This week, I'm going to write about a crucial point in Jazz history. You can learn more about this era in "Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street" by Patrick Burke, a professor of mine at Wash U and a knowledgeable and insightful expert on the culture of Jazz (an opinion and shout out that is unsolicited, but much deserved). This week is part one, about the cultural occurrences that led to the beginning of Bebop. The next installment will be about the musicians and their personal inspirations for new musical expression.
Jazz music, along with all art forms, has developed expansively over time. During the World War II era however, Jazz went through its largest and most drastic advancements. The music had never changed so much as it did from Swing to Bebop. The Jazz scene was due for change, however. Swing had been the popular form for quite some time. But World War II hit the big band swing scene hard and made it difficult for bands to make enough money to continue. Because of supply rationing and the draft, everything, from sidemen to shellac for records, was in short supply. Finally, a ban by the American Federation of Musicians on the recording of instrumental music and an entertainment tax against the same instrumental music in 1944-45 made it nearly impossible for bands to survive. Many musicians went unemployed or into the army. The only bands left became desperate for audiences, since they could only perform live and could not record. These bands became bigger and heavier, and featured over-complicated, under-fulfilling arrangements. Jazz fans were losing their attachment to the increasingly poppy swing and were primed for something, anything, new.
A population of jazz fans, generally the older and whiter ones, took to the old New Orleans style and heralded characters such as Bunk Johnson and Sydney Bechet. They felt that Jazz had grown beyond it's means and intentions and should revert back to earlier styles. But a whole different generation of Jazz musicians, generally, young, black, and well educated, were out of organized groups and created the jam session, a nightly all-night rehearsal/performance in underground bars and clubs in New York City on 52nd street and in Harlem. These musicians were frustrated by the Jazz scene and the general state of America and needed to just be themselves. The early 40s presented the perfect breeding ground for what would come to be called Bebop.
These nightly jam sessions were more for the players than the audience, only a few recordings of any of these sessions exist. The musicians got the chance to play whatever they wanted, with whomever they wanted, for however long they wanted, without any restrictions from the public or record companies. Feeding off of each other, they broke musical boundaries and began to conceive of Jazz in a new way. No longer would they play strictly arranged, pleasing popular pieces. Instead they create their own style, highly sophisticated, extremely complicated, and very expressive.
I'll get more into the musical stylistic details in part 2, but I'm going to use two different recordings of the song After You've Gone, to highlight some of the differences in Jazz brought forth by the change in performance scenarios.
Benny Goodman was know as the 'King of Swing' and the reason why is immediately obvious as you hear the beginning of Goodman's recording of After You've Gone- the song has got a rhythm that makes you wanna move. It is, however, very organized. With the exception of the band leader, Benny Goodman, each individual musician operates as part of a section and always plays at the same time as his section mates, with the lone exception being the odd solo not taken by Goodman. The drums, bass, and piano form the rhythm section and retain a solely rhythmic function throughout the song. They pretty much maintain the swing beat, while the horn and wind sections either accompany a soloist or trade off playing the melody and harmony. Besides for the instrumentation, the song's arrangement is very strict and leaves very little room for individuality. The solos are all a prescribed number of measures and the horns and winds often play in a call-and-response pattern which leaves no room for alterations. The song is very pleasant and poppy, but doesn't have much depth or complication to it.
The second version of After You've Gone, by Charlie Parker, sounds immediately different from the first. This is a small group not a big band, so individual musicians took the role sections used to hold. The lone exception is the rhythm, which is still comprised of two members, a drum set and bass, but has lost the piano, which is now allowed to express its melodic side and play solos and accompaniments. The rhythm itself is driving and relentless, not made for dancing but instead to challenge the musicians' skill. Similarly, the solos are long and very difficult. The solos are split pretty evenly between the horn and wind players, who now solo exclusively and rarely accompany each other. They go on for a seemingly indeterminate amount of time- until the the soloist has said what he is going to say and is ready to move on. The rehearsal atmosphere of the jam session was largely responsible for this change in the approach to soloing. In big bands, musicians would have to compete with at least a dozen band mates for just 8 measures of soloing time in a song that was no longer than 4 minutes at a concert. But in a small group jam session, there were a lot more opportunities to solo, since there were only a few other soloists with whom you could split time and the all night the jam sessions meant that songs could go on for as long as the artists wanted.
This increased opportunity for expression combined with an increased influence to be expressive led the musicians to re-imagine how they played the music and lead to this drastic shift in the playing and conceiving of Jazz music. Before Bebop, Jazz was a thought of as a low-brow art form, an inferior style of dance music that was only for the poor and uneducated. But with the sophisticated shift in philosophy that accompanied bebop, Jazz became considered the cultured, heady, and hi-brow art it is thought of today.
Please check back next week for the next 'Music Monday' from SumofChange.com.
Please email me at Malasky@SumofChange.com for questions/comments/corrections/sources
Monday, November 23, 2009
Grow the Hope's House Meeting with Betsy Hoover of OFA
Yesterday, had you stopped by Sum Live Change between 2:00-4:00pm you would have stumbled upon our first ever live broadcast. We spend the afternoon in Bethesda, MD, at the home of David Hart, the founder of Grow the Hope (GTH). The guest speaker was Betsy Hoover, the Regional Director of Organizing for America (OFA 2.0).
I hope you enjoy the videos:
I hope you enjoy the videos:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Training Tuesday with the DFA: Email 2.0
No, I don't have some magical new email program for you, but I do have round two of our coverage from the Democracy for America Campaign Academy training on 'The Art of Email Engagement.' Last week we went over the Do's and Don'ts of emails, today we bring you 4 examples of good emails.
That's all we have for the Art of Email Engagement, please check back next Tuesday at 6:00pm for our next round of Training Tuesdays with the DFA when we will go over fundraising and making the ask.
That's all we have for the Art of Email Engagement, please check back next Tuesday at 6:00pm for our next round of Training Tuesdays with the DFA when we will go over fundraising and making the ask.
Hangin' with Benjamin Netanyahu and Rahm Emanuel at the UJC General Assembly
(Photo: Robert A. Cumins for UJC)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel addressed the UJC General Assembly last week at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, DC.
The two men come from heritages at once similar and starkly contrasting. Both hail from Israeli lineage and boast roots in the United States, but represent two vastly different world powers on opposite sides of the globe.
"The history of the Jewish people has been marked by a paraodox," Netanyahu told a ballroom filled with Jewish community and organizational leaders. "We are at once both small and great. We are few in number but luminous in achievement." However, the Prime Minister noted that the remarkability of the Jewish people's achievements "often masks [it's] small size and the vulnerability that comes."
Netanyahu called himself an optimist with nothing but the highest hopes for peace. "I am prepared to work for it," he stressed. "I pray that it will hold. But we must be prepared to protect ourselves if it doesn't."
Among the topics he discussed were Israel's right to defend itself, the importance of vigilance against Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons, and, interestingly, the need to reduce the international dependence on oil.
Emanuel's tone was slightly less formal, but none the less hit home many of the Prime Minister's points. He stressed that the United States is and will always be a friend to Israel.
Emanuel also noted that with his brother Ari, of Entourage fame, he would be taking his son and nephew to Israel this year for their bar mitzvahs.
Netanyahu and Emanuel spoke on Monday and Tuesday of last week respectively, so they were not present at the conference at the same time. However, Emanuel noted that the President and the Prime Minister had a "very positive" meeting at the White House, and that he strongly believed Netanyahu will be a partner in the peace process with the Palestinians.
According to the Politico, "Emanuel's positive public comments about the Israeli leader comes after long chatter in the Israeli press suggesting that Netanyahu considers Emanuel to be his personal tormenter and bete noire in the Obama White House."
Monday, November 16, 2009
'Carry, Go, Bring, Come' A Comparative History of Ska Music
I'm happy to be writing our first (of hopefully many) 'Music Monday' blog posts focused on the broad, deep, and beloved topic of, you guessed it, Music. Every Monday we'll be sharing little tidbits of musical magic that we come across from the annals of music history to the streets of DC (and wherever else we can afford to travel). We hope to write about a few of our musical interests, and we hope you enjoy them, but we also want you, the reader, to participate in the discussion and send in ideas for new posts and guest blogs. Saying we're writing about music once a week is about as specific as saying we're writing about nouns once a week, one at a time. I don't want to limit or exclude the genres we will or could be covering, but our musical topics (and interests) will develop over the next several weeks. We will be writing about everything from local performances and new groups to past artists and albums, to researched explanations and analysis of styles, which is where we will begin our introduction to Music Monday with a comparative history of Ska music using the song "Carry Go Bring Come"...
Ska is a high-energy music that combines several styles of music from Africa and the Americas while maintaining a distinct, independent attitude. The first wave of ska began in the 1960s in Jamaica. It spawned from traditional Jamaican folk music, called Mento, and American music, primarily Jazz and R&B, heard from high powered radio stations in New Orleans and Miami. Mento is responsible for the signature accentuation of the up beat, while Jazz affected the instrumentation and song layout of ska, and R&B was responsible for the rhythmic stress on the second and fourth beats of a 4/4 measure. First wave ska groups like Toots and the Maytals, Dandy Livingston, and Jimmy Cliff, were usually made up of a bass, a strummed guitar or banjo, and some sort of percussion, though usually not a full drum set, just whatever was available or affordable, typically hi-hat cymbals and a snare drum. On top of that, there would be a horn section, typically two musicians using either a saxophone, a trumpet, or a homemade horn. The vocals were either sung very clearly, usually when covering a top American hit, or, more often in a think Jamaican accent. There often were a couple of backup singers who sang relatively simple harmonies along with the lead vocalist or played the second part of a call and response pattern. The themes and subjects for the songs often revolved around living on the wrong side of the heavily socio-economically divided Jamaica of the 60s. Much of the music either stressed a unified Jamaican identity or the violent lifestyle of the repressed Rude Boys, who lived a vagrant lifestyle on the streets and countrysides of Jamaica.
Ska music in Jamaica mostly died out in the 1970s, as the slower Reggae style it birthed overtook it in popularity, but it regained popularity in the early 1980s when ska music found a new home across the Atlantic Ocean in England, known as second wave ska. Groups such as The Slackers, Judge Dread, and the Clash became popular with teenagers and young adults who, like the Rude Boys, felt rejected by popular society. These new Rude Boys took to one of two styles, either the poorer, leather coated skinheads or the richer, Two Tones, named aptly for their two toned garb of a single dark colored jacket, slacks, shoes, tie, and porkpie hat on top of a white shirt and socks. Though the two groups sometimes clashed philosophically, they were unified by the us-against-the-world attitude developed from the mixing of first wave ska with punk music and 80s rock music. The punk influence is most notable in the lyrics, which are yelled more than sung, and the beat, which is faster, more driving, and anchored in the drums. The vocals are cruder, expressing more base emotions. The backup vocals follow this style in several voices, sounding more like a gang supporting the lead voice, even when harmonizing. The instruments are more modern, well recorded, and electric, as there was more money and better equipment in London for recording than there was in a developing Jamaica. There is a well audible, complete drum set, as well as a generally larger horn section, often consisting of 3 to 4 musicians on saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. The bass and guitar were electrified and became more distinctive. Often an electric keyboard or organ was added to further develop and expand the sound.
The transition from Second Wave ska wasn’t as dramatic or difficult as the move towards it. Third wave ska is a much broader distinction than either the first or second wave, but it primarily refers to ska music found primarily in the United States from the 90s or later. It is such a broad category because it doesn’t refer to just one or two merging styles of music, but instead the merging of first and second wave ska with all different kinds of music. Included in its influences are many of the styles that helped create the earlier waves, especially Jazz music. Rock & roll, reggae, and 90s punk music also are very important influences, though third wave ska can draw from a variety of other styles, like funk, blues, Cuban, calypso, house, and even Irish folk and Klezmer music. Though the sound and instrumentation vary, the personality of fans stay constant, maintaining similar attitudes of the previous waves though not as pronounced and in a variety of ways. Though there isn’t one specific type of follower, like the rude boys, skin heads, or two tones, all of which do still exist in third wave fans, the audience is generally a fringe niche of the the average music listener. As I said, there are a wide variety of Ska groups, but some of my favorite are the Pietasters, the Slackers, the Toasters, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
For a comparative example, I'm going to use "Carry Go Bring Come" to highlight a few of the differences between the three waves. The song was first played by Justin Hinds and the Dominoes in Jamaica, but has been covered several times since then. I have chosen a version by Desmond Dekker and the Slackers for the Second Wave example and a version by Tony Greene for the Third Wave.
In the First Wave version by Justin Hinds and the Dominoes (which you can GET HERE FROM ITUNES), you can hear the simple arrangement of acoustic instruments. There appears to be a standup bass, a snare with single ride cymbal, and 3 horns, one that solos and harmonizes while the other two maintain the classic ska rhythm on the upbeat. Also present is some simple vocal accompaniment, which doesn't really harmonize like most vocals, but instead sounds like vocal reinforcement- two additional vocals singing the same thing as the main singer to accentuate, instead of accompanying it. The song clearly exhibits the upbeat mento dance feeling, but there is clear inspiration from Jazz in the horn solo.
The second wave version (which you can GET HERE FROM ITUNES) is by Desmond Dekker, one of the few first wave stars who continued into the second wave, and the Specials, possibly the best known second wave group. The addition of electronic instruments is evident from the very beginning of the song. An electric guitar has taken the responsibility of keeping the beat and the soloing horn sounds highly refined, if not outright synthesizer generated. The song on a whole is a lot more refined and clear, thanks in large part to better recording technology and a fuller drum set, which uses the quieter and more precise hi-hat cymbals to keep the rhythm instead of a louder and more resonant ride cymbal.
The Third Wave version by Tony Greene (which you can GET HERE FROM ITUNES) is clearly a lot more refined and better recorded than the First Wave version but it swings a lot more than the regimented sounding Second Wave version. The fusing musical style here is Jazz, which is evident by the fact that there are no vocals. The instrumentation is deeper, with several distinguishable instruments and multiple solos as opposed to the single solo in each of the previous two versions. Moreover, each instrument is more creative and playful and the song is more expansive and expressive expressive than the previous versions.
Ska is a high-energy music that combines several styles of music from Africa and the Americas while maintaining a distinct, independent attitude. The first wave of ska began in the 1960s in Jamaica. It spawned from traditional Jamaican folk music, called Mento, and American music, primarily Jazz and R&B, heard from high powered radio stations in New Orleans and Miami. Mento is responsible for the signature accentuation of the up beat, while Jazz affected the instrumentation and song layout of ska, and R&B was responsible for the rhythmic stress on the second and fourth beats of a 4/4 measure. First wave ska groups like Toots and the Maytals, Dandy Livingston, and Jimmy Cliff, were usually made up of a bass, a strummed guitar or banjo, and some sort of percussion, though usually not a full drum set, just whatever was available or affordable, typically hi-hat cymbals and a snare drum. On top of that, there would be a horn section, typically two musicians using either a saxophone, a trumpet, or a homemade horn. The vocals were either sung very clearly, usually when covering a top American hit, or, more often in a think Jamaican accent. There often were a couple of backup singers who sang relatively simple harmonies along with the lead vocalist or played the second part of a call and response pattern. The themes and subjects for the songs often revolved around living on the wrong side of the heavily socio-economically divided Jamaica of the 60s. Much of the music either stressed a unified Jamaican identity or the violent lifestyle of the repressed Rude Boys, who lived a vagrant lifestyle on the streets and countrysides of Jamaica.
Ska music in Jamaica mostly died out in the 1970s, as the slower Reggae style it birthed overtook it in popularity, but it regained popularity in the early 1980s when ska music found a new home across the Atlantic Ocean in England, known as second wave ska. Groups such as The Slackers, Judge Dread, and the Clash became popular with teenagers and young adults who, like the Rude Boys, felt rejected by popular society. These new Rude Boys took to one of two styles, either the poorer, leather coated skinheads or the richer, Two Tones, named aptly for their two toned garb of a single dark colored jacket, slacks, shoes, tie, and porkpie hat on top of a white shirt and socks. Though the two groups sometimes clashed philosophically, they were unified by the us-against-the-world attitude developed from the mixing of first wave ska with punk music and 80s rock music. The punk influence is most notable in the lyrics, which are yelled more than sung, and the beat, which is faster, more driving, and anchored in the drums. The vocals are cruder, expressing more base emotions. The backup vocals follow this style in several voices, sounding more like a gang supporting the lead voice, even when harmonizing. The instruments are more modern, well recorded, and electric, as there was more money and better equipment in London for recording than there was in a developing Jamaica. There is a well audible, complete drum set, as well as a generally larger horn section, often consisting of 3 to 4 musicians on saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. The bass and guitar were electrified and became more distinctive. Often an electric keyboard or organ was added to further develop and expand the sound.
The transition from Second Wave ska wasn’t as dramatic or difficult as the move towards it. Third wave ska is a much broader distinction than either the first or second wave, but it primarily refers to ska music found primarily in the United States from the 90s or later. It is such a broad category because it doesn’t refer to just one or two merging styles of music, but instead the merging of first and second wave ska with all different kinds of music. Included in its influences are many of the styles that helped create the earlier waves, especially Jazz music. Rock & roll, reggae, and 90s punk music also are very important influences, though third wave ska can draw from a variety of other styles, like funk, blues, Cuban, calypso, house, and even Irish folk and Klezmer music. Though the sound and instrumentation vary, the personality of fans stay constant, maintaining similar attitudes of the previous waves though not as pronounced and in a variety of ways. Though there isn’t one specific type of follower, like the rude boys, skin heads, or two tones, all of which do still exist in third wave fans, the audience is generally a fringe niche of the the average music listener. As I said, there are a wide variety of Ska groups, but some of my favorite are the Pietasters, the Slackers, the Toasters, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
For a comparative example, I'm going to use "Carry Go Bring Come" to highlight a few of the differences between the three waves. The song was first played by Justin Hinds and the Dominoes in Jamaica, but has been covered several times since then. I have chosen a version by Desmond Dekker and the Slackers for the Second Wave example and a version by Tony Greene for the Third Wave.
In the First Wave version by Justin Hinds and the Dominoes (which you can GET HERE FROM ITUNES), you can hear the simple arrangement of acoustic instruments. There appears to be a standup bass, a snare with single ride cymbal, and 3 horns, one that solos and harmonizes while the other two maintain the classic ska rhythm on the upbeat. Also present is some simple vocal accompaniment, which doesn't really harmonize like most vocals, but instead sounds like vocal reinforcement- two additional vocals singing the same thing as the main singer to accentuate, instead of accompanying it. The song clearly exhibits the upbeat mento dance feeling, but there is clear inspiration from Jazz in the horn solo.
The second wave version (which you can GET HERE FROM ITUNES) is by Desmond Dekker, one of the few first wave stars who continued into the second wave, and the Specials, possibly the best known second wave group. The addition of electronic instruments is evident from the very beginning of the song. An electric guitar has taken the responsibility of keeping the beat and the soloing horn sounds highly refined, if not outright synthesizer generated. The song on a whole is a lot more refined and clear, thanks in large part to better recording technology and a fuller drum set, which uses the quieter and more precise hi-hat cymbals to keep the rhythm instead of a louder and more resonant ride cymbal.
The Third Wave version by Tony Greene (which you can GET HERE FROM ITUNES) is clearly a lot more refined and better recorded than the First Wave version but it swings a lot more than the regimented sounding Second Wave version. The fusing musical style here is Jazz, which is evident by the fact that there are no vocals. The instrumentation is deeper, with several distinguishable instruments and multiple solos as opposed to the single solo in each of the previous two versions. Moreover, each instrument is more creative and playful and the song is more expansive and expressive expressive than the previous versions.
The combining of music styles in the third wave has helped to broaden the base of ska fans and also popularize ska music itself, bringing awareness, popularity, and interest from fans, such as myself, to its history and the earlier waves. By explaining and hearing some of the differences, I hope that you can better understand and determine the diversity of Ska music our there and appreciate it as much as I do.
Please email me at Malasky@SumofChange.com for more info, questions, corrections, and/or citations.
Please email me at Malasky@SumofChange.com for more info, questions, corrections, and/or citations.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Six Months Ago Today
Dear Reader,Six months ago today, Will Urquhart and I sat in my basement and signed the paperwork to officially create Sum of Change Productions, LLC. With nothing but a camera and a couple laptops, we set out to use our respective political organizing and documentary production experiences to build a multimedia company that explains and discusses the most relevant issues of society in a simple yet substantial way. Thanks to you, our first six months have yielded over 125 independently produced videos that have been viewed over 50,000 times collectively. On this anniversary we would like to thank you for helping us reach these milestones.
Though I am very appreciateve for the support, I would like to ask for your continued help in order to grow our email list. Please send a message to 10 friends who you think would appreciate our material and ask them to join our email list.
I'm proud that our videos have been featured on NPR, The Nation, Daily Kos, and The Huffington Post, but we are working to directly share our films with our viewers. It is through these personal connections that we are able to learn about important ideas and movements and make them more accessible. We want to expand the scope, depth, and influence of our coverage and your grassroots support will help us to do so.
We would like you to send this message to 10 socially conscious friends and ask them to join our email list. Tell them why you follow us and why they should too.
By doing so, you will help us reach our goals for the next six months of tripling our email list and breaking 150,000 views. With your continued support, we plan on increasing our output and effectiveness, expanding our network of contributing editors and eventually launching a user generated blog, so that people all over the world can share their own stories.
Please send this to 10 friends and ask them to join our email list. You'll not only be helping us grow, but you'll be building a grassroots network that can affect real change in America.
Thanks again for your continued support. I am proud and honored to have you with us.
Mitch Malasky
Managing Partner - Sum of Change
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Training Tuesday with the DFA: The Art of Email Engagement
"Successful emails will build your online community, increase activism, and raise you money. It is also the fastest most accessible way to send your message out to supporters... Compared to the other online strategies, email is by far the most effective strategy to inspire action and raise money."
-from Democracy for America's Campaign Academy Training Manual
The Art of Email Engagement.: In the last five or ten years, email has exploded as a campaign strategy and, without question, Democracy for America (DFA) has led the way on running effective email programs. We were fortunate enough to get to sit in on a DFA Campaign Academy training on the art of email engagement. Today, we bring you the top five email Do's and Don'ts according to Matt Blizek:
Do's Part 1:
Do's Part 2:
For those of you wondering about Zephyr Teachout's other best practices and tips for emails we turn to page 139 of the training manual (You don't have a training manual? Well you'll have to attend a training next year):
Zephyr Teachout's Tips and Best Practices for Emails
• Draft drunk, edit sober.
• Aim for the amazing. Shoot for the moon, and if some fall flat, so be it.
• Tell a story! Each email is a short story with a moral.
• Think in images! Plunge people into a world. Make your message visceral.
• Read your emails out loud to someone before sending them. Reading out loud will force the cadence.
• Experiment! Be willing to try new stuff and fail. It's a relationship - push the limits.
• Involve a short-term narrative. i.e., a 5 email series in which something from the last email is always engaged - this is a serial publication, and a connection from one email to the next - storytelling over time - is one of your strongest suits for establishing a connection.
• Imagine yourself writing TO someone at all times. Never address a crowd - address a member of the crowd. If you wouldn't send this email to a friend, why not?
• Length doesn't matter - should fit the purpose of the email. That said, when in doubt, be very short.
• Use short punchy paragraphs.
• Link early and often. The same link over and over. In this way it is like a poem or song with a refrain.
• Write for a 7th grade reading level - people read fast online. It will improve your writing, making you less abstract, more concrete, and with fewer clauses.
And last, but certainly not least, the Don'ts:
That's all for this week. Next week we'll have a second round of videos from the Art of Email Engagement, just check back at the Sum of Change Training Tuesday web page at 6:00pm next Tuesday! Oh, and speaking of emails, you can always sign up to receive email updates from Sum of Change!
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