Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
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Narrated by:
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Bill Messenger
Summary
Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation.
Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself. You'll follow the evolution of jazz from its beginnings in the music and dancing of the antebellum plantations to its morphing into many shapes as its greatest innovators gave us ragtime, the blues, the swing music of the big band era, boogie-woogie, and big band blues.
You'll follow the rise of modern jazz in all of its many forms, including bebop, cool, modal, free, and fusion jazz. And you'll learn how the course of jazz was changed by key technological innovations, such as the invention of the microphone, which allowed smaller-voiced singers like Bing Crosby or Mel Torme to share a limelight once reserved for the bigger voices of stars like Bessie Smith or Al Jolson.
Beginning the story on those antebellum plantations, Professor Messenger reveals how the "cakewalks" of slave culture gave birth to a dance craze at the end of the 19th century that was ignorant of its own humble roots. And he explores the irony of the minstrel shows, which derived from Southern beliefs of black cultural inferiority yet eventually spawned a musical industry that African-American musicians would dominate for decades to come.
As a bonus, the lectures are also very entertaining, with Professor Messenger frequently turning to his piano to illustrate his musical points, often with the help of guest artists.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1995 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1995 The Great CoursesContinue the series
A must listen for anyone interested in music.
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Not here! Bill Messenger plays the music he talk about, with gusto and quite some virtuosity. When needed, he even invited other musicians to play along. Fantastic!
This is by far the "greatest course" I've listened to yet!
Learning about music as it should be: with music!
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A great listen
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However, aside from those issues, this is a fantastic, and fantastically enjoyable romp through various styles of jazz, with musical gems glittering in the fine framework of Messenger's enlightening historical reflections...
Right up until free jazz. Then you hit this: "In free jazz, as in free art (although that term isn't yet in use), art is divorced from craft. It is totally spontaneous and there are no rules."
That is untrue (in relation to both music and art). Even Messenger points out that that is not true of Ornette Coleman, whom he singles out as the originator and best performer of free jazz.
Messenger is similarly dismissive of fusion. He castigates its simplicity(!), even though he considers the simplicity of blues to be a positive. Indeed, he appears to believe that it is the presence of the blues that saves the Head Hunters album from fusion.
When one hears Miles Davis' 'On the Corner' or John Coltrane's 'Ascension', it is worth trying to understand what these musicians - who had previously performed on the most popular jazz album ever - were attempting to do.
However, you shouldn't let these failings put you off this otherwise superb course any more than you should let Messenger put you off those forms of jazz.
Nearly great, but terrible on free jazz and fusion
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Absolutley fantastic!
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