Summary

Discuss, analyze and compare the various cultural elements that contributed to the fusion that
created jazz. How much did the proximity of other strains of afro/ European culture in the
Caribbean have on the nature of early jazz?

Introduction



Q 1. Discuss, analyze and compare the various CULTURAL ELEMENTS (defined as what
is unique to that particular culture or music) that contributed to the fusion that created jazz

African cultural elements
1. Blues notes
2. Improvisation
3. Polyrhythm
4. Syncopation
5. The swing note
6. Call and Response
7. Etc


European cultural elements
1. Harmony
2. Chord progression
3. Instruments used
4. Use of modes in modal jazz
5. etc

Common elements between African and European culture

1. Improvisation.. Create a contrast between different way of improvisation in african and
european culture.



Q2. How much did the proximity of OTHER strains of afro/ European culture in the Caribbean
have on the nature of early jazz?

1. The role of TRESILLO in shaping the rhythm of early jazz music
2. Spanish Tinge afro Cuban rhythm that shaped ragtime music
3. Discuss about Habanera and its influence in early jazz rhythm



















Introduction:

Jazz music originates at the beginning of the 20
th
century within the African American
communities of the southern part of the United States of America. It begins as a product of
combining European harmony and form elements with African music traditions by African
American. As the music develop and spread around the world, it has drawn on many different
cultural elements from around the world, giving rise to many distinctive styles such as Big
band swing in the 1910s, bebop from the mid 1940s down through afro-Cuban jazz and finally
in the recent years, Jazz fusion, nu jazz and jazz rock.

Lets take at the cultural elements that first shaped jazz:

In the 1810s the slave trade has brought almost half a million sub Saharan Africans to the
United States. These slave largely come from West Africa and the Greater Congo Basin.
They brought strong musical traditions with them. The rhythm had a counter-metric structure,
and reflected African speech patterns which is unlike European music tradition which has
strong emphasis on down beat on regular meter.

African Culture Elements:
1. The Blues
a. Blues is the name to both a musical form and a musical genre that originates
by the African American communities derived from spirituals, work songs ,
field hollers and chants. Stylistically, it is a combination of two song style
traditions in the west central Sudan: The Arabic song style characterized by
melisma, wavy intonation, pitch instabilities within a pentatonic framework
and the Ancient west central Sudan tradition characterized by simple rhythm
in regular meter but with off-beat accents. The African use of pentatonic scale
contributed to the development of blues notes in jazz. The blues notes is a
note played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for
expressive purposes.

b. Its impact to Jazz: The blues notes along with the blues scale continue to be
used as an improvisational tools till this day. The blues form, ubiquitous in
jazz, is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve bar
blues chord progression is the most common. The blues musical style, forms
and melodies for many standard song such as All blues by Miles Davis and
Nows the Time by Charlie Parker



2. Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more conflicting rhythms, that are not
readily perceived as deriving from another, or as simple manifestation of the same
meter
Polyrhythm exists in both Europeans and African music traditions. However, they are
very much different from each other. In traditional European rhythms, the most
fundamental parts typically emphasize the primary beats. By contrast, In rhythms of
sub-Saharan African origins, the most fundamental parts typically emphasize on the
secondary beats.

The 3:2 cross-rhythm
An example of an African polyrhythm is the 3:2 cross rhythm. It is the foundation
rhythm of most west African music.

Impact to jazz music:
In 1959, Mongo Santamaria recorded Afro Blue, the first jazz standard built upon a
typical African 6:4 cross-rhythm (Two cycles of 3:2). The song begins with the bass
playing 6 cross beats per each measure of 12/8