Topic > 1959, The Monumental Year that Changed Jazz

The year 1959 marked a monumental year in the history of American music. Many American jazz artists have made recordings that have profoundly influenced society and left a lasting impact that is still present today. Musical experimentation during this year is considered the apogee of American jazz achievements, and jazz has reached new heights characterized by innovation, creativity, ingenuity, grandeur, groove and much more. Essentially, four major jazz albums were created that changed music forever: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Charles Mingus' Ah Um, and Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Miles Davis' Kind of Blue has attracted more people to jazz than any other jazz recording, even after being released more than fifty years ago. The album developed a new, powerful and grandiose jazz musical statement. The Kind of Blue album features a modal jazz style, which is music based on the extensive repetition of one or two chords or music based on modalities rather than chord progression. Kind of Blue's "So What", improvised, without time references and without a clear rhythm that opens with bass and piano, gives an unclear and nebulous idea of ​​where the song was going, with a great riff that sets the energy and Jimmy Cobb performing an incredible cymbal crash after the intro. So the main feature is Miles' hippy, haunting trumpet sound, which was unique and special and was developed from his playing during the bebop era with musicians like Charlie Parker, the leading alto saxophonist of the bebop era. Kind of Blue is so important when it comes to the history of American jazz because he exerted a prodigious influence on jazz music and the legacy of his band members. Furthermore, it opened up a new direction in jazz music, along with a more thoughtful point of view on the creation of jazz compositions. Three interesting facts about Kind of Blue are that it is the best-selling jazz album ever made, with over five million copies sold, it regularly tops best jazz album polls, and tops lists of best albums in any category, and that it took Miles and the group seven hours to record Kind of Blue, with all but one of the tracks as first takes. A funny story about Miles Davis and the quartet is that when they were recording Kind of Blue for the first time, a sound engineer told Miles Davis and the band that the drums were making surface noise, and Miles Davis shouted back at him and told him which was part of the album during recording. Dave Brubeck's Time Out album is known for pianist Dave Brubeck's rhythmic experimentation. Time Out's style is cool jazz, in which the music was not as jagged, unpredictable and sophisticated compared to bebop, but was more subtle and incorporated classical harmonic devices into the composition. Take Five, one of the tracks on the Time Out album, was composed in 5/4 time and was written around a drum solo. Time Out is so important when talking about the history of American jazz because it was so easily accessible to the average citizen because it wasn't too complicated and appealing as the group represented the American middle class. Three interesting facts about Time Out are that each track is written at a different tempo and tempo, it rose up the pop charts and became one of the best-selling jazz recordings ever released, and that it took Dave Brubeck several years to build the line. -up of his quartet that recorded the album Time Out. An interesting story about Dave's quartetBrubeck is that when African-American bassist Eugene Wright was added to the quartet and they were touring universities in the southern states of America, the president of a college visited by the quartet was worried because the students were going wild and asking for Dave Brubeck place Eugene Wright at the back of the stage to avoid being noticed. However, during the second tune, Dave Brubeck asked Eugene Wright to come play his solo in front of the stage, and Eugene Wright performed in front of the entire audience, unaware before heading to the front of the stage that Dave Brubeck was planning this move. Charles Mingus' album Ah Um is known as a great jazz musical statement that was incredible and influential throughout America. Charles Mingus, bassist and composer, believed that time was alive at the same time and wanted freedom in playing, writing and encouraging his musicians to improvise in any musical style, and did not see jazz as a development of new styles as the past the years. Ah Um's style is post-bop, where he incorporates a variety of styles such as modal jazz, avant-garde, free jazz and hard bop all together. Several tracks on the Ah Um album include "Better Git It In Your Soul", known as the incredible opening track of the Ah Um album and Self Portrait In Three Colors", known as a composed and multi-faceted composition without any solos. Although Charles Mingus was known to be a capricious, aggressive and demanding musician and composer, he was an extraordinary musician and improviser and used music to express emotions and feelings, such as passion, tenderness, spirituality and much more is so important when it comes of American jazz history because it expressed socioracial struggles and other political beliefs that served as an influential message against racism in America, helping to create an atmosphere that led people to respect a person beyond color distinctions. Three interesting facts about Ah Um sono which was one of the four albums that Charles Mingus had made that year, Charles Mingus allowed the other musicians to incorporate different musical elements when improvising in a colorful and provocative way, and contained the song "Fables of Faubus", based about a 1957 event in which Arkansas Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to prevent African American teenagers from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and did not want to allow integration, although a court case was settled at the Supreme Court. An interesting story about Charles Mingus and the group is that one night in a small club on West 4th Street in New York City, Charles Mingus became enraged during an argument with the pianist and yelled "You're not playing yourself, you're playing." notes,” and reached his arm into the piano, grabbed the strings, and punched them out. Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come is known as a spectacular and bold musical statement, unlike any jazz album recorded before. One of the songs on The Shape of Jazz to Come, Lonely Woman, is considered one of the greatest jazz compositions ever written, which merged and brought together Ornette Coleman and the quartet as one The album Shape of Jazz to Come exemplifies a free-. jazz, a classification of avant-garde style, in which the music contains improvised solos lacking preset chord progressions, and sometimes even lacking preset meters The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman is so important when it comes to the history of American jazz which had such an influence that it changed the way people looked at jazz and interpreted the style and sound of jazz music. Three interesting facts about The Shape of Jazz to How are Ornette Coleman used his typical plastic saxophone when.