Jazz Influence On African-American Society

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Jazz is a work of African-American society, but in this music we can see the influx of almost every other music played in the streets of big cities of United States. In jazz we can find a connection to the Caribbean dances and Italian opera, as well as blues, rag time, military marches and the singing style of Baptist choir. Jazz has evolved over the years and many factors have influenced its final form. One of the many was the history and tradition of Western African music, which captured slaves brought with them to the United States. The prehistoric era of jazz can be located until 1890, then it was commonplace and slave labor songs developed, called work song. This form of music was sung not only for pleasure in order to pass time but also, monotony and specific melody brought relief into the shackles of the slaves, helping to synchronize movements. Another type of songs that influenced the formation of jazz were slaves religious songs - negro spirituals. We can also extrude so-called chain-gang song, …show more content…

From the middle of the 18th century, theatrical-musical troupes called minstrels began to emerge in North America. For the deprived theaters of the small peripheral cities, they were the only chance of contact with art. The typical minstrel show consisted of three parts: the first, contained comic dialogues with dances and songs. The second part was devoted to individual performers who presented their best numbers. The third contained the points of the program that enjoyed the greatest applause. White performers would blacken their faces and then perform songs and imitate African Americans. After the abolition of slavery in 1864, the minstrel show was performed by black artists. They performed songs called coon songs, composed by anonymous folk artists. The coon songs were of a temperament-refrain style, melody and harmony were derived from European Scottish, Irish and English

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