We all enjoy music of one genre or another or maybe multiple genres, whether it be jazz, blues, country, classic rock. How you can relate to the sounds the reverb, the sustain, the echo delay how you can feel the artist emotion coming from the sound of the guitar or the instrument. It has an effect on you that you can relate to. We can thank Lester William Polfuss which is the name his parents gave him when he was born in 1915. He had gone by other names like Red rhubarb, Red hot red or the Wizard of Waukesha. The name most know him by is Les Paul. Les Paul was an instrumentalist, inventor and recording artist, he was an innovator his entire life. It started at age eight he began playing the harmonica, soon after picked up the guitar. It was …show more content…
This will become his crowning achievement. It was made of a four-inch-thick piece of wood from a railroad tie, a neck he borrowed from an Epiphone guitar and two pickups to give it the electric pulse. Without this invention Rock and Roll as we know it would not exist. He presented it the Gibson Guitars they initially turned him down, calling his invention “a broomstick with pickups” and telling him this meant guitarists would now have to carry two instruments ,one electric and one acoustic, which be inconvenient. This resulted in Paul being beat to the market place by Leo Fender, who is known for the first mass produced solid body electric guitar in 1948. In 1952 the future of rock and roll was changed with the release of the gold-top solid body electric guitar that carries his name Les Paul. The Les Paul Standard by Gibson has become one of the most popular of all of electric guitars.
The sounds of musical artist like Jeff Beck, Slow hand Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Mike Bloomfield, Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page are all attributed to the Gibson Les Paul. In a British periodical, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page once wrote of Les Paul, “He’s the man who started everything. He’s just a genius.” While sharing a stage with Les Paul, Eddie Van Halen once told him, “Without the things you’ve done, I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I
There are certain musicians that come along that shift a culture, attitude, or future musicians. Another musician that went on influence future generations and considered one of the greatest guitar players in the world is Eddie Van Halen.
Steve Miller was born October 5, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Steve’s family was very involved with music. His mother was a jazz-influenced singer, and his father was a pathologist that very interested in the world of music. Dr. Miller was friends with many musicians which greatly aided in young Steve’s development in music. One of his father’s friends included Les Paul, who showed Steve some chords on a guitar at the age of five. Les Paul proved to be a very valuable mentor to Steve, and he became a good friend of the family. When Steve was seven his family moved to Dallas, where he was exposed to a different type of artists that usually did not visit Milwaukee. His father took him to see greats such as Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, and Carl Perkins. Steve was particularly drawn to T-Bone Walker, the father of Texas-style electric blues. This proved to be very influential in Steve’s life, and it is evident by the blues-sound that he exhibited in his guitar playing.
"He just got his music out of the air," said one neighbor. One cannot hear the word "ragtime" without thinking of the "King of Ragtime," Scott Joplin. He is clearly one forerunner in the field of American music, particularly at the turn of the twentieth century.
Louis Armstrong, “known to be the greatest influence in 1920’s and the first vital jazz soloist to attain worldwide influence as a trumpeter,” led a musical revolution. He was a strong force in spreading the influence of jazz throughout his life. He was highly respected and looked up to in his time. Louis was an idol for many African- Americans because he gave them the hope that they can be prominent people in their society and that segregation did not have to exist in music.
Jimi is today acknowledged as a musical intellectual. He is highly recognized for his precision and speed while playing his music. He did not care what kind of feedback he got whether it was negative or positive, all Jimi wanted to do was play his music the way he wanted. He created his music as one of the melodic elements and people went crazy for him and his ability to play, sing and dance all at the same time. As a rock singer and guitarist, Jim Hendrix won several awards for being a major contribution to rock music during his time. It is widely agreed that he was among one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock music. As the star of the rock music during his time, Jimi did not just play music but improved the image of rock music as well. While it is the dream of every artist to make a contribution throughout his or her work and performances, not all of them were successfully able to make their dreams to come true. Through Jimi’s singing and performances, he is today acknowledged for the impact that he had on the rock music we now have today. Some of his major contributions to rock music are that he improved the styles that were used to play a guitar by flipping the music upside down as well as
Still, few musicians have lived more thoroughly the life of their times. Unlike the tie-dyed, good time trip of Jerry Garcia's Grateful Dead, Hendrix felt both the raw, unleashed energy of the sixties, and also the decades terror and confusion. Listening to his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, or the equally powerful Machine Gun one can't help but wonder if this wasn't the most empathic musician to ever pick up a guitar. In those works Hendrix seemed to feel everything for everyone -- black, white, GI, protester, hippie, straight -- he found a place for all of us. American music would never be the same.
The music created by the legendary Scott Joplin can be heard everywhere around the world even to this day. Many of his works are immediately recognizable to millions of people, including myself. I was not even aware that I knew any of Scott Joplin’s masterpieces but I certainly did. The composition entitled The Entertainer has been featured countless times in movies and games that I have experienced and its catchy beat was cemented in my mind (IMDb). Joplin was the king of the ragtime musical genre, and his name is synonymous with that period of music.
Louis Armstrong was known as the King of jazz, a trumpeter and singer who was one of the most influential figures in jazz music. Famous for his innovative methods of playing the trumpet and cornet, he was also a highly talented singer blessed with a powerful voice. Known for his skills on being able improvise, he would bend and twist the many lyrics and melody of a song with dramatic effect. As his popularity grew in the mid-20th century America when racism was more prevalent, he was one of the first African-American entertainers to be highly popular among both the white and the colored segments of the society. Fondly nicknamed Satchmo or Pops by his fans, he is often regarded to be the founding father of jazz as a uniquely American art form. Born into poverty in New Orleans, he had a very difficult childhood after his father abandoned the family. As a young boy, he
There have been many bigshot artists that have gone down in music history over the years. One man in particular, however, will forever be known all over the world for his famous works and amazing stage performances. This man is none other than the one and only Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix altered the style of rock and roll during the late 60’s early 70’s and is widely considered one of the most influential guitar players amongst the music world to this day.
Peter Paul Rubens was the painter of the first part of the 17th Century in Catholic Europe. How he became so is an interesting story.
When addressing Guitar and his ways of actions, and looking towards the historical figures in the civil rights movement, Guitar's behavior can reflect towards that of Malcolm X. His need to protect the African American community and defend himself against the destruction cause...
Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901 to Mayanne and William Armstrong. His father abandoned his family during Louis' infancy. Louis spent the first years of his life with his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong. After age five, Louis moved back with his mother and his sister, "Mama Lucy." The family was forced to live in stark poverty. Louis got into some trouble when he was just 12 years old and was placed in the Waif's Home for Boys. It was there that he first received musical instruction and learned to play the coronet. He was released from the Waif's Home in June of 1914. He worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. Joe Oliver, one of the finest trumpet players in New Orleans, was Louis' music teacher and mentor. Louis married Daisy Parker, a prostitute from Gretna, Louisiana in 1918. He joined the Kid Ory Band after Joe Oliver moved to Chicago. In 1922, Louis moved to Chicago to play in the band Joe Oliver's band, " King Oliver." It was there where he separated from his wife, Daisy. He made his first recording with the band in one year later in Richmond, Indiana. He later married Lil Hardin, a pianist in the King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. He moved to New York City in 1924 to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra at the Roseland Ballroom. During that time he also did dozens of recording sessions with numerous Blues singers including Bessie Smith's 1925 classic recording of "St. Louis Blues." He also recorded with Clarence Williams and the Red Onion Jazz Babies.
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong was one of the most popular musicians of his time. Upon initiating my research, I was surprised to find conflicting dates as to when he was born. Encarta Africa said he was born in 1901, 1001 things to know about African American history-1898, regular Encarta --1900, "Little Louis and the jazz band" by Angela Shelf Medearis says his date of birth is August 4, 1901. The book "Jazz Stars" by Richard Rennert states that Louis Armstrong was born in 1899, the book "Louis Armstrong" by Sam Tanenhaus says he was born on July 4, 1900. The reason why they have so many different dates is due to the fact that he probably wasn't born in a hastpital and they did not use to keep good records of black people's birthdays. So for accuracy sake, we can say he was born in the end of the 1800's, or the beginning of the 1900's.
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, more commonly known as Jelly Roll Morton, was born to a creole family in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. Morton lived with several family members in different areas of New Orleans, exposing him to different musical worlds including European and classical music, dance music, and the blues (Gushee, 394). Morton tried to play several different instruments including the guitar; however, unsatisfied with the teachers’ lack of training, he decided to teach himself how to play instruments without formal training (Lomax, 8). ...
Leo Fender, in the 1950s, with some help from his employee, George Fullerton, managed to develop the first mass produced bass guitar. The Fender P bass, or Precision Bass guitar, was introduced in 1951. It became a widely copied standard in the industry. The Fender Bass Guitar was a new instrument that was easily transportable to a gig. It can be amplified to about any volume without having to worry about feedback. Elvis Presley started using the Fender Precision Bass around 1957. Following Fender in 1953, Gibson introduced the first short scale violin-shaped electric bass with an extendable end pin, which allows the instrument to be played upright or horizontally. Gibson renamed this in 1958 to the EB-1. Other small companies began introducing the Electric Bass during the 1950s like Kay in 1952 and Danelectro in 1956. The distinctive Violin Bass was made using the violin construction techniques. It was introduced in 1956 by a man named Walter Hofner. This instrument is mostly known as the “Beatle Bass” since Sir Paul McCartney made it famous.