Jazz
... singing was born in the early 1900’s by black American slaves; it was a way to express their sadness and internal feelings. Their lyrics speak about the hardships of life and love. In the early stages blues used to be just singing and tapping. By the late 1900’s this kind of singing was widespread in the southern United States and changed into different forms. Blues singers began to accompany themselves on guitar or harmonica. Gradually blues became very popular all over the U.S. Its lyrics are typically cast in a three-line stanza consisting of an initial line, its repetition, and a new third line: “I work hard for my money I work hard for my money And you come and take it all away ” (Robert Cray) Each phrase of sung text is followed by instrumental improvisation creating a “call-and -response” pattern. Blues and jazz overlapped, sometimes indistinguishably and blues was considered to be a nurturing form for early jazz, which also developed at the same time and has a large evolutionary history. The roots of jazz come from the mixed musical traditions of African Americans; these include some characteristics surviving from West African music, European popular and light classical music. Different kinds of jazz began to appear from decade to decade: the 1920’s was a decade of great experimentation and discovery in the history of jazz. Performers like Louis Armstrong, the famous trumpetist, demonstrated that jazz could go far beyond simply decorating a melody. He created new melodies producing tenser rhythms and more complicated textures. In the 1940’s another form of jazz came about called “Bepop” it was much faster and the phrases longer and more complex; in the 1960’s “fusion jazz” was a combination of dance rhythms, rock and soul. Today we have some other forms like “acid jazz” and “modern jazz”. The main characteristic of jazz is that it involves a lot of improvisation. Performers can improvise and express their own style, also the scales used in jazz are the same as the ones used in blues; this along with the improvisation is what brings jazz and blues together. Another thing that characterizes jazz is the constant accents that occur in unexpected places, called “syncopations”. The ins...