Jelly Roll Morton - Style, Background and 2 piece analysis
- Created by: Penny Martin
- Created on: 06-06-15 11:10
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- Jelly Roll Morton
- Background
- Creole Pianist
- 1890-1941
- first major jazz composer, who blended blues and ragtime styles
- Left NO in 1908, played in Cali 1917-1923, then Chicago and moved to New York in '28
- Red Hot Chilli Pepper band - orchestrated Ragtime, although rich in decoration - tonal variety, creative dynamics
- Style
- Formed from early secondary ragtime and 'shout'
- Close to barrelhouse which produced boogie woogie
- Played melody in right thumb, with harmonies above - rustic/out of tune sound - dim5th
- Walked in major and minor 6ths with basic swing rhythms
- Formed from early secondary ragtime and 'shout'
- Jelly Roll Blues (1915)
- 12 bar blues with written variations
- Places blues into Rag-like structure
- Blues intro, with trumpet fanfare
- Piano introduction with banjo playing chords
- Section A begins with 4 bar phrase
- descending phrase trumpet to trombone
- Clarinet plays trills high again like sidewalk
- 3 times trill is played, last time on a very low register of clarinet
- clarinet solo begins on low register with just rhythm section for 6 bars then other band members join, this happens twice clarinet slowly ascends in pitch.
- clarinet solo begins on low register with just rhythm section for 6 bars then other band members join, this happens twice clarinet slowly ascends in pitch.
- Piano solo has all band backing stabs, until 6 bars in , all band play polyphonic again
- Sidewalk Blues (1926)
- Captures many of the features of Morton's pioneering jazz style.
- Instrumentation - Dixieland
- Frontline: trumpet trombone and clarinet
- rhythm: piano, banjo and tuba (or string bass)
- Brisk tempo, 4/4, swing/shuffle - short (succinct) intro - 3 melodic intruments play unaccomp 2 bar phrase
- order of trombone, trumpet and clarinet - final bar - idiomatic high trill on clari (dominant
- Repeatition of the opening 2 bar phrase (varied final note) use of first 4 notes transposed up a 4th for next phrase (change to IV)
- staccato chords in band are DISPLACED on 2nd and 4th beats
- Change to standard blues progression
- bass moves down stepwise, half way through bar 7 - lead to Cmaj
- Secondary dominant to Chord II at the start of the final phrase
- bass moves down stepwise, half way through bar 7 - lead to Cmaj
- some improvisory development - polyphonic
- second half of piece moves to subdominant key and is more lyric in nature with longer sustained notes in the melodic in lines
- bends into notes,use of polyphnoic lines and call and response between rhythm section and frontline
- second half of piece moves to subdominant key and is more lyric in nature with longer sustained notes in the melodic in lines
- Background
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