MUSI 1560 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Scat Singing
5 Jan 2017
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Swing school = 4 beats per bar. Melodies in this sound the same as the solos. Hear a lot of polyphony in his music. Nick name = dipper mouth because of his smile and mouth. He (cid:498)swung(cid:499) more than anyone else of his time: orleans style bands, big bands, his return to the new orleans format. His melody playing began to abandon fixed melody for pure invention and his improvisations are not random, parts always combine to for unified wholes. He has an ability to construct an entire form. From 1926 on armstrong started to turn away from paraphrasing the melody to fresh invention. He had great success with his scat singing. Phrase of the solos commented or reflected the preceding one. Created stretches where accents fall away from the standard 4/4 time. Solos with bessie smith are considered some of the finest examples of the blues ever played.
