Il Potere della Musica
la musica come strumento per trasmettere emozioni
THE JAZZ
Jazz developed in the last part of the 19th century. African slaves, working in the cotton fields of the America South, but many American people would not allow slaves to speak to each other, so they communicated trough music, with sad songs for explain their freedom's dreams and their orrible condition.
Spiritual and work songs are the root of the music called Jazz, the union of the cotton fields' songs and the white European's music.
New Orleans traditional jazz:
the birth of swing
Traditional Jazz began in New Orleans. At first, there was a basic trio of musicians:
1. A trumpet (who carried the melody);
2. A clarinet (who played countermelodies);
3. A trombone (who played rhythmic and simple harmonies).
The sound was polyphonic and then the other instruments improvised around it.
The most famous New Orleans' musicians of the 20th century was Louis Armstrong, who used his voice like an instrument.
Bebop
This style of Jazz was very fast and the harmonies were complex. There was wild improvisation on solo instruments and the father of this type of music is Charlie Parker, as know Bird, who created it in 1950s.
At the beginning jazz's musicians and fans disliked it because it was a good sound, but they wanted to dance and that was also very different to the original jazz.
A new type of jazz: Kind of Blue
Kind of blue is a famous Jazz album recorded by the great trumpeter Miles Davis and his sextet. He was a classically musicians, but his dream was to play Bebop like his idol Bird. So, in 1949 he formed a band and used his trumpet to create a tender, dreamy sound. Miles gave the band only melody lines to improvise on and one of the songs All Blues is in the style of early American black music.