Introduction Musicians 1920's Style


The folk songs that were sung on the plantations contributed to much of early jazz. Ragtime influenced early Jazz.Jazz is a merging and melding of many different peoples and their heritages. During the 1800s in South America, music was a very important part of the life of plantation slaves of African descent. When the Seaport was closed in the 1920's the musicians were forced to relocate to find jobs.
and were affected by the move.


Jazz

"A form of music distinctive to the U.S., which owes its origins to street brass and string bands, minstrel shows and Negro spirituals. It was originally intended as dance music, but today is just as often strictly for listening to. It is often characterized by syncopated and/or "swung" rhythms, unusual articulation styles such as soft or "lazy" tonguing (dah-dah), accents, and patterns such as slurring in groups of threes to accentuate off-beats. In addition, another major characteristic of jazz is the use of improvisation, where the performer makes up soloistic music to go with the harmony on the spot (sometimes called riffs or licks)."


The 1920's have been called The Golden Age or The Jazz Age. The blues is a form of music that has always been an important part of Jazz. Due to the mournful scale and the harmonies helped characterized and shape Jazz as we know it today.


In New York City, James P. Johnson popularized a new musical style from Ragtime called stride piano.
Fletcher Henderson was the first major figure in the big band jazz. He became the first leader to organize a jazz band into sections of brass, reed, and rhythm instruments.


"During the late 1920's Jazz advanced from relatively simple mucis played by performers who often could not read mucis to a more complex and sophistocated form."


Outside the United States

Jazz arrived in Finland in the 1920's, and inspired the Tulenkantajat (Torch Bearers) generation to praise the energy, sinfulness, and blessing of the new dance music. Jazz was played in secret pubs and parties; the new black music seemed to be the embodiment of the restless spirit of the time. Since the 1920's, jazz has belonged inseparably to Helsinki, although not always as closely as would be desired.