Hanes Jazz a Chrefyddau

Jazz embodies the notion of America, a melting pot of many styles, cultures, and arts.
Early Jazz blended elements from West Africa, America, and Europe.
A majority of slaves in America came from West Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria, and other countries.

West African musical traits are prevalent in Jazz.
These traits include improvisation, drumming, percussive sounds, and complex rhythms.
The "Call and Response" technique is crucial to both West African music and early Jazz.

The forced migration of West African peoples to America, separated from their families and tribes, significantly impacted American cultural development.
Enslaved people were often forced to work in extremely difficult conditions on Southern plantations.
Music was a common means of entertainment or a diversion from the hardships of daily life.

Like many early African-American musical traditions, spirituals were shared orally, passed down through generations.
While appearing to be sacred, many spirituals contained coded messages and symbolized hopes for freedom.
These hidden messages often pertained to escape attempts or the "Underground Railroad".

Many spirituals, surface-level, contain sacred concepts and intentions, but often have underlying or hidden messages about freedom.
Their message was to be interpreted on both the surface and through deeper meaning.
Often these messages were covert methods amongst one another, or to help those looking for escape.

Early Jazz was influenced by music from "white" America, encompassing genres like hymns, popular songs, folk tunes, dances, marches, and piano music.

The American band tradition played a significant role in the development of jazz.
Bands (both black and white) played important roles in American life, performing at community events like fairs, picnics, parades, political rallies, dances, and carnivals.
Instruments employed in many bands (such as the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, tuba and drums) heavily influenced the instrumentation of early jazz bands.

Ragtime is a style of composed piano music popular from the 1890s to the 1910s, rooted in European marches and dances with rhythms of African-American folk music.
African-American composers and pianists, travelling in the Midwest and South, significantly played in saloons and dance halls, which greatly helped spread the popularity of Ragtime.
Selling sheet music contributed greatly to the genre's popularity.

A famous ragtime pianist and composer, hailed as the "King of Ragtime".
He produced well-known works like "The Entertainer" and "Maple Leaf Rag", the latter naming the popular saloon where he worked in Sedalia, Missouri.
He produced a ballet and 2 operas.

From 1900-1917, Jazz developed and New Orleans served as the major center of this development.
Important Jazz Musicians of the time, including Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, Joseph "King" Oliver, and Louis Armstrong ("Satchmo"), originated from the city.
New Orleans, as a major port and trade hub, thrived both culturally and economically.
New Orleans had an extremely diverse population, including people of African, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Italian, and Cuban ancestry

Storyville, the "red-light district" of New Orleans, was a hotbed of jazz activity.
The brothels, gambling joints, saloons, and dancehalls of the district frequently employed musicians.
Storyville provided an environment that fostered musical innovation and experimentation.
This activity, however was cut short in 1917 when Storyville was shut down. After this the center of jazz activity moved to cities such as Chicago, Kansas City and New York.

Dixieland, characterized by small ensembles (5-8 performers), featured melodic instruments (trumpet, clarinet, and trombone).
Composers and musicians commonly used improvisation, resulting in complex polyphonic music and contrasting melodies.
A rhythm section bolstered the melodic instruments, maintaining the beat and providing chordal accompaniment (drums, banjo, guitar, piano, bass or tuba).

Jazz, unlike other music in the 20th century, is too diverse to be defined by a single formula.
Elements common to pre-1950 jazz include tone color, improvisation, rhythm, melody, and harmony.

Improvisation is central to Jazz, with musicians creating original music spontaneously.
Most Jazz songs include a combination of both pre-composed and improvised sections.
Improvisation is often based on a musical theme or melody, with musicians taking the original composition and developing unique variations of it.

Syncopation and rhythmic swing are key distinguishing features of Jazz.
Syncopation occurs when the emphasis shifts from the beat to the space between the beats.
Jazz melodies are flexible in pitch and rhythm. Jazz performers deviate from notated rhythm and/or pitch, often lowering the 3rd, 5th, or 7th note to create a bent or blue tone.

Bebop, a complex style of jazz music, developed in the early 1940s, predominantly for smaller groups in jazz clubs.
Bebop musicians were sometimes viewed as a "special" group, as the style differed from the established patterns of swing music.
Clubs in Harlem, NY were a hotbed of Bop activity, featuring musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie.

A towering figure in Bebop music, known for his improvisational skills and original compositions for the saxophone.
Charlie Parker originated from Kansas City and developed their skills through the local jazz scene.
Charlie Parker's career was marred by personal problems, including his struggle with drug addiction and other issues.

Cool Jazz, an emerging Jazz approach in the late 1940s and 50s, distinguished by a more relaxed character from Bebop.
Cool Jazz pieces, typically of longer lengths, were frequently accompanied by arrangements from other musicians.
Composers of the era explored less common instrumentations, like the French horn, flute, and cello.

Miles Davis, pioneering musician, made a name for himself in multiple jazz genres, particularly Bebop, Cool Jazz, and Jazz Fusion.
He made lasting contributions across all 3 of these categories and was a major figure in Jazz history.

The early stages of rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, greatly affected jazz compositions, instrumental approaches and instrumentation.
Musicians began blending rock and jazz characteristics, encompassing amplified instruments (guitars, keyboards), and rock rhythms and harmonies into their compositions.
Jazz Rock was expanded through an evolution into different ethnic sounds, like those of African, Latin American and Middle Eastern origins (and others)

The various presentation slides contained detailed information of the life, works and styles of famous figures across several Jazz eras. This included famous figures like Scott Joplin, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller, who contributed significantly to the different Jazz movements and sub-genres over time.