When a person thinks of jazz, they think they are performers who take stage and improvise their songs. Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington were two of the greatest jazz composers of their time. These two collaborated hundreds of productions. Ellington was known for his song Caravan featuring Juan Tizol that was written in 1936. Other musicians have recorded this song, Caravan, many times. Billy Strayhorn song he composed in 1941, Take the “A” Train, premiered in Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. This song has been recorded by other musicians more than 900 times.
There were many things through this tour that I liked and a few things I did not like. What I liked was how the website was very clean and easy to find. In the title page, down below you
Duke Ellington, named Edward Kennedy Ellington at birth, was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington D.C. to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Both of Ellington’s parents were talented, musical individuals. Edward Kennedy was later nicknamed Duke by his childhood friend, Edgar McEntire and this name has stuck with him throughout his life and career. Duke Ellington was one of Jazz and Big Band’s most influential icons. He was known for famous recordings such as “Sophisticated Lady”, "Take the A Train," "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing," and "Satin Doll," Duke Ellington started taking piano lessons at age seven and became more serious about his piano lessons after hearing a pianist who worked at Frank Holiday’s poolroom. He was fourteen and had started sneaking into the poolroom. After listening to the poolroom’s pianist, something was ignited within and he fell in love with the piano. Ellington was known for his ability to choose members for his band who possessed very unusual talents while playing their instruments. These talents included Bubber Miley, who used a plunger to make the "wa-wa" sound, and Joe Nanton, who was known for his trombone "growl." It was for this quality to find such unusual players and his ingenious ability to compose beautiful music that lead to Ellington’s huge success. Duke Ellington composed over 1,000 compositions right up until the day he died, May 24, 1974. Although Ellington was known as a huge figure in Jazz, his music spanned beyond the Jazz genre; it stretched into blues, gospel, popular, classical and film scores. Through his efforts and achievements, he has made Jazz more accepted as an art form and genre. Ellington had received 12 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000...
The blues emerged as a distinct African-American musical form in the early twentieth century. It typically employed a twelve-bar framework and three-lined stanzas; its roots are based in early African-American songs, such as field hollers and work songs, and generally have a melancholy mood. The blues can be divided into many sub-genres, including Classical, Country, and Urban. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the careers of two of Classical blues most influential and legendary singers: Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.
The last dance is, "The Spanish-American War", and it features a song called, "The Blues". It is about the homecoming of heroes and romantic love triangles.12 Finally, the last section of this symphony is Beige. Beige is about the stereotypes of the people who live in Harlem. People were considered to just sing, dance and respond to Tom Tom's.13
1970. And then by the 1950's the Ellington band was carrying on almost alone. By
Langston Hughes's stories deal with and serve as a commentary of conditions befalling African Americans during the Depression Era. As Ostrom explains, "To a great degree, his stories speak for those who are disenfranchised, cheated, abused, or ignored because of race or class." (51) Hughes's stories speak of the downtrodden African-Americans neglected and overlooked by a prejudiced society. The recurring theme of powerlessness leads to violence is exemplified by the actions of Sargeant in "On the Road", old man Oyster in "Gumption", and the robber in "Why, You Reckon?"
One of Ellington orchestra’s signature tunes is "Take the ‘A’ Train" (1941). This piece was not written by Ellington but by American composer Billy Strayhorn, who became Ellington’s musical collaborator. This piece is very jumpy and light, making you feel like tapping your feet and following the beat. In the background is a piano in stride style that accompanies the brass instruments.
Music from the Modern Era brought a new freedom and a wide experimentation that challenged certain rules of earlier periods. Music became more important during this time and it would conflict with other genres of music. Architecture from the Modern Era changed the way we think about buildings today. The availability of new building materials drove the creativity of new building styles.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual movement that was expressed through art, literature, and music igniting a new cultural identity. At the time it was called the “New Negro Movement” named after Alain Locke a well-known philosopher and writer. The base of the movement involved the Great migration of African Americans from poor to urban areas and from South to North. Escaping its harsh caste system so they can find a place where they could uninhibitedly express their talent. Among those artists whose works accomplished acknowledgment were W.E.B Du Bois, Alain Locke, and Langston Hughes.
The evolvement of jazz throughout the years has been an interesting one. Blues and Ragtime are just two simple innovations that has allowed for many variations in the jazz genre. Both of these genres have their similarities and differences in how they influenced jazz music through: improvisation, syncopation, and experimentation.
During the 1920's and 30’s, America went through a period of astonishing artistic creativity, the majority of which was concentrated in one neighborhood of New York City, Harlem. The creators of this period of growth in the arts were African-American writers and other artists. Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the period know as the Harlem Renaissance. With the use of blues and jazz Hughes managed to express a range of different themes all revolving around the Negro. He played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance, helping to create and express black culture. He also wrote of political views and ideas, racial inequality and his opinion on religion. I believe that Langston Hughes’ poetry helps to capture the era know as the Harlem Renaissance.
Lastly, Strayhorn had a big impact on jazz as a whole. At a time, where jazz entered the new swing era, the bands were being changed from the combos to big bands. The pieces that Strayhorn wrote and arranged were written in a genius way that helped to showcase the individual talents of the band members. Ellington's Orchestra is known for having sidemen who were accomplished soloists. Strayhorn's compositions helped to usher in the new swing era musical style, and along with Ellington created many jazz standards for this new form of jazz
The Harlem Renaissance enriched America through its music. Countless African Americans became key figures in music during this time. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of African American expression in art, music, and literature. The Harlem Renaissance was instigated by the migration of African Americans to northern cities that was taking place in America at that time. (Hutchinson) The music of the Harlem Renaissance brought about a sense of equality among black and white Americans and was a sense of inspiration, which was made possible through African American migration and led to civil rights movement of the 1960s.
James Baldwin is a writer from the twentieth century. He wrote “Sonny’s Blues,” a short story with the image in Harlem, as many of his stories were, was published in 1957. “Sonny’s Blues” is about the narrator, who remained nameless, and how his life changed after he discovers his brother’s drug addiction. “Sonny’s Blues” highlights the theme of light and darkness throughout the story’s good and bad event, the struggles of brotherly love, and the dilemmas that the narrator and Sonny face as siblings by being raised the same but taking totally different routes in their lives.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of flowering throughout literature and culture for African Americans in America. These growths can be traced back to the musical traditions, black folklore, and folk cultural ways of the African Americans prior to the Harlem Renaissance. Each of these aspects empowered the African Americans to reach the freedom that they deserved. It was a continuous fight but their cohesiveness strengthened their fight.
Ragtime All I can say is that it’s like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights extend, but you can make the whole trip that way." E. L. Doctorow (1994) http://www.stage-door.org/ragtime.html Ragtime by E.L.Doctorow's is representation of American society at the start of the 20th century, beats the major chords of this time era through the linking of key historical statistics, proceedings, communal truths, and imaginary accounts of genuine issues. The author investigates the tone of the turn of the century like notes on a keyboard, every now and then loud and vital, sometimes hardly audible. The novel arranges each event as well as character as they would function in real society; no one part is separate from the other. Each part is reliant on and unquestionably linked to another. E.L. Doctorow shows how within the rhythm of our quickly moving nation. “Ragtime is an enormously complicated historical, political, social and artistic panorama that will enable audiences to examine the origins of the twentieth century from the perspective of the last decade of the twentieth century. Ragtime’s commentary on the human condition is timeless. Though the story takes place during the century’s first two decades, its substance is as timely as ever today as we prepare to enter the next millennium." http://www.stage-door.org/ragtime.html Ragtime takes on to fashion a cultural history of the first two decades of the twentieth century, doing so by linking the fates of three fictional families with real personalities and proceedings of the Ought and Teens. Each of the fictional families is symbolic of one or more of the cultural situation of those years. The white New Rochelle family, its members itemized by their st...