Steve Miller

In the 1920’s a man by the name of Louis Armstrong changed the world of Jazz and began to give this genre a more powerful meaning. Looking into one of the more influential people of the Jazz world, he was born in New Orleans where he learned how to play the instruments and evolved as a musician (NPR part 2). Louis Armstrong had a rough life as a child, he used music as an escape in a way and did so by following his mentor as he grew up, King Oliver. He grew into the Jazz world quickly with his different style and transformed into a new era that would later be known as the “Swing Era”. Louis created a new type of music which had more rhythm to it than other songs at the time. He did so by mixing his new style with that of Fletcher Henderson (NPR part 2).

Alton Glenn Miller was an American big band musician, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known big bands. Glenn Miller has become an icon. For many people his orchestra and the string of hits they produced represent the essence of the swing era. Alton Glenn Miller did a lot in his short life he had a successful career, inspiring childhood, burning success and an inspiring musical talent.

He had exposure to several different genres growing up in his St. Louis, MO hometown. He heard country from the whites, rhythm & blues (R&B) from mostly blacks, even Latin music. His family environment set him up well for future success while growing up in a middle class home in the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s. His parents sun...

One man made his impression on the music world soon after he arrived to America. His

Stevie Ray Vaughan is a legend and was a leading figure in the blues-rock genre. Vaughan was born in Dallas, Texas in October of 1954. (Dutton) He was exposed to music early on in his childhood watching big bother Jimmie Vaughan play guitar. By the age of 14 Vaughan was playing in Dallas blues clubs. (Simon, 2001) When he played he demanded the audience’s attention and had a sound of blues meets Jimi Hendrix. (Wenner, 2011) His fame was based mainly in central Texas. It was not until he played at a party thrown by Mick Jagger that his band Double Trouble got their big break when David Bowie as Vaughan to perform on his upcoming album Let’s Dance. (Stevie Ray Vaughan, 2013.) He became a pretty big success and his fan base grew to places outside of Texas. In 1985 Stevie became the first white performer to win the W.C. Handy Foundation’s Blues Entertainer of the Year award. (Simon, 2001) After a performance in August of 1990 Vaughan got on a helicopter bound for Chicago that crashed into mountains due to fog just minutes after taking off killing everyone onboard. (“Stevie Ray Vaughan”, 2013.) His legacy still lives on to this day with an ever-growing fan base.

Although folk music played a big role in most of these artists’ performances, folk links back to the blues, and is similar...

Alton Glenn Miller Alton Glenn Miller was born March 1, 1904. To Elmer and Mattie Lou Miller. He was born in a rural Southwestern Iowa town named Clarinda. When Glenn uttered his first cry, Clarinda heard his first " Moonlight Serenade". Glenn's first serenade was not particularly unique as it had been sung by children for centuries and was barley heard across South 16th Street.

On November 27, 1942,Jimi Hendrix was born as John Allen Hendrix in Washington at Seattle General Hospital. His childhood was not a privileged one, however, he did indulge himself in one particular way: Jimi loved to play the guitar. At first he played an old acoustic, and later a cheap Silvertone electric, which were both strung for a lefty on a right-handed guitar, one of the defining Hendrix traits (Murray 34- 5) . As a teenager, young Jimi listened to the music which affected his music so greatly later: “‘everyone from Buddy Holly to Muddy Waters and through Chuck Berry way back to Eddie Cochrane’'; (Wilmer 38). He played in a few bands in high school, but then dropped out before his senior year. After working as a laborer for a few months, Jimi decided that he was not destined for that line of work, so in 1959, he enlisted into the 101st Airborne (Murray 36). Jimi’s parents were of mixed descent, with Jimi’s family tree had whites, blacks, and Cherokee Indians. Jimi never denied his ethnic diversity, but rather accepted his diversity and publicly allowed it to show through in his music. Jimi said it best in “If 6 was 9'; on Axis: Bold As Love when he said “I’m gonna wave my freak flag high.'; Hendrix’ first forays into professional music came after he received his honorable discharge from service in the summer of 1962 (Murray 36). His background in R&B, a type of music dominated by black artists at that time, led him to play with many R&B singers from the time, such as Little Richard, King Curtis, Joey Dee and the Starliters, the Isley Brothers, and many others (Murray 38-42).

The picture that I am analyzing shows now deceased, African-American Civil Rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. He is displaying his hand waving to a very

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). ...