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CHAPTER 56 American Intersections: Jazz and Blues Traditions
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following popular American musical styles has its roots in African American music?
a. ragtime c. jazz
b. blues d. All answers shown here.
2. Which of the following music genres developed around the turn of the twentieth century and incorporates elements of African music
and Western popular and art music?
a. jazz c. rock and roll
b. country and western d. bebop
3. Which of the following are musical traits of African origin?
a. vocal glides and inflection c. storytelling techniques
b. call and response d. All answers shown here.
4. How many lines are in a blues verse?
a. three c. five
b. four d. variable
5. Which of the following best describes the form of a blues text?
a. A-B-A c. A-B-C
b. A-A-B d. none of the above
6. Which region of the United States was the birthplace of a unique style of blues primarily sung by males?
a. Mississippi Delta c. New York
b. Chicago d. New Orleans
7. What is a “blue” note?
a. a note that is not heard c. a note whose pitch rises slightly
b. a note that is sustained d. a note whose pitch is bent
8. Which of the following characterizes the blues?
a. It is a mixture of African and Euro-American musical traditions.
b. It has three-line text stanzas; the first two lines of each stanza are identical.
c. The harmonic progression is usually twelve measures long.
d. All answers shown here.
9. Which American city is considered the birthplace of jazz?
a. New York c. New Orleans
b. Chicago d. Los Angeles
10. Which of the following is/are true of New Orleans jazz?
a. It combined elements of ragtime and blues.
b. Improvisation was a basic element.
c. Its texture was largely polyphonic.
d. All answers shown here.
11. Louis Armstrong was also known as
a. Jelly Roll. c. “King” Armstrong.
b. Satchmo. d. Hot Lips.
12. Which instrument did Louis Armstrong play?
a. trumpet c. clarinet
b. trombone d. piano
13. Louis Armstrong’s instrument-like approach to singing is called
a. Singspiel. c. scat-singing.
b. Sprechstimme. d. holler.
14. Billie Holiday was one of the first African American singers to
a. sing and record the blues.
b. break the color barrier by recording and performing with white musicians.
c. perform in Carnegie Hall.
d. lead her own band.
15. Billie Holiday’s song Billie’s Blues is in ________ form.
a. twelve-bar blues c. thirty-two-bar popular song
b. sixteen-bar blues d. ritornello
16. Which American jazz composer was also a pianist and a master of big-band orchestration?
a. Louis Armstrong c. Jelly Roll Morton
b. Earl “Fatha” Hines d. Duke Ellington
17. For what kind of jazz is Duke Ellington known?
a. big band c. bebop
b. New Orleans d. third stream
18. Duke Ellington’s great musical collaborator in the 1940s was
a. Louis Armstrong. c. Billy Strayhorn.
b. Count Basie. d. Billie Holiday.
19. Take the A Train is a song that refers to
a. a New York City subway line.
b. the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
c. the underground railroad of the nineteenth century.
d. None of the answers shown here.
20. Take the A Train was composed by
a. Count Basie. c. Billy Strayhorn.
b. Duke Ellington. d. Lil Hardin.
21. ________ was one of the new jazz musical styles developed by the end of the 1940s.
a. Bebop c. Swing
b. Rock ’n’ roll d. Big-band
22. Which of the following were leaders of the style known as bebop?
a. Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk
b. Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington
c. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington
d. Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie
23. During the 1940s, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk developed
a. New Orleans jazz. c. bebop.
b. ragtime. d. third-stream jazz.
24. The principal exponent of cool jazz was the trumpeter
a. Louis Armstrong. c. Shorty Rogers.
b. Miles Davis. d. Herbert L. Clarke.
25. What element did Xavier Cugat bring to the mainstream?
a. Latin dance music c. improvisation
b. African syncopation d. avant-garde approaches
26. In the pre–Civil War era, slaves met in ________ in New Orleans to dance to the accompaniment of drums, gourds, mouth harps, and
banjos.
a. the French Quarter c. private homes
b. Congo Square d. churches
27. What was Billie Holiday’s nickname?
a. the Queen of Jazz c. the First Lady of Jazz
b. Lady Day d. Bebop Billie
28. What is the subject of Billie Holiday’s most famous song, Strange Fruit?
a. a spoiled breakfast c. a romantic encounter gone wrong
b. Southern lynching d. lost love
29. What is the form of Take the A Train?
a. twelve-bar blues c. A-A-B-A
b. sixteen-bar blues d. sonata form
30. Which jazz style often featured a piano-less ensemble as well as contrapuntal improvisations?
a. New Orleans jazz c. bebop
b. ragtime d. West Coast jazz
1. Jazz is an art form created mainly by African Americans in the early twentieth century that blended elements from African music with
traditions of the West.
2. A typical blues text voiced the difficulties of life.
3. A stanza of blues is typically four phrases long.
4. The blues from the Mississippi Delta usually were sung by black women.
5. New Orleans jazz depended on simultaneous improvisations by the players, which resulted in a polyphonic texture.
6. Louis Armstrong was an important force in the development of early jazz styles.
7. Billie Holiday developed her vocal technique from listening to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong.
8. Billie Holliday’s Billie’s Blues is a twelve-bar blues.
9. Big-band swing was the dominant form of American popular music in the 1930s and 1940s.
10. Duke Ellington is associated with New Orleans–style jazz.
11. Bebop was a complex new style that developed after the Second World War and was performed by small groups in which each player
had an equal voice in the improvisation.
12. The Gerry Mulligan Quartet is associated with West Coast jazz.
13. The country or rural blues developed in the South, particularly in the Mississippi Delta.
14. The roots of jazz and blues include work songs, ring shouts, and spirituals.
15. A spiritual is a religious ritual that involved moving counterclockwise in a circle while praying, singing, and clapping hands.
16. Unlike New York and Chicago, the culture of New Orleans had little impact on the development of jazz.
17. Because she was an African American, Billie Holiday never had a chance to record with white jazz musicians.
18. Duke Ellington often performed complex piano solos as part of his compositions.
19. Duke Ellington was a major artistic figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
20. Cool jazz is characterized by dense harmonies, moderate tempos, and lyricism.
1. Describe the African antecedents to jazz.
2. Describe the music and text of a blues.
3. What were Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday’s contribution to the history of jazz?
4. Describe the mixed musical origins of jazz.
5. Discuss some of the jazz styles that developed after the big-band era.
