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30 jazz
This brisk commotion found its expression in a new kind of instrumental music. In New Orleans, it was not hard for anyone who really had a mind to it to acquire a cornet or clarinet or trombone. PawnÂshops were full of instruments (many old and battered) that had been left behind by the bandsmen of the Confederate army. Armstrong describes how, when 'broker than the Ten Commandments', he acquired a cornet on the payment system of "a little bit down and a little bit now and then." The instalment collector would be greeted with, "I'll give you-all a little bit then, but I'm damned if I can give you-all a little bit now."
Predominence of the Vocal Sound
But the vocal tradition was still strong, and the instruments were used in a vocal way. The cornet would play the tune as a tenor voice, with the clarinet weaving soprano arabesques high up above, and the trombone singing the bass part. The phrasing and the slurring of the melody lines was adapted from vocal habits.
Thus, in printed music, a typical 'blues' scale would be represented as one with the 3rd and 7th degrees flattened, as shown in the following illustration.
But here we have only another instance of how the printed score fails to convey the true jazz, for the 'blue' notes are not mathematical semitones, but notes slurred and flattened in a particular vocal manner that defies description until you have actually |
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