MUSIC 26AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Ornette Coleman, Alto Saxophone, John Coltrane
BeBop ad Jazz Otoer 4, 7
• Bebop and free jazz
o Bebop (or Bop) (mid 1940s): black artists taking back black music
▪ Rejection of swing commercialism (mainstream jazz) and formula: wanted to make
jazz more of an expression
▪ Return to smaller combo of instruments: saxophone, bass, horn, drums as the jazz
ensemble
▪ Faster tempo
▪ Solos are more ornate and virtuosic
▪ Expanse of rhythm section
▪ More complex harmonies
▪ Improvisation and listening versus dance: dance gets split off as integral to jazz
o Koko Chalie Pake alto sa plae
▪ More notes that are crammed into the solo that are being played
▪ Pushing on the range of sound that the instrument could make
• Black Power (1960s)
o More militarism (proactive confrontation) by blacks
o Increasing disillusionment (with assassinations of MLK, Malcom X) because of the worry
about the limitations of the wins
o Major riots that take place in large cities due to frustration
o Black power: signals a shift from the church based civilization to secular spaces/urban
environments
▪ Focus on black power vs. integration – goal is focused on black empowerment/uplift
instead of just integration of blacks into American society
o Black Panther Party: emphasized self-defense
▪ Targeted by various governmental organizations
▪ Key figures being assassined
o Mainstream expression of black power:
▪ 1968 Olympics in Mexico: a lot of black people boycotted the Olympics; black people
that decided to compete demonstrated support for the movement (raising fists with
black gloves)
• Symbolic moment in which black people were using the international stage
to get other countries to understand that they were not okay with how they
were being treated
• Cultural nationalism: intertwined with black power
o Social and political strategy advocated for within black power
o Blacks in US are a colonized people with a right to nationhood
▪ Blak people had a sese that the ee a oloized people ased o thei histo
o Should have some degree of separation from whites – a distinct space that is separate from
white America
▪ For some, a complete separation from white people = move back to Africa to
establish their own communities
▪ For others, some black communities removed white people from their organizations
o Malcolm X: major civil rights leader that believed in black power and cultural nationalism
▪ Becomes a member of the Nation of Islam
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