Study Guide for

History of Jazz
Final

Miles Davis
Miles Davis - He was an innovative
player and bandleader.
Miles Davis innovated 3 different phases of jazz history - cool jazz, modal jazz and jazz rock
and fusion.
Gil Evans - An innovative composer and pianist who collaborated with
in many highly
respected albums.

** Listen to - Flamanco Sketches played by Miles Davis **

John Coltrane
John Coltrane - He was an innovative
, composer and bandleader who had enormous
impact on modern jazz in the 1960s.
Coltranes Quartet - popularized modal styles of improvisation.
Pedal point - tone sustained through several changes of harmony.
McCoy Tyner - He popularized voicing chords in 4ths.

** Listen to - Giant Steps played by John Coltrane **

1960s and 1970s Free Jazz
Avant-Garde - Typically defines those players and artists on the cutting edge.
Free Jazz - Jazz improvisation that is free from preset chord progressions.
Omette Coleman - His compositions are known for their freedom from
accompaniment chords.
Cecil Taylor - A Free Jazz style
player. Preferred textures over solo lines.
Charles Mingus - An innovative
player, bandleader and composer. His compositions
combined every style imaginable.

** Listen to - Fables of Faubus played by Charles Mingus **

Great Jazz Pianists and Their Groups
Bill Evens - His playing style was different than other avant-garde musicians. His playing was
smooth and pretty. In his compositions he used
as basis of his music.
Herbie Hancock - Tremendously original and versatile jazz pianist and composer and was best
known as a leader of Jazz-rock
bands.
Chick Corea - His piano playing is crisp and staccato and favors
themes and
Latin rhythms.
Keith Jarrett - His piano playing combined Funk, Free Jazz and Classical styles.

** Listen to - Sundial, Part 1 played by Keith Jarrett **

Study Guide for

History of Jazz
Final

Jazz Rock and Fusion

Fusion - A style of music that combined jazz and rock.
Miles Davis - He created a more jazz styled music with rock influences that became jazz rock
and fusion.
John McLaughlin - Fusion
, bandleader, and composer. His Improvisations included
syncopations typical of rock.
Weather Report - They used a lot of collective improvisation at the beginning and influenced
smooth jazz as their style moves to a riff based process that combines rock
and soul with jazz.
Dixie Dregs - A fusion band that used an electric
and banjo.

1980s to the Present

New Age - A style that avoids rhythms that might create tension.
Smooth Jazz - A jazz style that has a jazzy background with a beat with simple melodies,
improvisations and accompaniments.
Steven Halpern - A new age composer who creates soundscapes consisted of static, minimalist
electric piano textures inspired by Eastern music.
George Winston - His improvised long, vamp-based passages that meander and are soothing.
David Sanborn - A saxophonist and regarded by many as the new saxophone sound in jazz.
He uses and strong blues and
and
influences.
Michael Brecker - He invented a new approach by mixing the methods of John Coltrane and
Wayne Shorter. He emphasizes virtuosity and he fills almost every moment
with rapid-fire, multi-noted exclamations.

** Listen to - Above Below played by Michael and Randy Brecker **

Other Voices
Carla Bley - A composer and bandleader. Highly melodic with unusual chord harmonies with
an often humorous approach.

** Listen to - Baseball played by Carla Bley **

Maria Schneider - A composer and bandleader. Her music is not hard driving and the beat is
not routinely made obvious.

Latin Jazz
Tito Puente - Led one of the most prominent Latin bands in the 1980s-1990s. Blended North
American Jazz harmony, instrumentation and improvisations with Cuban rhythms
and percussion instruments
Eddie Palmieri - Significant pianist, composer, and bandleader of Afro-Cuban style bands
since the 1960s and a master at devising cross rhythms.

*Listen to - Miami played by Paquito DRivera and Jorge Dalto **