New Orleans jazz: history, performers. Jazz music

1917 in the whole world has become a turning point and to some extent epochal. If for the Russian Empire it was marked by revolutionary events, then in France Felix D'Erell was discovered bacteriophage, and in New York in the recording studio Victor was recorded the first revolutionary jazz plate. It was New Orleans jazz, although the performers were white musicians, who from childhood heard and passionately fell in love with "black music". Their album Original Dixieland Jazz Band very soon spread to prestigious and expensive restaurants. In short, the New Orleans jazz, coming from the bottom, conquered the higher society and gradually began to be considered the music of the elite. However, it is considered as such to this day.

What is jazz?

This musical genre was formed on the basis of melodies of black slaves, who were forcibly brought to the American continent to serve the white planter. Therefore, for a long time, jazz music was considered the music of an inferior race. Even after it gained popularity in the white American society, in Nazi Germany, for example, it was banned because it was considered a conductor of the Negro-Jewish discordant cacophony. In the USSR, it was also banned for a long time, since the "top" believed that it was an apologist for the image of bourgeois life, and also an agent-conductor of imperialism.

Features

Traditional jazz can be called revolutionary music with all responsibility, since this style is a "fighter" of its kind. No musical genre has seen so many obstacles and obstacles in the way of its formation. Jazz performers waged a constant struggle for the right to exist, for their place in the sun. At first, they did not have the opportunity to speak in front of broad audiences, they did not have large concert venues and stadiums. However, this is one, and maybe more pluses. Among the fans of this music there are no random people. True lovers took jazz as a way of thinking and living in general. Jazz is improvisation, this is freedom! A person with a limited worldview, with standard notions of life, can not understand what New Orleans jazz is. Its peculiarities consist precisely in the fact that he has his own specific listener. They are always bright, intelligent and spiritually rich people who appreciate quality and meaningful music.

New Orleans Jazz: History

This musical style originated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as a result of the fusion of African and European music. Slaves brought to the American continent from Africa, the missionary priests converted to Christianity, taught them to sing church hymns. And they mixed them with their religious songs "spirituals". This musical cocktail also featured the motifs of the blues, which were widespread in all parts of the New World. In addition to the drums, the wind instruments and self-made accordions were used for accompaniment. This music gradually gained the sympathy of the white musicians of New Orleans, and as a result of all this, as already noted, in 1917 the first record was made with music in the style of jazz.

The Epoch of Jazz

This period in the history of music was named the 1920s of the 20th century. Even writers of this period today we call writers in the style of "New Orleans jazz". And to them first of all refers to Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Nevertheless, during this period, the capital of jazz was not New Orleans, but Kansas City. Here, this musical direction spread with incredible speed, and this was promoted by numerous restaurants and cafes, where jazz music sounded in the evenings. It turned out that the main listeners were gangsters and mafiosi, who liked to spend evenings in restaurants. In many of them, scenes and orchestral holes began to appear, in which a jazz collective consisting of a keyboard player, a drummer, windmills and vocalists was arranged. They mostly played the blues, not only slow, classical, but also fast. Then many of the musicians decided to try their luck and moved to the big cities - Chicago and New York. There were more restaurants and spectators too.

New Orleans Jazz: Performers

There lived in Kansas a dark-skinned boy named Charlie Parker. In the evenings, he liked to walk at the open windows of restaurants and eateries and listened to the music coming from them. Then he whistled through the days and sang the melodies that he loved. Years later, he became the reformer of music in the style of jazz. Meanwhile, on the east coast appeared a magnificent black musician - trumpeter, keyboard player and vocalist. His name was Louis Armstrong. He had an unusual timbre of voice, besides, he accompanied himself. He constantly toured between Chicago and New York and considered himself the successor to the great trumpeter musician from New Orleans King Oliver. Soon, another jazzman from the cradle of the genre, Jelly Roll Morton, arrived at the Big Apple. He masterfully played the piano, and also had an amazing vocals. On all the posters, he demanded that it was written that he was the founder of jazz. Many thought so. Meanwhile, in New York, Fletcher Henderson was created a wonderful orchestra. After this, another one was formed, which enjoyed no less popularity. Its leader was a young pianist Duke Ellington. He began to call his orchestra a big band.

30th

In the thirties, New Orleans jazz was transformed into a new musical style - swing. And it began to perform big bands, among which the Duke Ellinton Orchestra was particularly distinguished. This musical collective consisted of virtuosic musicians - masters of improvisation. Each concert was not like the next one. There were complex scores, roll calls, rhythmic phrases, repetitions, etc. In the orchestras there was a new position - an arranger who wrote orchestrations, which became the key to the success of the whole big band. However, the main accent was still put on an improvisator, which could be a keyboardist, a saxophonist, and a trumpet player. The only thing, he had to observe a clear number of "squares". The Duke Ellington Orchestra consisted of musicians such as Babber Miley, Couty Williams, Rex Stewart, Ben Webster, clarinettist Barney Bigard and others. However, the "world's swingiest" rhythm section was pianist Basie, drummer Joe Jones, bassist Walter Paige and guitarist Freddie Green.

The phenomenon of "crystal sound"

Closer to the 1940s, Glenn Miller's orchestra began to be popular among fans of jazz music. Experts immediately noticed a feature that distinguished this big band from others. In his works there was some characteristic "crystal sound", besides it felt that the orchestra had an incredibly successful arrangement. However, the rhythms of the New Orleans jazz were no longer felt in their music. It was something special, but very far from the music of the Negroes.

The decline of interest

With the outbreak of World War II "entertainment" began to flourish instead of serious music. This meant that the era of the swing had gone into the shadows. The jazz musicians were disheartened, they felt that they had lost their positions forever and that their music could never again be as successful as in the dashing 30's. However, they were wrong, since jazz lovers were and are both in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. True today, this style does not differ in its mass character, but it is the music of the elite all over the world.