What's the Difference Between Hot Jazz, Trad jazz, New Orleans Jazz, and 1920's Jazz?

Hi Jazz Fans,

A lot of people ask me what the difference between trad jazz, dixieland jazz, hot jazz, and 20's jazz etc. The answer is that now a-days they are used pretty much interchangeably, however within this genre, there are some notably different styles.

Side Note Before We Start: POLYPHONY in the horns does NOT equal trad jazz. Combos played polyphony well into the swing era - swing does not necessarily mean arranged horns.

To illustrate, we're going to look at some different recordings of the song "Royal Garden Blues" but first let's set out some definitions so we'll both be on the same page: (keep in mind, we're drawing some general lines, there are still people making all these kinds of music and there's music that is fuzzy between different styles).

20's Jazz - Jazz from the 1920's. Examples: Louis Armstrong's Hot 5, King Oliver, Bix and Tram, Fletcher Henderson's first band, Jelly Roll Morton, etc.

Swing Music - Music which has the feel of the music from the Swing Era (late 20's-early 40's: see "the rhythm of the train" post for more details) Examples: 30's Basie, 30's/early 40's Goodman Orchestra/Combos, 2nd Fletcher Henderson Band, Chick Webb, Fats Waller and his Rhythm etc.

Bebop - Music that was simultaneously a reaction against swing music and the next step past it. Music that in many ways rejected dancing (though not entirely). More focused on harmony and on the horns than swing music which focuses on a steady rhythm. (Dizzy, Charlie Parker, Kenny Clark, Max Roach, Miles Davis, etc)

Post-Swing Music: The graveyard of the big bands. 50's + 60's Basie and Ellington, Woody Herman. Music from musicians who didn't really want to play bop but felt like they had to incorporate certain elements of it. Does not have the train feel that swing music has (seriously read the post on the train), but is instead focused on elaborate arrangements. The music big bands made after both the public and the hip musicians and listeners stopped caring that they were making it.

Straight ahead jazz: What you hear when you go to most jazz clubs. Examples: Diana Krall, Oscar Peterson, Joshua Redman, everything you heard played at swing dances between 2001 and 2004. Not Dance Music. Let me repeat that: NOT DANCE MUSIC.

Trad. Jazz Revival - the turn back towards tune popular in the 1920's and other tunes written in the same style. More simplistic harmonies, both a turn back away from swing and bop, but at the same time with heavy influences of swing music, bebop, post-swing music, and straight ahead jazz. Examples: the majority (though not all) of the trad jazz you hear today).

OK so now for the examples.

Let's start in the late 20's with Bix Beiderbecke doing Royal Garden Blues. This is some authentic 1920's stuff, It's just so damned good. It never feels rushed ahead, it's always cool and tasteful.



Note the 2 beat feel, it's easy, not strained. There is breath in the music and it's done with taste. Why no one wants to play in this style anymore is beyond me. This has a great feel for a black bottom or a slow Charleston, though I'd say it's pre-lindy hop for sure.

OK Here's Ted Lewis from 1931. This recording has Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, Muggsie Spanier and a wealth of other great players.



Again, easy, relaxed, laid back, but still on top of the beat, and HOT.


Next a more modern recording, but of a band staying fairly true to the authentic 20's style. (Leave it to a band with Marty Grosz to do it right.) Laid back and easy. The big drawback on this recording is that the bass sax is awfully loud.




OK. So those are groups playing in the 20's/early 30's style. Now, in the early 40's "dixieland jazz" or the jazz of the 20's made a comeback, it had changed. It didn't sound like the laid back Chicago bands, or the stomping but squarer New Orleans bands (if jazz was born in New Orleans, it went through puberty in Chicago, the differences between these two styles are probably best left for another post). So what caused this change? Swing and Bop. Before we go on to the Trad Jazz Revival, let's look at a few swing and bop recordings of this tune so we can hear what the mainstream music was that influenced the trad jazz revival.


Here's Tommy Dorsey, from 1936. Here they still keep a little of that relaxed Chicago-i-ness, it definitely sounds earlier than '36 in some ways especially right at the top, but listen for the influence of Boogie Woogie as it goes on, and of course the arranged big band sound. In the rhythm section, the beats are now more even instead of the boom-chick boom-chick that you had in the 20's, you've got boom-boom-boom-boom on all 4 beats - swing.



Goodman, Charlie Christian, Basie, Cootie- SWINGIN' the hell out of it.
http://popup.lala.com/popup/1873778995213684735

Ok here comes the Count. 4 to the bar. There is nothing trad about this recording. Especially when the sax solo starts and Jo Jones comes in with that big fat cymbal (may be just the hi-hat open extra wide). If anything it's pushing its way into bop in some places.



Here's a great version that's on the line between Swing and Bop from John Kirby. I'll call it mannerist swing, it's not quite bop yet and still feels great to dance to.



OK Here's Ellington from 1946. It's still swing, but with a decisively modern edge to it, it's not really pushing toward bop, but it's starting to push toward post-swing-era music.

http://popup.lala.com/popup/505247669387822230


Bop. I can't find a be-bop recording of Royal Garden Blues online. So let's just quickly listen to one of the fathers of bop drumming, Kenny Clarke:



Note that when he plays behind the other guys that the ride cymbal is keeping the time and he's using the rest of the set to create accents. Bop is when the ride cymbal took over (see previous post on the ride cymbal), but remember that this is NEW in the early 40's with bop, the same time that the trad revival started.

Here's Eddie Condon's band from the 1960's. Followed by a link to Louis Armstrong also from the 1960's.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJS-nKHquaQ (sorry no embedding on this one)

The horn solos are pretty hot, but the rhythm is all wrong. It doesn't breathe, I've heard heavy metal music with more subtlety. This kind of music bores me to dance to and bores me to listen to. The interesting things about bop music are the hits, the breaks in the rhythm while the ride keeps time, and the complex harmonies, the broken phrases.

So we've taken out the interesting parts of bop, and just left the constant ride cymbal and melodic walking bass, and we've taken the interesting parts out about swing which are the train rhythm, the laid back feel and the arrangements, and we've taken out the interesting parts about 20's jazz which are the relaxed but hot feel and the subtleties (and also the 2 beat feel from the 20's, boom-chick boom-chick is GONE).

This is clearly not the same music that people played in the 20's or in the 30's. This is, unfortunately the tradition that's been kept alive and it's the style that most trad. or dixieland bands play in today. Why? Because it's how we teach bass players and drummers, and pianists to play cause everyone cuts their teeth on bop and straight ahead jazz.

Most importantly, if you're reading this and you're a dancer, this is not dance music. It was never intended to be danced to, in fact be-bop was influenced greatly by musicians railing against playing for dancers because they weren't being appreciated as artists by the dancers. Even guys like Condon who were around in the 20's were trying to "legitimize jazz" and take it from the saloons into the concert halls where people would sit and listen to them and not dance.

< rant > Playing dance music is an art in itself and I think many musicians are foolish not to recognize that. I think many dancers, however, propagate this problem by remaining ignorant about the music they dance to. Trying to dance the lindy hop to music it doesn't fit with is like putting a square peg in a round hole.

Also: "I just like to move to the music, I don't really care what it is" doesn't equate to "I'm a free spirit and just love the feeling of movement, all music is wonderful cause it's amazing", it actually equates to "Shucks Ma, why's I got to learn to read, I just likes lookin at the picters." If you're not dancing to the music (or not deliberately dancing NOT to the music for our modern dance friends), you're not dancing, you're just moving around - take an aerobics class.< /rant >


OK so now for a few more modern bands. I'm not going to post anything here about the styles, since some of these folks are alive. Some of these recordings I like the style, some I don't, some I have mixed feelings on. I'll let you make your own judgments.









Cheers,
Glenn


www.bluerhythmband.net
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