with synthesizers and electric piano, guitar, and bass. The Percussion section includes instruments from Africa, Latin America or India. A major figure in the development of Jazz-Rock was the trumpeter Miles Davis. Jazz features syncopation and improvisation. Improvisation is considered the key to Jazz. Jazz is written but it cannot be read and played, you must feel it. It must be internalized, it cannot be structured. Jazz has lots of flexibility in rhythm and pitch. It has a complex and sophisticated harmony. Blues is an important source of Jazz. Blues grew out of African American folk music, like spirituals and field hollers of slaves. Blues became music art in 1890. It has no standard form. It is music that tell about life. It was developed as a way of coping with being black and poor. There are three forms of Blues. Rural Blues which is basic blues in words and instrumentation. Classic Blues, where women were the main singers but had a group of males to accompany. Bessie Smith was considered the Emperor of Blues. Urban Blues came about after WWII; it grew up in Chicago and used amplified music. Aaron “T Bone’’ Walker invented this Blues in 1940. Riley Boyd “B. B. King” made Urban Blues popular. Rock music and Gospel came out of Blues. Ragtime is black music composed for piano. It was popular in 1890-1915. It is music that is composed and printed as sheet music to enable blacks and whites to have access to it. It was adapted to dance and marching band music. It has European form and gets its rhythm from the African Americans. The king of Ragtime was Scott Joplin. His favorite piece is the popular “The Entertainer.” This piece is a favorite of mine. Spiritual came about in the late 1700’s. It was music that was created in the Invisible Church (Secret Church of slaves.) These folk Spirituals had hidden messages encoded, slaves came to know Jesus th...
