diminished scales and chords    found in French Impressionistic piano music, 

reflective of the enlightenment of the renaissance 

Johnson emerged in New York during the 

1920’s as the foremost practitioner of the 

Harlem stride piano style; he became 

known as the “father of  Harlem stride”

¡ the model for a string of notable followers 

that included, Willie “the Lion” Smith, Fats 

Waller, Meade “Lux” Lewis, Duke Ellington 

(who learned Carolina Shout by following 

the keys of a player piano), Count Basie, 

and Art Tatum among others 

¡ later in life Johnson focused his energies 

on composition creating many tunes, a 

symphony, an opera and classically 

oriented pieces for the piano 

stands alone in jazz as a 

composer for and a performer on the 

unique instrument that he invented and 

perfected, The Ellington Orchestra 

¡ he learned to play the piano by running 

rolls through a player piano’s mechanism 

at a slow speed and following the keys 

with his fingers 

He demonstrated the potential of big-band jazz way 

beyond anything Whiteman was doing.  

§ He solidified the influence of stride piano as a pianist 

and arranger.  

§ He proved that innovative jazz writing could be 

applied to popular song.  

§ He violated the assumptions about jazz as a low and 

unlettered music by refusing to accept racial limitations.