The elements that make jazz distinctive derive primarily from West African musical sources. Taken to the North American continent and the West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak their language or play their native instrument of any sort. Despite the rules, they partially preserved them against all odds in the plantation culture of the American South. These elements are not precisely identifiable because they were not documented—at least not until the mid to late 19th century, and then only sparsely. Furthermore, these slaves came from diverse West African ethnic cultures with distinct musical traditions. Thus, a great variety of black musical sensibilities were assembled on American soil; after taking some shaping from Europe. Although, it's developed into its currently recognizable form in New Orleans, Louisiana, jazz is very reminiscent of African drumming and singing.
It might help to go back in time to see what the African music scene was like. Well, back in those days, African music was more than just for leisure or entertainment. It was interwoven into every aspect of their lives. Africans belonged to ethnic groups and to this day they still do. No one was quite expected to look on while the rest of the group performed an activity. Every hand was needed on deck. In those days the modern implements now available to us were unheard of by Africans. They used their hands, hand made instruments or almost anything that provided a nice sound. Music was the answer! It was not a spontaneous thing, but it developed over the course of time. As such, there was a song for every occasion, activity or function- be it work or play. They sang a song when they were happy, down-hearted, bored, and they sang a song no matter what they felt. This kind of thing may be noticed in the many moods expressed by jazz music. In Africa, even in story-telling, there was singing. Ananse stories for example were very popular in Ghana. At a point in the story, the narrator would raise a song and the children sitting in the circle eagerly joined in. Indubitably there was no way during slavery, the African's culture and music could be taken away. And today it still exists in many forms, with jazz being a very important example.
"….African music is body and soul music. It was not just sung, it was lived. First of all, once you were around and you had a voice, you had to sing…"
African music is body and soul music. It was not just sung, it was lived. First of all, once you were around and you had a voice, you had to sing. And once you were singing and you had the hands you had to clap. And once you were clapping you definitely had to dance. The older generation might however sometimes leave the energetic parts to the youth and simply sway a little or tap their sticks in time. Of course this was a bit limited when the music was being sung while working.
But when they were really performing, though they had no opera houses and all that, they put in some effort. There were quite a number of instruments at the disposal of African musicians, depending on the region in consideration. However, the prominent instruments that run common throughout all the regions is the drum. Even then, there was a huge variety of drums, ranging from those made from hollowed out logs and gourds. They had animal hide stretched out across their mouth, and were beaten with sticks or the palms. Characteristically, African music has a strong rhythm, and this is provided by the ever-present sound of the drum. No matter how irregular African music may sound, it actually has a consistent though complex rhythm, and this is the vital part of African music that steered the tide of what was to become jazz music. Once the style began to develop around the world, jazz found its way back to Africa, which spawned the internationally acclaimed likes of Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim- to name a few.
The African influence that we find in jazz is not the same African rhythm, but the emphasis here is on the rhythm. African music had a driving force brought about by polyrhythm and cross rhythms.
A good illustration of a simple polyrhythm is this: a beat is established and two groups are formed. One group is to clap twice to the beat while the other group is to clap three times. A two-against-three polyrhythm is created. African music does not deal with such tame polyrhythm as these, though. It entails much more complex ones that sometimes make it look like African music was really disorganized. This is not so, though African music's concept of harmony was much different from the Western concept of harmony. The many drums used in making the music each had their own distinctive rhythm which could easily be made out when played alone. However, a collection of different drums, each with its own set rhythm, were played together to create a complex but rich musical sound. It can be said that this is another link to jazz that may be found in this different sounds of music. It is known that African music predominantly makes use of the pentatonic music scale which can be heard when the notes C, D, E, G and A are played on a piano. The pent- prefix indicates that this is a five-note scale. The pentatonic scale may be found in the music of the Scottish, Mexicans, Japanese, Peruvians and others. African rhythms reflected their patterns of speech, and this is what led to the development of the pentatonic scale, which was obviously then not known as such. This scale therefore influences jazz, and also blues, heavily.
"…In jazz music this may be found in the way the instrument sounds respond to each other. One instrument, say the saxophone plays a melody, and the melody is thrown right back by the clarinet…"
As the title goes, call and response involves one line being said and then a response given right back. When it came to singing, largely African music had a single-line melody. Thus, the leader of the song sings or chants a melody, and the partaking group throws back the response. This style is found heavily in jazz, and in fact in many other aspects of African-American activities. For example the leader in a church may shout a phrase, and the congregation eagerly responds. In jazz music this may be found in the way the instrument sounds respond to each other. One instrument, say the saxophone plays a melody, and the melody is thrown right back by the clarinet, although in a slightly altered form. African music also expressed all forms and kinds of vocal manipulations that are heard today in African-American music and very little effort was made to produce the pure notes cherished in other genres of music. Although in a different kind of way, African musicians made good use of falsettos, raspy tones, buzzes in the voice, and bending notes. All these elements of African music were retained by the slaves and were expressed in field hollers and such, and this eventually evolved into jazz.
African Jazz was generally originated in South Africa. During the music's humble beginnings, it was a mirror of the jazz scene in America and eventually adopted strong South African influences. And later with those influences went on to become a cultural phenomenon as a similar style was found in all countries of Africa, but with little or no jazz influence or reference today. This African style of music is today classed as part of the World Music family. As Jazz in Africa became quite popular, groups began to appear sporadically in large cities in most African countries. Some famous artists of the genre include Orchestra Baobab of Senegal, Habib Koite of Mali, and other artists hailing from Uganda and other various countries with a European colonial history. The word jazz is often mistakenly been ascribed to African music which has no connection to jazz today.
Ojiugo Nnenne