Minimalism, and its influence in Jazz music. How did we get there?
Is there a jazz minimalism? Is it possible that jazz had and influence in minimalism and viceversa?
Electric Counterpoint
The Way UP
The Art of Composing: How Steve Reich's music has influenced Pat Metheny's and Lyle Mays' The Way Up
A research into the history of composition techniques
By Benjamin van Bruggen August 2014
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Steve REich about Jazz
Steve Reich turned his back on Serialism back in the late 60s. He'd heard John Coltrane's free jazz and following a trip to Ghana in the early 70s he decided rhythm was more important than melody. So Minimalism was born in uptown New York.
John Coltrane
Africa/Brass
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
Miles Davis - Milestones-
Following Milestones, the absence of changing chords became much more popular in modern jazz, and even more noticeably so following the release of the very modal Kind of Blue, which was recorded in 1959. Modal jazz, characterised by a much slower (and often almost static) harmonic rhythm than earlier jazz styles, is not so much concerned with the traditional musicological conceptions of mode as with the chordal accompaniment. However, the most recognisable examples[2] of modal jazz pieces also demonstrate a focus on modal melodies and improvisations, creating a sense of ambiguous tonality and much less functionality than is perceived in especially the riff-based swing movement or the rapid harmonic rhythms of bebop. Jazz modes did not adhere to the more traditional church modes, but rather incorporated modes from various other schools of music, most noticeably Spanish and Indian; this increasing trend of influence by non-Western music is especially noticeable in pieces such as "Solea" on Davis' 1960 release Sketches of Spain, or saxophonist John Coltrane's 1960 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favourite Things". Davis' trend of using fewer notes to convey more is one picked up especially by Steve Reich, and the modality developed in his pieces is heavily drawn upon by Terry Riley.
Birth of the Cool - Cool - Miles Davis
Aside from being at the forefront of the development of cool jazz, with the Birth of the Cool recording sessions of 1949 and 1950, Davis also created an original trumpet style that later influenced many musicians of both cool jazz and hard bop persuasions, changed said style in the 1960s and thereby influenced the styles of Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Wallace Roney, and others, produced several recordings with distinctive and high-quality performances that were greatly influential as guides for modern musicians, and most importantly as pertaining to Minimalism, pioneered 'modal jazz' on his Kind of Blue album in 1959. Modal jazz, first hinted at in "Milestones" on the record of the same name (1958), breaks away from chordally guided improvisations, instead playing with different scales in a weighted pattern of 64 beats for one scale, 64 beats for the second scale, and then a return to the first scale for 32 beats. This focus on scalar improvisation allowed a greater freedom for the musicians as well as removing some of the demand placed on their attention by having to mould their melodic material to fit changing chord patterns, thereby allowing more flexibility and the subsequent development of more interesting melodies and rhythms.
Giant Steps- HArd BOp- John Coltrane
Bebop Era - Scrapple From The Apple - Charlie Parker
Swing Era - Louis Armstrong - Honeysuckle Rose
What is Minimalism?
Minimalism is a fusion (joining up) of Western Art Music with Non Western cyclical structures. In the 1960’s and 1970’s composers of Western Art Music, like Steve Reich, experimented by using features of Indonesian Gamelan music and African drum music (Non Western cyclical structures) in their compositions. The result was Minimalist music.
Cyclical structures use a limited range of notes and rhythms. Short phrases (‘melodies’) or rhythms are repeated over and over again, changing slightly each time, to create gradual change. It is very different to the balanced phrasing, Q & A and verses & choruses used in Western Music.
Indonesian Gamelan music is played on metal xylophones. In Gamelan music each xylophone part uses the same tune. However, some xylophones play the tune using long notes and others play the tune using shorter notes. The xylophones play at the same time, going in and out of time with one another.
Features of Non Western cyclical structures used in Minimalist music:
Phase (also called ‘phase shifting’). This is where parts that are the same or similar are played at the same time. They go in and out of time with each other because
(a) they are played at different speeds
(b) slightly different length phrases or motives are used.
Polyrhythms. These are different rhythms, played at the same time. African drum music is based on polyrhythms. The master drummer leads the changes in drum patterns.
Pulse and rhythm tend to be an important feature of cyclical structures. Often the pulse helps to drive the music forwards.
Layering. This is where one part is added on top of another to produce the final full effect. There is often a gradual build up during the music.
Texture (layers in the music) is an important feature of cyclical structures. Timbre (the sounds used) is also an important feature of the music. There is no ‘tune’ to listen to so the listener tends to focus on the sounds of the different layers and how they interact with one another.
Harmonies are not created from chords. They are created by the layers piled on top of one another.
The use of technology in Minimalist music:
Looping. In the 1960’s when composers wanted to loop (repeat) a sound pattern, they literally cut the length of tape they wanted to repeat, stuck it to form a loop and looped the tape around a bottle.
Sampling. ‘Foreign’ sounds, like talking or train noises, were recorded and included in the music
Multitracking. Tracks were recorded separately and combined later. This was done on tape in the 1960s.
Editing. Recordings were adjusted after they had been made.
Sequencing. Sequencers were used to create electronic or other desired sounds.