MARABI

South African jazz

Sideman on the Frontlines: Gwigwi Mrwebi and South African Jazz History

Figure 1.3 Ghoema beat (from Johannes, 2010:35)

What to Listen For in Jazz

Schuller differentiates between thewestern and African understandings of polyrhythmic playing by stating that westernmusicians generally see polyrhythm as two or more rhythmic patterns played simultaneouslybut always resolving or meeting at the start and ending of phrases, bar lines and other centralpoints in the music. In contrast, “African music” reveals a far more intricate, extended,“polymetrically organized” understanding of polyrhythms, in which the individual rhythmicphrases hardly ever, and sometimes never coincide vertically (Schuller 1968, 11). These twointerpretations of polyrhythm are apparent in much U.S.-American jazz and can be seen toshift closer to the African approach in the later styles of jazz through the rhythmiccontributions of musicians such as John Coltrane, Tony Williams and Miles Davis. KeithWaters states that polyrhythm and polymeter, which he terms “metrical conflict”, were a keyfeature of music performed and recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet from 1965 to 1968(Waters 2011, 68).In terms of the use of polyrhythm in Western music from the pre-jazz era, Schuller citesCharles Ives as the only European composer who experimented with polymetric andpolyrhythmic structures, stating as an example Ives’s Fourth Symphony. Gridley deviatesfrom Schuller by suggesting that polyrhythms were used in European folk and concert musicin America for a long time before the jazz era came about but were not as prominent as inAfrican music (Gridley 1999, 45). He acknowledges the African ancestry of polyrhythms asoriginating from combinations of rhythms which can be heard in ragtime music. He definespolyrhythms as “the sounding of some rhythms that have a basis of two pulses while

Polyrhythms and Polymeter

kwel

marab

I am particularly interested in how performance style and expressive vocabulary changes over time, as evidenced on sound recordings. I enjoy exploring aesthetics questions both empirically through experiments and measurements as well as philosophically, i.e. in their historical and cultural context.I try to embrace interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. cognitive neuroscience and perception as well as ethnographic and archival work) and learn from cross cultural investigations. I particularly like working with performers who are interested in research.

TheoryofAfricanMusic

Theory of African MusicVOLUME II

Harmony 2Study SupplementHomework Exercises for HR-112Joe MulhollandandTom HojnackiThird Edition

Harmony 2The Course Text for HR-112Joe Mulhollandand Tom HojnackiThird Edition

Glossary of some important musical terms

Listen to the recordings of arrangers and players who use these voicings to createtheir characteristic sounds. Here are a few suggestions:McCoy Tyner: Tender Moments (Blue Note CDP 7 84275)Phil Woods’ Little Big Band: Real Life (Chesky JD 47)Phil Woods’ Little Big Band: Evolution (Concord Jazz CCD 4361)Bill Perkins Octet: On Stage (Pacific Jazz 93163)Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool (Capital Jazz CDP 7 92862 2)Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Columbia CK40579)vii

Mode

Select Discography ofJazz Recordingfor Students

bebop‚ swing‚ funky groove‚ calypso‚ bluesy‚ heavyrhythm and blues‚ and spiritual

ESTIMATING TEMPO, SWING AND BEAT LOCATIONS IN AUDIO RECORDINGS

UNISAMUSIEKTEORIELEERPLANNE

Tussendominante en tussenleitone

Rhythms are quickly wearisome, unless refreshed by a countervailing foreground which groups the tones against the metre. The ever‐so‐slight rubato of a solo instrument playing in front of the beat is familiar to jazzlovers. To play jazz properly it is not enough to move with the beat: you must also enter the ‘groove’ of it, which means riding alongside it with those playful gestures that ruffle the rhythmic surface and fill it with light. The distinction between beat and groove is a special case of the general distinction between foreground and background rhythm.

Tristano

$

Double-time

Notes inégales

Metodes van beklemtoning

Klem-tipes

The primary determinants of musica l foml in tonal music were tonality and theme, withcontrast of tonalities being a generally stronger force than contrast of themes. The declinein tonality as an organizing force has often led to a greater reliance on thematic contrast;but in many pieces, themes, in the sense of melodies, pla ya small or nonex istent part. Themost obvious example is electronic music, where texture, register, dynami cs, and especial MIy timbre are usua ll y more important as shaping elements than themes are. Rhythmic ac-ti vity is another organiz in g factor

200 Standard Tunes You Should Know

ost-Tonal Jazz

Bebop

Voicings

Modes

ebop Blue

GROOVE

Big band

the use of a choir of instruments, in this case two saxophones, as the main means of exposing the melody, and the playing off of different instruments against one another in a rudimentary contrapuntal manner

CATEGORlf S OF JAZZ CUMPOSIT ION

MODAL JAZZ COMPOSlTlON G HARMONY

Appendix A: Drum Kit Notation

Rhythmic Phrasing

Exoticisation of South African Jazz and Township Culture

Reworking the South African Jazz Sound

Influence of Apartheid

Traits of South African Jazz in Masekela’s Style

South African and U.S.-American Rhythm Sections

Rhythmic Influence of Latin Music on South African Jazz Styles

Rhythm section

Analysis of Selected South African JazzRecordings

South African Jazz Sound

Mbaqanga

Marabi

Behind the Beat”Feel

Syncopation

Theoretical Framework

Jazz in South Africa: Roots and Styles

Blues and Song Form

In a blues song with a sung text, the lyrics consist of a line that is repeated, then followed by a contrasting line (aab). The melody often follows this structure as well. Blues melodies often leave large gaps to allow for call-and-response between the melodic instrument and other instruments. The blues scale is like a minor pentatonic scale with an additional chromatic passing tone: do–me–fa–fi–sol–te (^1−↓^3−^4−↑^4−^5−↓^7)(1^−↓3^−4^−↑4^−5^−↓7^)(\hat1-\downarrow\hat3-\hat4-\uparrow\hat4-\hat5-\downarrow\hat7). The blues scale can be rotated to begin on its second note, creating a major blues scale: do–re–ri–mi–sol–la (^1−^2−↑^2−^3−^5−^6)(1^−2^−↑2^−3^−5^−6^)(\hat1-\hat2-\uparrow\hat2-\hat3-\hat5-\hat6).

The “major” blues scale Some improvisers find it helpful to think of a major blues scale. The difference between a major and minor pentatonic scale is identical to the difference between the major and minor blues scale: the major blues scale is a rotation of the blues scale of its relative minor. Begin the blues scale on me (↓^3)(↓3^)(\downarrow\hat3), and you will get a blues scale for the relative major. These relationships are summarized in Example 5

Another essential part of blues phrase structure is the notion of call-and-response, a feature likely inherited from the work songs of enslaved Africans and African Americans. The vocal, lyricized melody takes on the role of the “call” while an instrumental filler takes on the role of the “response.” Notice that in “Gulf Coast Blues,” each lyric labeled with an a is sung entirely and exclusively in the first two measures of the phrase. Example 3 annotates a transcription of “Gulf Coast Blues” to show this call-and-response relationship.

This blues scale is used in both major and minor blues tunes, despite the clashes with the underlying harmony.

Much as the harmonies of the blues tend not to stick to one diatonic key, flouting the norms of tonal music, the melodies are similarly chromatic to match.

The poetic structure: it is undoubtedly a structure made of three lines of fourbars each but its organization differs on the levels of prosody, melody, andharmony.The prosodic structure: AAB generally. The phrase (either sung or spoken)during the first line is repeated in the second line and a second phrasefollows in the third line.9The melodic structure: AAB but often AA’B. The same melodic phrase usuallyis repeated but may be subject to variation.The harmonic structure: ABC. As seen above, the three lines have been differentfrom each other right from the most original chord changes. The first linestarts with I, the second with IV, and the third with V

The 12 Bars That Were Shaped by St. Louis: Community Growth and Blues Music; 1940-1965

Playing “outside the changes”To illuminate techniques of “outside” playing, an excerpt of Herbie Hancock’ssolo on the standard tune There is No Greater Love will show its application within thecontext of a standard AABA song form. This performance from a live recordingdemonstrates Hancock’s skill at moving from “inside” to “outside” and back again withinthe space of three choruses.

Quartal Harmony and sus ChordsQuartal chords can have a variety of uses. Sometimes they imply quartal harmonyand other times they are merely used to create interesting voicings of tertian chords; bothare staples of modern jazz keyboard harmony. There are many Preludes with isolatedchords voiced in fourths or with a right-hand figuration using fourths, and even thesequick references, along with Kapustin’s other devices, create a modern jazz context forhis musical ideas. Most of the examples discussed below feature more extensive use ofquartal techniques, and most use tertian harmony with quartal chord voicings

While there is nothing relaxed about the harmonic rhythm in Kapustin’s music,there are modal elements in some of his themes. Probably the most popular of the modesis Dorian and one of the first popular modal pieces, So What by Miles Davis, uses aDorian riff.

nvertible counterpoint

As for meter, Arom adds that “it is in fact the most elementary manifestationof rhythm,” 17 made of identical durations with regular stress patterns.

“The pulse, as it has just been defined, is notrhythm. Rhythm is created by a succession of sound events with contrastingfeatures. This contrast may be generated by accents, timbres and durations.”15This is how these three components operate:

walking bass, ching-a-ding, oom-pah

SOUND

Orchestral Settings and Instrumental Functions

street bands, made up of various combinations of brass instruments, clarinets, and drums, which played marches, hymns, popular songs

To answer your question about register, register doesbelong to the domain of timbre but differs from instrumentation that also belongs to timbre. I understand that in organ music the word "register" is synonymous to characteristic timbres of musical instruments. But confusion like this is inevitable with any of the 11 aspects: "melody" can have its own "harmony" (e.g., solo flute sonatas by CPE Bach), rhythm can be "metric" (e.g., compositions written in the genre of "perpetum mobile", e.g., Paganini or Weber), articulation can be dynamic (e.g., accent), etc..

INSTRUMENTATION AND ORCHESTRATION

TEXTURE AS A FORM DETERMINANT

SECTIONAL VARIATIONS

NONTHEMATIC DELINEATORS OF MUSICAL FORM

SCALE FORMATIONS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY MUSIC

MUSIC FROM OTHER CULTURES

CHOICE IN PERFORMANCE

INFLUENCES FROM FOLK MUSIC, JAZZ, AL'ID ROCK

FORM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY MUSIC

SERIALIZED RHYTHM AND ISORHYTHM

TEMPO MODULATION AND POLYTEMPO

WRITTEN RHYTHM AND PERCEIVED RHYTHM

PANDIATONICISM

VOICE LEADING IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY MUSIC

INTRODUCTION 46 CONVENTIONAL TERTIAN SONORITIES 47 TERTIAN CHORDS WITH ADDED NOTES 49 TERTIAN CHORDS WITH SPLIT CHORD MEMBERS 52 OPEN-5TH CHORDS 54 QUARTAL AND QUINTAL CHORDS 55 SECUNDAL CHORDS 59 MIXED-INTERVAL CHORDS 62 WHOLE-TONE CHORDS 63 POLYCHORDS

OTHER POSSIBILITIES

MICROTONAL SCALES

CHROMATICISM AND MUSICAL FORM

THE TWILIGHT OF THE TONAL SYSTEM

Hearing the Given and the Made in South African Maskanda Music