Jazz as entertainment

A look at the less serious side of jazz

Many jazz lovers approach jazz with a very serious view. They analyze every recording and live appearance with a scholarly approach. However, I feel that they are wrong in this approach. Jazz, right from the beginning, was entertainment, music to dance to, to tap your foot to, and to make you feel happy. Even the most heartfelt playing of the blues should still get a positive response from the listener.

In this article, I will look at and play some music by artists who prioritized entertainment over the cerebral side of music.

From the start in New Orleans, bands were out to entertain, and including animal noises and other sounds was not unusual. The first band to record The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a white band, has been criticized for the comedy effects that they recorded, but even such well-liked bands as those led by Jelly Roll Morton, who claimed to have invented jazz, were not averse to including such effects in his recordings.

Even blues singers like Bessie Smith, who usually were singing about the woes of losing your man, or the general hardships of everyday life amongst the Black community let their hair down and sang about good times, as Bessie Smith does here in Gimme A Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer.

Probably the most important and influential figure in Jazz, Louis Armstrong, never considered himself as just a jazz musician, but as first and foremost an entertainer. Right from the start of his solo career, as well as playing jazz standards he played and sang the popular songs of the day and did his comedy routines. Here is a typical Louis tongue-in-cheek number.

Other bands followed the same path, playing popular songs and comedy numbers as well as jazz and swing arrangements. One of the most popular of these big bands was the Cab Calloway Band featured here in Minnie the Moocher. He was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career spanning over 65 years. He had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, and became the first African-American musician to sell one million copies of a record. He became known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher",

There were many nightclubs and supper clubs all over the USA particularly the big cities, where there was a big demand for small groups to entertain their patrons. One man stood head and shoulders above most of these small band leaders. This was Thomas “Fats” Waller. An exceptionally talented pianist and composer he also sang in his own joyful manner, imbiding even the most pedestrian song with life. His compositions were most often full of humour as in this one of his most popular recordings.

First and foremost, Waller was one of jazz’s greatest stride pianists, following in the footsteps and eventually surpassing his mentor and idol James P. Johnson. He made the most hyper and virtuosic solo sound quite natural and effortless as if the music simply flowed out of him.

Possibly more popular with the black community was a more blues-orientated style, from which Rock and Roll and Soul music originated. Here is a number from one of the most popular small groups of the time, Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five., whose music gained a revival fairly recently with the musical “Five Guys Named Moe”.

At the height of his career, in the 1940s, bandleader and alto saxophonist Louis Jordan scored 18 Number One hit records. Jordan exhibited a brilliant sense of showmanship that brought audiences first-rate entertainment without any loss of musical integrity. He performed songs that appealed to millions of black and white listeners. Able to communicate between these two audiences, Jordan emerged as one of the first successful crossover artists of American popular music.

The 40s and 50s saw the rise of a new form of jazz called be-bop. This is a technically advanced form of jazz developed by a select group of musicians. It had no interest in appealing to the general public, but a few musicians and singers tried to give it a more popular appeal by putting lyrics to various recordings. These were often very witty and clever, as in this example by Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. The premier jazz vocal act of all time, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross revolutionized vocal music during the late '50s and early '60s by turning away from the increasingly crossover slant of the pop world to embrace the sheer musicianship inherent in vocal jazz. Applying the concepts of bop harmonies to swinging vocal music, the trio transformed dozens of instrumental jazz classics into their songs, taking scat solos and trading off licks and riffs in precisely the same fashion as their favorite improvising musicians. Vocal arranger Dave Lambert wrote dense clusters of vocal lines for each voice that, while only distantly related, came together splendidly. Jon Hendricks wrote clever, witty lyrics to jazz standards like "Summertime," "Moanin'," and "Twisted," and Annie Ross, who was a Scottish singer who lived in the USA. proved to be one of the strongest, most dexterous female voices in the history of jazz vocals. Annie Ross

At roughly the same time as be-bop was being developed, young white musicians in various parts of the world decided that a return to the old values in jazz would be a good thing and the revivalist or trad movement started in the US, Australia, and the UK playing music based roughly on the jazz that was being played in the 20's and 30's. One of the best of these bands in the UK was the Chris Barber band. Chris thought that to entertain the audience in the intervals a small group from the band would play and so skiffle music began. It featured bass, banjo, washboard, and vocals. Songs were either blues numbers or some novelty numbers including British music hall songs. Chris's banjo player was Lonnie Donnegan, and he became so popular that he eventually went solo and had quite a lot of top 10 chart hits. For a short time, skiffle music was very popular, and some of the UK's best future rock musicians like the Rolling Stones started their careers playing skiffle.

Another graduate from the trad jazz boom was a very eccentric, bi-sexual art expert, and singer who started singing with the Mick Mulligan band. He soon developed a large following and broke away to form his own group, which lasted virtually to his death a few years later. I'm talking about George Melly, a real larger-than-life figure. .His singing style in particular for the blues, was strongly influenced by his idol, Bessie Smith. While many British musicians of the time treated jazz and blues with almost religious solemnity, Melly rejoiced in their more bawdy side, and this was reflected in his choice of songs and exuberant stage performances. Here he is singing in his own style.

There are jazz musicians, who were originally instrumentalists, usually pianists, and then started singing, like Nat Cole and Roberta Flack. One of these is a pianist/singer with a very distinctive style, who sang some very 'hip' numbers such as the one I am going to play. I am talking about Blossom Dearie. Dearie’s light, thin-textured voice and witty approach to songs, including many she wrote herself, made her highly distinctive. An entertaining and sophisticated entertainer, she kept a strong jazz sense in all her work, and her piano playing was always tasteful, whether accompanying her singing or in fluent bebop solos.

She became well-known internationally, formed her own record companies to issue her music, and, from the 1960s onwards, performed annually in London, often at Ronnie Scott’s club.

That about ends my article on jazz entertainers. If you have any comments let me have them.