Earl Hines and black jazz piano in Chicago, 1923-1928.

Abstract

This work bring the tools of musicological research and documentation, musical analysis based on transcriptions of recordings, and personal insights gained from extensive, critical listening to bear on the early career of jazz pianist Earl Hines (1903-83). The study views Hines from two contrasting but related perspectives: as an innovative and influential musician who played a vital role in the early development of jazz piano, and as part of black Chicago in the 1920s, a thriving cultural center long recognized by scholars as an important center for the early development of jazz. The centerpiece of the work is the group of the recordings made between 1923--the year of the first recordings of black Chicago jazz--and 1928, which marks the end of the first stage of Hines's career in the city and the beginning of his long-term residence at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. The pianists who preceded Hines in Chicago provide the focal point for a discussion of both individual styles and the venues in which they were heard. Hines's place in that same milieu is then examined, after a look at his early years in Pittsburgh. In succeeding chapters, stylistic analyses are provided of the work of Hines and his Chicago contemporaries. Relying on oral histories and contemporary reports from the black press, as well as on my own transcriptions (included in the work) and my experiences as a jazz pianist, I compare and contrast specific musical ideas that occur in the recorded work of these pianists, as well as general approaches to phrasing, harmony and especially rhythm, keeping in mind at every point how these features relate to earlier styles of ragtime and jazz. I also address the question of influence, especially as it pertains to Hines's evolving style. One major section centers on Hines's musical affiliation with trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the factor that influenced his work in the 1920s perhaps more than anything else. The study concludes with an investigation into Hines's 1928 solo piano recordings.