1917 all over the world was turning andsome kind of epochal. If for the Russian Empire it was marked by revolutionary events, then in France, Felix d’Erell discovered the bacteriophage, and in New York, the recording studio Victor recorded the first revolutionary jazz record. It was New Orleans jazz, although the performers were white musicians who, from childhood, heard and passionately loved "black music". Their disc Original Dixieland Jazz Band soon spread to prestigious and expensive restaurants. In short, the New Orleans jazz that came out of the lower classes conquered high society and gradually began to be considered the music of the elite. However, it is considered as such to this day.
This musical genre was formed on the basis ofmelodies of black slaves who were forcibly brought to the American continent to serve the white planters. Therefore, for a long time, jazz music was considered the music of a lower race. Even after gaining popularity in white American society, in Nazi Germany, for example, it was banned, because it was considered to be a conduit for a Negro-Jewish dissonant cacophony. In the USSR, it was also banned for a long time, since the “top” believed that it was an apologist for the image of bourgeois life, as well as an agent-conductor of imperialism.
Traditional jazz is possible with all responsibilityto be called revolutionary music, since this style is a "fighter" of its kind. No musical genre has seen so many obstacles and obstacles in the path of its formation. Jazz performers waged a constant struggle for the right to exist, for their place in the sun. At first, they did not have the opportunity to perform in front of large audiences, they were not provided with large concert venues and stadiums. However, this is one, and maybe more advantages. There are no random people among the fans of this music. True lovers have adopted jazz as a way of thinking and life in general. Jazz is improvisation, it is freedom! A person with a limited outlook, with standard ideas about life cannot understand what the New Orleans jazz is. Its peculiarities lie in the fact that it has its own specific listener. These are always bright, intellectual and spiritually rich people who appreciate quality and semantic music.
This musical style originated at the junction of the 19th and20th century, as a result of the merger of African and European music. Slaves brought to the American continent from Africa, missionary priests converted to Christianity, taught them to sing church hymns. And they mixed them with their religious spirituals songs. This musical cocktail was also attended by the blues motifs, which were widely distributed in all parts of the New World. For the accompaniment besides the drums, wind instruments and improvised harmonicas were also used. This music gradually won over the sympathy of the white musicians of New Orleans, and as a result of all this, as already noted, in 1917 the first record with jazz music was made.
This period in the history of music was called the 20thyears of the 20th century. Even the writers of this period today we call writers in the style of "New Orleans jazz." And to them, first of all, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Nevertheless, during this period, the capital of jazz was not considered New Orleans, but Kansas City. Here, this musical direction spread with incredible speed, and this was facilitated by numerous restaurants and cafes, where jazz music sounded in the evenings. It turned out that the main listeners became gangsters and mafiosi, who loved to spend evenings in restaurants. In many of them, scenes and orchestra holes began to appear, in which a jazz band consisting of a keyboard player, a drummer, brass musicians and vocalists took part. Most of them played blues, and not only slow, classical, but also fast. Then many of the musicians decided to try their luck and moved to the big cities - Chicago and New York. There were more restaurants and spectators too.
Жил в Канзасе темнокожий мальчишка по имени Чарли Parker In the evenings, he loved to walk at the open windows of restaurants and snack bars and listened to music coming from them. Then he whistled for days on end and hummed favorite melodies. Over the years, it was he who became the reformer of jazz music. Meanwhile, a gorgeous black trumpet player, keyboard player and vocalist appeared on the east coast. His name was Louis Armstrong. He had an extraordinary timbre of voice, moreover, he accompanied himself. He constantly toured between Chicago and New York and considered himself the successor of the great trumpet musician from New Orleans King Oliver. Soon another jazzman from the cradle of the genre arrived in Big Apple - Jelly Roll Morton. He masterly played the piano, and also had an amazing vocal. On all the posters, he demanded that it be recorded that he was the founder of jazz. Many thought so. Meanwhile, Fletcher Henderson created a wonderful orchestra in New York. Following this, another one was formed that was equally popular. Its leader was a young pianist Duke Ellington. He began to call his orkerstra a big band.
In the thirties, New Orleans jazzreformed into a new musical style - swing. And they began to perform big bands, among which the Duke Ellinton Orchestra particularly stood out. This musical group consisted of virtuoso musicians - improvisation masters. Each concert was not like the next. There were complex scores, roll calls, rhythmic phrases, repetitions, etc. A new position appeared in the orchestras - an arranger who wrote orchestration, which became the key to the success of the whole big band. However, the main emphasis was still placed on the improvisator, which could be a keyboard player, a saxophonist, and a trumpet player. The only thing he had to observe a clear number of "squares". Duke Ellington's orchestra included musicians such as Babber Miley, Kuti Williams, Rex Stewart, Ben Webster, clarinetist Barney Bigard, and others. Nevertheless, the rhythm section of the rhythm section was the pianist Basie, drummer Joe Jones, bass Walter Paige and guitarist Freddie Green.
Closer to the 40s among music fans instyle jazz became popular Glenn Miller's orchestra. Connoisseurs immediately noticed a certain feature that distinguished this big band from others. Some characteristic “crystal sound” was heard in his works, besides it was felt that the orchestra had an incredibly successful arrangement. However, the rhythms of the New Orleans jazz were no longer felt in their music. It was something special, but very far from the music of blacks.
With the beginning of World War II instead of seriousmusic began to flourish "entertaining". This meant that the swing era had gone into the shadows. Jazz musicians were disheartened, it seemed to them that they had lost their positions forever and that their music could never again have the same success as in the dashing 30s. However, they were wrong, because jazz lovers were and are both at the end of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st centuries. True today this style is not different mass, but it is the music of the elite in the whole world.
