3 Bebop and Modernism - Student Reproducible Activity 2

ACTIVITY TWO: LISTEN UP!

Listening One

Listen to the following musical excerpts. Note the similarities or differences between bebop and cool jazz, considering musical characteristics such as: (1) instruments, (2) articulation, (3) use of vibrato, (4) dynamics, (5) timbre, (6) phrasing, and (7) rhythmic devices (see the Glossary (link to Lesson 3 Glossary), for definitions).

Bebop: Charlie Parker’s Reboppers, “Ko Ko”
Cool Jazz: Miles Davis Nonet, “Boplicity”
Gerry Mulligan Quartet, “Bernie’s Tune” (with Chet Baker)
Dave Brubeck Quartet, “Take 5”

Listening Two

Bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop jazz soloists expanded the jazz vocabulary in the 1940s and 1950s. Their innovations, however, were solidly built upon the work of their jazz predecessors. Listen to the following excerpted trumpet solos. Describe similarities and differences in timbre, phrasing, articulation, use of vibrato, range, dynamics, rhythmic devices, and interaction with other musicians.

Louis Armstrong, “West End Blues”
Roy Eldridge, “Rockin’ Chair ”
Dizzy Gillespie, “Shaw ’Nuff”
Miles Davis, “If I Were a Bell”
Clifford Brown, “Blues Walk”

Listening Three

Vocalists have always played an integral role in the shaping of jazz. Their moans, cries, bent notes, and timbral shadings have long been imitated by instrumentalists. And vocalists, in turn, have often turned their voices into instruments, improvising new melodies with scat syllables of every variety. Listen to the following examples of vocal jazz. Describe similarities and differences in timbre, phrasing, diction, treatment of the lyrics, use of vibrato, range, dynamics, and interaction with other musicians. Do changes in vocal styles reflect innovations in instrumental jazz and vice versa?

Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, “St. Louis Blues”
Louis Armstrong, “Lazy River”
Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”
Ella Fitzgerald, “How High the Moon”
Sarah Vaughan, “Shulie a Bop”