Buddy Bolden helped create Classic Jazz. Bolden led a band in New Orleans from about 1895 to 1906, its hard to tell what their music was like because there's norecordings only stories.…
Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most popular Jazz musicians of the 1920’s. He was born Leon Bix Beiderbecke on March 10, 1903 in Davenport, Iowa. His father was a coal and lumber merchant and his mother a church organist. Although he did take lessons for a short time, his teacher grew frustrated with him and his improvisations and refusal to read the music. He learned to play by ear. He was the first great white Jazz cornetist. He was inspired by records of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and by hearing bands on the Mississippi riverboats. His love for music caused him to be sent away to military school in 1921 because his father thought that music was not a real job that would earn him respect and money. The school was close to Chicago which at the time was the center of jazz music. He was kicked out of military school because he often missed curfew due to him being out listening to bands. He joined his first Jazz band the Wolverines in 1923. Over the years he played with many different Jazz and dance bands. He died from Pneumonia complicated by his alcoholism in 1931.…
Benny Goodman was a great jazz clarinet player and the leader of one of the most popular big bands of the Swing Era (1935–1945). In fact, Time magazine dubbed him "the King of Swing."…
Miles Davis was an American Jazz musician back in the 1960s. He was not only a terrific trumpeter, but was also a bandleader and composer. Miles Davis is just one of the people who had a major impact and influence on the Jazz-Rock fusion era and artists in the late 1940s. Unknowingly, Miles Davis would grow and become one of the leading figures in the Jazz world, and would help Jazz-Rock to be brought to the mainstream music…
Garofalo, Chapter 2: In 1938 and 1939, this white American record producer, who had recorded Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and other AfricanAmerican artists, organized the very successful ‘’From Spirituals to Swing’’ concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1939 he became a record executive for a major label, Columbia, where he worked for many years, boosting the careers of artists such as Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen. An…
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…
Buddy Rich (1917-1987), was one of the greatest legendary Jazz drummer and band leader. According to his Biography, he began to play drums when he was 18 months old and performed regularly on Broadway when he was four. He received a lot of award such as The Downbeat Magazine Hall of Fame Award, the Modern Drummer Magazine Hall of Fame Award and the Jazz Unlimited Immortals of Jazz Award . There was much more…
In 1935, Holiday’s singing career got a big push when she landed a recording contract after singing some popular hits like “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “Miss Brown to You.” She recorded numerous master tracks that ultimately became the foundation of early American jazz. Later in 1937, Holiday joined Count Basie followed by Artie Shaw in 1938. Billie Holiday became one of the first black women to accompany a white orchestra; this was a very impressive accomplishment of her…
George Gershwin was an American composer and song writer of the early 19th hundreds. He was born on sept 26 1898 in Brooklyn New York to parents of Russian descent and would eventually become a composer of jazz, opera, and popular songs for the stage and screen. Gershwin began playing piano professionally in several New York night clubs after he dropped out of school at the age of 15. He began his career as a “song plugger”. A “song plugger” was a vocalist or a piano player who was employed in the early 20th century to promote and help sell new sheet music. This is how “hits” were advertised before quality recording were available.…
He is a composer of jazz, opera, and popular songs for screen and stage, many of his works are now respectable. Gershwin died following his brain surgery on July 11, 1937, at 38 years old. George Gershwin…
He would comprise many great masterpieces such as Concerto for Cootie, Cotton Tail, KO-KO, It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t got That Swing, Sophisticated Lady, Solitude, etc. For great hits like Duke would find himself earning a total of twenty-two Grammy nominations and a grand total of eleven Grammy awards actually won. Duke’s great sense of musical taste is what made him the artist that he was. He was an artist that stood out to people. He gave his audience no matter who they were a great and new experience in every performance he gave with his great blending of musical notes and melodies. Duke is seen in today’s society as a main figure who help developed what jazz music is in today’s musical world. During a time when African Americans were not fully treated equally, Duke still manage to expand his career for more than half century achieving many great achievements with the love of his…
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…
knowledge and make what we know as “jazz” better. Many may say “Well, Duke Ellington created jazz so…” that’s not true. Jazz was beginning to spread across the United States thanks to records, and travelling bands, and Ellington had already established himself as a serious jazz artist, so he could take advantage of the nationwide popularity. Considered one of the greatest jazz composers of all time, Duke Ellington had an enormous impact on the popular music of the late 20th century. Among his more than two thousand songs are such hits like, “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good,” and “I’m Beginning To See The Light,” just to name a…
So he went to France and started his third big band. Then in 1953 he returned to the USA and one thing he accomplished in France was to show that he is a successful band leader. He also started another type of music called Afro-Cuban music. Afro-Cuban music has Latin and African elements together to create a new type of Jazz.…
The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans but both black and white Americans are responsible for its immerse rise in popularity. It is present in black vocals, music-spirituals, work songs, field hollers, and the blues. Jazz united people across the world and had powerful meanings about their lives. Jazz music was completed with a trumpet, clarinet, trombone and section of drums. The music was created with passion inspired by people’s lives. Ragtime was a musical style emerged from St. Louis in the late 1890s. The swing was the new style for Jazz. Benny Goodman was the “king of swing.” and he was the first white bandleader to feature black and white musicians playing together in public. There were other different styles…