Firstly, one interesting fact I found was that his birth name was actually James Louis Johnson, but that he was often referred to as Jay Jay Johnson. Secondly, I learned that Jay Jay is considered one of the first trombone players to embrace bebop music and one of the leading trombonists of the post-swing era, thus having a great influence on other jazz musicians. Thirdly, I also found it interesting how trombone was not the first instrument that he played, and that he began with piano lessons at age eleven, then played baritone saxophone at school for a short time before beginning to play trombone at fourteen years old because his classmates needed a trombone player to form an amateur band. Fourthly, similar to many other jazz musicians of his generation, Jay Jay consumed heroin and became so absorbed into the culture and lifestyle that in 1952, he decided to leave music and became a blueprint inspector for Sperry Gyroscope, a military contractor. In addition, to his concert and jazz music, Jay Jay also composed for movies and television in 1970, but had limited success using racism as the principal motive. Finally, I thought it was interesting that he retired from active performing and touring at the end of 1996, because that means that he performed until he was 72 years…
Dizzy thought jazz music was boring so he added latin music and jazz together to start something different.…
Charlie Parker was born on August 29th 1920 and was the only child in the family of Charles and Addie Parker. He was born in Kansas City, Kansas but shortly after his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri where Jazz was thriving during the time. Charlie did attend school where he first found his love for music by playing the baritone horn in the school’s band. He also started to play in the local youth group bands to practice and display his music to people. At the age of 13 he became enamored with the Alto saxophone and that had become “his” specific instrument that he chose to play. When Charlie was 15 years old he decided to drop out of school to pursue more in his music career. Around 1935 until 1939 Charlie worked in Kansas City with different jazz groups to work on his music and develop more as an artist in jazz. More specifically in 1937 Parker played with some of his role models he looked up to such as the tenor saxophone player Lestor Young and the alto saxophone player Buster smith. He really saw the passion and talent these two had and it inspired him to want to learn more and influenced his as well with his own music. During 1938 Charlie joined Jay McShann, a pianist, band and toured with him in Chicago and New York. After this time Charlie returned to Chicago for a…
Charles Mingus, an icon in the Jazz world “only second to Duke Ellington (CHARLES MINGUS BIO). Mingus played a very important role in the development of jazz music, he left his mark on the world that got him a lot of recognition. Along with a plethora of grants that were donated to him and the different organizations that were centered on him. He was also honored in New York City by having a “Charles Mingus Day” dedicated to him and many other dedications and assortments of honoring’s (CHARLES MINGUS BIO). Charles Mingus was a phenomenal musician that has not only inspired those of his time, but a number of musicians even today.…
Louis Armstrong was considered one of the most influential artists in Jazz history. He was a trumpeter, band leader, singer, soloist, film star and comedian. He had an instantly recognized voice. Armstrong demonstrated great dexterity as an improviser while bending the lyrics and…
The reason why he may have been so influential is because of the way he played so differently from anyone else of his time. Coleman Hawkins played loud and in your face, while Lester played sweet sounding clear notes. Although many band leaders tried to make Lester Young play in a more Coleman Hawkins-esque manner, he always stayed true to himself and played music that he enjoyed throughout his entire career.…
Gordon started to play at the age of 13. His first instrument was the clarinet but quickly after he decided to take up the tenor saxophone at the age of 17. Music was always popular around the Gordon household. Dexter father Frank Gordon was a physician. He dealt with a lot of prominent jazz musicians like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton on the regular. This set Dexter up to be very successful because he knew the right people at a very…
The father-son relationship and betrayal between Jay Gatsby and his father, Mr. Gatz, was quite different compared to that of Biff and Willy Loman. However, both relationships improved immensely when each character realized the amount of love they actually had for the other. Jay Gatsby had reinvented himself as a wealthy person instead of poor. In Gatsby’s youth “his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people--his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all,” (Fitzgerald 98). So he left his parents, achieved his new state of wealth through a bootlegging business (Fitzgerald 133), and never returned home. After Gatsby’s death, his father came to see him immediately when he saw the obituary (Fitzgerald 167). This…
When Duke Ellington was fifteen years old he played the piano at the Philadelphia club. He learned about Brooks when he was with his uncle from a waiter. One accomplishments he was known for is that he was the first jazz player. Another accomplishment is…
It was thought that because Ella Fitzgerald and George Washington Carver made great strides in their lifetime that they were truly free and had the same rights as their counter parts. For George it was the color of his skin that affected the way he was treated, and for Ella Fitzgerald, she was black, but also a women. Unchained and free, the world was theirs to do whatever they desired, or so they thought. Inequality was still very much alive and well in 1938. That is easy to see when looking back at the time when, George’s Education was at the top of his priority list and wanted desperately to learn. In Missouri, at that time in history, it was illegal for black children or anyone of color to attend school. Susan Carver taught him how to read…
At school he received formal musical education. Learning how to read, write and arrange braille. He learned how to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet, and trumpet. His inspiration was great classical composers such as Chopin, Sibelius, Duke Ellington, and Count Basle. Ray loved it all to the sanctified soulfulness of gospel, to the secular emotional venting of blues. At age fifteen Ray lost his mother. Never using a cane or guide dog, Ray, left school and began touring the south on the chitin’ circuit with a number of dance bands. With the loss of sight and a new found love for heroin. He would not be denied and refused to give up.…
In the 1940s, Miles Davis went off to New York City to study music at Julliard. He ended up playing jazz with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie instead, soon playing trumpet behind some of the biggest bandleaders of the era. As a bandleader himself during the 1950s and '60s, his influence led to "cool" jazz and the emergence of the musician as composer and arranger. He recorded many classic albums, including Relaxin' With Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool, and, with compositional help from Bill Evans, Kind of Blue; his 1969 Bitches Brew, merging jazz with rock and free-form improvisation, made the top 40 pop charts. Unlike many trumpeters of his era, Davis relied on tone rather than speed, often using a mute with his horn. He is considered one of the most influential musicians of the past century.…
Dizzy Gillespie was born as John Birks Gillespie on October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina. "Dizzy was the youngest child in his household, and his father, who beat his children, died when Dizzy was ten." His father was a bricklayer, pianist, and band leader, and his mother's name was Lottie. His father kept all the band instruments in the house. So most of his early life he was around many different instruments, his father even tore down a wall to get his piano in the house. When he was very young he started to play the piano before the trumpet because it was the instrument that his father played.…
John Birks Gillespie was arguably one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all, renowned for his bent trumpet and broad cheeks. John Birks Gillespie, or most commonly known as Dizzy Gillespie for his crazy or ‘dizzy’ behavior, was born in Cheraw, South Carolina on October 21, 1917, and found a passion of music from an early age. Gillespie’s father, an amatuer bandleader, started the basics of piano to Gillespie by the age of four. After his father’s death, Gillespie began teaching himself trombone at twelve, yet found his arms were too small to play, and began trumpet. After Gillespie started learning trumpet, he found massive inspiration from hearing Roy Eldridge on the radio. Later Dizzy Gillespie received a music scholarship…
Since the beginning of time, nature has been a great source of wonder and inspiration for mankind. Writers have composed about a wide range of the spectacular elements of planet earth from the mightiest of oceans to the most idiosyncratic species of insects. Both John James Audubon and Annie Dillard describe their personal experiences of witnessing large flocks of birds in flight in their own respective passages. The two authors have similar experiences but they describe the birds in different ways. Both descriptions are full of colorful language style and diction, however their two different crafts differentiate the way the event is described.…