Jazz: A Short History

by Michael Morangelli

  The bands themselves varied greatly in sound - depending on the players available for any particular engagement and according to the dictates of the particular job and the audience present. As such, they often moved between a rough sound or a sweet sound - something which carried through into the Swing Era classification of bands. Also, this music was not an exclusively Afro-American preserve and there were White bands functioning in the same idiom - Pappa Jack Laine for example.

  The other musics associated with the birth of Jazz - Blues, Work Songs, Minstrelsy - all contributed to the mix prior to 1900. But, there was still much to be developed before that accented pulse of 2 amp; 4 Eureka Band emerged with Chicago Dixieland. It would be Ragtime (a piano style), the establishment of Storyville by New Orleans Alderman Sidney Story in 1896,and its closing by the Navy in 1917 which set the stage for the Chicago style.

  The date 1917 is a pivotal one - both in general history and this jazz history. The country as a whole moved outward with the involvement of WW I - whether we wanted it or not - we changed into a ‘modern’ country in a ‘modern’ era. For Jazz, the first Jazz recording was made by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band during a stint at Reisenweber’s Cafe in New York City. The music played by this group was to name an entire decade - the Jazz Age of the 20’s. So, just about 300 yrs after the first slave were brought to and sold in this country, the music that they had such a great part in creating was recorded - ironically by a white group - and was to be the popular music for the next 40 yrs.

  6 The Jazz Age

  I’m still browsing the Keepnews Pictorial History of Jazz - I really haven’t looked at in years till I took it out last month. The pictures have a fascination for me…. or maybe I’m seeing with different “eyes”. The section on Chicago Dixieland is in some ways very similar to the previous New Orleans chapter but also, very different. The Instrumentation is still basically the same and 5 pieces seem to be the rule. One striking absence is the lack of String Bass in some of the pictures and the inclusion of an additional low brass - Tuba/Sousaphone in others. Also, the similarities in poses for the publicity photos is notable - as well as the number of indoor shots at the clubs and dance halls.

  The one thing I found most interesting was the Bandstands. Invariably, they had an appearance of being part of the room - not add ons stuck in as an after thought or in a corner. The area was decorated to frame the musicians as a center of attention and there was room to sit and set up properly - including the Baby Grand piano….but, no amplifiers, microphones, or wires. The dress was most familiar, only different in style - dark suits or tuxedos, with a hint at a uniformed dress (same ties, or cut of the suit).

  The instrumention seems to build on the basic 5 piece unit as the decade of the ‘20’s advanced. The reed players doubled on saxophone, and the units got bigger with two saxes added, the addition of the String Bass (still doubling on Tuba/Sousaphone), and the increased appearance of the Guitar - usually as a double by the Banjo player. By the last pictures in this chapter, the bands seemed to average 7 players.

  This seems to support the ‘text book’ resources describing the differences between New Orleans and Chicago Dixieland: • Tenor Sax was added • Guitar replaced the Banjo • Addition of the Piano and String Bass This change in instrumentation was also accompanied by stylistic changes in the music. For now, the soloist gained in importance and the ensemble supported this soloist; the into’s and ending’s became more elaborate; the voicings moved in parallel; and the flat four pulse was supplanted by the accented 2 amp; 4.

  This music was evolving to adapt to different circumstances and environments. With the closing of Storyville by the Navy in 1917, the music on New Orleans fanned out across the country - not just ‘up the river’ to Chicago. It spread to any location that had work opportunities and transportation - Kansas City and New York. But it was Chicago which provided the easiest access. And it was the transplanted New Orleans musicians who created the style (Berendt states that Chicago Dixieland was created by young white musicians trying to copy the New Orleans players). But the New Orleans players dominated the Chicago Jazz scene early on. King Oliver lead the most King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band important New Orleans band in Chicago, Louis Armstrong formed his Hot Five and Hot Seven here, Jelly Roll Morton the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Johnny Dodds his New Orleans Wanderers.

  This was a period of flux for the nation as a whole. WW1 would push the nation into the “modern era”, new technologies were emerging - radio, talking pictures, records, and the migration from south to north (of which the New Orleans musicians were only a part) was changing the demographics of the country. With the advent of the ‘20’s, a period of economic prosperity and changing social structure was slowly remaking the face of the United States. In my mind we were evolving from a regional outlook into a national one - not overnight but slowly and steadily aided by the radio, the talking picture, the record player, and the increased ease of transportation. F. Scott Fitzgerald gave the name to this era - the Jazz Age…more a statement of attitude than music.

  But, the name was descriptive of the excitement that swept the country with this new music. It was spread by the advent of the record and the emerging technology of the radio. The event which marks this is the 1917 debut of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band at Reisenweber’s Cabaret on Columbus Circle in New York - they also made the first Jazz recording in that same year. Jazz moved to New York - Red Nichols, Miff Mole, and Jimmy Dorsey all recorded in the city. A crop of young musicians entered the field - Pee Wee Russell, Dave Tough, Bud Freeman, Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon, Mezz Mezzrow, Benny Goodman, Bix Biederbecke, Muggsy Spanier, Bunny Berrigan…the “Austin High Gang” and their friends.

  The record and the radio were major events in the evolution of Jazz. The timing was just right - 1917 for the first recording (1921 for the first black group - Kid Ory) and Sept. 14, 1920 for the first radio show.

  These two technologies made the music not just a live event or service industry but a commodity - you could buy it and walk home with it. Prior to this, the closest was the sheet music industry. The sales of which reached a million units in 1905 and was shown to be a money making commodity by William Handy the American composer (Memphis Blues, Yellow Dog Blues, St. Louis Blues, etc.) - Jazz could be written down and sold; now it was recorded and sold. A secondary effect of the record was it could be shipped, carried, exported, and imported - you no longer had to be in New York or Chicago or New Orleans or Kansas City to hear what the bands were doing! Jazz became a true popular culture side by side with the radio and the record. The books I use for these articles all state that the ODJB was not the first or the only Jazz group playing the new style but just in the right place at the right time - so was the Music… right at the advent of the technological developments to spread this music nationally and to a large popular audience.

  This music is still available - you can buy it and carry it home. Here’s a short list:

  1. The Genius of Louis Armstrong, Volume 1:1923-1933; Columbia G 30416; The John Hammond Collection. This includes cuts from The Hot Five and The Hot Seven.

  2. The Immortal Johnny Dodds, South Side Chicago Jazz of the 1920’s, Milestone MLP 2002. This has a cut with Freddy Keppard.

  3. Louis Armstrong and King Oliver with Lil Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Baby Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton, Milestone M-47017. This has 16 cuts by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band.

  4. Bix Beiderbecke and the Chicago Cornets, Milestone M-47019.

  This features Bix with the Wolverines and has cuts with Miff Mole, Frank Trumbauer, Tommy Dorsey, and Muggsy Spanier.

  This period is for me the start of Jazz - it is alive still. The sounds of the names, bands, and places can still be heard - the pictures from Keepnews are no longer two dimensional but three….one can still Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five hear their music. From this point on, the one notable fact is the documentation on recording of the musics evolution and the changes brought by a changing society and culture of which it
is so much a part. It is this opportunity to listen chronologically which has shaped my attitude about Jazz. Jazz evolves - one style it is not and the new builds or evolves or reacts in relation to what came before…to meet new cultural or technological developments.

  7 The Passage To Swing

  The Swing Bands which emerged in the early ‘30’s actually owe their development to the tradition of the popular dance bands of the ‘20’s. It was not the Dixieland Jazz groups which evolved into these large units but Dance bands such as Paul Whiteman, Ben Pollack, and Jean Goldkette.

  The Paul Whiteman band [to my mind actually a small orchestra or concert band] was a large group which basically adopted European Concert devices and flavored them with Jazz Elements. He did however have a major impact on the popularity of the Jazz Idiom and helped set the stage for the Swing Era.

  Keepnews’ picture of the band in 1928 shows 25 musicians - including Bix Biederbecke and Frank Trumbauer; another in the same year shows 26 members - a second piano had been added. The instrumentation was very close to the standard Swing Band: 2 piano, 1 accordion, 4 Trumpet, 4 Trombone, 7 Reeds, 5 Violins, 2 Tuba/Bass, 1 Banjo, 1 Percussionist.

  This band and its leader, while again not a Jazz Band, advanced the popularity of Jazz immeasurably. In February 12, 1924 Whiteman presented a ‘Jazz Concert’ at Aeolian Hall. This was a academic site and his aim was to to gain the jazz approval of the recognized authorities of music - he succeeded. It also paved the way for the popularity of large bands.

  Whiteman and Goldkette organizations were aimed at larger venues - big ballrooms, hotels, major vaudeville and movie houses. His orchestra sounded fuller and richer than the Dixieland groups and they utilized carefully rehearsed arrangements. And, he made money - I am sure one of the major factors in the proliferation of the large groups.

  Whiteman and later imitators provided much needed income for the Jazz instrumentalist. Beiderbecke, Venuti, Lang, the Dorsey Brothers, and Trumbauer among others found employment with him. This period between the Aeolian Concert and the Depression of 1929 are confusing years in the Jazz Scene. The ascendancy of the large dance band overshadowed the small Dixieland group, but one of the conventions of the dance bands was to employ a smaller unit generated from the larger group to provide interludes of ‘Hot Jazz’. Dance bands also hired a few accomplished soloists to provide jazz improvisations during the large group performance - Biederbecke with Paul Whiteman. This ability to play sweet - the swing bands doubling as a smooth dance band and the small Jazz group within the larger Swing Band can be traced to this.

  Because the large venues made more money for the bands than the smaller rooms, the trend was to increase the size of the musical unit. The increase in size was necessary because amplification was in its infancy and the only way to meet the volume requirements of the larger rooms was to increase the number of musicians. It was this trend to larger venues and larger groups which paved the way for the Paul Whiteman Whiteman Orchestra Swing Bands of the following era. But first, some problems needed to be solved - the larger the group, the more written arrangements were necessary. But, the arranger had to find a way of preserving the jazz feel in larger groups and at what point did the band become too top heavy (too many musicians playing over the rhythm section) and rhythmic momentum stop.

  Fletcher Henderson (with his arranger Don Redman) is credited with the pattern for Swing arrangements. Originally a pianist, Henderson talent was with arranging and solving the problem with his own expanding group. He first tried an enlarged Dixieland group but with the addition of Redman (studied at the Boston and Detroit Music Conservatories) tighter harmonic control became a major interest. What he finally established as a standard was the independent use of a trumpet, trombone, sax, and rhythm sections with the incorporation of soloists within the arrangement - this was an evolution from the standard ‘20’s dance band of 2 Tpts, 2 Saxs, 1 Tbne, and 4 Rhythm (banjo, piano, drums, tuba) Henderson was well aware of Whiteman (Whiteman purchased 20 of Redman’s charts) and tried to imitate the plush arrangements - but when Louis Armstrong joined his band in 1924, the band would never be classified as ‘sweet’. Armstrong’s playing was too strong and ‘hot’ - Redman stated “I changed my style of arranging after I heard Armstrong”…Redman worked out the swing formula after Armstrong had left the band.

  At the same time Chicago Dixieland was peaking in popularity New York and Kansas City were also becoming important geographic areas for the developments that were leading to Swing. In New York’s Harlem the emerging bands of Fletcher Henderson (at the Roseland Ballroom), King Oliver (at the Savoy Ballroom), Sam Wooding, Cecil Scott, Chick Webb, Don Redman, Charlie Johnson, William McKinney were appearing regularly. The clubs proliferated such as The Band Box, the Lenox Club, and the Cotton Club (Duke Ellington opened there in 1927). But unlike Kansas City, there was no real New York School - a characteristic of heavily structured arrangements was the only real identifying trait.

  Kansas City on the other hand was a well defined sound shaped by a large Black population and supported by several large ballrooms. It was a blues based riff structure - smoother and sweeter than the ‘20’s Dixieland sound but with the drive demanded by the southwest audience still intact. Bennie Moten is a good example of the transition from the Dixieland of the early ‘20’s to the changes started in the late ‘20’s. He started with the traditional sound of the Dixieland groups but expanded the group starting in the middle of the decade - to create more sonority he added reeds to his sax section and had expanded to 3 trumpets and 2 trombones as early as 1931.

  This is the band that Count Basie ‘inherited’. Basie was stranded in Kansas City and joined the Moten Band. He left to form his own group and took many of Moten’s players with him. Moten died just as this was happening and Basie in effect took over the rest of Moten’s organization. But, Moten and Basie were not the only K.C. based bands - Andy Kirk (with Mary Lou Williams) and Walter Page among others were based here.

  The years 1924 - 1929 was to my mind a true transition period. The new Fletcher Henderson Band Count Basie Bennie Moten technologies of the phonograph, radio (by 1925, 563 Radio stations had been licensed), microphone, talking pictures, and the jukebox had great effect on the spread and popularity of Jazz. The big dance bands were influenced by the new music, provided employment for jazz players, brought jazz ‘flavors’ to the general public, and were a start for the evolution to Swing. The centers of Jazz activity moved to New York and Kansas City - and as Jazz dried out in the mid-west attracted the major talent. Then in 1929 the Depression hit. The struggle for economic survival saw some of that talent leave for Europe (Ellington and Armstrong), radio staff jobs (Goodman), and some surviving in ‘sweet’ hotel bands (Lombardo)…but the music business hurt just like the rest of the country. Jazz would not be heard of again till 1935.

  8 Ritz Crackers

  The Swing Era lasted 10 years from 1935-1945.The term Swing Music was used originally by the British Broadcasting Company which felt that the term ‘hot jazz’ represented something immoral. The original term was but that was 50 years prior. The name stuck and labels this era and style of Jazz. In a way it mirrors the difficulties the music surmounted in gaining acceptance - as anything labeled ‘new’ must. Rhythmically, it differed greatly from the preceding dance music - often called ‘two beat’ - while at the same time growing out of that older style.It was the popular music of its time and the musical influences still touch us today - 60 years later. The music came of age at a time when the technologies of radio and movies and recording had matured beyond the term ‘new’ and had secured a niche in the life of this country. It was marketed with all the tactics of modern publicity - and made money for those who played it and those who sold it. But not right away.

  The Depression had greatly affected the entire country and the Music Business had been no exception.

  But now the economic environment was recovering. The effects were fading, especially for the better off segment of the mid
dle class, and the music rapidly gained an audience among the college students. Keep in mind this was the early ‘30’s and this audience was smaller and above average in income by today’s standards. Coupled with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 - which brought the music out of the Speakeasy and into larger venues - it provided a base of popular demand for the Big Bands. The audiences that embraced this new music were young and they danced. The Swing Bands and Swing Music were functional.

  The Musical formula which enabled a large group of musicians to still play jazz had been worked out by the Harlem Bands of the preceding decade:

  1. It stabilized at 13 musicians organized into sections (5 Brass [3Tpt, 2Tbne]; 4 Reeds; and 4 Rhythm).

  2. The ‘hot’ solo line was harmonized and notated for the whole section and this harmonized line had to be written in the same style that a soloist would use if improvising.

  3. The use of ‘Riffs’ - the adoption of the West African Call amp; Response pattern - kept the Brass and Reed Sections answering each other in endless variations.

  The soloists were supported with background riffs.

  4. The rhythm section backs up all the others with a steady defined pulse.

  It was also the era of the Arranger - in the words of Benny Goodman: “Up to that time [1934] the only kind of arrangements that the public had paid much attention to, so far as knowing who was responsible for them was concerned, were the elaborate ones such as Ferde Grofe’s for Whiteman. But the art of making an arrangement a band can play with swing - and I am convinced it is an art - one that really helps a solo player to get off, and gives him the right background to work against - that’s something very few musicians can do.”