Jazz
...layed hymns on the way to funerals and marches on the way back. Although blues and ragtime had come independently from jazz, and continued to exist with it, these genres influenced the style and forms of jazz and provided important vehicles for jazz improvisation. Around the turn of the 20th century, the earliest fully documented jazz style emerged, in New Orleans, Louisiana. This city is often called the “cradle of jazz”. In this style, the trumpet carried the melody, the clarinet played showy countermelodies, and the trombone played rhythmic slides and sounded the root notes of chords or simple harmony. Below this basic trio, the tuba or string bass provided a bass line and drums the rhythmic accompaniment. New Orleans jazz was just the beginning of an entire sweep across the county. The first true virtuoso soloist of jazz was Louis Armstrong. He was a dazzling improviser, technically, emotionally, and intellectually. He changed the format of jazz by bringing the soloist to the forefront, and in his recording groups, the “Hot Five” and the “Hot Seven”, demonstrated that jazz improvisation could go far beyond simply ornamenting the melody. He became the first well known male jazz singer, and also set examples for all later jazz singers, by creating scat singing: singing meaningless syllables instead of words, not unlike instrumental improvisation. During the 1920s, large groups of jazz musicians began to play together, forming the big bands that became so popular in the 1930s and early 1940s, (the swing era). The development of the big band can be credited to the achievement of Duke Ellington and his revolutionary song, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”. This soon became the new word for music played with a happy, relaxed beat. A new style also started in the early 1940’s when a g...