West End Blues Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five Review
During the 1920's jazz was showtime to sweep across America, condign especially popular in the city of New York. The status of African Americans was elevated at this fourth dimension due to their distinct music becoming increasingly popular, and jazz music evolved into an integral role of American popular civilization. The original music of the Africans that had begun in New Orleans had diversified and now appealed to people from every social grouping of order. One man who helped the progression of jazz through the 1920s was Louis Armstrong, originally a part of Joe "Male monarch" Oliver's jazz band; he bankrupt away from his mentor and moved to New York creating a new genre of jazz improvisation.
The growing popularity of jazz was helped by the availability of recordings due to new engineering, and this helped the 1920s to become known every bit the Golden Age of jazz in New York. I jazz composition of the 1920s was Louis Armstrong's performance of Due west Finish Dejection. This piece begins with an introduction by the trumpet lasting x bars, showing the incompleteness which creates the antecedent that will lead on to the consequent of the residual of the vocal. Beginning with a few descending straight crotchet notes rhythmic deviations begin to announced, such as the multiple triplets used in ascension sequence a few beats later. This signals that this music is indeed African influenced equally there is evident syncopation. The triplets brainstorm ascending chromatically through E, F and F# and then triadically through a Cm chord with one bound down followed by ii leas upwards; G downward to Eb upward to Thou upwards to C.
This continues into the second beat of the side by side phrase where it comes to rest on a dotted minim of C. Armstrong develops the four quaver notes he starting time uses throughout this opening cadenza and experiments with dynamics as on occasion the trumpet also plays staccato. At the end of each phrase of the opening introduction each finishing note is held for longer, giving a slight rubato effect to the music and contrasting against the fast triplet rhythm just heard, this contrast gives interesting listening and shows Armstrong's innovative playing. The 2nd phrase of the introduction is a descending effigy, again introducing contrast into the music. This melodic descent provides cohesion into the offset section of the music, which is both in the lower register and at a slower pace, aided by the modulation to Eb minor in bar 6. This introduction clearly shows that this manner of music is based mainly around improvisational technique, a characteristic which is evident throughout this piece.
The full general form of the song consist of a repeated A section, each with alterations to instrumentation and to melody. Each section however is similar in terms of melodic basis, all using the Eb major blues calibration to base the melody; Eb. Gb, Ab, Bbb, Bb, Db; and each using the aforementioned deviation of the 12 bar blues.
This consists of I, I, I, I7, Four, 4, I, I, V, V, I, V, the V at the stop is an amending to the original 12 bar blues which would terminate on the tonic, yet this dominant chord allows the music to experience circular as information technology returns to the tonic at the next playing of the 12 bar blues. This round motion allows each department to expand upon themes/motifs that the previous section plays, as each new A section is given to a different solo instrument, showing this era as the get-go of the striving virtuoso musicians within jazz. A1 is the trumpet solo department, where information technology begins with an anacrusis in order for Armstrong to plant a new tempo amidst the other performers. This then begins with the rising motif found in the first bar;
F# quaver to a Thousand semiquaver to Bb semibreve tied to a crotchet. The start annotation of an F# is the minor tertiary in this cardinal's blue calibration, immediately establishing the music as a blues influenced piece. This then moves chromatically to the G which moves finer into the Bb chord note that is next played;
This semitone step creates a gentle movement to the Bb which is the 5th of the Eb chord that is existence played at this point. This is the basis for the piece as each instrument manipulates this blueprint and plays with the melody surrounding it as each musician improvises around this original idea, such every bit the later trumpet solo which plays a this progression just extends the Bb. Underneath each solo instrument the piano underpins the music by playing the 12 bar harmonic chords on a straight crotchet rhythm, contrasting against the interesting and often syncopated rhythms of the melody.
Section A2 is given to the trombone soloist and the accompaniment now also includes a percussive instrument which sounds similar to horse hooves, adding a swung rhythm to the music giving interesting rhythmic counterpoint and this also adds to the slightly lethargic experience that the music has to go along with the "blues" feel. The trombone likewise adds an interesting new timbre to the music as it uses multiple slides and sounds slightly muted. Moving to department A3 and now the soloist is the vocalizer Louis Armstrong, instead of using lyrics nonetheless he uses his vocalism like an musical instrument and 'scats', pregnant his phonation is still an musical instrument and he tin can however exist considered as a virtuoso musician every bit he improvises throughout. This improvisation is still based effectually the 12-bar blues progression and the Eb blues scale, beingness able to improvise with his voice in this way shows the dazzler of Armstrong's melodies, his phrasing and ability to find melodies that compliment the clarinet. The vocals are accompanied by a clarinet in this A3 section to thicken the texture of the deviated 12-bar blues progression and give a new fuller timbre to the music to show progression.
Section A4 is the only section which deviates from the 12-bar blues progression that has been used upward to this point, the piano is the soloist at this indicate and so it must deviate from the progression it has been playing. It still begins on Eb to retain the key eye and still in the first bar it moves to Eb over Db, then in bar 2 Eb over C then Bb7 giving a descending bass line every bit the piano then moves to Eb over Bb; A over Ab then a straight movement from Ab to A to Bb, contrasting with an ascent to show the music is withal developing. Armstrong once more experiments with dynamics at this point, using a mixture of legato and staccato to contrast against i another and keep the music interesting and innovative.
In department A5 the soloist is again the trumpet, but this fourth dimension the melody is entirely different to that of section A1 as this time it begins with a note held for a full four bars, this long note creates tension and excitement as this is now the terminal section of the motion and whatsoever musician able to hold a note that long on a trumpet is a truly skilled and experienced performer. This is followed by a descending four notation semiquaver motif made up of all of the flats used thus far; Bb, Ab, Gb and Eb. At this point Armstrong experiments with inflection as each playing of this motif varies; the first time it is played straight, the 2d fourth dimension the first note is delayed. This pulls the tempo back slightly, withal this is then contrasted confronting with the third playing which is directly again, then the fourth playing sees the first note delayed over again. Differently to previous sections the solo instrument changes, as at bar 9 the piano again takes over for a short flow before the trumpet returns at bar 12. This gives a conversation-similar effect as if the musicians are discussing through their instruments that the terminate has come. At bar 12 the trumpet returns and finishes the song creating a full circumvolve.
This song is mainly based upon the same 12-bar dejection progression that is stated at the first in department A1; from there soloists are able to shine in their ain sections that are improvised. This music was the first of the virtuoso musicians and led the way for improvisational even so scored music.
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Source: https://artscolumbia.org/analysis-west-end-blues-louis-armstrong-4801/
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