Sources of the Early Kansas City Jazz Style: Ragtime and New Orleans Jazz

Background. From the second half of the XX century to the present time in the musical culture of the world we observe significant influence of jazz. New trends, styles, genres is appeared due to the interaction of jazz and academic music. Thus, at the beginning of the XX century such phenomenon of musical art rises as a synthesis of features of jazz and pop music. This process leads to the renewal of musical language, experimentation, the emergence of new styles and trends. All mentioned above are largely inherent in variety-jazz accordion art, which has a significant spread from the early XX century. The formation of the European accordion variety-jazz direction is connected, for the most part, with the genre orientation of the works of a certain region. In France it was a musette. In Germany there were virtuoso fantasies, variations on the themes of popular song and dance melodies, waltzes. In Italy – tarantella, samba, tango. “In the first decades of the XX century accordion began to be widely used in the USA. From beginning of popularization, it was emigrants from Italy”, notes M. Imkhanitskiy (2004: 304–305). In Ukraine, the stage of the emergence of variety-jazz style is associated with the assimilation of the European and American traditions of variety and jazz accordion art. The purpose of the article is to determine the main genre and style levels of the embodiment of variety-jazz style in the works of V. Vlasov. Presenting main material. The integration process of Ukrainian accordion art is significantly separated from the world performing movement. The variety of stylistic vectors (variety, jazz, pop-jazz) and the high level of professionalism of the performers significantly affect the current trends of variety-jazz direction. Victor Vlasov is one of the personalities who has a great influence on the modern process of development of variety-jazz direction in its national specifics. The introduction of professional technical-expressive and artistic components in his compositions is due to the author’s impeccable knowledge of the possibilities of accordion. The embodiment of jazz stylystics is achieved in V. Vlasov’s works by specific means: clear and pulsating metrorhythm, special melody and harmony, jazz phrasing, swinging, uniqueness of articulation. First, V. Vlasov uses rhythmic-factural models, typical of certain genres that were not previously involved in accordion practice. Secondly, he uses quasi-improvisations – the improvisational sections on a harmonious basis taked from main thematic material; third, imitations of the sound of an ensemble in different “timbre layers”, sonor effects in the form of various blows on parts of the instrument, on the floor, etc., mimicing the sound of percussion instruments. Fourth, V. Vlasov often uses swinging. Analyzing the compositional style of V. Vlasov, we find its characteristic features: at the level of the genre subsystem, the composer uses traditional genres of variety music; the level of the evolutionary subsystem is characterized by stylistic diversity (academic, avant-garde, electronic, variety-jazz trends); ethnic metasystem in the artist’s work is represented by the folklore basis of the works, the involvement of traditional genres of certain regions (“Vesnyanka”, “Kolyadka”, “Tarantella”, “Tango”, “Bossa Nova”); historical metasystem is manifested in the use of historically formed jazz styles (New Orleans’ jazz, bebop, swing, cool, etc.). The article considers the embodiment of variety-jazz style on the example of one of the parts of the V. Vlasov’s cycle “Variety-jazz compositions”, the piece “Basso ostinato”. The relevance of the study of this work is connected with its considerable popularity among performers of different countries, the active use of the work by participants in various competitions of accordionists. Using a simple compositional element filled with altered chords, the author creates a clear harmonious and formative grid as a jazz square. Synthesizing the academic form of musical art (Basso ostinato) with variety-jazz style, V. Vlasov created a pattern of his own compositional style. V. Vlasov’s works, in general, have a clear form, mostly there are complex three-part or variational compositions, but his variety-jazz style has its own specifics: ● use of altered chord; ● involvement of noise effects, specific accordion strokes and techniques; ● quasi-improvisations based on the principles of jazz music. Conclusions. V. Vlasov’s works have their influence on the development of variety-jazz music today. He remains one of the first composers to integrate and develop at a high professional level variety-jazz direction in the domestic accordion art. The composer represents new (to accordion-art) jazz performing techniques, novelty of musical ideas and their textural and intonational embodiment. Manifestation of variety-jazz style of V. Vlasov is a set of personal means of expression. Thus, the artist’s works are characterized by the use of altered chords, the involvement of noise effects (“percussion”), specific accordion strokes and techniques; introduction of quasi-improvisations based on the principles of jazz music. V. Vlasov’s individual and stylistic searches determine the characteristic features of the author’s school as a stylistic phenomenon in the development of domestic and European accordion art. Stylistic orientation of V. Vlasov’s compositions – New Orleans jazz, swing, bee-bop, cool, progressive – presents a wide range of genres and styles.

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New Orleans Jazz in the World

The Journal of African American History ◽

10.1086/699960 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 103 (4) ◽

pp. 664-674

Author(s):

Clyde C. Robertson

Keyword(s):

New Orleans ◽

The World ◽

New Orleans Jazz

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Keep That Lane Open!: Race, Space, and Mardi Gras in Kansas City

Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation ◽

10.21083/csieci.v11i1-2.3686 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (1-2) ◽

Author(s):

Peter A. Williams

Keyword(s):

New Orleans ◽

Urban Space ◽

Social Relations ◽

Kansas City ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Historical Narrative ◽

African American Culture ◽

Mardi Gras ◽

Cultural Form ◽

Bodily Movement

This essay explores the open-ended and complex performance of an underground Mardi Gras parade in Kansas City, MO, in 2012. The sounds, movement, and route of the parade are shaped by a network of globally circulating images of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the history of race and space in Kansas City, and the intercultural exchange involved in white performances of black cultural practices as they move from the “circum-Caribbean” city of New Orleans to the U.S. heartland of Kansas City. The parade is a partially improvised performance of a historical narrative linking Kansas City’s mostly white bohemian arts culture in the present to the city’s past as a major jazz city and center for African American culture. This narrative is told by bodily movement through urban space and through improvised sound and dance, and demonstrates the complex social relations that are highlighted when a cultural form is subject to cross-cultural communication, borrowing, and appropriation.

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