Blue Horizon

Overview

The history of jazz rightly begins in the city of New Orleans. In this section, we will learn about great New Orleans jazz musicians and their early recordings in Chicago. In the process, will also learn about the emerging Chicago jazz scene and some of the artists from that area who helped develop early jazz musical styles. Finally, we will do a short overview of early jazz in New York.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to do the following:

Define collective improvisation
Identify early jazz musicians and their contribution to jazz music
Appreciate the significance of Dixieland jazz
Recognize the impact Chicago had for musicians of early jazz
Recognize the growing importance of New York for further developments in jazz
Define chord substitutions

Sidney Bechet's career languished for the greater part of the 1930s. During those year, he made his principal living as a tailor in New York City. However, the 1940s witnessed a renewed popularity of early jazz styles, including the New Orleans style that Bechet had helped pioneer. Bechet enjoyed a career revival during that decade. He relocated to France in 1950 and lived out his life there, enjoying tremendous popularity in his adopted country.

From Bechet's last decade in the United States, we hear a traditional style modified to accommodate the solo artistry of this early jazz master. In a slow blues composition by Bechet himself, he performs on clarinet, rather than his preferred soprano saxophone. We hear a marvelously "blues-drenched" performance from an artist who has reached full maturity, his manner assured.

Over six blues choruses, Bechet slowly develops his original tune, reaching into the upper register climactically in the fourth (2:09) and sixth choruses (3:36). Note especially the rich, full sound of his long, sustained high notes, as well as his flawless, expressive mastery of pitch bending. Let's listen now to Sidney Bechet in a performance of Blue Horizon ♫.

Sidney Bechet and His Blue Note Jazzmen, Blue Horizon ♫ (Sidney Bechet), New York, December 20, 1944. Sidney Bechet, clarinet; Sidney De Paris, trumpet; Vic Dickenson, trombone; Art Hodes, piano; George "Pops" Foster, bass; Manzie Johnson, drums.

"The humor of jazz is rich and many-sided. Some of it is obvious enough to make a dog laugh. Some is subtle, wry-mouthed, or back-handed. It is by turns bitter, agonized, and grotesque. Even in the hands of white composers it involuntarily reflects the half-forgotten suffering of the negro. Jazz has both white and black elements, and each in some respects has influenced the other. It's recent phase seems to throw the light of the white race's sophistication upon the anguish of the black."

-Bix Beiderbecke

"Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what Einstein is to physics."

-Ken Burns

Louis Armstrong was cast in the 1936 film Pennies from Heaven, starring Bing Crosby. This led to frequent appearances in TV and film, adding to his fame.

Songfacts