Rockn Roll Blues - Professor Jonathan Schapiro PDF

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[email protected] 1/22/19 I don’ know what’s going on. Bo Diddley “Who do you love” 1957? Original Artist- Muddy Waters- “Who do you love” 1957? Muddy Waters was a blues guy. Part of the migration of guys from Mississippi Delta to Chicago. Switched his guitar from acoustic-led to birth of rock and roll. Muddy Waters portrays he significance of the blues. Blues are the lifeblood of American Music. Singer/songwriter negates the blues a bit in the modern age. Elvis, some Chuck guy, and the Beatles are the fathers of the blues. Bo Diddley traveled up from Mississippi delta to Chicago with Ten Thousand people, all looking for a better life. Doors- some band- “who do you love”-1970. What is RocknRoll? Allan Fried coined the term ROcknRoll. DJ out of Cleveland. Played country from white south and the black south. Brought people together hrough culture. Rocknroll is a lot like jazz in that there is a merging of music from segregated culture. Music rises above segregation. Brings people together. Music transcends society’s taboos. In 1965 RocknRoll shifted from calming and tunes to louder and angry. Schapiro views the beatles change as rising farther and farther from convention. Eventually broke up. Elvis was big on merging cultures. Same with Chuck Barry. They fought against laws against mixed bands and preforming publicly with a mixed band. Elvis music made people uncomfortable Hank Williams- “your cheating heart”-1952.-country song. A lot of black music was developed on plantations. Originated in Africa. Southerners hate the northeners for their destruction during and post civil war. Inbred in their culture. Fats Domino- “your cheating Heart” 1954- he does the same song but not country.

He’s doing a call and response with the horn section. Call and response is big in RandBhappened because of the slaveowners on planattions. Fats Domino is first Rocknroll guy. Evolved from RnB. A big difference between him and Hank song is use of piano. Also, there was something called triplets in the song. Ben E. King- “spanish Harlem”.-1961 Aretha Franklin covered it in 1971. She grew up only singing gospel and then moved over to secular. She was so good she didn’t have to answer to anyone. No real definition of RocknRoll. 1/27/19 Q. Why do we have music? A. depending on the culture, there are many reasons why people have music in their lives. There is music for culture music for celebration music for dancing. Dance music is the thread that pushes where Pop goes. Dance music gains traction. There is work music, like the music the blacks had on plantations, intended to make them work at a more efficient rate. That’s why the ruling class allowed it. There’s music for entertainment-symphony. Symphony music is a very European ideal. The symphony concept does not exist in Africa. Africa is more drumming. Africa v. European- Europe has an invisible barrier between the audience and the performers. In some African places there isn’t even such a thing as an audience, rather everyone is a participant and brings their own instrument. Call and response. African culture stressed Rhythms, with many sophisticated and complex, while Europe had a simple rhytm and a sophisticated harmony. “Soft black Jersey Cow”- African drumming complexity Layering- One rhythmic idea builds on another, introduce one then another- Africans use a lot, Europeans wouldn’t understand Harmony- simultaneous sounding of pitches. European music developed harmony. - European music is very simple rhythm but complicate harmony. By contrast, a lot of other country have complicated rhythm. Rhythm is a pattern. Sacred Harp- not an actual harp, reference to religious music, people gathering to sing in a setup of a box-also known as shapesinging- music for those who cant read music. Its basically simple music notes. “Alabama Sacred Harp Singers Present Joys”. Very simple music. The Williamson Brothers and Curry “ Gonna Die with my hammer in my hands”.

Definition of Folk music- music passed down through generations to generations generally through the oral tradition. Folk songs are contained in a small community over generatiosn, so long in fact that it is almost never known who wrote the song. This is true of French Scottish irisha nd almost all European countries. Issue is America ahsn’t been around so long so they created a folk tradition and we KNOW who created the songs, while generally you dontt know who is the author of folk songs. These are not songs by accomplished writers, just originsl songs from an insulated culture. Every culture has folk music. 1/29/20 Definition of Pitch- frequency of vibration. When you hear something you hear vibrations. Vibrations cause the air to move and the soundwave hits the eardrum. (A440 is a type of pitch. The 440 represents the number of vibrations on the string inside the Piano.) In European Music the steady pitch is extremely important. However, humans always switch pitch up and down. African music emphasizes the human speech element over the pitch, unlike European music. “Ray Charles”- “Sinner’s Prayer”. Blues song. In blues the pitch will never be study. One of the most important aspects of the blues is that they have a totally radical harmonic language. There is no direct link between the blues and African tradition, although most assume there is a connection. Blues don’t follow the 1-3-5 tradition, rather it lowers it a bit. 1-3-5 is levels of pitch. The difference between a major and a minor is that in a minor the 3 is flattened. Minor is generally viewed as more somber, major is viewed as lighter and happier. Blues mixes the major and minor in the 3rd chord. Sister Rosetta Tharp “Precious Lord”. Contains triplets. Sister rossetta was crucial in straddling that almost unstraddle barrier between gfospel and the blues. The culture of the blues and the culture of the gospel are very different. The religious in the south did not want their music to be infiltrated by the satanic harmonic of the blues. Sister rosetta played a fine line between the two. With Aretha Franklin who did the blues but sung about the Lord, the religious had to choose. Sometimes they would only go for the religious aspects and not the blues. Aretha Franklin “Old Landmark”. Religious but blues A chorus is a verse, not the whole thing. Blues usually have three or four chorus. Missed 02/3/19, strachman notes The Blues: form, style, tonality

Robert Johnson, "Ramblin' on my mind" 1936. Blues means a lot of different things, but for our course means three things. It’s a specific kind of form, of 1 4 1, 5, 4, 1. Numbers represent roots of the chords as the chords change throughout the form. (they're using 1 as the root of the chord, and use 1,3,4, 7sharp in the scale of that 1) From is the general blueprint or skeleton of the song, and all songs have a form.This blues form is used in rock, gospel, jazz. It’s also a style--a vocal and/or guitar style, emanating from the south, sort of perfected in the Mississippi delta region. "I believe I'll dust my broom" Elvis Presley, "Hound dog," ~1956. This is classic 12-bar blues form. Blues lyrics: A, A, B (punch line). James Brown, "I feel good" is also an exmple of this form, but a more sohisticated version because it changes up in the 9th bar. Robert Jackson, "Hellhound on my trail", 1937. Muddy Waters, "Rolling stone"

Attachments area Preview YouTube video What is a 12 Bar Blues? - Music Notes - by Hoffman Academy

What is a 12 Bar Blues? - Music Notes - by Hoffman Academy

2/05/20 Joe Williams “ Every Day I have the bLues” With count base orchestra. 1957. Coleman Hawkins, jazz great, called Joe Williams “The world’s ugliest man”. In the blues a lot of people will laugh instead of cry. The black singers have had tough lives bc of all the racism. They are being positive in the face of the blues. Sammy davis would always smile and laugh which angered a bit other blues singers who wanted him to be sad. Tenets of African Music that survived in America: Rythmic complexity brought out from the west African drumming. Impercise tomality- there is no direct need to hit a note at a precise time.

Humor- there is a funny aspect to the blues which comes from African music, and this humor is needed for africans to survive American racism. Integration between “audience” and performers- almost indescribable as performers include the audience. Call and Response-leader will say something and the whole congregation responds something short together- like dayenu at the seder. Blues shouting- a person will go to the top of their vocal range and the line between shouting non musically and singing gets blurred—Bruce springstein, janet jochlin, ray Charles, elvis. Leadbelly- “Packin truck blues”- is an example of this type of song. There is a character in African culture called “Griot” who walks across Africa with a string instrument and plays it to lampoon and entertain all people, including rich people. He steals from rich people bc he figures out their scam and then he plans songs around their scams and threatens to tell the townspeople what the rich guy is doing if he’s not paid off. Louis Jordan is big like this. Jimmy Rodgers “Blue yodel no.10”- watch for bleu forms and AAB Bill Monroe and his blue grass boys “Rocky Road Blues”. All songs have form, blues form is different- look up on the web. Blues is a mix between the major and minor third. 2/10/20 Jazz: America’s first popular music Schapiro- In 20202 jazz is so far away from the mainstream in today’s age, but back when it was hot it was inconceivable that Jazz would be looked at in hindsight. The end of jazz led to rock and roll. List of Music in 1890’s- marches, ragtime, Blues. John Phillip Sousa is the king of Marches, big time composer for that type of music. He composed Stars and Stripes forever. These marches were the entertainment of the second half of the 19th century. Ragtime- a style developed in the south by African americans, specifically Scott Joplin (18681917). Ragtime is a piano style that took America by storm at the end of the 19th century and lasted until 1917. In 1917 Jazz was fully formed, and jazz could do a lot of things that rag couldn’t do, thereby making rag irrelevant. Jazz was Ragtime, and then some. Ragtime played on the piano uses a steady left hand and a bouncy right. Swing music- style of jazz that supplanted traditional new orleans jazz as the popular style of music. King Oliver “Dipper Moutth Blues” 1923.-ragtime jazz

Ragtime jazz style sometimes lasted past swinging jazz. In 1926 bands are still playing in the new orleans style. New Orleans style Jazz- rhythm section still imitates ragtime. Swing- Tuba replaced by walking bass. Benny Goodman was the king of swing 2/12/20 Great American Songbook Tin Pan Alley- 28th from 5th to 6th avenue Songwriters like irving berlin would go to publishers office go to piano and do whatever new song they had just written. Either songs go to records or movies. So far we’ve talked about blues form and how it’s a simple form. The great American songbook has very few songs that actually use blues forms. What you get instead is usually 32 bar forms. More complex. 32 bar form-AABA, ABAC. A is an eight bar unit and B is an 8 bar unit. Irving Berlin ‘WHAT WILL I do” Preformed by paul Whitman. Second version preformed by Art Garfinkel. 3rd version perfromed by Bob Dylan. A hook is something a singer does in a song to make it different and interesting. “Bye Bye blackbird”- Layton and Johnstton 1920s, Joe Cocker 1970s Frank Sinatra “Where or When” Gershwin “Summertime” 16 bar form 2/17/20 Pg 12- definition of black music- Boogie Woogie Base-string instrument played by plucking with ur right hand and fingering it soundly. Walking base- replaced whatever notes were supposed tot be bass notes with a tuba or a saxophone or whatever-makes it a bit faster like talking steps. This is an important difference between early jazz and the swing era. Albert Ammons “Boogie woogie stomp” Big Joe Turner “roll em Pete” 1938 Blues

C and R Rthytmic layering-multiple rythmys going on at once Lucky Millinder w/ wyneone harris “Who threw the whiskey in the well” 1945 Wyonie Harris- “good rocking tonight” Louis Jordan “Do you call that a buddy” 1941. A lott of this music is about women and money and is not politically correct 2/19/20 1860’s-blues. 1880’s-Integration between Creoles and descendants of slaves 1890’s- Sousa Marches, which leads to ragtime, which leads to…. 1910’s- Jazz The 1890’s corresponded with westward expansion. 1930’s Jazz—swing era (Big bands). Late 1930’s- Big bands swingers embrace the boogie woogie which creates… 1940s-Jump Blues Jump Blues, combined with blues and rockabilly= Rock n’ roll (Folk songs of Irish immigrants like irish Fiddling leads to Blue grass, which leads to country, which leads to Texas swing.) “Five games named moe” 1942 Louis Jordan “Pinetops Boogie Woogie” 1941 “Aint nobody here but us chickens” 1945 “Saturday night fish fry” “Aint that just like a woman” “That chicks to young to fry” Wynonie Harris “Bloodshot eyes” 02/24/20 T Bone Walker- first electric guitar star in jazz 1910-1975 Texas “They call it stormy Monday (But Tuesdays just as bad)” 1947 Went to LA in the 1930s

Chicago 1943 He was a big influence on Allman, steve miller, Hendrix, and chuck berry. “West Side baby” 1948 Big bands disbanded past ww2 bc they stopped being economically viable. Fisrt half 1000s of African American leave the south to go up north to places like Chicago bc there was more work there. Left Texas and the missipi delta and what not. A huge percentage of African American population left the south bc of stagnant wages. The electric guitar became popular bc music had to carry over a large crowd of people psot work. For T bone walker and muddy waters Chicago became an obvious setination. Muddy Waters 1913-1983 Missipi “I cant be satisfied” He went to Chicago In 1943 The difference between Chicago blues and delta blues is that Chicago had an electric guitar as opposed to acoustic. They needed electric guitars bc of the size of the crowds. Muddy waters- “Rollin Stone” Bo Diddley “Im a man” Jimmi Hendrix “Mannish Boy” Muddy Waters “I feel like going home” Big bill bronzy was part of the folk revival. A lot of his songs talked about civil rights. T-Bone Walker- “Bobby Sox Blues” Chuck barry took the blues and made it upbeat 02/26/20 Bob Wills “Ida Red” 1938 This is a style of country music called rockabilly which people think elevis was fond of. It’s a mix of RandB and country, which is essintailly rocknrll. Allen fried, rocknroll DJ, first to coin the term rocknroll. How is rocknroll different from Chicago Blues?

Chuck Barry “Maybelline” 1955 Cultural appropriation Arthur big boy Crudup “That’s all right” Midterm- 15-16q, 2 or 3 mulligans. Short answer. Midterm- swing eights in jazz are uneven eights. Delaying the second eighth note in the duplet. A duplet is a pair of eight notes that fit one bear. 2 eigh tnotes are the same duration as a quarter note. Quarter notes are units of time that when realized are notes that are played by a musician that are played for a duration of time in 4/4 time. A note is a pitch and a duration. A measure is a specified number of beats that stays regular through the music- ¾ ttime with a quarter note in each measure,. Concepts- syncopation Blues tonality- 1) generally flatted 7th and 3rd which have become standard in the general scale of American music 2) The bending and smearing of pitch Swing eights Form-The blueprint of a song or piece of music. In nay piece of music u can look at it from far away na dexplain the form but if u get up close u can see it difffeently. Like looking at the map of the countrys. Form is how music is organized in regard to repletion and contrast – AABA OR AABC Carter family inspired hank Williams- bridge to country...