Introduction

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Be ready to:

- Interpret the diversity that characterizes jazz, a genre of music that blends elements of African, Caribbean, and western European culture where the individual expression of its creator is a treasured attribute.
- Examine the use of the oral tradition, the use of improvisation and syncopation, and differentiate the African and European styles and instruments to create the unique genre of jazz.
- Recognize and relate prominent jazz musicians to their particular style and era.
- Analyze jazz music as it relates to American history and culture.
- Recognize the uniqueness of jazz in world music culture.

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Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

With extraordinary musicianship and virtuosity, dashing good looks and business acumen, the undisputed "King of Swing" Benny Goodman was a clarinetist who achieved superstar status. His band's performance at the Palomar Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on August 21, 1935 is widely recognized as the birth of "swing jazz." Swing would become the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, a period known as the Swing Era.

Three years later Goodman would again create history by bringing his band, along with members of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands, to perform hot jazz in Carnegie Hall to a sold-out crowd.

This concert represented the accepted arrival of jazz into mainstream American culture (perhaps even world culture) and is widely regarded as one of the most important jazz events in the United States. This historic concert concluded with "Sing! Sing! Sing!" featuring Gene Krupa on drums and Jess Stacy on piano.

♫ Sing! Sing! Sing!
Benny Goodman

In many venues in the United States, and particularly in the South, Jim Crow laws were in place mandating that Black and White musicians could not appear together on stage. Goodman insisted on hiring only the best musicians regardless of color and would cancel an engagement if the venue would not allow Black musicians to perform. It is for this reason that Goodman is recognized for his efforts in challenging the color barrier that Black jazz performers faced.

Benny Goodman

"Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time."

-Ornette Coleman

"You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz."

-Oscar Peterson

"Blues developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War (1861-65) and was largely played by Southern black men, most of whom came from the milieu of agricultural workers."

Encyclopedia Britannica