Critical Listening 5

Miles Davis - "My Ship"
Written by Kurt Weill's

The beginning of this piece has such a warm feel that I can only guess is being played by Clarinets or maybe even saxophones. You can here a couple chimes as well in the beginning. The percussion stays very calm through the whole song with light high hat. The trumpet soloing through out the song is almost mysterious. The structure of the song and my best assumption is AABAC. The bars go 8-8-8-8-6. I would but the BPM right around 50. Such a beautiful song really reminds me of sunny california and Noir films.

Charlie Christian

After finding out about Charlie Christian from the Ken Berns Jazz Series we've been watching in Class, I decided I really wanted to find out more about him. It was very interesting to find out how Benny Goodman was such a difficult Band leader. Before finding that out I would have anticipated that Benny was a very kind leader due to his great success. The way Charlie Christian blew Benny away by being such an amazing Guitarist and being able to impress Benny really makes Charlie my new favorite Guitarist. 

Charlie was born in Bonham, Texas but his Family relocated to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma when he was just a small child. Both of his Parents were musicians and his father Clarence taught him and his two brothers everything that he knew about music. When their Father was struck ill, the boys would go into upper class neighborhoods and preform to make money to support the family. The act of playing in theses neighborhoods for cash and goods is a term called a "Busker." The boys would later call the musical performances "Busts." Charlie's Father would die when he was just 12 years old but would leave him the certain key to his success later in life, his Guitar along with other instruments. When Charlie was old enough to go out on his own, he would begin dancing to entertain. He would later attend Douglass School in Oklahoma City and further his musical carrer under the teaching of Zelia Breaux. At first Charlie wanted to play the tenor saxophone but Zelia had other plans and encouraged him to try playing the trumpet. After fear of his lips being enlarged due to the trumpet, he decided to quit school and find a career playing Baseball which amazingly, he was also very good at. In the 1920s and '30s his brother Edward Christian led a band in Oklahoma City as a pianist and had a shaky relationship with trumpeter James Simpson. Around 1931, he took guitarist "Bigfoot" Ralph Hamilton and began secretly schooling the younger Charles on jazz. They taught him to solo on three songs, "Rose Room", "Tea for Two", and "Sweet Georgia Brown". One night Charlie was encouraged by Edwards band to play the three solos he had learned. The crowd went wild and Charlie's Mother had heard about how sensational the performance was before he had even arrived home! Charlie had a daughter Billy Jean Christian whom he fathered but never married her Mother. Billy Jean died just a few years back in July of 2004. Charlie began playing through the midwest and was discovered by John Hammond who would later give him the chance of a lifetime playing in Benny Goodmans band. He truly brought something to Bennys band that was just amazing and magical. Charlie contracted tuberculosis in the late 1930's and would later die from it March 2, 1942. He was only 25 years old. 

Critical Listening 4

 

The introduction of this song begins with a trumpet, bass, and piano playing. The trumpet has a modification making it sound much more whiney. If I had to guess I would say it was either a harmon or cup mute. I'm not sure what the musical term is but through out the song the trumpet is copying the tone of lee's voice and playing what she sings right after she sings it. Almost like the trumpet is being a copy cat to her tone but playing it an octave higher or lower. This is an AABA tune, 32-bartype, and the 32-bars divided into eight-bar phrases. The bass keeps the pulse of the song at around 70 BPM. Towards the end of the song a saxophone and trumpet trade off playing the same solo. Overall this piece was very enjoyable and Lee's voice is truly amazing. Also worth mentioning is the amazing performance of Eddie Condon's Orchestra in this piece along with the original music being written by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira in the early 1920's. This version of the tune was produced around 1944 about 20 years later.

Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang was born Salvatore Massaro, the son of an Italian-American instrument maker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At first, he took violin lessons for 11 years. In school he became friends with Joe Venuti, with whom he would work for much of his career. He was playing professionally by about 1918, playing violin, banjo, and guitar. He worked with various bands in the USA's north-east, worked in London (late 1924 to early 1925), then settled in New York City.

Lang was the first important jazz guitarist. He was effectively able to integrate the guitar into 1920s jazz recordings. He played with the bands of Joe Venuti, Adrian Rollini, Roger Wolfe Kahn and Jean Goldkette in addition to doing a large amount of freelance radio and recording work.

On February 4, 1927, Lang featured in the recording of "Singin' the Blues" by Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet. Lang traded guitar licks while Beiderbecke soloed on cornet, in a landmark jazz recording of the 1920s.

In 1929, he joined Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, and can be seen and heard in the movie The King of Jazz. In 1930, Lang played guitar on the original recording of the jazz and pop standard "Georgia On My Mind", recorded with Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra. Joe Venuti and Bix Beiderbecke also played on this recording.

When Bing Crosby left Whiteman, Lang went with Crosby as his accompanist, and can be seen with him in the 1932 movie Big Broadcast. Lang also played under the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn on a number of blues records with Lonnie Johnson.

Lang died following a tonsillectomy in New York City in 1933 at the age of thirty. He had been urged by Crosby to have the tonsillectomy so that he might have speaking parts in Crosby's films. Lang's voice was chronically hoarse, and it was hoped that the operation would remedy this. It is unclear exactly what the cause of death was, but it is thought that uncontrolled bleeding played a role. Author James Sallis claims that he died when he developed an embolism while still under anesthetic and never regained consciousness.

All References:

1.  Ferguson, Jim (1983). Father Of Jazz Guitar. GPI Publications. pp. 78–86.
2.  Berendt, Joachim E (1976). The Jazz Book. Paladin. pp. 268.
3.  Lang's father was born in Monteroduni, an italian village in Molise. The township of Monteroduni hosts every year a commemorative "Eddie Lang Jazz Festival". See 
4.  Lyttleton, Humphrey (1998). The Best of Jazz. Robson Books. pp. 139–140. ISBN 1861051875.
5.  Jazz and Otolaryngology: The Death of Guitarist Eddie Lang
6.  The Guitar Players - One Instrument and Its Masters in American Music by James Sallis 1982
7.  Eddie Lang at RedHot Jazz

Critical Listening 3

This song begins with 2 bars of a piano in the beginning for the intro. The bass then comes in and gives the song a nice upbeat feel. After a few times of listening I am pretty sure this is a 32 bar song with an AABA structure. There are also many cool other instruments that I heard throughout the song. Such as some guitar and to my surprise possibly a xylophone?  I've never heard anything that I could relate it to other than a xylophone. I also like the fact that Benny uses a Clarinet it brightens up the song and makes it seem more happy to me. It was reportedly developed around a tune Lionel Hampton whistled as he nervously waited for his first flight on an aircraft. It was first recorded by the Benny Goodman Sextet on November 6th, 1939 featuring solos by Hampton and Charlie Christian. Several other groups recorded the tune, however the most famous version is a 1942 recording by Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra, featuring a tenor sax solo by Illinois Jacquet.


References: www.youtube.com  www.Wikipedia.com

Django Reinhardt

Since I didn't really go into who Django Reinhardt was I wanted to do that this week. This is an audio clip that I found very interesting by NPR that explains him and his music in detail! Just click the link! http://www.pbs.org/jazz/video/audioplayer/npr_freshdjango.html


Django Reinhardt, 23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953 was a pioneering virtuoso jazzguitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within Belgian gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages".

Cool Jazz Guitars

Model : MONARCH (TOD-150 AS) Jazz Full Hollow Body Series

Specification

Price: $1,195 

Body Style : ARCHTOP CUTAWAY

Top : SOLID SPRUCE

Back&Sides : SOLID MAPLE

Neck : MAPLE

Neck Scale : 24.6" (625mm)

Body Depth : 2.96" (75mm)

Body Width : 17.13" (435mm)

Fingerboard : ROSEWOOD

Fingerboard Inlay : MOTHER OF PEARL

Machine Heads : GROVER

Nut : BONE

Pickups : 1 FLOATING

Controls : 1 VOLUME

Finish : ANTIQUE SUNBURST

Model : JAZZ CITY (TD-120 PLB) Jazz Full Hollow Body Series

Specification

Price: $1,195

Body Style : ARCHTOP CUTAWAY

Top : SOLID FLAME MAPLE

Back&Sides : FLAME MAPLE

Neck : MAPLE

Neck Scale : 25.5" (648mm)

Body Depth : 2.96" (75mm)

Body Width : 17.13" (435mm)

Fingerboard : ROSEWOOD

Fingerboard Inlay : MOTHER OF PEARL

Machine Heads : GROVER

Nut : BONE

Controls : 1 VOLUME, 1 TONE

Finish : SUNBURST (NO SHINE)

Reference for 2 guitars: www.JazzGuitarZone.com

Many of the Guitars that I looked at were well over $1,000 dollars. Most all are archtop cutaway styles probably due to the clean warm sound that they produce.The highest price Guitar I encountered was $20,000 dollars! I think that is a little bit ridiculous! 

Critical Listening 2

Weather bird - Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines

I was able to distinguish Trumpet and Piano while listening to this piece. The Trumpet obviously being played by Louis Armstrong and the Piano being played by Earl Hines. Through out the song it's very obvious to me that this is a very improvisational based piece. It seems at times as if the two men are dueling each other to see how well they can accompany one another's playing. Louis repeats certain melodies but then changes and spices them up towards the end of them. It gives a nice new fresh tone almost like your hearing a completely new strain of music. The BPM of the song seems to be between 103 and 105. Whenever Earl Hines begins to solo it's hard for me to keep count because it almost seems like he loses himself in his solo around 1:30. I would say the song keeps certain foundational properties through out but I'm having a hard time distinguishing them. I'm not sure how to understand the format of a piece when the whole song seems like one big solo. I will definitely be a little more careful when it comes to my critical listenings. Louis Armstrong is a tricky musician for me to understand with my very basic knowledge of dissecting music. 

Jazz Guitar Greats

I decided it would be a good idea to start listening to some of the very famous Jazz Guitarist of the century. Django Reinhardt is where I shall start my Journey! Enjoy!

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpmOTGungnA&feature=player_embedded

Jazz Guitar Theory

How are guitar chords built?  What makes a chord minor or major? If you're not sure about this then read on ... Some background theory makes a tremendous help when learning how to play guitar chords. Let's get started with the C major scale : C Major Scale C    D    E    F    G    A   B 1    2    3    4    5    6   7 Triads (a chord that is built with 3 notes) and seventh chords (chords that are built with 4 or more notes) are based on thirds. There are 2 kinds of thirds (or 3rds) : minor third interval of 3 half steps symbol : minor 3rd major third interval of 4 half steps symbol : major 3rd Let's start by stacking 2 thirds on the 1 (first note) of the C major scale: C    E    G 1    3    5

The result is a C major triad or C.  From C to E is a major 3rd and from E to G a minor 3rd: every major chord has this structure.
The thing to remember here is what we call the chord formula for major chords: 1 3 5
Another thing to remember : another name for the 1 of a chord is the root.

Let's do the same for the 2 of the C major scale :

D    F    A

1    b3   5

The result is a D minor triad or Dm.  From D to F is a minor third and from F to A is a major third : every minor chord has this structure.
Again the thing to remember is the chord formula for minor chords : 1 b3 5

Now we're going to skip a few notes and stack thirds on the 7 of the C major scale :

B    D    F

1    b3   b5

The result now is a B diminished triad or Bdim.  From B to D is a minor 3rd and from D to F is also a minor 3rd : every diminished triad chord has this structure.
So the chord formula of diminished chords is : 1 b3 b5

I'll summarize and complete the other notes of the C major scale :

	Notes	Formula	Chord Name	Symbol
1	C   E   G	1    3   5	C major	C
2	D   F   A	1   b3   5	D minor	Dm or D- or Dmin
3	E   G   B	1   b3   5	E minor	Em or E- or Emin
4	F   A   C	1    3   5	F major	F
5	G   B   D	1    3   5	G major	G
6	A   C   E	1   b3   5	A minor	Am or A- or Amin
7	B   D   F	1   b3  b5	B diminished	Bdim or B°

There are 2 ways to construct chords

1. The first way starts from the major scale.

1. Find the major scale of a given key. If you're not sure how to do this, go here: How To Construct a Major Scale. If you need to find for example the notes of a Gm chord then find the G major scale : G A B C D E F#
2. Construct the major chord : 1 3 5. In our G major example that would be : G B D
3. Apply the chord formula to the major chord. The chord formula for minor chords is 1 b3 5. This means the 3rd of the major chord has to be lowered half a step : G Bb D

2. The second way involves some memorization and will be explained in part 4, after we coveredseventh chords and tensions.

Reference: http://www.jazzguitar.be/jazz_guitar_chord_theory.html