Jazz

Neal Richards II

10/8/15

ERH-101

Help received: none

Jazz is a genre that evolved from ragtime which broke off of classic music. Jazz was the base for many music genre like funk, rock, pop, and rap. Jazz is unique because instruments, the rhythm, and the emotion one feels when: writing, play, and listening  to jazz.

The instruments are one of the things about jazz. the normal band has: 2 alto saxophone, 2 tenor saxophone, a baritone saxophone, 4 trombones, 4 or 5 trumpet, a guitar, a bass, a drum set, and a keyboard. Each instrument has a different part; trumpet for example have a first trumpet part, second trumpet part, third trumpet part, and a forth trumpet part. Each parts have a unique piece in the music as a whole and could be feature at any time. Some part will double up most the time places in the song but each part has one person which only one person play. The first instruments parts are the lead part and play the most melodic parts out of all the other parts. Some special parts are the second trumpet part and the fourth trombone part. The second trumpet part is where most of the soloing for the trumpet section happen. Since the first trumpet plays a lot of high note which really ware out one’s ambusher, the position that a person puts their lips on the mouth piece, the second trumpet has to play the solo that the first trumpet can’t play. The fourth trombone part is one of the most important parts in jazz because that the fourth trombone part is the bass (base) for the whole jazz band. The fourth trombone part is usually played by the second best trombone and usually played by a bass trombone. There are type of instrumentation like trio. Trio are a group of three with a lead (alto or soprano), a mid-part (alto or tenor) or percussion, and the bass which is the most important part in the trio.

The rhythm is a big thing in jazz music which helps makes it unique. The speed of jazz is usually moderated to fast tempo. The faster the piece, the more livery it is while the slower the piece, the more mellow it get. Music in general also has different type of musical note which can determine the speed of the note. A quarter note is 1 beat or note length per measure (in a typical 4/4 song where there are 4 beat in a measure). Eighth note are a half a beat in normal music but in jazz, the first eighth note is held a little bit longer than a half a beat and the second has the remainder of that one beat. That make classical eighth note  sound like this dat-dat-dat-dat while jazz eighth note sound like this da—a-da—a. another way jazz is unique is that the beat has more power on the 2 and 4 beat, not the 1 and 3 beat like classical music. The note rest on the back beat of the piece meaning the note is play ¼ of a second later then the time the note was supposed to be played. A good example of jazz rhythm versus classical music is star and stripes forever arranged by Wycliffe Gordon. This is a different version of the original by john Philip Sousa which was a march. The song start out as a march but then changes to swing and The song goes back and forth from classic to jazz. Even someone with an untrained ear for music could tell the different between the classical parts and the jazz parts.

The emotion one feels with jazz is the emption the player and/or the composer, the person who write the music, of the piece feels because jazz is an emotion. One can amplify his or her emotion threw the instrument while playing their own solo. The emotion can be felt threw the sound with no word being express. In “she got the benz, I got the booze” by Jim Mahaffey, the composer act pretends to act all happy the she left by playing this joyful piece but the joyful sound turn into sadness when the composer realize she left him. The emotion flowing out of the piece tells the story without words.

Jazz is unique because instruments, the rhythm, and the emotion one feels when: writing, play, and listening to jazz. It is fun, creative, and powerful all at the same time which put it in its own world. There are some people who see jazz as an alternative from classical music. Jazz will be forever a unique genre.

Work cited page

Jim Mahaffey. She Got the Benz, I Got the Blooze. Jalen Publishing, n.d. Www.jwpepper.com. Web. 8 Oct. 2015. <http://www.jwpepper.com/10031789.item#.VhYCj_lViko>.

Sousa, John Philip. “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Alfred.com. Ed. Wycliffe Gordon. Alfred Publishing Co, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. <http://www.alfred.com/Products/Stars-and-Stripes-Forever–00-26898.aspx>.