Misplaced Pages

#156843

24-564: He led his Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the regional, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped to develop the riffing style that would come to define many of the 1930s big bands. The jazz standard " Moten Swing " bears his name. Moten started making music from an early age and developed as a pianist, pulling together other musicians in a band. His first recordings were made (for OKeh Records ) on September 23, 1923, and were rather typical interpretations of

48-516: A big jukebox hit (by then, reissued as 44-0004). It remained in print (as a vinyl 45) until RCA stopping making vinyl records. By 1928, Moten's piano was showing some boogie woogie influences, but the real revolution came in 1929, after he recruited Count Basie , Walter Page , and Oran 'Hot Lips' Page . Walter Page's walking bass lines gave the music an entirely new feel compared to the 2/4 tuba of his predecessor Vernon Page, colored by Basie's understated, syncopated piano fills. Another boon to

72-480: A near-synonym for musical idea " (Middleton 1990, p. 125). The etymology of the term is not clearly known. Ian Anderson, in the documentary "A World Without Beethoven", states (repeatedly) that "riff" is the abbreviation of "repeated motif." Other sources propose riff as an abbreviation for "rhythmic figure" or "refrain". In jazz , blues and R&B , riffs are often used as the starting point for longer compositions. Count Basie's band used many riffs in

96-553: A number of tunes that later became swing classics: Moten died at Kansas City's Wheatley-Provident Hospital on April 2, 1935, following a failed tonsillectomy . Nathan W. Pearson Jr. summarized Bennie Moten's influence on Kansas City's jazz legacy: "Among Kansas City musicians . . . the city, the style, and the era of its flowering are virtually synonymous with the Bennie Moten Orchestra." The complete personnel of Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, as of 1926-1927 when

120-449: A product of jazz , blues , and post-blues era music (rock and pop). The musical goal of riff-driven songs is akin to the classical continuo effect, but raised to much higher importance (in fact, the repeated riff is used to anchor the song in the ears of the listener). The riff/continuo is brought to the forefront of the musical piece and often is the primary melody that remains in the listener's ears. A call and response often holds

144-510: A simple, catchy rhythmic figure, or as complex as the riff-based variations in the head arrangements played by the Count Basie Orchestra . David Brackett (1999) defines riffs as "short melodic phrases ", while Richard Middleton (1999) defines them as "short rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic figures repeated to form a structural framework". Rikky Rooksby states: "A riff is a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase, often pitched low on

168-671: Is not only a musical subject, but a manifestation of the musically subjective. It carries and radiates personality with as much clarity and poignancy as harmony and rhythm combined. As such a powerful tool of communication, melody serves not only as protagonist in its own drama, but as messenger from the author to the audience. Given the many and varied elements and styles of melody "many extant explanations [of melody] confine us to specific stylistic models, and they are too exclusive." Paul Narveson claimed in 1984 that more than three-quarters of melodic topics had not been explored thoroughly. The melodies existing in most European music written before

192-478: The New Orleans style of King Oliver and others. They also showed the influence of the ragtime that was still popular in the area, as well as the stomping beat for which his band was famous. These OKeh sides (recorded 1923–1925) are some of the more valuable acoustic jazz 78s of the era; they are treasured records in many serious jazz collections. They signed with Victor Records in 1926, and were influenced by

216-597: The R&;B dance hit " The Hucklebuck ". The verse of "The Hucklebuck", which was another riff, was "borrowed" from the Artie Matthews composition " Weary Blues ". Glenn Miller's " In the Mood " had an earlier life as Wingy Manone 's "Tar Paper Stomp". All these songs use twelve-bar blues riffs, and most of these riffs probably precede the examples given (Covach 2005, p. 71). In classical music, individual musical phrases used as

240-421: The diatonic scale was still used, the chromatic scale became "widely employed." Composers also allotted a structural role to "the qualitative dimensions" that previously had been "almost exclusively reserved for pitch and rhythm". Kliewer states, "The essential elements of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality ( timbre ), texture , and loudness. Though the same melody may be recognizable when played with

264-566: The 1930's, like in "Jumping at the Woodside" and "One O Clock Jump". Charlie Parker used riffs on "Now's the Time" and "Buzzy". Oscar Pettiford's tune "Blues in the Closet" is a rifftune and so is Duke Ellington's tune "C Jam Blues". Blues guitarist John Lee Hooker used riff on " Boogie Chillen " in 1948. The riff from Charlie Parker 's bebop number "Now's the Time" (1945) re-emerged four years later as

SECTION 10

#1732838437157

288-412: The 20th century, and popular music throughout the 20th century, featured "fixed and easily discernible frequency patterns ", recurring "events, often periodic, at all structural levels" and "recurrence of durations and patterns of durations". Melodies in the 20th century "utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than ha[d] been the custom in any other historical period of Western music ." While

312-454: The Saddle " by Aerosmith , and " You Really Got Me " by The Kinks . Melody A melody (from Greek μελῳδία (melōidía)  'singing, chanting'), also tune , voice , or line , is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm , while more figuratively,

336-507: The band was adding Jimmy Rushing as their primary vocalist. Moten continued to be one of Victor's most popular orchestras through 1930. Their song " Kansas City Shuffle " was recorded during this time. (The band recorded prolifically, and many of their records were issued in Victor's regular series, not specifically marketed to the Black community as some other bands were.) Their final session showed

360-421: The band was at the peak of its early popularity, was: Riff A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs are most often found in rock music , heavy metal music , Latin , funk , and jazz , although classical music is also sometimes based on a riff, such as Ravel 's Boléro . Riffs can be as simple as a tenor saxophone honking

384-400: The basis of classical music pieces are called ostinatos or simply phrases. Contemporary jazz writers also use riff- or lick-like ostinatos in modal music and Latin jazz . The term "riff-driven" is used to describe a piece of music that relies on a repeated instrumental riff as the basis of its most prominent melody, cadence , or (in some cases) leitmotif . Riff-driven songs are largely

408-457: The early stages of what became known as the "Basie sound," four years before Basie recorded under his own name. (They made 10 recordings at Victor's Camden, New Jersey, studios on December 13, 1932, during a time when the band was suffering significant financial hardship.) By this time Ben Webster and Rushing had joined Moten's band, but Moten himself did not play on these sessions. These sides were mostly arranged by Eddie Durham , and they include

432-416: The guitar, which focuses much of the energy and excitement of a rock song." BBC Radio 2 , in compiling its list of 100 Greatest Guitar Riffs, defined a riff as the "main hook of a song", often beginning the song, and is "repeated throughout it, giving the song its distinctive voice". Use of the term has extended to comedy , where riffing means the verbal exploration of a particular subject, thus moving

456-505: The meaning away from the original jazz sense of a repeated figure that a soloist improvises over, to instead indicate the improvisation itself—improvising on a melody or progression as one would improvise on a subject by extending a singular thought, idea or inspiration into a bit , or routine . The term riff entered musical slang in the 1920s (Rooksby, ibid , p. 6) and is used primarily in discussion of forms of rock music , heavy metal or jazz . "Most rock musicians use riff as

480-478: The more sophisticated style of Fletcher Henderson . More often than not, their pieces featured a hard stomp beat that was extremely popular in Kansas City. By 1927, Moten's orchestra contained many names associated with Kansas City music, and included Harlan Leonard (alto sax), Jack Washington (alto and baritone sax), Ed Lewis and Lamar Wright (trumpets) and Willie McWashington (drums). His orchestra featured

504-420: The parts of harmony have as their ultimate purpose only beautiful melody. Therefore, the question of which is the more significant, melody or harmony, is futile. Beyond doubt, the means is subordinate to the end. The Norwegian composer Marcus Paus has argued: Melody is to music what a scent is to the senses: it jogs our memory. It gives face to form, and identity and character to the process and proceedings. It

SECTION 20

#1732838437157

528-499: The song together, creating a "circular" rather than linear feel. A few examples of riff-driven songs are " Whole Lotta Love " and " Black Dog " by Led Zeppelin , " Day Tripper " by The Beatles , " Brown Sugar " and " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction " by The Rolling Stones , " Smoke on the Water " by Deep Purple , " Back in Black " by AC/DC , " Smells Like Teen Spirit " by Nirvana , " Johnny B Goode " by Chuck Berry , " Back in

552-420: The standard Kansas City style at the time: smooth sax chorus over tinkling piano and a bass drum beat. Moten's popular 1928 recording of " South " on Victor V-38021 (itself a remake of the first version on OKeh from late 1924) stayed in Victor's catalog over the years. (It was reissued as 24893 in 1935, as Victor phased out any remaining V-38000 series that were still in the catalog.) In the late 1940s, it became

576-673: The term can include other musical elements such as tonal color . It is the foreground to the background accompaniment . A line or part need not be a foreground melody. Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases or motifs , and are usually repeated throughout a composition in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals between pitches (predominantly conjunct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence , and shape. Johann Philipp Kirnberger argued: The true goal of music—its proper enterprise—is melody. All

#156843