Jazz Styles Essay

Submitted By dejonhart
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Pages: 3
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Music 129
6/5/2013
Nice Stride Jazz has transformed itself many times over the years starting with the Blues. Country blues was one of the first styles of blues, sounding more folklike, but diving into the realities of people lives. Troubles untold expressed through music, “Without sentimentality and often with a wry or whimsical humor,” as written by Jean Farris in America’s Musical Landscape, helped to soften the intense sadness of the words while keeping the importance of their stories. Shortly after, more instruments were being introduced and small combos were coming together to play the streets of New Orleans Jazz. One of the most significant changes in the early history of jazz music was the expressive transformation of piano playing that took place as jazz moved from New Orleans through Chicago to New York, the capital of ragtime. One of the biggest impacts to jazz music happened in the 1920‘s as jazz pianist began to fuse the sounds of blues and ragtime resulting in a dense and clamorous sound that came to be known as "stride" piano. The detail and skill, and fun improvisation used to play the stride piano is what makes it my favorite of the styles studied. Not only is the piano clean and crisp, its ability to be adapted makes it one of the greatest instruments of our times. Unlike the classic blues that contained a simple AAB form, or the twelve-bar blues as referred to by Farris, the stride piano involved the right and left hands in a merriment of coordination. My favorite of the jazz styles studied is the stride piano. It all started when Jelly Roll Martin began combining and changing the style of ragtime and boogie woogie piano, while Art Tatum combined his skill of rhythmical changes and artistry with elements of the stride piano. The stride piano allowed artists such as Art Tatum and James P. Johnson to improvise more with their compositions because of the loosely structured, more condensed focus on the timbre, the piano. Listening to and watching the piano became an adventure for all audiences alike. Today you see artists such as Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys & Jason Mraz combining many other styles of piano to compliment current music trends. The experimentation of blending styles, dissonance, and improvisation back in the 20’s continues today because of stride piano. Each style of jazz over the years has affected musicians today. More than others, I believe country and rural blues, jazz piano and progressive rock have had the most significant affect.
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