Jazz history

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Recommended: Jazz impact on African Americans

Between 1920 and 1960 jazz and the blues were African-Americans greatest contribution to music. Jazz is a rhythmic syncopated form of music involving brass and woodwind instruments as well as the piano. The blues is melancholic form of music that originated in the rural south with African American folk songs. Both genres of music have a great impact on society today

Besides being the time of economic flourish know as the roaring twenties, America in the 1920's was also a time of musical advancements and the development of modern jazz. Jazz as we know it became popular around 1920 when African American musician Louis Armstrong perfected the solo artist form of jazz. He played many improvised solos were said to be " clear and warm, with an unbelievable sense of swing, with a perfect grasp of harmony, and supremely intelligent and melodic" (Wynton Marsalis). The jazz age as the 1920s was called led to artist such as Louis Armstrong previously mentioned, Jelly Roll Morton; a famous jazz composer and performer who was the first artist to tour America performing jazz, and Duke Ellington another famous composer and artist, all becoming famous. Their sounds and style are still the standard that jazz musicians are compared to today.

With the turn of the century and the time of economic struggle following the roaring struggles , came the Great Depression and a new style of jazz. Swing music as it was called involved a big band of different brass and woodwind instruments a bass player, a guitar player and a piano player. They'd play repetitive high intensity songs that would die out to a solo artist performing then coming back into unison. One reason swing music was said to have gained so much fame during the 1930s is because ...

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...elped it continue to grow. In fact shows such as "Sound of Jazz" a fifty minute special featuring a certain artist each show would give way to programs like MTV other popular music channels.
The 1960's saw a fall in the popularity of jazz. Rock and Roll became the new popular medium of music. Many musicians found themselves either joining the rock and roll movement or finding the sleeves out of work. While jazz still did get it's fair share of pay time in television it couldn't hang with the new age pop artist. The Beatles for instance took the United States by storm. Their huge succes would also mean the demise of the popularity of jazz. However the sixties did see advancement in music industry. The cassette tape and recorder were introduced allowing music to become more portable. Then the eight track tape allowed people to customize what music they listened to.

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