Th e members of the rhythm section have changed over time, as jazz has changed, but they usually number three or four, and their functions have re-mained stable: to provide harmony, bass, and percussion.
HARMONY INSTRUMENTS Some instruments are naturally designed to play chords for the ensemble. Th ese include the vibraphone, organ, synthesizer, electric piano, guitar, and, in the earliest years, banjo. Th e most important, though, is the piano—an instrument equally at home in the middle-class parlor and in the public sphere of nightclubs and dance halls. Th e acous-tic piano (to distinguish it from its electric counterpart) had already gone through a full century of technological changes before the fi rst jazz musicians discovered it. It’s both a string instrument and a form of percussion: pianists use the wide range of the keyboard (over seven octaves) to imitate the sound of a full orchestra or pound on the keys like a drum.
In some bands, two instruments combine to play harmony—for example, piano and vibraphone or, more frequently, piano and guitar. Today we think of the guitar as a solo instrument, but before 1940 its function in jazz was chiefl y harmonic and rhythmic. Many bands had four-man rhythm sections—piano, guitar, bass, drums—in which the guitar existed solely to strum chords, one for each beat of a measure. Th e pianist can, of course, accompany himself, playing chords with the left hand and improvising with the right.
BASS Th e bass is the rock on which the jazz ensemble is built. In a perfor-mance, we are naturally inclined to pay attention to the trumpet or saxophone soloist, while also registering the drums and pianist. Th e bass often gets lost in the undercurrent unless we focus on it. Musicians are always focused on it.
Th e bass has, roughly speaking, two crucial functions: playing notes that support the harmony, and providing a basic underlying rhythmic foundation.
New Orleans virtuoso Sidney Bechet (center) was trained on the clarinet (several are lined up on the stage fl oor), but he soon switched to the soprano saxophone, a straight instru-ment that contrasts visually with the alto saxophone (held by Otto Hardwick, right) and the tenor (Frank “Big Boy” Goudie), all members of the Noble Sissle band, 1928.
FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 13
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 13 11/24/08 2:51:35 PM11/24/08 2:51:35 PM
14 ■ CHAPTER 1 MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS
Th ere are several instruments that can fi ll this role. Th e most common is the string bass (also known as double bass), the same instrument used in sym-phony orchestras. Classical musicians usually bow the bass, creating sound by drawing a horsehair bow across the strings. Jazz musicians also use the bow, but they prefer a technique known as pizzicato: plucking the strings with their fi ngers. Th e plucked string has a percussive power that is much better suited to jazz’s rhythmic nature.
In the past half century, the string bass has often been supplanted by the electric bass—the same four-stringed guitar-like instrument found in popu-lar music. It lacks the powerful natural resonance of the string bass (now often called “acoustic bass”), but has the advantages of loudness and porta-bility. Some musicians, like Jaco Pastorius, have given it its own distinctive sound.
Th e role of bass can also be fi lled by the tuba, a low-pitched brass instru-ment with an intricate nest of tubing ending in an enormous bell. Th e tuba, which came to jazz from the marching band, was used in some early jazz groups because of its powerful volume, which musicians felt was needed as ballast for the other instruments in the band. In fact, though, the string bass can be played with enough volume; and these days, you almost never hear the bass without amplifi cation (a pickup, or small microphone, on the bridge).
PERCUSSION Th e drum kit, or drum set, is a one-man percussion sec-tion within the rhythm secsec-tion within the band. One seated individual op-erates the percussion instruments, using all four limbs to manipulate them with sticks (or brushes, mallets, or hands) and foot pedals. Another name is
The “All-American” rhythm section of the Count Basie band was light yet powerful. From left to right: Walter Page, bass;
Jo Jones, drums; Freddie Green, guitar; and Basie, piano. The rest of the band, crowded into the tiny bandstand at New York’s Famous Door in 1938, from front row to back: Herschel Evans, Earl Warren, Jack Wash-ington, and Lester Young, saxo-phones; Buck Clayton (stand-ing), Ed Lewis, Harry Edison, trumpets; Benny Morton, Dan Minor (hidden behind Clayton), Dicky Wells, trombones.
FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 14
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 14 11/24/08 2:51:35 PM11/24/08 2:51:35 PM
THE ENSEMBLE ■ 15
trap set, or, as many musicians call them, the traps (short for “contraption”).
Whatever you call it, this one-man band of percussion is, along with the saxo-phone, the most visually iconic of jazz’s contributions to world music.
Th e drum set developed in the 1890s out of marching bands, which were then commonplace throughout the United States. In any parade, the most conspicuous drum is the huge bass drum, strapped to the player’s chest and jutting out two to three feet, struck with mallets. Another musician plays the much smaller snare drum, hanging around the neck and named after the metal snare attached to the lower drumhead, which adds a penetrating, rat-tling sound to each stroke of the drumstick. A third musician holds two large cymbals with handles, and crashes them noisily together.
Some clever musical inventor made the drum set possible by equipping the bass drum with a foot pedal attached to a mallet; this got the bass drum off the musician’s chest and freed up his hands. It was a logical step to add the snare drum, either on its own legs or attached to the rim of the bass drum, and a freely hanging cymbal, suspended from a stand or also attached to the bass drum. In eff ect, a new instrument and new kind of musician were born.
While every jazz drummer confi gures the drum set in his own manner, the basic arrangement is fairly stable. Th e drummer sits on a stool in the center of a semicircular assembly of drums and cymbals, with the bass drum front and center. Th e snare drum stands on an adjustable stand at knee-level. Spreading out from it are two or more middle-size drums without snares, called tom-toms. Th ese drums are carefully tuned according to taste and come in various sizes.
A forest of cymbals provides a steely contrast to the drums below them.
Two of them are suspended. Th e medium-size ride cymbal has a clear, fo-cused timbre and is played more or less continuously—the band “rides” on its lithe rhythmic pulse. Th e slightly smaller crash cymbal has a splashy, indeter-minate pitch, not unlike a small gong, and is used for dramatic punctuations.
Th e third essential cymbal is actually a device with two cymbals, recalling the pair held by the musician in the marching band, but to entirely diff erent eff ect. It’s called the high-hat and consists of two shoulder-level (remember the drummer is seated) cymbals on an upright pole with a foot pedal at its base. Th e pedal brings the top cymbal crashing into the lower one with a distinct chunk.
Cymbals
High-hat cymbal
Snare drum Ride cymbal
Sticks Brushes Mallets
Crash cymbal Small tom-tom
Large tom-tom
Bass drum
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 15
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 15 11/24/08 2:51:36 PM11/24/08 2:51:36 PM
16 ■ CHAPTER 1 MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS
In all, a jazz drummer is responsible for at least a half-dozen instruments. Typically, he will use his right foot on the bass drum pedal, his left on the high-hat pedal, his right hand wielding a stick on the ride cymbal, and his left holding a stick to play the snare drum or tom-tom. Th is description applies to the playing of any con-ventional drum set in rock, soul, and most other genres of popular music. What distinguishes jazz drumming is the sheer virtuosity—the fl exibility and subtlety—that keeps other musicians and the listener involved, a task very diff erent from merely keeping the beat. Th e drum-mer is free to respond to whatever the soloist plays and is expected to be attentive and quick-witted enough to fi ll in the spaces (with a drum fi ll, or solo)—or to know when not to.
Drummers also contribute to the overall texture by altering timbre. Cymbals are often renovated to suit personal taste, some-times with strips of tape on the underside to control the sizzle. Th e use of various sticks radically changes the sound of drumming. After wooden sticks, the most commonplace are wire brushes, used to strike or literally brush the drumheads with wire strands protruding from (usually) hollow handles. Early drummers realized that brushes, played hard or soft, produce a subtle, swish-ing sound ideal for gentle accompaniment. Mallets originally used to thump the giant bass drum are now preferred for conveying a soft, quiet rumble.
Some drummers don’t play the traps at all. Th ese are the masters of Latin percussion. Congas are tall drums of equal height but diff erent diameters, with the smaller one assigned the lead role. Th e much smaller bongos have two drumheads, one larger than the other, compact enough to sit between the player’s knees. Th e timbales consist of two drums mounted on a stand along with a cowbell and are played with sticks by a standing musician. Among other percussion instruments are shakers (the maracas is a gourd fi lled with beans) and scrapers (the guiro is a gourd with ridges). In recent decades, jazz bands often include a percussionist—someone who works with literally doz-ens of instruments: shakers, scrapers, bells, blocks, and noisemakers of every description. Percussion, like music, is a world without end.
Dynamics
In any ensemble, some instruments are inherently louder than others; a trum-pet, for example, produces more volume than a fl ute. But each instrument has the ability to play loud and soft within its own range, another indispensable aid to expression. Th e terms used to indicate volume, or dynamics, come from the Italian; the most common are shown below, with their abbrevia-tions. Th e piano, originally called the pianoforte, was named for its ability to play both soft (piano) and loud (forte), which earlier keyboard instruments like the harpsichord couldn’t do.
pp p mp mf f ff
pianissimo piano mezzo piano mezzo forte forte fortissimo
softest medium loudest
Every drummer begins with the basic drum set, but fi nds a way to alter the sound to suit his particular personality. Jack DeJohnette’s set-up is heavy on cymbals, ranging from the high-hat in the front to the ride in the back, with splash or crash cymbals in between.
Latin percussion
© CHUCK STEWART
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 16
7455_e01_p2-29.indd 16 11/24/08 2:51:36 PM11/24/08 2:51:36 PM