From the beginnings of jazz music in America in the early 20th century, jazz was a purely American form of music. It began with marches, led by John Philip Sousa, an American composer. This transformed into the collective improvisation period of the Twenties, which produced greats such as Louis Armstrong, born in New Orleans. Around the same time as Armstrong’s fame was Duke Ellington’s, who was born and raised in Washington, D.C. This pattern of jazz evolution originating in America was the standard for nearly sixty years; however, everything changed in the late 1950s, when an explosion of music from South America occurred. This Brazilian music, which had itself been evolving for years in its home country, combined with American jazz music and forms created one of the most unique and interesting styles of jazz music that America had seen: bossa nova. Bossa nova (“new style” or “new trend”), one of the first jazz styles without direct American origin, influenced music in America to use its ideas and sounds, but also to stray away from the new Brazilian style.
Bossa nova is a sub-genre of Latin jazz, which originated largely in Latin America. There are a few major differences between Latin jazz and straight-ahead jazz. Firstly, percussion is more often featured as a solo in Latin jazz music. Also, the percussion in this jazz form is extremely varied, using congas, bongos, claves, timbales, and much more auxiliary percussion than the classic drum kit found in straight-ahead jazz. Also, Latin jazz uses straight eighth notes instead of swung eighth notes.
One very prominent feature of Latin jazz and bossa nova music is the clave rhythm. This rhythm consists of a five-beat, syncopated rhythm that is the backbone for near...
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Prosser, Lee. Review of Amorosa, by Rosa Passos, Sony Classical, 2004, http://www.jazzreview.com/cd-reviews/brazilian-jazz-brazilian-pop-jazz-cd-reviews/amorosa-by-rosa-passos.html.
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Latin Jazz is a style of music that blends rhythms and percussion instruments of Cuba and the Caribbean with jazz and its fusion of European and African music. Latin jazz, also called Afro-Cuban jazz, was the culmination of the long interaction between American and Cuban musical styles. A distinctive syncopated rhythm and the Cuban habanera rhythm were endowed to American jazz music in the early 20th century. In the following decades, Latin American melodies and dance rhythms permeated the United States, while American jazz made its way into the Caribbean and Central and South America. In the 1940's the swing era expanded their repertory to include rumbas and congas. The d...
The third piece, on the other hand, had a faster and more upbeat tempo. “Para Que Me Llorar” had to have a build up before it can start moving quicker. Something that both songs had in common was that they were both played in a triplet format. I also noticed that in most of the songs sung, the singers were able to high pitches. Because mariachi music originates from South America, they all had a formulaic beat that, if it were to be played at a party, would be something to dance to. If there were one specific are in which I learned in class that would relate this type of music, it would be African American music because there were repeated melodies and rhythmic patterns in some of the pieces along with community parties.
As a result, Buena Vista is basically a commercial product aimed at foreign audience. The album provides fourteen songs of different genres, most of them originated from Afro-Cubans, including son, darzón, bolero and the so-called Latin Jazz. However, the CD should not be considered the representative ...
To better understand why samba represents the Brazilian’s national identity, one has to understand the history of Brazil and samba. Samba can be heard all throughout Brazil. It is a musical genre complemented by song and dance that includes a group of percussion instruments and guitar. The puxador (lead singer) starts the samba, occasionally singing the same song for hours at a time. The obligation of maintaining thousands of voices in time with the drum rests on his shoulders. Bit by bit, the other members of the escola (samba group) come in, and with a whistle from the mestre de bateria (percussion conductor) - the most exciting moment of the parade occurs as the percussion section crashes in. The surdos (bass drums) keep the 2 / 4 meter, while caixas (snare drums) and tamborins accent the second beat. This percussion ensemble, speak of as the 'bateria', frequently includes instruments such as the agogo (double bell) and reco-reco (scraper), as well as the prato, repique, pandeiro, tamborim, and ganzathe. The only stringed instrument is the great pitched cavaquinho (ukulele). Together these instruments combine to create polyrhythms that cross and align, contrast and reinforce with each other in an animated style less formal than marcha or maxixe. Couples often dance to samba in physically tight, close movements similar to the lambada and l...
This production was based on the Cuban dances and music from the 1950’s to today’s style of Cuban dance. Not only did Lizt Alfonso incorporate Cuban dance in this production, but she also weaved ballet, flamenco, and Afro-Cuba
Throughout the history of this country, the music of African-Americans has remained a strong influence upon our society and culture. Beginning with the music carried over from Africa with the slaves, up until now, with the new styles created by urban youth today, African-Americans have retained certain elements within their music which makes it unique from any other musical form. Some of the musical forms which were created from, and/or were strongly influenced by afro-centric musical characteristics are: Hymnals, Gospel, Spirituals, Ragtime, the blues, and R&B. While many of these musical forms are still popular today amongst Blacks and Non-Blacks, jazz and hip-hop are arguably the two most widespread and popular forms of Black music ever created. As both forms of music were created strictly by black musicians, these musical forms are most popular amongst both the younger and the older generations of African-Americans. Outside the race, jazz has become a medium listened to and performed by people of all ages. Hip-Hop, on the other hand, has enjoyed the majority of it's popularity within younger circles, while it's opposition comes mostly from the older generations. Jazz is known to have it's main influence from ragtime, and the street music of New Orleans. There were two types of street music from which jazz derived it's style; these are the string and percussion bands which also sang in small groups to the music they made. The other was the brass bands of earlier years which imitated white marching bands, adding a twist of afrocentric quality. The first and most primitive jazz ensembles were called archaic jazz bands. These bands retained many of the afrocentric characteristics of earlier forms o...
Jazz music prospered in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Jazz was created by African Americans to represent pain and suffering and also represented the adversity that racial tension brought. (Scholastic) African American performers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker came to be recognized for their ability to overcome “race relati...
Jazz culture to be exact, is the topic at hand. Jazz culture expands throughout many genres and is expressed in many ways. The many genres of jazz are Big Band, jazz funk, modern jazz, smooth jazz, Latin jazz, and jazz fusion. Each of these comes with its own unique sound and origin. Latin jazz, for example, employs rhythms from both African and Hispanic backgrounds. The sound is particularly up tempo with divided eight beat patterns. Jazz artists who have portrayed these qualities of jazz to the world are at the very core of its culture. Many people who are in places of power in this society or are held in some form of esteem have had some exposure to the arts, whether it is classical or jazz. This is due to a desire to be culturally diverse which is a quality held in high esteem in regards to a more worldly point-of-view. There are many aspects of Jazz music that could be approached, but there is one point in particular that must be expressed in detail. The influence on the genre ...
Oct. 29: Puerto Rican Music Between Rafael Hernandez and Rafael Cortijo. Guest Lecture by Prof. Lise Waxer, Music Dept., Trinity College
The history and development of tango can be divided into three stages, the first stage being La Guardia vieja, or Old Guard, which lasted until 1920. During this time, tango had emerged as a genre of instrumental music. The form during this time consisted of three parts, with different sections (ABC). This form usually uses four instruments: flute, violin, guitar and bandoneon. The most famous tango ever written is from this time period, Gerardo Matos Rodrigez’s “La cumparsita.” This early tango used rhythms related to habanera and milonga in duple meter and began to slow the tempo down during the 1910s. During this time, a quadruple meter with sharp accents was also adopted. Marcato and sincopa, two new patterns, established the harmonic and rhythmic foundations of more recent tangos.
The 19th century had been a very erratic ride for music, with the arrival of Jazz. Jazz itself also had a very interesting journey, from a sorrowful blues to a very technical bebop. Cool jazz was introduced in the early 1950s as a reaction to bebop, through Miles Davis’ “The birth of cool”. Two examples of cool jazz include the following, Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance” and the modern jazz quartet’s arrangement of Bach’s “Rise up in the morning”. These extracts of music both consist of the characteristics of cool jazz, however these characteristics have been utilized in completely different ways to set their own mood.
Latin Jazz Last Sunday I went to a jazz bar in Manhattan and I listened to “Latin Jazz”. Latin jazz is “a fusion of African and indigenous rhythms from the entire Latin American Diaspora with the language of jazz”. It was first known as coop, but you are now familiar with it as afro-Cuban. When talking about afro-Cuban jazz, it is difficult to not mention certain turning points in history that made this music possible. The roots of much of the music might be traced back to African Cuban slaves.
Not only is it nearly impossible to pinpoint jazz’s conception in time, many locations are accredited with its origin, the United States allowed for jazz to start gaining popularity and leading into the change it had to the music scene. When jazz is brought up, many first think of its birth place being New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans has always been a big musi...
Latin music history began with one of the most influential and indigenous people, who loved to create music with “wind and percussion instruments”, and they the Mayans. Originally the wind and percussion instruments were made to copy and remake the music of the Europeans. There was a lot of other cultures, which used wind instruments like flutes to make rhythms and sounds that would in turn become music. Many cultures use this type of original music today in various Latin music.
Cuban and New Orleans style jazz can be classified as two coherent wholes, integrating and constructing techniques from one another. The two jazz styles can be seen sharing musical components such as strong percussion and funky upbeat melodic sequences. While they genres have many similarities, the use of folk-like tunes and the heavy use of vocalists distinguish traditional Cuban Jazz from New Orleans Jazz. The album Ya-Ka-May by Galactic and Afro Roots by Mongo Santamaria are representatives of the two culture’s jazz styles and depictions of the essentials of those similar and differing characteristics. New Orleans Jazz emerged and developed in New Orleans from the mingling of urbanized blacks and Creoles.