Joe King Oliver: The Most Important Man In Jazz History

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Joe “King” Oliver
Joseph Nathan Oliver, also known as King Oliver, was THE MOST important person in all of jazz history. Joe was born on May 1885, Abend, La. Joe was a Bandleader, composer, and soloist cornet/trumpet player that arose from New Orleans. Oliver was also the mentor of Louis Armstrong and together, they changed jazz and American music forever.
Joe Oliver was born on May 11th, 1885. It is said that he was born on the plantation that his mother worked for as a cook near Donaldsonville, Louisiana, although there are not very many actual documents of him of that time. During Oliver’s childhood, it is said that his mother would often move to different locations for work. When he was 17, he found work as a butler to a white family. He …show more content…

King Oliver is who first started messing around with this idea and made it so popular all throughout jazz history to present day. He would use items to alter his sound such as plunger heads, derby hats, bottles, and cups. Oliver also had a bad eye from a childhood accident, this made his playing style known because how would always okay while leaning against a wall or with a derby hat tilted or whatever he could think of to subtly hide his bad eye. He used these techniques when he played in brothels and bars or just any gig every once in …show more content…

He took jazz and fooled around with it until he made it revolutionary I'm a way of just making stuff up. He also liked the playing style of improvised polyphony, which is when all of the instrument groups improved at the same time and they would feed of of each other and build off of each other. Oliver is also my American hero because he was the mentor of Louis Armstrong, whom followed some of Oliver's ideas and really just started stringing with the whole idea of improvised solos. Louis made improving so popular that improving is all that modern jazz or even just jazz in his era is made of. Oliver set the grounds for what would be modern jazz and his ideas influenced jazz musicians and musicians of all types all around the world

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