Further, timbre is something we control. Sometimes we deliberately manipulate our voices to whisper or shout, to command or console.
At the same time, they reveal our emotions—fear, love, anger, exhaus-tion. Jazz musicians try to lend their instruments the same qualities of human speech, though this is not as easy with a piece of metal as it is with the larynx. Some horn play-ers use mutes—physical devices in-serted into the bell of the instrument to distort the sounds coming out. In performances by Duke Ellington from as early as the 1920s, trumpet and trombone players came up with
an ingenious combination of mutes to produce unearthly, throat-growling sounds, as if they were vocalists singing wa-wa or ya-ya.
Th e use of unusual sounds for expressive purposes is known as timbre variation. Th is impulse undoubtedly came to jazz through African American folk culture, but it lies deep within the idea of all folk traditions. Jazz musi-cians, much more than their classical counterparts, use timbre to attain sty-listic individuality. Th e tenor saxophonist Buddy Tate, known for his many years with the Count Basie Orchestra, once said that the fi rst crucial step for young musicians is to fi nd their own sound. Th at is a pretty radical notion.
Tate didn’t mean to suggest that an unfl edged musician had to fi nd a sound unlike anyone else’s, just for the sake of novelty. Rather, the young musician needs to know who he is in order to fi nd a sound he knows to be his own. Th e task is only partly a conscious one. Louis Armstrong had an ebullient person-ality that’s refl ected in his trumpet sound. Miles Davis had a more introverted personality that’s refl ected in his. Th is kind of individuality can’t be taught.
THE ENSEMBLE
Th e usual way to classify instruments is by the way they make sounds. In jazz, the largest category consists of those that produce sound by moving air—all referred to in jazz (unlike classical music) as wind instruments, or horns.
Other jazz instruments belong to diff erent categories: the bass, for example, is a string instrument, while the drums are a form of percussion. Th e piano, which features strings hammered on by keys, falls in between.
We can also classify instruments by their musical use: players who impro-vise in the spotlight—the soloists—are distinct from their accompaniment, which is known as the rhythm section. In theory, the category of soloists is fl exible: while wind instruments dominate, nothing prevents any instrument from taking a leading role. In “One Hour,” by the Mound City Blue Blow-ers, we’ll hear a solo played on a comb wrapped in tissue paper. Th e rhythm section is more fi xed, restricted to instruments capable of supplying the basic elements of accompaniment: rhythm and harmony.
Ruby Braff quiets his trumpet with the relatively rare bucket mute, a broad cylinder fi lled with absorbent material and held in place by steel springs projecting outward from the trumpet’s bell. In this 1961 photo, Braff performs with tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman.
© JACK BRADLEY
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10 ■ CHAPTER 1 MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS
Winds
Th e physics of wind instruments is fairly simple. Blowing on or into a tube sets a column of air in vibration, produc-ing a particular sound. (Most wind players produce a slight wobble in pitch, known as vibrato.) Th ere are two options for modifying that sound. Th e fi rst is changing the length of the tube. Th e second is blowing with increased intensity, which forces the vibration to suddenly jump to a new level, raising the pitch.
Both concepts can be demonstrated on the fl ute, perhaps the simplest wind instrument in Western music. Th e fl ute is blown sideways against a hole placed in the instrument’s top, which has an edge that stops and divides the air so that some of it passes into the tube—an eff ect similar to blow-ing across the openblow-ing of a bottle. Th e player’s fi ngers cover holes that run lengthwise along the fl ute. To change the length of the air column, you simply lift a fi nger to open one of the holes, shortening the vibrating column of air. In eff ect, the fl ute behaves as if it were an instrument of con-tinuously changing length.
Increasing the speed of air is more dramatic: by changing the embou-chure—the shaping and positioning of the lips and other facial muscles—
and applying more pressure, an experienced player can push the pitch sig-nifi cantly higher than before (just how high depends on the instrument).
Th is sets in motion an acoustic phenomenon known as the overtone series—
higher pitches caused by secondary vibrations of the main sound wave.
BRASS INSTRUMENTS Th e term brass suggests that some instruments are defi ned by their shiny, metallic construction. But the crucial feature is how air is set into motion. Brass instruments use a cuplike mouthpiece, which cradles the performer’s lips. Th e vibration of the lips, creating a kind of buzz, moves the column of air and produces tones.
Because brass instruments require an exceptional amount of pressure to get a sound, there are no external holes: fi ngers can’t be counted on to com-pletely seal them. Instead, most players use a clever technology developed in the nineteenth century. To the basic cylindrical tube, three valves (usu-ally shaped like pistons) were added. Th ese valves, on top of the instrument’s middle section, are controls that shunt the air into a passageway of tubing of various lengths. By depressing diff erent combinations of valves, the trum-pet player alters the lengths, thereby producing most of the necessary tones.
Changing the speed of air produces the rest. Th e musician is required to make two calculations before playing each note: the valve setting and the intensity of blowing.
Th e most common brass instrument is the trumpet, which has an unmis-takable timbre: a brittle, crisp attack with brilliant overtones. Its vibrating tube is entirely cylindrical until it reaches the end, where it fl ares into the instrument’s bell. Other instruments feature a tube that increases as it goes along, known as a conical bore. Th e cornet is a partially conical instrument, fl aring toward the end; it’s usually found in marching bands and was trans-planted to early jazz bands. Another trumpet-like instrument, the fl ugelhorn, is entirely conical.
Louis Armstrong warms up on his trumpet while trombonist Tommy Dorsey and saxophonist Bud Freeman watch over his shoulder.
Trumpet / cornet
PHOTO BY CHARLES PETERSON, COURTESY OF DON PETERSON
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THE ENSEMBLE ■ 11
Th e similarity between the trumpet and the cornet causes much confusion in discussions of early jazz. Th e two instruments look and sound alike, but the cornet has an extra layer of tubing and a deeper mouthpiece, producing a slightly mellower timbre. Th ey are so similar that it is often impossible to distinguish which one is heard on recordings made in the 1920s. Adding to the confusion is the inclination of some commentators and musicians to refer to the trumpet as a cornet, and vice versa. Although the cornet dominated jazz at fi rst, by 1926 it began to lose favor to the trumpet, with its brighter, more piercing sound.
To vary their timbre, many trumpet players carry with them a small arse-nal of mutes, each with its distinctive possibilities. Th e straight mute derives from the orchestra: inserted directly into the bell of the instrument, it quiets the sound without too much distortion. Th e cup mute adds an extension that more or less covers the bell, further attenuating the sound while rounding it out. Th e Harmon mute is a hollow mute
with a hole in the center; originally the hole was fi lled with an adjustable sliding tube, suitable for comic eff ects, but most jazz musicians simply discarded the tube, creating a highly concentrated sound. Fi-nally, the plunger mute is as simple as the name suggests: it is simply the bottom end of a sink plunger (minus the handle). By moving the plunger in various positions away from the bell, the player can adjust sound so expertly that it resembles human speech.
Often these mutes are used in combination. Bubber Miley, the cornet-ist with the early Duke Ellington band, developed an unearthly sound by modifying his trumpet, already muted with a tiny, straight pixie mute, with a plunger—all the while growling in his throat. A trumpet player can also vary his timbre by valving: depressing one or more of the valves only half-way. Th e restricted fl ow of air produces an uncertain pitch, often with a nasal sound. Yet another technique is the shake, a quick trill between two notes that mimics a wide vibrato.
Th e trombone, with its occasionally comical slide, appears to be an excep-tion to the brass norm; but in fact the use of a slide to adjust the column of air was something of a warm-up for the valve system. Like the trumpet, the trombone has been part of jazz since the beginning. Given how diffi cult it is to play pitches by pumping a single slide, the achievement of virtuoso jazz trombonists is remarkable. On the other hand, the slide enables the player to glide seamlessly from one note to another, an eff ect known as a glissando, or smear.
REED INSTRUMENTS With reed instruments, the whole procedure of set-ting air into vibration is reversed: instead of pressing lips against the mouth-piece, as with brass instruments, the mouthpiece is inserted between lips. Th e mouthpiece is rigid—made of ebonite, hard rubber, or metal—with an open back to which a thin cane reed is attached by a metal clamp. Th e player blows a stream of air into the narrow passageway between the limber reed and the hard part of the mouthpiece, causing the reed to vibrate and producing a sound less biting and more subtle than the brass instruments.
Mutes
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12 ■ CHAPTER 1 MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS
Virtually all jazz instruments use a single reed—double-reed instruments, such as the oboe and bassoon, are rarely heard except in large orchestrations.
Th e reed is delicate, easily broken, and can be bought or custom-designed in gradations of thickness. Th e thicker it is, the harder it is to control. Musi-cians expressed amazement at Benny Goodman’s clarinet reeds, which were so thick they were once described as “diving boards.”
Th e particular sound on a reed instrument can be easily manipulated, re-sulting in a wide diversity of saxophone and clarinet sounds. A player usually presses the tongue lightly against the reed; the shape and quality of pitches is varied by pressing harder with lips or tongue or fl icking the tongue against it to emphasize a note. Blowing intensely can result in complicated sounds, often containing more than one pitch: these are known as multiphonics, and are a valuable resource for avant-garde jazz.
Th e clarinet is a slim, cylindrical, ebony-colored wooden tube that pro-duces a thin, occasionally shrill sound. A standard member of the New Or-leans jazz ensemble, it achieved greater renown during the Swing Era of the 1930s, when two of the most popular bandleaders, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, off ered an inadvertent clarinet rivalry that excited fans. Th e clari-net later declined in popularity, though some composers, most notably Duke Ellington, maintained its centrality to their music. Beginning in the early 1960s, thanks chiefl y to Eric Dolphy, the bass clarinet (pitched lower than the regular clarinet) found acceptance by musicians and is still often heard.
Th e saxophone is the one wind instrument jazz can claim as its own.
Adolphe Sax invented it in the 1840s in Paris as a family of instruments, deriving their individual names from parts in vocal choirs. Th e most com-mon kinds of saxophone used in jazz are the alto, tenor, soprano, and bari-tone saxophone. Because Sax patterned his key system after the clarinet’s, musicians already familiar with that instrument could readily master the saxophone.
After the Indiana-based Conn Company began to manufacture saxo-phones in the United States in 1904, American dance bands and vaude-ville performers embraced the instrument as much for its comic potential as Clarinet
Saxophone
During the Swing Era, Artie Shaw rivaled Benny Goodman for popularity on the clarinet.
Here Shaw leads one of the few integrated small groups in 1945: Dodo Marmarosa (piano), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Shaw, Barney Kessel (guitar), Morris Raymond (bass).
FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION
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THE ENSEMBLE ■ 13
musical versatility. Th e saxophone looked funny, with its gooseneck and curved bell, necessitated by the extended tubing. Some early masters of the instrument tongue-fl icked the reed on every note, producing a droll, rigid vir-tuosity. As jazz musicians began to master it, they uncov-ered another quality—a cozy, seductive timbre that some moral guardians found dangerously sexy. A San Francisco newspaper editorial called it the “Siren of Satan” and de-manded its banishment.
By 1930, thanks to such premier players as Sidney Bechet (soprano), Coleman Hawkins (tenor), Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter (alto), and Harry Carney (bari-tone), the saxophone had become the soul of American music: an all-purpose instrument able to play sweet or hot while suggesting tenderness or aggression. Th e tenor and alto are by far the most important solo saxophones. By con-trast, the baritone is best known for anchoring big-band reed sections. Th e soprano virtually disappeared between 1930 and 1960, but became hugely fashionable in the 1970s, and has remained so: many established saxophon-ists double on it (play it in addition to their main instru-ment), and some have made it their primary instrument.