The Evolution of Modern Jazz



Shadorne's thread "Outstanding Examples of Musicianship" inspired me to begin this thread. While Shadorne stated that all genre's were welcome, I felt that me and another jazz aficionado were beginning to dominate that thread. Shadorne is a "Rocker", bless his heart. This community functions best when like minded people engage in common dialogue.

The title explains this thread. We will use "youtube" the same as in Shardone's thread to illustrate our examples, and now I begin.

In the beginning, there was Charlie "Bird" Parker, and he said "Let there Be Bop" and thus it began. While walking down the street, Bird ran into John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, who had similar ideas, so they "Bopped" down the street together; Bird on alto sax and Diz on trumpet. My first illustration of this new music is "Bloomdido" with Bird and Diz. We should cover "Be Bop" in depth before we go to the next phase of this evolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCGweQ8Oso&NR=1
orpheus10
Let me put this trolly back on it's intended track. "Latin smooth Jazz" is the title of this youtube link, it offers romantic guitar and beautiful photography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlLpNQCCLf4

Next we have Duke Ellington in a very unusual mode. This music is at the very roots of "JAZZ", it has the flavor of Harlem and Africa, plus the pure "JAZZ" sound of the Duke of Ellington; I give you "Afrique".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Wdvo6Qvz8
'Let me put this trolly back on it's intended track. "Latin smooth Jazz" is the title of this youtube link, it offers romantic guitar and beautiful photography.'

I would agree this as an example of so-called 'Smooth Jazz' or elavator music. Sort of superficial. Dose not demand the listeners undivided attention. Try listening without looking at the pictures. The pictures were great.
Orpheus10:
'Next we have Duke Ellington in a very unusual mode. This music is at the very roots of "JAZZ", it has the flavor of Harlem and Africa, plus the pure "JAZZ" sound of the Duke of Ellington; I give you "Afrique".'

I recently purchased this CD. I like it very much, however I am not aware of any or at least hardly any contribution to music that is indigenous to Africa. I have several CDs by african artist, but they are just Africans singing 20th century pop music. I sometime think we associate music with different parts of the world and different cultures, based upon the soundtracks of hollywood movies. Thanks for the links, esp to the Duke.

When you hear this music, you can feel "Stimela", the coal train that took the miners into the belly of the beast. This music is as good as it gets when it comes to telling a story, the music say's things no spoken words could ever say; "Stimela", Hugh Masekela.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgYhTTZXP4g
Nice song. Masekela has a very distintive voice. I first became aware of him back in his 'grazing in the grass' days. That was two centuries ago, while serving with the US Army in Germany. Hugh does not seem to have aged a day since then!!! I have several of his CDs, they always put me in a happy mood. I would make one comment:
The message of the song seems to say that, working in a coal mine was some sort of crime against humanity. No tougher than in West Virginia, Ohio, or Pennsylvania.