The Los Angeles Jazz Society Presents
The Los Angeles Jazz Society Presents
The Los Angeles Jazz Society Presents
Developed by Dr. Thom Mason, Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California
Trombone
Louis Armstrong
•The first great
African American jazz
musician
•A trumpet player and
singer
•Referred to as the 1st
genius of jazz for the
things he did that are
now standard in jazz
•Hit records in every
decade from the
1920s until his death
in the 1970s
Bessie Smith
•The most famous
blues singer
•Called the “Empress
of the Blues”
•The highest paid jazz
singer in the 1920s
•1st hit record
“Downhearted Blues”
sold over 800,000
copies in 1923, saving
a record company
from going out of
business
Duke Ellington
•The most famous big
band composer
•Composed over 1500
original songs and
instrumental pieces
•Many people
consider him the
most important
composer of
American music in
the century
•Many of his band
members stayed with
him for over 40 years
Ella Fitzgerald
•The most famous
female jazz singer
•Won a talent contest
in Harlem when she
was 18
•Joined Chick Webb’s
band, and after he
died, she became the
1st woman to lead a
jazz big band made
up completely of men
•Nicknamed “The
First Lady of Swing”
Charlie Parker
•The most famous
Modern Jazz
saxophone player
•Nicknamed “Bird”
•The 1st great modern
jazz soloist
•Played with such a
high level of technical
skill that many
thought his records
were doctored up
Miles Davis
•One of the most
famous trumpet
players of Modern
Jazz
•Called the founder of
“Cool Jazz”
•One of the 1st jazz
musicians to blend
jazz with pop and
soul music
Al Aarons & the LA Jazz Caravan
Listen for:
• the
saxophone
•the trombone
•the trumpet
•the electric
guitar
•the piano
•the drum
Dixieland Style
•The 1st style of jazz for
instruments
•The horns in the front often
“jam” solos at the same time,
called “collective
improvisation”
•After collective
improvisation at the
beginning, each player takes
a solo, followed by another
collective improvisation
•Louis Armstrong was the 1st
jazz soloist to make this style
important
•Most of this style of jazz was
created in New Orleans, “the
birthplace of jazz” and in
Chicago, “the home of the
blues” during the 1920s and Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers
1930s
Blues Style
•The 1st style of jazz for
singers
•Began in the 1920s with
“Race Records,” which were
meant for the black
community
•First blues recording was
“Crazy Blues” by Mamie
Smith
•Women were the most
famous blues singers of the
1920s, while men became
famous in the 1930s
•The main feature of this
style is the use of blue notes,
which give the music a sad or
“blue” quality
•Blues solos bend notes, falls,
and smears and often repeat
an idea over and over
Big Band Swing Style
•Brought instruments and
singers together
•The most popular music in
America from the 1930s
until the end of World War
II
•Big bands had as many as
20 or more musicians in
them
•Sounded more modern
than Dixieland jazz
•People loved to dance to
the sound of big bands
•The most famous had
singers as well as soloists
•Performed in ballrooms
Count Basie Cab Calloway
Duke Ellington
Big Band Swing Style
•Most big bands were
either all black or all
white until Jewish
clarinet player Benny
Goodman began hiring
African Americans for
his big band in the mid-
1930s
•Players lead with their right and jab with their left