Jazz Case

Throughout these first few chapters of Jazz I have learned a lot about the history and traditions of Jazz music. The text has helped me understand the terms for everything I have been hearing these past few weeks. I have always heard these sounds and musical instruments but never knew the actual vocabulary for all of the specifics. The development of Jazz throughout the years has been tremendous.

In the first song “Livery Stable Blues” by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, I hear a lot of horns and improvising in the beginning and a little percussion in the background. It also seems to keep the same beat going for the first minute. The horns are definitely the most powerful in the song; I think it is a cornet and clarinet. Then, in the background you can hear the trombone playing along with piano. I enjoyed listening for the drum in the background and trying to time to myself when it was going to “hit”.

The second song is “Black Bottom Stomp” by Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers. In this song I can instantly hear a lot more instruments and it seems to be going at a faster pace. I also noticed a lot more soloists in this piece. It sounds like this song was rehearsed a lot and not something they could just improvise on. The first theme is being played twice and then it goes into two solos by a trumpet and followed by a clarinet. The horns are also very powerful in the beginning like the first song. The difference is this songs break into a long fast paced piano solo and the rest of the band is lying out. Another thing I noticed was a type of banjo being played after the piano solo. Since this song is fast paced I would guess that it is a song to be played during a swing dance or something similar to that.

The third song is “West End Blues” by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. As soon as I heard that this song was by Louis Armstrong I became a lot more interested in it because I knew how much talent he had and I wanted to hear what it sounded like. The very first line in this song instantly impressed me with the opening trumpet cadenza; from hearing that anyone could tell Louis was special. Then a trombone solo comes in and everyone else lies out. I noticed in this song that it is all solos and they all seem to be very complex and each musician is extremely skilled at their particular instrument. This song is a lot different then the first two because of it being all solos and having some vocals in it as well.

The next song is “Singin’ the Blues”, this song