UNIT 7

Jazz and Beyond Overview

Step 1

Define improvisation and describe it's use in Blue Skies

The definition of improvisation is "created without preparation". It is very commonly found in the musical arts and specifically jazz. The supporting horn plays along to what they believe suits Ella's scat singing the best and does an excellent job doing it. It is quite unpredictable and you never expect what you are going to hear from the horn player because they are creating everything on the spot.

Step 2

Describe syncopation and it's use in The Entertainer by Scott Joplin

Syncopation is rearranging the beats and accents in music so that the stronger notes become weaker. The &'s of the beats are played on the lower part of the piano at the beginning and creates a very fun sounding and cheery accompaniment to go along with the main melody.

Step 3

Describe the blues and the use of the 12 bar Blues chord progression heard here in Blue Moon

The blues was usually used for singers to let out all of their "blues" and brighten not only their own lives but the lives of others. The 12 bar Blues chord progression is the repeated part that is heard being played by the bass. It sort of adds a connecting feeling to the song, since it is heard throughout every part of the song.

Step 4

Use Splanky to describe the types of instruments imitated by this all a cappella group

The very beginning is imitating a bass, and then the women transition to imitating a horn sound. The bass is imitated by creating sounds such as "bum" or "duh". The horn imitation is represented through a "wah" sound. The "vvv" sound is probably trying to imitate the supporting trombones that can be heard in the blues. A man begins to sing using a lot of sounds that have "luh" or "bup" in them and also says "baow". I believe this is trying to represent maybe another horn or a clarinet. The "tsst" sounds that can be heard at random times probably represent some sort of drum or cymbal sound.

Step 5

Describe swing and it's elements heard in In the Mood

Swing is also known as big band jazz, and usually is performed by bands containing 10 to 25 members. This limited the ability to implement more improvisation, but this also lead to creating music by using the contrast of brass and reed instruments. When listening to In the Mood you can hear that there are definitely lots of performers playing at the same time, and different instruments play at different times to show contrast. But all of them are supported by a constant bass repetition that is heard in the background.

Step 6

Describe bebop and it's elements demonstrated in A Night in Tunisia

Bebop is a very fast-paced genre of jazz, and this is greatly shown simply in the beginning of the piece. Everything feels very fast and energetic yet soothing. This is also shown when the saxophone is rapidly going through multiple different notes. I'm assuming that the saxophone part that started around 1:20 is pure improvisation, which is another characteristic of jazz and bebop.

Step 7

Listen to Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and describe what musical elements are classical and which are jazz

Around 0:40 has a very jazzy feel because it includes the saxophone and there are some feelings of syncopation coming from the flute a bit later on. 2:10 has a more classical feeling because it includes more instruments that are being played at that time. The faster tempo throughout the piece has a much more classical feeling, but the overall presentation has a much more jazzy feeling to it.

Jazz and Beyond Research

Step 1