Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years.
Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a liberating principle, and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music, rather than to a musical genre such as jazz.
Some of the musicians
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Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizol's "Caravan", and "Perdido", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. After 1941, Ellington collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, as well as additional short pieces. Following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major career revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in several films, scoring several, and composed stage …show more content…
He created the piece by ear, as he had not yet learned to read and write music. "I would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot", Ellington recalled. "Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire. In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington wrote that he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent.
Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the poolroom pianists play ignited Ellington's love for the instrument, and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Among the many piano players he listened to were Doc Perry, Lester Dishman, Louis Brown, Turner Layton, Gertie Wells, Clarence Bowser, Sticky Mack, Blind Johnny, Cliff Jackson, Claude Hopkins, Phil Wurd, Caroline Thornton, Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, Joe Rochester, and Harvey
"Dizzy Gillespie – Jazz and Blues Masters ." american jazz musician . b 1917 . d 1993.
with John and made him enlist in the Marines. While in the service he published "Moonlight on the Potomac Waltzes". That was his first published composition and the beginning of a very successful career. After spending 8 years in the Marines, he was discharged.
Though Jelly Roll Morton began his career without formal training, he grew to live an influential life. His piano style, musical notations on paper, and creative compositions thrived in the 1910s and the 1920s and even weaved its way into the later eras as musicians used Morton’s music as the foundation for their own. Even past his death, Jelly Roll Morton remains a legendary figure. His works are meticulously preserved and displayed in the prestigious Smithsonian Museum and universities around the world continue his legacy by teaching students about Jelly Roll Morton and his influential career.
After high school, from 1927-1934, Louis played throughout New Orleans and recorded more than 70 titles for various labels, and at the age of 24, he took his considerable talents as a trumpet player and bandleader to New York City. It was at around this time that Louis coined the expression "Swing," as well as many others, and once The Louis Prima Band played their version of Big Band inspired, Dixieland Jazz infused "Swing" music at the Famous Door Club, the entire 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway was dubbed "Swing Street." Thus, a whole new era of music began. Even the "King Of Swing," Benny Goodman wouldn't have near the notoriety without the Prima penned "Sing Sing Sing," which is still considered a Swing Era classic.
In the mid 1930s, Benny Goodman sparked the beginning of the Swing Era of jazz music shortly after leading his first band, which was monumental to the development of jazz. This marked a transition from the early Jazz Age, which resulted from combining aspects of ragtime and blues music over the previous two decades. Through Goodman’s live performances at various gigs and NBC’s radio show Let’s Dance, he gained increased recognition as a jazz performer and band leader. Following his pivotal Palomar Ballroom gig in Los Angeles, Goodman’s music inspired teenagers to create dances to accompany his new jazz style. As a result, his music grew to gain national acclaim and popularity among many different types of people. Goodman greatly influenced
Jazz music’s roots go deeper than most people could ever begin to imagine. Whether it is the influencing of other styles of music, the broadening of other media forms, or even the molding and shaping of the atmosphere of entire cities, jazz usually has a part in it. And with an impressive career spanning over 50 years, countless hits that are being replicated in numerous forms even today, and the pivotal part that he played in the Harlem Renaissance , it is almost impossible to talk about anything jazz related without mentioning Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington.
Edward Kennedy Ellington, American jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader, and pianist, is considered to be the greatest composer in the history of jazz music and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. He composed over 2000 works and performed numerous concerts during his musical career. A compilation of some of his most popular music is collected on a CD called "The Popular Duke Ellington."
the world. Gershwin , at the young age of fifteen, quit school and became a song plugger.
Where would music be had it not been for the men that stepped before him. The Mozarts and Beethovens, who wrote the music that today is known as the classics. These men were naturals in their own right, but these people wrote their music in the 17th and 18th century. Many people don't realize all of the changes that music had to go through between that period of music and the present day. One such musician stands alone at the top as one of the movers and innovators of the 20th century. He is Duke Ellington. Along with his band, he alone influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said "His music sounds like America." These days you can find his name on over 1500 CS's. Duke's legacy will live on for generations to come.
A single artist can have a very strong impact on a whole genre of music. We have seen this time and time again through artists such as Charlie Parker, David Brubeck, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, and many others. All of these artists had tremendous influences on the different eras that evolved throughout the history of Jazz. Bill Evans, an American jazz pianist, was no different. Just as Charlie Parker had started the evolution of Bebop and influenced the subsequent generations of Jazz Artists, Bill Evans has influenced Modern Jazz and the generations of artists that followed him.
Jazz is a music of improvisation and expression of true feelings. It's style has two very different origins: African and European. Once brought to America, jazz has been every changing reflecting what was happening in society at the time. Jazz is something that has been in America for many years and effected society in a way no other music of African and European roots ever has.
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.... ... middle of paper ...
What is Jazz? According to the dictionary, jazz is defined as, "A kind of syncopated, highly rhythmic music originated by Southern blacks in the late 19th century" ("Jazz" 232). But, everyone should at least agree that jazz is the mother of all music, and is referred to as the only art form originating in the United States ("History 101" 2). America was home to immigrants from all over Europe and beyond who wished to build a new life, or just needed to escape from the old. These people, often thought of as second-class, brought their culture with them to America, expressed it musically, and changed the music world as we know it today.
Jazz, which evolved from African American folk music, has developed and changed over the last century to become an art form in America. It places particular importance on inventive self interpretation. Rather than relying on a written piece, the artist improvises. Jazz has taken many forms over the past seventy years; there is almost always a single person who can be credited with the evolution of that sound. From Thelonius Monk, and his bebop, to Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, to Miles Davis’ cool jazz, or to John Coltrane’s free jazz; America’s music has been developed and refined countless times through individual experimentation and innovation. In my opinion the most noteworthy artist in the development of modern jazz is John Coltrane. In this paper, I will focus on the way in which Coltrane’s musical originality was related to the sounds of his predecessors and to the tribulations and tragedies of his life.
The beginnings of Jazz are thought to be born at a specific time, but there is more to the birth of jazz. Jazz music was born more or less simultaneously in different parts of the United States and had many sources for its creation. Africans have contributed a lot to the style of making music, free rhythm, and the emotion with which they interpret their folk music that was later transformed into jazz. In the new world they absorbed the harmony and the concept of the Western form and condensed the African and European musical ideas, giving a musical style that can be called African American. Jazz became a type of urban expression that began to take hold in the cafes of New Orleans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.