This evolution of American music is rooted in the application of African esthetic, notably the use of polyrhythms, an expanded range of tone colors, call and response, and African-derived scales and singing styles. First, Polyrhythms are multiple interlocking rhythmic patterns. For example, this would include the use a series four beat measures overlapped by a series of three beat measures. Also, these polyrhythmic patterns are arranged in cyclical patterns, referred to as time cycles. The patterns of beats do not have a definite beginning or end, and as the cycle repeats, the rhythms contain co

mplex changes that vary widely. Usually, there is one instrument within a group that plays an unchanging pattern in order to set the framework upon which the other instrumentalists build their rhythms. Also, the instruments that are used often include elements that do not feature a definite pitch. This creates a wide variety of tone colors. The African esthetic prefers those buzzy, clanky, covered tones, which European music tends to reject. For example, the traditional African instrument, the Sanza (or Mbira), uses both metal prongs to create different pitches as they are plucked, but it also has pieces of shell tied to it that slap against the wood, creating a unique sound for each instrument. Next, the use of call and response in vocals is a uniquely non-western trait. The caller, or soloist’s part is a complex variation on the set response of the group of other singers that respond. There is a strong emphasis on improvisation, a key element that appears in almost all American popular music. Lastly, African singing style and its applied scale had a large impact in America. The singing style is very fluid and expressive, with a slide on almost every pitch. For example, the correlation, between the lullaby sung by Zulu women, and the performance of blues singer, Bessie Smith, is striking in its similarity. Also, the African scale, which contains notes flatted on the 3rd, 7th, and sometimes 5th degrees, is directly translated into blues music, which also incorporates slides into its instrumental form.

The inception of this particular singing style and scale in blues became the catalyst for the genres that followed it. Developed in the rural South, the first form of blues, called 12 bar blues, uses the African derived scale and sliding pitches combined with traditional European meter and chords as its framework. Also, divided into three sets of four bars, 12-bar-blues uses a variation of call and response in which the first two lines vocally are identical, and the third is a response or comment on the first two. This music, first associated with the Mississippi Delta, when brought out of the south and popularized, notably by W.C. Handy. Taken north at the time of the exodus of African-Americans during the Great Migration, blues music took a course through Birmingham and further to Chicago. Once in place, it took only a decade to become renowned a truly unique form of American music.

Next, in the 1930s and 1940s, jazz reached its popular peak as Big Band or Swing music. It divided into two major clas

Some topics in this essay:
Africans Americas, Plus Armstrong’s, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington’s, John Coltrain, Scott Joplin, Orleans Primarily, Sanza Mbira, Miles Davis, Cool Free, call response, popular music, orleans jazz, free jazz, tone colors, blues vocal, singing style, african esthetic, series beat measures, wc handy, american music, african-derived scales singing, cool free jazz, variety tone colors, response african-derived scales,