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Scientific Journal

Rock Pop Jazz

The “French tinge”. Jazz and its Paris-New Orleans connection

· · Musicologica 1/2021, Rock Pop Jazz

In recent years, musicological research proved how relevant have been, besides African sources, the European roots of jazz. These can be traced also in the French musical heritage, ideology and culture, including the 1789 Revolution’s freedom principle and the liberal attitude of French governors concerning black slavery in the American colonies, starting from Louisiana. The article suggests the importance of a Paris-New Orleans connection. French and Parisian musical traits were basic ingredients of New Orleans jazz melting pot, whereas the Parisian and French circulation of some important creole musicians from New Orleans like Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Edmund Dedé, during the nineteenth century, helped the latter circulation and proper cultural perception of Afro-American music. Due to these facts, Paris, since then, became the second capital for jazz in the world.
Abstract in Slovak:
Muzikologický výskum v posledných rokoch dokázal, že okrem afrických zdrojov sú pre jazz relevantné aj európske korene. Možno ich sledovať aj vo francúzskom hudobnom dedičstve, ideológii a kultúre, vrátane princípu slobody v revolúcii v roku 1789 a liberálneho prístupu francúzskych guvernérov k čiernemu otroctvu v amerických kolóniách počnúc Louisianou. Príspevok naznačuje význam spojenia Paríža s New Orleans. Francúzske a parížske hudobné črty boli základnými zložkami jazzového taviaceho kotla v New Orleans. Migrácia niektorých významných kreolských hudobníkov z New Orleans, akými boli Louis Moreau Gottschalk a Edmund Dedé v devätnástom storočí v Paríži a vo Francúzsku, pomohla poslednej výmene hudobníkov a správnemu kultúrnemu vnímaniu afroamerickej hudby. Vďaka týmto skutočnostiam sa Paríž stal druhým hlavným mestom jazzu na svete.

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Lukáš Oravec, mainstream personality of Slovak jazz

· · Musicologica 1/2019, Rock Pop Jazz

In this paper the author analyzes basic stylistic tendency in jazz after the year 2000. In the confrontation with foreign trends it points to the specifics of the Slovak jazz development. The core of the work is an analysis of the composition Moonday written by trumpeter Lukáš Oravec from the second studio album – Piotrology (2015) in the neo-bop modern mainstream style. Using stylistic, harmonic and form analysis, the author points to the features of Slovak jazz.

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Rock subculture in Bratislava

· · Musicologica 1/2019, Rock Pop Jazz

Although the Bratislava rock subculture was established in the late 1950s, the bands were given the opportunity to perform professionally only in 1963. On the one hand, rock pushed jazz out as a genre, on the other hand, there were various censorship problems. The Bratislava rock subculture changed from hard rock to art rock, bans mainly related to punk rock and heavy metal as styles. In the 1990s, the hip hop subculture began to push rock out as a genre, and rock survives mainly due to poly-stylistic connections with other genres.

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From Bratislava´s Lyra to Czechoslovakia has talent. Music in Bratislava in the period from 1966 to 2010

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Rock Pop Jazz

In Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, performances of world-class artists have always taken place. In the period from 1948 to 1963 most of the significant performances of jazz and popular artists took place in Prague. After 1963, when Chris Barber (Great Britain) performed in Bratislava, the city became the center of important jazz and popular events too. The situation with the organization of jazz, rock and popular concerts of international artists in the former Czechoslovakia changed with the establishment of  Bratislava´s Lyra (1966) and Bratislava Jazz Days (1975) festivals. Bratislava became an equal emancipated city alongside Prague in organizing festivals. Bratislava’s lyras, as an author’s song contest, lasted until 1992, the next sequel was unsuccessful and replaced by karaoke Superstar (Super Idol), interpretation contests since 2004. The festival Bratislava Jazz Days have preserved continuity until today, unlike the International Jazz Festival in Prague. After 1989, the concert life in Bratislava no longer focuses only on festivals, but it organises throughout the year in clubs, in big performances for several thousand listeners. Bratislava is no longer the only city of Slovakia, where large concerts of foreign jazz, rock, pop stars take place, but it is also happening in Košice, Žilina, Piešťany, Nové Zámky, Trenčín and Trnava.

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Spirituality in Slovak rap Kali, Majk Spirit, Rytmus, Suvereno

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Rock Pop Jazz

The research of this study is an analysis of the phenomenon of spirituality in Slovak rap music. The study is divided into two main sections. The first section is a brief introduction to spirituality and rap music abroad. The central theme is the problematic definition of spirituality and its pluralistic, syncretistic and ambivalent character in rap. In the second section we study spiritual allusions in the form of themes, ideas or motives to provide the first probe of this issue in the Slovak context. Part of this section is also the spiritual characterization of individual rappers with respect to origin and type of spiritual allusions. Due to the large number of rap singers and bands, we are discoursively devoted to the production of four famous Slovak rappers: Kali, Rytmus, Majk Spirit and Suvereno.

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Songs’ Lyrics Games

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Rock Pop Jazz

In recent years, the contemporary songs’ lyrics has become an influential phenomenon affecting predominantly young generation. The study tries to show that the lyrics can be used as an inspiring text material in teaching process at various levels of education, helping to develop text competences. The study presents some of creative writing techniques which are based on the operations with lyrics. The process of identification of the distinctive signs between lyrics and poetry helps to indicate some of the most dominant attributes of the Slovak contemporary lyrics production.

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Towards the language culture in the lyrics of Slovak popular music

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Rock Pop Jazz

The study deals with culture of language in Slovak song lyrics aproximately from 1950s up to present day. It declares unsufficient interest of linguistics in this area and a methodological problem concerning axiology of song lyrics which pose two approaches to language, systematic and pragmatic, with different approaches to language norm. Analysing examples of particular lyrics, it states the shift from the sentimental character of lyrics of 1950s to understanding of lyrics as a message from the late 1960s when greater engagement of poets in writing lyrics resulted in their higher literary and language value. The revolution in 1989 brought either diversification of views on standard language and its use in the shape of rapid development of sociolinguistics, or liberalisation of language in song lyrics with the higher representation of non-standard layers that helped to decrease their overall value.

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American and world jazz scene after 2000

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Rock Pop Jazz

Before the beginning of the new millenium, over the past three decades, jazz has been undergone major changes in the development. From the 70s we can see the fragmentation of jazz and the birth of many polystyle music formations. Jazz has become more open to other genres and has begun to create so called jazz fusion. Currently, artists go even further with a fusion and create eclectic projects that combine not only genres and styles, but also different types of art. Richard Lawn, theorist, talks about the complexity of gripping developments in recent decades, as we do not have enough distance to define some of the trends that are still subject to change. Clearly, jazz is not dead. But its development does notmove in the direction of one stylistic trend as it has been in the past. The development of jazz has changed in the last two decades. One of the most prominent changes is the abandonment of the swinging rhythm section that laid foundation of modern jazz in the first half of the 20th century and continued as a basic rhythmical jazz model across the development of the post-bop period.  The swing rhythm did not dissapear completely from the phrasing, but the so-called hard swinging rhythm section holds its stance mainly in the mainstream. The change of the developmental paradigm and its associated phenomenon – globalization – has contributed to the great transformation. Jazz ceased to be a matter of the American continent and its development moved to Europe and other countries in the world. Thankfully to this situation, different national traditions have been implemented in jazz, which resulted in the enrichment of the musical language and the instruments. The transformation has also been made in aethetics and sound that influence different genres and current technological trend. Some theoreticians, artists and jazz journalists consider these tendencies as separation from the direct development of jazz. These new trends have emerged in the 1980s but they have gradually become more intense and became the main elements predicting developments in the new millenium. Theoretician Mervyn Cooke has expressed this period as a period when jazz enters the world of diversity but also the unclear and unpredictable future.

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Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha (1911), the “first” black opera. A new ethnoanthropological and musicological analysis

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Rock Pop Jazz

More than one century after its birth and its unlucky efforts to stage it properly, Scott Joplin’s complex and beautiful opera Treemonisha calls for a new, interdisciplinary critical analysis. African-American music needs to be viewed not only as a synthesis of oral and written sources, but also in light of how popular music and the mass media have influenced its development. This requires a revision of the musicological study of jazz and related genres to include ethnographic, anthropological and systematic points of view.

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Melomani and the Yosuke Yamashita Trio

· · Musicologica 1/2017, Rock Pop Jazz

This essay discusses the Melomani and the Yosuke Yamashita Trio from a historical point of view: the repression by the communist regime and the social trend to solve problems by non-violence against the avant-garde and the famous persons released from the groups: two pianists Krzysztof Komeda and Yosuke Yamashita, as well as the characteristics of their songs: melancholy and frenzy. The two different jazz bands mentioned above were formed in two different countries, and this demonstrates how jazz holds the possibility of evolution in various directions at the same time. It can be said that jazz has an inner flexibility or, in other words, various possibilities for improvement, so jazz is accepted and loved beyond the national framework.

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Jazz in the Heart of Europe

· · Musicologica 1/2017, Rock Pop Jazz

Until 1989, the region of Central Europe was closed due to ideological reasons, and was divided into the musical culture of Eastern and of Western Europe. Because of the socialist cultural politics, the territory of former Czechoslovakia is often incorrectly ranked among the countries of the Eastern Bloc. If we take into account the geographical breakdown of Europe, the musical culture of the Czech Republic and of the Slovak Republic belong to the “heart of Europe”. While, until 1918, the territory of Slovakia had developed cultural ties especially with Budapest and Vienna, Prague had closer contacts with Germany, as well as with other European cities (Paris). At present, from the aspect of developing musical contacts, the region of Central Europe is perceived as a coherent one, consisting of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, which plays an important role in seeking communication, contacts and managerial connections with other European regions. Slovak jazz, as a representative of the Central Europe region, searches for a network of contacts and partners abroad. All European countries face the same problem when trying to develop managerial networks for jazz but, contrary to Slovakia, they have a longer tradition of jazz festivals, clubs, and jazz personalities.

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Michelle Gurevich’s Music as an Interface between the East and the West

· · Musicologica 1/2017, Rock Pop Jazz

The analysis of Gurevich’s music is an attempt to upgrade, or expand, the theme of correlation between the East and the West. The relationship, or the juxtaposition, between Western and Eastern societies in this paper is redefined more precisely through the valuation and the popularity of Western musicians from the indie music scene in former Eastern and Central European socialist countries. Michelle Gurevich’s music is part of the indie music scene, and is also described as slowcore rock and lo-fi pop. Her Russian, or Slavic, origin is an important aspect of her music that began in Canada. There it was that the feeling of not belonging to the culture, emerging in her senses and subconscious, actually occurred as a result of her Russian origin and of living in a western state. This feeling of non-belonging was the main idea behind analyzing Gurevich’s music as an interface between the East and the West.

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Dobro as the Cultural Heritage of the Slovaks

· · Musicologica 1/2017, Rock Pop Jazz

Although dobro, a resophonic guitar, originated in the US, without its genial developer called Ján Dopjera (John Dopyera as the English version of his name), who came from Slovakia, the Americans would not have been able to call it their own and add it to their cultural heritage. The dobro guitar does not belong only to museums, is not part only of exhibits, but is still being played and actively used by professional musicians of the present day all over the world in various musical genres, from country, blues, jazz, up to pop music. It is important to define its place in the system of musicology, where it forms a part of its organological discipline since dobro is not only a guitar but also involves a sophisticated technological system. In this paper, I deal with the division of string instruments which make use of the dobro system. I analyse the materials which are most frequently used for their manufacturing. I devote attention to the strings used by the musicians, and to how they switched from thin strings to thicker ones. In the music of the most well-known performers and bands, the “dobro” system most often made use of guitars with a wooden body. Later, they switched from the resonating system to electromagnetic sensors. I discuss not only the development of the instrument but also the life of its inventors, the Dopyera brothers, sons of a miller from Dolná Krupá near Trnava in western Slovakia. The Dopyeras moved to Los Angeles, USA, for work, in 1908. Unfortunately, the agitated and conflictful relationship of the investor, George Beauchamp, with John Dopyera affected the development of the “dobro” system as well. When the original American dobro guitars made their way to Slovakia in the 1990s, it meant a new development in the cultural relationship of the Americans and the Slovaks.

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On the Slovak Rock Songs’ Lyrics

· · Musicologica 1/2017, Rock Pop Jazz

In recent years, the quality of the contemporary songs’ lyrics has been affected by the massive pop culture influence predominantly from English-speaking countries. This survey-based study tries to identify the most popular Slovak rock songs and to determine if their lyrics play a role in the musical preferences of young people in Slovakia. According to the survey results, the songs by the rock groups Horkýže Slíže and Iné Kafe seem to be the most popular. The outcomes indicate that the songs’ lyrics are relevant to the Slovak survey participants, and that the aspect most appreciated in lyrics is their shocking and bizarre meaning. 

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New Faces of Slovak Jazz

· · Musicologica 1/2016, Rock Pop Jazz

New faces of Slovak jazz is a competition of amateur jazz bands in Slovakia. The competition was formed in 1986 as part of the Slovak Jazz Festival in Žilina, later it has been transferred to Bratislava in 1995. This competition assisted in professionalising young novice jazz musicians. Almost a quarter of the participants of this event has gradually established themselves on the stage and achieved their creative, but also the peak period in their career which included musicians such as Ondrej Krajňák, Klaudius Kováč, Milo Suchomel, Martin Valihora, Hanka Gregušová, Michal Bugala, Štefan Bugala and others. This paper reports a detailed list of personalities who participated in the competition in the period 1986 – 2016. It was reconstructed by historical events through oral tradition, minutes from the archives of Slovak Jazz Society and scattered information in newsletters, newspapers and magazines.

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Scott Walker, Postmodern Tendencies of His Poetics and Works

· · Musicologica 1/2016, Rock Pop Jazz

The author is dealing with six key words tied with a topic, which demonstrates indisputable importance of Scott Walker for world of music. One of them is conceptualism in the aesthetics of rock music as well as function and interaction of such terms as the relationship of the composer and the work, intertextuality, intersections of pop and classical music, intermediality and aesthetics of ugliness. The author presents in the character of Scott Walker the largest musical “chameleon” in the history of popular music; singer, composer pop, rock, classical and avant-garde music, composer of film music, song writer and poet who gives an exemplary work of progressiveness and syncretism in major artistic universe by his more than fifty years of musical career. With his personality and work we can demonstrate an example of the incoming “new” type of artist, dissatisfied, doubtful and unseized. His roots are based on popular culture; from times, even before the digital world of the mid-sixties, where the reflections of the composer and his work are moved to today’s fluid time. The chameleon is an animal that adapts to the environment by camouflaging; choosing different colors, but Walker tones changes his art eminently freely, freshly and unexpectedly. This study will talk about a story of courage, listening the voices of muses as well as insight of media and ability to articulate the deepest portions of the human being of the author and the recipient as well as inside the medium through which the dialogue between the two sides are pending.

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Entertaining Music in Bratislava until 1938

· · Musicologica 1/2016, Rock Pop Jazz

At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, Bratislava has been multicultural small city, which was gradually taking over many features of a big city entertaimnet up until 1938. Hungarian, German and Slovak music culture has been overlapped, but also cultures of other nations penetrated to the music such as Klezmer, Romani, Czech music and others. In this period dominated genres of brass music, music of promenade orchestras, chants of street parades, Gypsy music, saloon orchestras, cinema music, folk music and operetta in Bratislava.To these genres gradually penetrated entertaining music from big cities in the form of shimmy, two-step, one step, tango, charleston, rumba, cha-cha and jazz. In this multicultural environment, the first dance song had been created by D. Pálka-Š. Hoza: Don’t Tell Girl to Anyone.

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Miles Davis – From Bebop to Hip Hop. The Fifties

· · Musicologica 1/2016, Rock Pop Jazz

Tonality, which began in Europe, challenges the Second Viennese School of Schöenberg, Webern and Berg, again strongly reinforces the American pop music, while tonal feeling of jazz already with bebop elements (chromaticisms, bitonality, seconds, expansion of forms and structures) were in crisis and it started in the 50s its own way; a path that indicates further new perspectives for the future: moving away from the song form and improvisation based on chords performed by Cecil Taylor, a tendency towards expressive possibilities offered by modality and the nascent interest in multinational elements of ethnic music. A new musical language is coupled with technological innovations; while the radio is added to television and film production and is progressing rapidly as a worldwide phenomenon. Recording on magnetic tapes and LPs birth (ie disc 33 rpm) again extends and modifies creative relationships and the pursuit of confrontation in music. But it is hard-bop stream that Miles Davis intuitively senses and spreads even before pianist Horace Silver, drummer Art Blakey, trumpeter Clifford Brown and others formally directed the use of the typical African-American themes.

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Ethnographic Research into the Alternative Music Scene in Bratislava

· · Musicologica 1/2015, Rock Pop Jazz

This paper is dedicated to the ethnographic research into the alternative music scene in Bratislava, conducted during November and December 2014. For our observations, we selected two music clubs in Bratislava (Slovakia) that have continually promoted alternative bands: the Majestic Music Club and the British Rock Stars Club. The ethnographic research focused on three performances: the concert of Wayne Hussey in the British Rock Stars Club, and the performances of Lamb and Laibach in the Majestic Music Club. The general goal for the observations was to better understand the alternative or indie music culture. The principal method was an analysis of the relationship or communication between the audiences and the musicians as a process of both mutual subjective reactions and reflections.

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