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CRASH COURSE ON EXISTING MUSIC GENRES ::

GLOBAL/WORLD, JAZZ, BLUES & COUNTRY

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flights were more adventurous. The many stars of swing during the big band era included trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan; trombonists Tommy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden; clarinetists Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw; tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Ben Webster; altoists Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter; pianists Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Count Basie, and Nat King Cole; guitarist Charlie Christian; drummers Gene Krupa and Chick Webb; vibraphonist Lionel Hampton; bandleader Glenn Miller; and singers Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Jimmy Rushing.

VOCAL JAZZ

Vocal Jazz is jazz where the vocalist takes the center stage. Usually, jazz vocalists improvise wordlessly and "scat," or they take liberties with the melodies and lyrics, creating their own variation on the song. Arthur Prysock, Morgana King, Nat King Cole, Eddie Jefferson, Dinah Washington, Mose Allison, Billy Eckstine and Billie Holiday are just a few musicians belonging to the long list of vocal jazz artists.

COOL JAZZ

In the 1950s, a more reflective, sparse form of jazz emerged. Because it was softer and had a more relaxed attitude to the beat, it was called “cool”. Described as a reaction against the fast tempos and the complex melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas of bebop, the cool jazz style had been picked up by many west coast musicians, and this style is also called West Coast jazz. This music is generally more relaxed than bebop. Other musicians in the cool style include saxophonists Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan, and trumpet player Chet Baker.

FREE JAZZ AND THE AVANT GARDE

During the 1950's and 1960's, some musicians took jazz in more exploratory directions and the terms free jazz and avant garde are often used to describe these approaches, in which traditional forms, harmony, melody, and rhythm were extended considerably or abandoned. Saxophonist Ornette Coleman and trumpet player Don Cherry were pioneers of this music through albums such as The Shape Of Jazz To Come and Free Jazz.

LATIN JAZZ

Latin Jazz is the fusion of Brazilian songs’ Latin rhythms and fresh chord progressions -- especially those in the bossa nova style – to the Jazz repertoire. Notable jazz musicians who incorporated this style in their music are Stan Getz and the flautist Herbie Mann. Even after the bossa nova style declined, the sambas that gave rise to it remained staples of the jazz repertoire, and many groups augmented their regular drum set with Caribbean percussion.

JAZZ FUSION

Jazz fusion is the fusion of jazz with elements of popular music. In the late 1960s, Jazz underwent an economic crisis as younger audiences favored soul music and rock, while older aficionados turned away from the abstractness and emotional rawness of modern jazz. Jazz musicians realized that to regain an audience they must draw ideas from popular music. Some of these ideas came from rock, but most were drawn from the dance rhythms and chord progressions of soul musicians such as James Brown. Some groups also added elements of music from other cultures. The initial examples of this new fusion jazz met with varying success, but in 1969 Davis recorded Bitches Brew, a highly successful album that combined soul rhythms and electronically amplified instruments with uncompromising, highly dissonant jazz. Rock musicians, in turn, began featuring jazz phrasings and solos over a rock-based rhythm. These groups included Chase; Chicago; and Blood, Sweat and Tears.

BLUES & COUNTRY

ALTERNATIVE COUNTRY

Alternative Country is a style that encompasses influences from Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, interpreted through the eyes of musicians that were raised on Rock Music or even Punk Rock. Usually, the appeal of Country music to a young artist is the dark subject matter and emotional aspect of the music. Though alternative country-rock bands occasionally have louder, grungier guitars than their idols, they are traditional in their songwriting and their dedication to keeping the actual sound of the early '70s alive through the use of vintage instruments. Occasionally, some alternative country-rock bands stretch the boundaries of the form, but most are simply revivalists. Uncle Tupelo, Lucinda Williams, Steve Young, Palace, Cowboy Junkies, The Jayhawks, Wilco, Victoria Williams,Freakwater, Eric Ambel, Scud Mountain Boys, Bad Livers and Golden Smog are some Alternative Country Artists.

BLUES

Most blues feature simple, usually three-chord, progressions and have simple structures that are open to endless improvisations, both lyrical and musical. Music that is about tradition and personal expression, blues, at its core, the blues has remained the same since its inception. The blues grew out of African spirituals and worksongs and in the late 1800s, southern African-Americans passed the songs down orally, and they collided with American folk and country from the Appalachians. New hybrids appeared by each region, but all of the recorded blues from the early 1900s are distinguished by simple, rural acoustic guitars and pianos. After World War II, the blues began to fragment, with some musicians holding on to acoustic traditions and others taking it to jazzier territory. From that point on, the blues continued to develop in new directions -- particularly on electric instruments -- or it has been preserved as an acoustic tradition. Among many of the Blues artists are Sonny Boy Williamson, Paul Butterfield, Alexis Korner, Hound Dog Taylor, Freddie King, and Tommy Johnson.

BLUEGRASS

Bluegrass is an outgrowth of country music. Originally conceived as a way to keep country pure as the genre's popularity continued to grow, it has developed into a style of its own, with its own traditions and quirks. It was in the mid-40s that country artist Bill Monroe, whose band the genre was named after, developed the genre's signature style -- hard, fast tempos; high, close harmonies; and a pronounced emphasis on instrumental technique.  By the end of that decade, their sound had become part of country music, and during the '60s, groups such as the Dillards took bluegrass further, adding rock and jazz influences to the music and creating the progressive bluegrass subgenre. Presently, progressive bluegrass continues to grow over the next three decades, as traditional bluegrass adhered to the original ideals of bluegrass.

© Valerie V. Mayuga, 2005

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copyright valerie v. mayuga 2005