STYLE

Field Holler

DATES
Antebellum Years

Work Song

Antebellum Years

The Blues

Post Civil War

Ragtime

Post Civil War; turn of the

20th Century

Dixieland

1910s 1920s

TRAITS
Solo song improvised by
slaves as a form of selfexpression.
Group song that employed
call and response. Explicit
function was to aid in the
work process. Implicitly had
coded meanings and used for
communication.
Song that was improvised
using 3-line form of AAB in
12 bar choruses. Function
was to get rid of the blues.
Employed call and response,
used of the blue/bent note.
Exclusively piano music that
was meant for dancing. It
was not improvised and had a
stiff, march-like rhythm.
Spread by itinerant
musicians, sale of sheet music
and the use of the pianola.
A style of music that
combined the syncopated
rhythm of ragtime, the
improvisation of the blues
and the instruments of the
brass bands. Employed
collective improvisation
between the front line
instruments of the cornet,
clarinet and trombone.
Initially developed in New
Orleans and migrated to cities
like Chicago due to the Great
Migration. Meant for

PEOPLE

SONGS
My Little Annie So Sweet
Louisiana
Berta, Berta
Early in the Mornin

Bessie Smith
Ma Rainey
Robert Johnson

Backwater Blues
Crossroad Blues

Scott Joplin
Joseph Lamb

Maple Leaf Rag

The Entertainer

Jelly Roll Morton

Joe King Oliver
Louis Armstrong
O.D.J.B.
N.O.R.K.
Bix Beiderbecke
Frankie Trumbauer

Livery Stable Blues

Dippermouth Blues
Black Bottom Stomp
West End Blues
Weather Bird
Singin the Blues

Harlem Stride

1920s 1930s

Swing

1920s 1940s

dancing.
Extension of ragtime.
Primarily piano music. It was
meant for dancing. It was
highly improvised. Use of the
pianola was still important.
Popularized during rent
parties and cutting contests.
Name was derived from the
striding left hand of the
pianist.
The first and only time jazz
was Americas popular
music. It was pioneered by
people like Fletcher
Henderson and Louis
Armstrong in the mid 1920s.
It was a dance music that was
found throughout the country.
Its popularity was spread by
such technical innovations as
the radio, record player and
juke box. The bands grew in
size from those of the
Dixieland Era and were
arranged into three sections:
brass, reed and rhythm. The
music moved away from
collective improvisation to
solo improvisation, which
was meant to highlight one
artist at a time. The texture
was now a homophonic
texture where the sections
would play together, creating
a unified sound.

James P. Johnson
Willie The Lion Smith
Thomas Fats Waller
Art Tatum

Carolina Shout
Aint Misbehavin
The Charleston
Tiger Rag

Fletcher Henderson
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Benny Goodman
Paul Whiteman
Tommy Dorsey
Glenn Miller

Hot n Anxious
Take the A Train
One O Clock Jumo
Good Enough to Keep
Sweet Sue
In the Mood