Cakewalk (early 1800s) originally by the blacks on the plantations, imitating and ridiculing their masters.
Games of cakewalk: young men start walking towards the cake. The one who cakewalks the best, "that takes the cake"
Ragtime =~ syncopation
Jazz =~ syncopation and improvisation
Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor: "ragtimed" : "Nice melody, but the rhythm is all wrong"
original: http://grooveshark.com/s/Pr+lude+In+C+Sharp+Minor+Op+3/3KW0S9?src=5
ragtime: http://grooveshark.com/s/Russian+Rag/2M3MRc?src=5
New Orleans Jazz ~~ (classic?) Dixieland
During cakewalk: the winner was the "chezzboll" (?), chezz being chair or throne. Slowly changed into jazz?
New Orleans funeral: sad when moving to the graveyard. At the grave side, hysteria, turning into 'happy' music on the way back. All quite scripted, up to the hystery.
This Dixieland already existed in the 1890s. Why suddenly move East in 1917?
The marines in New Orleans often had trouble getting back to their ships in time. Presidential verdict was issued, closing down storyville. Suddenly hundreds of jazz musicians were out of a job, and spread out over the United States.
Swing existed long before it was named that way. In the 20s and 30s, that music style was called big band jazz. But when the song "you ain't got a thing if you ain't got that swing" became popular, so did the phrase. Suddenly, "canary" didn't just mean a yellow bird, but a female singer. A "cat" wasn't just a feline animal, but a swing musician. "Corny," from the farm, was oldfashioned, while "groovy" - the needle being in the groove of the record, meant hip.
In the 30s, swing was big business. Bebop / bop came from a longing to a more austere, serious approach. It was intentionally made difficult to keep the 'easy' lazy players out.
Then, in the 50s, cool jazz emerged, from a wish to be more relaxed as compared to bop. It was soft, it was perfect to read out loud or recite poetry over. It was the music of the beatniks.
Also, in the 50s: modern jazz. Both a generic and a specific phrase.
Fusion jazz; is jazz-rock. Started with Miles Davis' album "Bitches Brew" from 1969. Some of the people he worked with, left him the following year to start a group called Weather Report which made a very successfull album in 1971: I Sing The Body Electric.
Soul jazz: in every jazz era, when musicians went back to their roots, they came back to blues. Soul jazz is just that: blues chords.
In Dixieland times, when there were no microphones, the bass - as an instrument - could not be heard, and a tuba was used. This faded out when things became electric.
