Django Reinhardt was born into the lifestyle of his gypsy parents on January 24th, 1910 in a village of Belgium known as Liberchies. Django, Romani for “I awake,” has inspired and astonished various generations of musicians and lovers of jazz with his remarkable control of the guitar and the story of his upbringing. At just the age of eight, his parents moved near the stretch of barricades that encompassed the streets of old Paris. Up until he was about twenty years old, he had never really set down roots somewhere, worn a suit, or lived in a real house. These French Gypsies, also known as Manouches, were living in a world of their own, primitive in their way of thinking and skeptical of popular science. Django was raised in a lifestyle that was one big contradiction, one moment he was in the swarming city of Paris and the next he found himself in the old fashioned life of a wandering gypsy. Although Django was born into a life of hardship, he had a righteous and honorable soul, which ultimately manifested itself into his music.
Django became interested in music at a young age. He was given his first instrument, a guitar banjo, at the age of twelve by a neighbor who kindly observed his enthusiasm for music. Without delay, he taught himself how to play by imitating and examining the fingerings of other guitarists. Soon enough, he was surprising listeners with his talent on the guitar, and right before he turned thirteen he started performing at music halls in Rue Monge with a well known accordionist by the name of Guerino. Django continued to perform with various bands and produced his earliest recordings with Jean Vaissade, another accordion player. Although it did not alter his musical talents, Django was practically illiterate ...
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...inhardt went back to Paris, while Grappelli stayed in England. Django performed and recorded for the duration of the war replacing Hubert Rostaing’s clarinet for Grappelli’s violin. Fortunately, by some means, he escaped the fate of many of his friends and family who tragically died in the Nazi concentration camps. After the war, he was reunited with Stéphane Grappelli and they were at it again performing and recording. He temporarily toured in the United States with Duke Ellington and came back to Paris to finish out his career and retired to a small village known as Samois sur Seine in 1951.
On May 16th 1953 Django Reinhardt experienced a large brain hemorrhage and passed away, leaving behind his spouse Sophie and son Babik. Reinhardt’s music continues to be as essential and compelling today as it was when he was alive and is a true legend in the realm of jazz.
For centuries, music has been defined by history, time, and place. To address this statement, Tom Zè, an influential songwriter during the Tropicália Movement, produced the revolutionary “Fabrication Defect” to challenge oppression as a result from the poor political and social conditions. On the other hand, David Ramsey discusses, in mixtape vignettes, the role of music to survive in New Orleans’ violent setting. Furthermore, “The Land where the Blues Began”, by Alan Lomax, is a film and perfect example to understand under what musical conditions profound ways of communication are made to stand the hard work of cotton plantations. As a result, music plays a crucial role in the sources’ cultures and its creation relies on particular conditions such as the social
Eventually in 1937, Dizzy Gillespie decided to head out to New York to carry out his dream of becoming a famous jazz player. During his time at New York he talked with many different bands and earned a job with Teddy Hill’s band. Hill was very impressed with Gillespie’s unique playing style. The group went on a tour from Great Britain to France shortly after Gillespie had joined the band. After getting back from the tour G...
Joplin's talent was revealed at an early age. Encouraged by his parent's, he became extremely proficient on the banjo and gained an interest for playing the piano. After Joplin's parents purchased a piano for the family, he taught himself how to play the instrument so well that his piano playing became remarkable. Joplin soon began playing for church and local social events. By age eleven, while under the teachings of a German music teacher named Juliuss Weiss, Joplin was learning the finer points of harmony and style. As a teenager, he played well enough to be employed as a dance musician.
The first instrument Robert played was the harmonica. Robert quit school as a teen and started working in the cotton fields. Robert left that life to travel and play his music. He began to play the guitar around the age of fifteen. Famous blues men; Charlie Patton and Willie Brown influenced Johnson when he was young. At age 17, Robert married Virginia Travis. She and their first baby died during childbirth. Johnson then went on the road. Robert traveled all over the Midwest and all the way down to Mississippi and Arkansas. He married Calletta Craft during his travels. She died only a few years later while Robert was on the road.
“Together the matrices of race and music occupied similar position and shared the same spaces in the works of some of the most lasting texts of Enlightenment thought..., by the end of the eighteenth century, music could embody differences and exhibit race…. Just as nature gave birth and form to race, so music exhibited remarkable affinities to nature” (Radano and Bohlman 2000: 14). Radano and Bohlman pointed out that nature is a source of differences that give rise to the different racial identities. As music embodies the physical differences of human, racial differences are not only confined to the differences in physical appearances, but also the differences in many musical features, including language, tonality and vocal expression. Nonetheless, music is the common ground of different racial identities. “In the racial imagination, music also occupies a position that bridges or overlaps with racial differences. Music fills in the spaces between racial distinctiveness….” (Radano and Bohlman 2000:8) Even though music serves as a medium through which different racial identities are voiced and celebrated individually, it establishes the common ground and glues the differences
history. But he soon went back to music. He signed with a fusion Jazz band called Secrets,
In a decorated career spanning over 30 years, Jarreau has moved us to tears of joy and sadness with some of the most memorable jazz songs in history. He has and continues to tour and perform with other house-held names worldwide, with his sextet and symphony shows.
Each person in this country has been raised as differently as the fingerprints we possess. While we may have little nothings in common with one another, our upbringing and heritage may be quite dissimilar. Hurston felt the deep, narcotic, almost primal tones of jazz music while seated next to a white man in The New World Cabaret (266). The primitive instinct and response to the music went wild in her body, whooping, yelling, and dancing the jungle way (268). When the last tone of the music descended, she “crept back to the veneer we call civilization… and found the white friend sitting motionless in his seat” (268). He did not feel the vibes of the music as she did, but Hurston was not fazed (268). We should not be concerned with the contrasts in eccentricities within our society. Each person has their own way of life and we should not let that impede upon our
the world. Gershwin , at the young age of fifteen, quit school and became a song plugger.
Before the war started, a wealthy white man by the name of John Hammond worked to integrate black and white music.1 Since his childhood, he enjoyed the music of numerous black artists, and he wanted to share his love with the rest of America. He used much of his inherited fortune to make this possible. He went against the general opinion of society and his parents, who despised black people. Hammond refused to ignore black artists’ musical abilities because of their color, “I did not revolt against the system, I simply refused to be a part of it.”2 He used his money to organize the most eclectic group of musicians ever assembled, for an integrated audience of his time. Hammond’s efforts made an indelible impact on the music industry. The musicians Hammond introduced in...
By the end of World War I, Black Americans were facing their lowest point in history since slavery. Most of the blacks migrated to the northern states such as New York and Chicago. It was in New York where the “Harlem Renaissance” was born. This movement with jazz was used to rid of the restraints held against African Americans. One of the main reasons that jazz was so popular was that it allowed the performer to create the rhythm. With This in Mind performers realized that there could no...
Bill Evans was one of the white jazz musicians who were accepted as powerful innovators (Gridley 1978). Since he was a little child, he was largely interested in music and started learning various instruments. He began learning about classical music more in depth as he got into college and later came to be called the “Chopin of the modern jazz piano” (Tirro 1993). He developed his own distinctive musical style while working as a sideman with Miles Davis, and working as a bandleader of three trios. Later on, he received seven Grammy awards for his recordings and was even posthumously granted a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. This paper will examine few of his influential techniques and works as well as their impact on the structure
...frican American Musicians as Artists, Critics, and Activists. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 2002. 54-100. EBSCOhost. Web. 8 May 2015.
As it mentioned above, the title itself, draws attention to the world-renowned music created by African Americans in the 1920s’ as well as to the book’s jazz-like narrative structure and themes. Jazz is the best-known artistic creation of Harlem Renaissance. “Jazz is the only pure American creation, which shortly after its birth, became America’s most important cultural export”(Ostendorf, 165). It evolved from the blues
... passed away. The reason for his death is unidentified, however an extremely popular hypothesis is that he died of a severe rheumatic fever, something he suffered many times during his life.