Early Jazz (Dixieland)
Time period: Cir. 1900-1928
Location: New Orleans
Instrumentation:
- Trumpet
- Clarinet
- Trombone
- Tuba
- Banjo
- Drums
- Piano
Roles of the instruments: Each instrument has an assigned role (carry-over from the brass band tradition)
- Trumpet - Melody
- Clarinet - Embellishes the melody
- Trombone - Chord roots with smears, slides, or slurs. Sometimes has the melody or afterbeats
- Tuba - Bass line
- Banjo - Provides harmony and rhythm
- Piano - Provides harmony and rhythm
- Drums - Time keeper and sets up the breaks. Military style drumming (drumset comes later)
Sources of tunes:
- Original tunes
- Ragtime
- Military music
- Religious music
- Overtures, operas, etc.
- Popular tunes of the day
- The blues
Style Characteristics and Performance Practices:
- Everybody plays all the time except for the solos, which come in the breaks (solos give the other players a chance to rest)
- Collective improvisation
- Mostly ensemble playing
- Pieces were played essentially the same way every time (finding out what works and then recreating that)
- Simple harmonies
- Improvisation is based on the melody
- Tunes usually learned by ear
- Used dramatic effects (mutes, slides, smears, trills, vibrato) that were influenced by the extant vocal tradition
Reasons for the Demise of the Style:
- Stylistically static
- Circus psychology
- Emergence of the solo artist (Louis Armstrong and others)
Important Figures of this Era:
- Louis Armstrong
- King Oliver
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