Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, along with country music. While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. According to Greg Kot, "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the U. S. in the 1950s prior to its development by the mid-1960s into "the more encompassing international style known as rock music, though the latter continued to be known as rock and roll." For the purpose of differentiation, this article deals with the first definition. In the earliest rock and roll styles, either the piano or saxophone was the lead instrument, but these instruments were replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s; the beat is a dance rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, always provided by a snare drum.
Classic rock and roll is played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, a drum kit. Beyond a musical style and roll, as seen in movies, in fan magazines, on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion and language. In addition and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teenagers enjoyed the music, it went on to spawn various genres without the characteristic backbeat, that are now more called "rock music" or "rock". The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage; the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the other hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s and developed "into the more encompassing international style known as rock music"; the phrase "rocking and rolling" described the movement of a ship on the ocean, but was used by the early twentieth century, both to describe the spiritual fervor of black church rituals and as a sexual analogy.
Various gospel and swing recordings used the phrase before it became used more – but still intermittently – in the 1940s, on recordings and in reviews of what became known as "rhythm and blues" music aimed at a black audience. In 1934, the song "Rock and Roll" by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term "rock-and-roll" to describe upbeat recordings such as "Rock Me" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the "Rock and Roll Inn" in South Merchantville, New Jersey, was established as a music venue. In 1951, Ohio, disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it; the origins of rock and roll have been fiercely debated by historians of music. There is general agreement that it arose in the Southern United States – a region that would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts – through the meeting of various influences that embodied a merging of the African musical tradition with European instrumentation.
The migration of many former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. Louis, New York City, Chicago and Buffalo meant that black and white residents were living in close proximity in larger numbers than before, as a result heard each other's music and began to emulate each other's fashions. Radio stations that made white and black forms of music available to both groups, the development and spread of the gramophone record, African-American musical styles such as jazz and swing which were taken up by white musicians, aided this process of "cultural collision"; the immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues called "race music", country music of the 1940s and 1950s. Significant influences were jazz, gospel and folk. Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African-American rhythm and blues for a white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms. In the 1930s, swing, both in urban-based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing, were among the first music to present African-American sounds for a predominantly white audience.
One noteworthy example of a jazz song with recognizably rock and roll elements is Big Joe Turner with pianist Pete Johnson's 1939 single Roll'Em Pete, regarded as an important precursor of rock and roll. The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics and boogie woogie beats in jazz-based music. During and after World War II, with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars and drums. In the same period on the West Coast and in the Midwest, the development of jump blues, with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many developments. In the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock'n' Roll, Keith Richards proposes that Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to the electric guitar, creatin
Illinois Jacquet
Jean-Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo. Although he was a pioneer of the honking tenor saxophone that became a regular feature of jazz playing and a hallmark of early rock and roll, Jacquet was a skilled and melodic improviser, both on up-tempo tunes and ballads, he doubled on one of only a few jazz musicians to use the instrument. Jacquet was born to a Black Creole mother and father, named Marguerite Trahan and Gilbert Jacquet, in Louisiana and moved to Houston, Texas, as an infant, was raised there as one of six siblings, his father was a part-time bandleader. As a child he performed in his father's band on the alto saxophone, his older brother Russell Jacquet played his brother Linton played drums. At 15, Jacquet began playing with a Houston-area dance band. In 1939, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Nat King Cole. Jacquet would sit in with the trio on occasion.
In 1940, Cole introduced Jacquet to Lionel Hampton who had returned to California and was putting together a big band. Hampton asked the young Jacquet to switch to tenor saxophone. In 1942, at age 19, Jacquet soloed on the Hampton Orchestra's recording of "Flying Home", one of the first times a honking tenor sax was heard on record; the record became a hit. The song became the climax for the live shows and Jacquet became exhausted from having to "bring down the house" every night; the solo was built to weave in and out of the arrangement and continued to be played by every saxophone player who followed Jacquet in the band, notably Arnett Cobb and Dexter Gordon, who achieved as much fame as Jacquet in playing it. It is one of the few jazz solos to have been memorized and played much the same way by everyone who played the song, he joined Cab Calloway's Orchestra. Jacquet appeared with Cab Calloway's band in Lena Horne's movie Stormy Weather. In the earlier years of Jacquet's career, his brother Linton Jacquet managed him on the chitlin circuit Linton's daughter Brenda Jacquet-Ross sang in jazz venues in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s to early 2000s, with a band called the Mondo Players.
In 1944, Illinois Jacquet returned to California and started a small band with his brother Russell and a young Charles Mingus. It was at this time that he appeared in the Academy Award-nominated short film Jammin' the Blues with Lester Young, he appeared at the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert. In 1946, he moved to New York City, joined the Count Basie orchestra, replacing Lester Young. In 1952 Jacquet co-wrote'Just When We're Falling in Love'. Jacquet continued to perform in small groups through the 1970s. Jacquet led the Illinois Jacquet Big Band from 1981 until his death. Jacquet became the first jazz musician to be an artist-in-residence at Harvard University, in 1983, he played "C-Jam Blues" with President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn during Clinton's inaugural ball in 1993. Jacquet's final performance was on July 2004, at the Lincoln Center in New York. Jacquet died in his home in Queens, New York of a heart attack on July 22, 2004, he was 84 years of age. He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in The New York City.
His solos of the early and mid-1940s and his performances at the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series influenced rhythm and blues and rock and roll saxophone style, but continue to be heard in jazz. His honking and screeching emphasized the higher registers of the tenor saxophone. Despite a superficial rawness, the style is still heard in skilled jazz players like Arnett Cobb, who became famous for playing "Flying Home" with Hampton, as well as Sonny Rollins, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Jimmy Forrest. Jacquet pushed back against Jim Crow laws in Houston. After booking his band to play at the Rice Hotel, he protested against management's rule that African-Americans should enter the premises through an alley door, he issued an ultimatum: either allow his all-black orchestra to access the hotel through the main entrance or he would cancel the engagement. The Rice Hotel agreed to suspend the Jim Crow rule for Jacquet's band. After leaving Houston to tour the United States and several other countries, Jacquet contemplated the manner in which he would return: I love Houston, Texas....
This is. This is. I was just fed up with coming to Houston with a mixed cast on stage and playing to a segregated audience. I wanted Houston to see a hell of a concert, they should see it like they were in Carnegie Hall. I felt if I didn’t do anything about the segregation in my hometown, I would regret it; this was the time to do it. Segregation had to come to an end. Jazz producer Norman Granz, a social activist himself, made arrangements for the star-studded Philharmonic band to play an engagement at Houston's Music Hall on October 5, 1955. Jacquet played saxophone, accompanying Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich. Granz and Jacquet collaborated to eliminate Jim Crow customs from the event. There were no advanced sales of tickets, while Granz removed all of the "white" and "black" signs which indicated segregated facilities within the venue and hired some off-duty Houston police officers for security; the band played before a non-segregated audience, though not free of trouble.
Despite Granz's precaution, five officers of the Houston Vice Squad stormed Ella Fitzgerald' dressing room with firearms drawn. Jacquet and Gillespie
Saxophone
The saxophone is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. Although most saxophones are made from brass, they are categorized as woodwind instruments, because sound is produced by an oscillating reed, traditionally made out of woody cane, rather than lips vibrating in a mouthpiece cup as with the brass instrument family; as with the other woodwinds, the pitch of the note being played is controlled by covering holes in the body tube to control the resonant frequency of the air column by changing the effective length of the tube. The saxophone is used in classical music, military bands, marching bands and contemporary music; the saxophone is used as a solo and melody instrument or as a member of a horn section in some styles of rock and roll and popular music. Saxophone players are called saxophonists. Since the first saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the early 1840s, saxophones have been produced in a variety of series distinguished by transpositions within instrument sets and tuning standard.
Sax patented the saxophone on June 1846, in two groups of seven instruments each. Each series consisted in alternating transposition; the series pitched in B♭ and E♭ soon became dominant and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. Instruments from the series pitched in C and F never gained a foothold and constituted only a small percentage of instruments made by Sax. High Pitch saxophones tuned sharper than the A = 440 Hz standard were produced into the early twentieth century for sonic qualities suited for outdoor uses, but are not playable to modern tuning and are considered obsolete. Low Pitch saxophones are equivalent in tuning to modern instruments. C soprano and C melody saxophones were produced for the casual market as parlor instruments during the early twentieth century. Saxophones in F never gained acceptance; the modern saxophone family consists of instruments in the B♭ - E♭ series and experimental instruments notwithstanding. The saxophones with widest use and availability are the sopranos, altos and baritones.
In the keyed ranges of the various saxophones, the pitch is controlled by keys with shallow cups in which are fastened leather pads that seal toneholes, controlling the resonant length, thereby frequency, of the air column within the body tube. Small holes called vents, located between the toneholes and the mouthpiece, are opened by an octave key to raise the pitch by eliminating the fundamental frequency, leaving the first harmonic as the frequency defining the pitch. Most modern saxophones are keyed to produce a low B♭ with all keys closed; the highest keyed note has traditionally been F two and a half octaves above low B♭, while the keyed range is extended to F♯ on most recent performance-class instruments. A high G key is most common on modern soprano saxophones. Notes above F are considered part of the altissimo register of any saxophone, can be produced using advanced embouchure techniques and fingering combinations. Keywork facilitating altissimo playing is a feature of modern saxophones.
Modern saxophone players have extended the range to over four octaves on alto. Music for most saxophones is notated using treble clef; because all saxophones use the same key arrangement and fingering to produce a given notated pitch, it is not difficult for a competent player to switch among the various sizes when the music has been suitably transposed, many do so. Since the baritone and alto are pitched in E♭, players can read concert pitch music notated in the bass clef by reading it as if it were treble clef and adding three sharps to the key signature; this process, referred to as clef substitution, makes it possible for the Eb instruments to play from parts written for baritone horn, euphonium, string bass, trombone, or tuba. This can be useful if a orchestra lacks one of those instruments; the straight soprano and sopranino saxophones consist of a straight conical tube with a flared bell at the end opposite the mouthpiece. The interior of the tube is called the bore. Alto and larger saxophones include a detachable curved neck above the highest tone hole, directing the mouthpiece to the player's mouth and, with rare exceptions, a U-shaped bow that directs the bell upward and a curve in the throat of the bell directing it forward.
The set of curves near the bell has become a distinctive feature of the saxophone family, to the extent that soprano and sopranino saxes are sometimes made in the curved style. The baritone and contrabass saxophones accommodate the length of the bore with extra bows and right-angle bends between the main body and the mouthpiece; the left hand operates keys from the upper part of the body tube while the right hand operates keys from the lower part. The right thumb sits under a thumb hook and left thumb is placed on a thumb rest to stabilize and balance the saxophone, while the weight of most saxophones is supported by a neckstrap attached to a strap ring on the rear of the body of the instrument; the left thumb operates the octave key. With soprano and smaller saxophones weight tends to be borne by the right thumb while a neckstrap provides security for the instrument. Keys consist of the cups, and
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He is considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. Known affectionately as "The Brute" or "Frog", he had a tough and brutal tone on stomps, yet on ballads he played with warmth and sentiment, he was indebted to alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he studied violin in elementary and taught himself piano with the help of his neighbor Pete Johnson, who taught him the blues. In 1927-1928 he played for silent movies in Amarillo, Texas. Once Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster began to focus on that instrument, playing in the Young Family Band, although he did return to the piano from time to time recording on the instrument occasionally. Kansas City at this point was a melting pot from which emerged some of the biggest names in 1930s jazz. Webster joined Bennie Moten's band in 1932, a grouping which included Count Basie, Oran "Hot Lips" Page and Walter Page.
This era was recreated in Robert Altman's film Kansas City. Webster spent time with quite a few orchestras in the 1930s, including Andy Kirk, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1934 Benny Carter, Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, the short-lived Teddy Wilson big band. Ben Webster played with Duke Ellington's orchestra for the first time in 1935, by 1940 was performing with it full-time as the band's first major tenor soloist, he credited Ellington's alto soloist, as a major influence on his playing. During the next three years, he played on many recordings, including "Cotton Tail" and "All Too Soon". Webster left the band in 1943 after an angry altercation during which he cut up one of Ellington's suits. Another version of Webster's leaving Ellington came from Clark Terry, a longtime Ellington player, who said that, in a dispute, Webster slapped Ellington, upon which the latter gave him two weeks notice. After leaving Ellington in 1943, Webster worked on 52nd Street in New York City, where he recorded as both a leader and a sideman.
During this time he had short periods with Raymond Scott, John Kirby, Bill DeArango, Sid Catlett, as well as with Jay McShann's band, which featured blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon. For a few months in 1948, he returned to Ellington's orchestra. In 1953, he recorded King of the Tenors with pianist Oscar Peterson, who would be an important collaborator with Webster throughout the decade in his recordings for the various labels of Norman Granz. Along with Peterson, trumpeter Harry'Sweets' Edison and others, he was touring and recording with Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic package. In 1956, he recorded a classic set with pianist Art Tatum, supported by bassist Red Callender and drummer Bill Douglass. Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster with fellow tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins was recorded on December 16, 1957, along with Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Alvin Stoller; the Hawkins and Webster recording is a jazz classic, the coming together of two giants of the tenor saxophone, who had first met back in Kansas City.
In the late 1950s, he formed a quintet with Gerry Mulligan and played at a Los Angeles club called Renaissance. It was there that the Webster-Mulligan group backed up blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon on an album recorded live for Hi-Fi Jazz Records; that same year, 1959, the quintet, with pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, drummer Mel Lewis recorded "Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster" for Verve Records. Webster worked but in 1965 he moved permanently to Europe, working with other American jazz musicians based there as well as local musicians, he played. He lived in London for one year, followed by four years in Amsterdam and made his last home in Copenhagen in 1969. Webster appeared as a sax player in a low-rent cabaret club in the 1970 Danish blue film titled Quiet Days in Clichy. In 1971, Webster reunited with Duke Ellington and his orchestra for a couple of shows at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, he recorded or performed with Buck Clayton, Bill Coleman and Teddy Wilson. Webster suffered a cerebral bleed in Amsterdam in September 1973, following a performance at the Twee Spieghels in Leiden, died on 20 September.
His body was cremated in Copenhagen and his ashes were buried in the Assistens Cemetery in the Nørrebro section of the city. After Webster's death, Billy Moore Jr. together with the trustee of Webster's estate, created the Ben Webster Foundation www.benwebster.dk. Since Webster's only legal heir, Harley Robinson of Los Angeles, gladly assigned his rights to the foundation, the Ben Webster Foundation was confirmed by the Queen of Denmark's Seal in 1976. In the Foundation's trust deed, one of the initial paragraphs reads: "to support the dissemination of jazz in Denmark"; the trust is a beneficial foundation which channels Webster's annual royalties to musicians in both Denmark and the U. S. An annual Ben Webster Prize is awarded to a young outstanding musician; the prize is not large, but is considered prestigious. Over the years, several American musicians have visited Denmark with the help of the Foundation, concerts, a few recordings, other jazz-related events have been supported. Webster's private collection of jazz recordings and memorabilia is archived in the jazz collections at the Un
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble that consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trombones, a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular; the term "big band" is used to describe a genre of music. One problem with this usage is. Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. In contrast with the emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements, they gave a greater role to bandleaders and sections of instruments rather than soloists. Big bands have four sections: trumpets, saxophones, a rhythm section of guitar, double bass, drums; the division in early big bands was to be two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three saxophones, a rhythm section. In 1930, big bands consisted of three trumpets, three trombones, three saxophones, a rhythm section of four instruments. Guitar replaced the banjo, double bass replaced the tuba. In the 1940s, Stan Kenton's band and Woody Herman's band used up to five trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, a rhythm section.
An exception is Duke Ellington. Boyd Raeburn drew from symphony orchestras by adding to his band flute, French horn and timpani. Typical big band arrangements are written in strophic form with the same phrase and chord structure repeated several times; each iteration, or chorus follows twelve bar blues form or thirty-two-bar song form. The first chorus of an arrangement is followed by choruses of development; this development may take the form of improvised solos, written soli sections, "shout choruses". An arrangement's first chorus is sometimes preceded by an introduction, which may be as short as a few measures or may extend to chorus of its own. Many arrangements contain an interlude similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. Other methods of embellishing the form include cadential extensions; some big ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music, half-arranged, half-improvised relying on head arrangements. A head arrangement is a piece of music, formed by band members during rehearsal.
They experiment memorize the way they are going to perform the piece, without writing it on sheet music. During the 1930s, Count Basie's band used head arrangements, as Basie said, "we just sort of start it off and the others fall in." Before 1914, social dance in America was dominated by steps such as polka. As jazz migrated from its New Orleans origin to Chicago and New York City, suggestive dances traveled with it. During the next decades, ballrooms filled with people doing Lindy Hop; the dance duo Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the foxtrot while accompanied by the Europe Society Orchestra led by James Reese Europe. One of the first bands to accompany the new rhythms was led by a drummer, Art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. Hickman's arranger, Ferde Grofé, wrote arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in various ways; this intermingling of sections became a defining characteristic of big bands. In 1919, Paul Whiteman hired Grofé to use similar techniques for his band.
Whiteman was educated in classical music, he called his new band's music symphonic jazz. The methods of dance bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. With the exception of Jelly Roll Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans style, bandleaders paid attention to the demand for dance music and created their own big bands, they incorporated elements of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville. Duke Ellington led his band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson's career started when he was persuaded to audition for a job at Club Alabam in New York City, which turned into a job as bandleader at the Roseland Ballroom. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety and arrangers played a greater role than they had before. Hickman relied on Whiteman on Bill Challis. Henderson and arranger Don Redman followed the template of King Oliver, but as the 1920s progressed they moved away from the New Orleans format and transformed jazz, they were assisted by a band full of talent: Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone, Louis Armstrong on cornet, multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter, whose career lasted into the 1990s.
Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished by a more supple feel than the more literal 44 of early jazz. Walter Page is credited with developing the walking bass, though earlier examples exist, such as Wellman Braud on Ellington's Washington Wabble from 1927; this type of music flourished through the early 1930s, although there was little mass audience for it until around 1936. Up until that time, it looked upon as a curiosity. After 1935, big bands rose to prominence playing swing music and held a major role in defining swing as a distinctive style. Western swing musicians formed popular big bands during the same period. There was a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of popular bands. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, the personnel. Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing, Bob Crosby more of a dixieland style, Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, Duke Ellington's compositions were varied and sophisticated.
Many bands featured strong instrumentalists whose sounds dominated, such as the clar
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most used saxophones; the tenor is pitched in the key of B♭, written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists"; the tenor saxophone uses a larger mouthpiece and ligature than the alto and soprano saxophones. Visually, it is distinguished by the bend in its neck, or its crook, near the mouthpiece; the alto saxophone lacks its neck goes straight to the mouthpiece. The tenor saxophone is most recognized for its ability to blend well with the soprano and baritone saxophones, with its "husky" yet "bright" tone; the tenor saxophone is used in classical music, military bands, marching bands and jazz.
It is included in pieces written for symphony orchestra. In concert bands, the tenor plays a supporting role, sometimes sharing parts with the euphonium and trombone. In jazz ensembles, the tenor plays a more prominent role as a member of a section that includes the alto and baritone saxes. Many of the most innovative and influential jazz musicians have been tenor saxophonists; these include Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. The work of younger players such as Michael Brecker and Chris Potter has been an important influence in more recent jazz; the tenor saxophone is one of a family of fourteen instruments designed and constructed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian-born instrument maker and clarinetist. Based on an amalgam of ideas drawn from the clarinet, flute and ophicleide, the saxophone was intended to form a tonal link between the woodwinds and brass instruments found in military bands, an area that Sax considered sorely lacking.
Sax's patent, granted on 28 June 1846, divided the family into two groups of seven instruments, each ranging from alto down to contrabass. One family, pitched alternatively in B♭ and E♭, was designed to integrate with the other instruments common in military bands; the tenor saxophone, pitched in B♭, is the fourth member of this family. The tenor saxophone, like all saxophones, consists of an conical tube of thin brass, a type of metal; the wider end of the tube is flared to form a bell, while the narrower end is connected to a single reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. At intervals down the bore are placed between 23 tone holes. There are two small speaker holes which, when opened, disrupt the lower harmonics of the instrument and cause it to overblow into an upper register; the pads are controlled by pressing a number of keys with the fingers of the left and right hands. The original design of tenor saxophone had a separate octave key for each speaker hole, in the manner of the bassoon.
Although a handful of novelty tenors have been constructed'straight', like the smaller members of the saxophone family, the unwieldy length of the straight configuration means that all tenor saxophones feature a'U-bend' above the third-lowest tone hole, characteristic of the saxophone family. The tenor saxophone is curved at the top, above the highest tone-hole but below the highest speaker hole. While the alto is bent only through 80–90° to make the mouthpiece fit more in the mouth, the tenor is bent a little more in this section, incorporating a slight S-bend; the mouthpiece of the tenor saxophone is similar to that of the clarinet, an wedge-shaped tube, open along one face and covered in use by a thin strip of material prepared from the stem of the giant cane known as a reed. The reed is shaved to come to an thin point, is clamped over the mouthpiece by the use of a ligature; when air is blown through the mouthpiece, the reed vibrates and generates the acoustic resonances required to produce a sound from the instrument.
The mouthpiece is the area of the saxophone with the greatest flexibility in shape and style, so the timbre of the instrument is determined by the dimensions of its mouthpiece. The design of the mouthpiece and reed play a big role in. Classical mouthpieces help produce a warmer and rounder tone, while jazz mouthpieces help produce a brighter and edgier tone. Materials used in mouthpiece construction include plastic and various metals e.g. bronze and stainless steel. The mouthpiece of the tenor saxophone is proportionally larger than that of the alto, necessitating a larger reed; the increased stiffness of the reed and the greater airflow required to establish resonance in the larger body means the tenor sax requires greater lung power but a looser embouchure than the higher-pitched member
Jitterbug
The jitterbug is a kind of dance popularized in the United States in the early 20th century, is associated with various types of swing dances such as the Lindy Hop and East Coast Swing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word "jitterbug" is a combination of the words "jitter" and "bug"; the first use of the word "jitters" quoted by the OED is from 1929, Act II of the play Strictly Dishonorable by Preston Sturges where the character Isabelle says: "Willie's got the jitters" is answered by a judge "Jitters?" to which Isabelle answers "You know, he makes faces all the time." The second quote in the OED is from the N. Y. Press from 2 April 1930: "The game is played only after the mugs and wenches have taken on too much gin and they arrive at the state of jitters, a disease known among the common herd as heebie jeebies."According to H. W. Fry in his review of Dictionary of Word Origins by Joseph Twadell Shipley in 1945 the word "jitters" "is from a spoonerism...and referred to one under the influence of gin and bitters".
Wentworth and Flexner explains "jitterbug" as "ne who, though not a musician, enthusiastically likes or understands swing music. To dance, esp to jazz or swing music and usu in an vigorous and athletic manner"; the first quote containing the word "jitterbug" recorded by the OED is from 1934 is the Cab Calloway song titled "Jitter Bug" and they quote the 1934 song printed in Song Hits magazine on 19 November 1939 as: "They're four little jitter bugs. He has the jitters ev'ry morn, That's why jitter sauce was born." Cab Calloway's 1934 recording of "Call of the Jitter Bug" and the film "Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party" popularized use of the word "jitterbug" and created a strong association between Calloway and jitterbug. Lyrics to "Call of the Jitter Bug" demonstrate the association between the word jitterbug and the consumption of alcohol: In the 1947 film Hi De Ho, Calloway includes the following lines in his song "Minnie the Moocher": "Woe there ain't no more Smokey Joe/ She's fluffed off his hi-de-ho/ She's a solid jitterbug/ And she starts to cut a rug/ Oh Minnie's a hep cat now."Regarding the Savoy Ballroom, dance critic John Martin of The New York Times wrote the following: The white jitterbug is oftener than not uncouth to look at... but his Negro original is quite another matter.
His movements are never so exaggerated that they lack control, there is an unmistakable dignity about his most violent figures...there is a remarkable amount of improvisation... mixed in... with Lindy Hop figures. Of all the ballroom dances these prying eyes have seen, this is unquestionably the finest. Norma Miller wrote, that when "tourists" came to the Savoy, they saw a rehearsed and choreographed dance, which they mistakenly thought was a regular group of dancers enjoying social dancing. One text states that "the shag and single lindy represented the earlier popular basics" of jitterbug, which gave way to the double lindy when rock and roll became popular. A young, white middle-class man from suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania learned to dance jitterbug in 1939 by going to the "Hill City" section of that city to watch black dancers, they danced smoothly, without bouncing around the dance floor. The hardest thing to learn is the pelvic motion. I suppose. You have to sway and backwards, with a controlled hip movement, while your shoulders stay level and your feet glide along the floor.
Your right hand is held low on the girl's back, your left hand down at your side, enclosing her hand. When he ventured out into "nearby mill towns, picking up partners on location", he found that there were white girls who were "mill-town...lower class" and could dance and move "in the authentic, flowing style". "They were poor and less educated than my high-school friends, but they could dance. In fact, at that time it seemed that the lower class a girl was, the better dancer she was, too."A number called "The Jitterbug" was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The "jitterbug" was a bug sent by the Wicked Witch of the West to waylay the heroes by forcing them to do a jitterbug-style dance. Although the sequence was not included in the final version of the film, the Witch is heard to tell the flying monkey leader, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." The song as sung by Judy Garland as Dorothy and some of the establishing dialogue survived from the soundtrack as the B-side of the disc release of "Over the Rainbow".
In 1944, with the United States' continuing involvement in World War II, a 30% federal excise tax was levied against "dancing" night clubs. Although the tax was reduced to 20%, "No Dancing Allowed" signs went up all over the country. Jazz drummer Max Roach argued that, "This tax is the real story why dancing... public dancing per se... were just out. Club owners, couldn't afford to pay the city tax, state tax, government tax."World War II facilitated the spread of jitterbug across the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. British Samoans were doing a "Seabee version" of the jitterbug by January 1944. Across the Atlantic in preparation for D-Day, there were nearly 2 million American troops stationed throughout Britain in May 1944. Ballrooms, closed because of lack of business opened their doors. Working class girls who had never danced before made up a large part of the attendees, along with American soldiers and sailors. By November 1945 after the departure of the American troops following D-Day
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