Music: Expression, Jazz, Soul, and More

"The whole thing of being in music is not to control it but to be swept away by it. Ij"you're swept away by it you can't wait to do it again and the same magical moments always come."

- Bobby Hutcherson, jazz vibraphonist

Warm-Up

1)   Think of your favorite song. Think of its lyrics.  Speak about what you feel in these words, or if the words were not in fact important, but rather the rhythm prevails in moving you.

The Roots of Music: Jazz, a music of the people

"What is jazz? Man, if you have to ask, you will never know."— Louis Armstrong

1)Do you find music to be more powerful with or without words? Are the words more important, or is the rhythm?

2)Does music have a soul? Must music have a soul? What does the soul of jazz music look like, if it could talk what do you think it would say with words? (Follow-up:  If music has a soul, are we in fact in control of it? Or does the music control us? Hint-Refer to quote at the top)

3)Where does the most passionate music come from? Is it from those that have or those that have not? Do oppressed people create better music?

4) What role does improvisation play in jazz music? What is the beauty of improvisation that is not captured in predictable rhythms? Could jazz be jazz without it? How else would the African-American community expressed themselves (Hint: they couldn't use words, their society wouldn't let them)?

Contemporary Music:  Progress or Regress?

5)What makes music in fact music? Where do you draw the line (how much of it must be made with real people vs. machines)? (Hint: Think of Question 2 in the earlier section, about soul).

6)Can you consider music today inventive, progress, or is it simply stealing ideas from the past and making them different (Think about how many songs are sampled, remade)?

7)What happenings must occur in society in order to produce a new movement of music? In what ways does music reflect the cultural values of a time and people?

8)With the process of globalization, music being shared around the world with so many people,  is there still a chance to hear a music that is pure and traditional?

Recommended Listening: Jazz- Miles Davis, Kin d of Blue John Coltrane, Blue Train Horace Silver, Song For My Father, Louis Armstrong Hot Five Recordings, Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else