Jazz And Jazz Analysis

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One word that has almost completely defined the evocative nature of The Blues is ’melancholy’. The Blues, without lyrics, is driven by its expression of melancholy through its use of musical elements, to set a despondent and downhearted tone. Things such as form, rhythm and key signature contribute heavily to setting the tone of Blues music. The lyrics in Blues add a story that verbally conveys the melancholic nature of the music and the genre. They often relay an incident experienced by the artist, or people who the artist is acquainted or affiliated with. A song like ‘Sugar Sweet’, however, was quite ironic due to its ‘love song’ lyrics over a typical blues groove and tune, so it set more of an endearing tone. Some could argue that this…show more content…
Its like a higher art form, even the late B.B. King stated, “Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning”. Jazz, much like Romantic music, is versatile in its ability to invoke almost any emotion and create almost any atmosphere through carefully calculated musical compositions. Jazz, though it has rules, strives to break rules, due to its artistic nature. It breeds idiosyncratic genii who are distinguishable from one another based on their musical creative exploits the manner in which they bend or break the basic rules of Jazz. Thelonious Monk was of those genii who had an awe inspiring affinity for creating melodies that most couldn’t even fathom, and still can’t to this day. His seeming lack of disregard for musical harmony allowed him to perfect the use of dissonances, to the point where it creates incomprehensive melodic synchronous. His piece, ‘Round Midnight’, encapsulates the artistic freedom praised in Jazz, and is even classified as a ‘Jazz Standard’. Written by Monk when he was 18, the piece is structured in the form, AABA, a staple Jazz format. A performance by the Thelonious Monk Quartet included a basic Jazz quartet with drums, double…show more content…
Soul music helped ultimately define African-American music, due to the ability of white musicians to quickly adopt Blues and Jazz. Soul, along with R&B, became viewed as black music, simply because white musicians battled to grasp the sound and intricacies that came with it. The blending of African-American Gospel with Blues and Jazz lead to a genre that was heavily devoted to the ‘groove’ and getting people to dance. It quickly became popular music, because the sound was like ‘church’ outside of church. The introduction of backing vocals added a Gospel-esque ambience to the songs, and lyrics became more conscious, especially with the Civil Rights Movement occurring around the same time, but the endearing lyrics from R&B were still maintained. The tone of the music often switched between militant and amorous, as love and war were popular topics during the Soul era. Marvin Gaye was one of the most prolific figures in Soul Music, especially his song, What’s Goin On, which lyrically dealt with the issues that black people were facing. The music created a positive atmosphere for the lyrics, much like Gospel, inspiring a level of faith for the resolving of the issues their faced with. The intro is an audio clip of a conversation which can be heard throughout the song in snippets. The tempo is moderately fast, with the drums playing a Funk rhythm. The

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