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Essay writing themes on jazz age
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Essay about jazz era
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This generation is severely lacking cultural diversity. The United States school system feeds its students “American History,” but some believe it has only educated them on a few main points in history, and most of them have been from the view point of Euro-Centric America, and not the Melting Pot America is. There is so much to American history that even Americans are not aware of, however this generation is so consumed with celebrities, technological advancements, and up-to-date fashion. There is so much technology and access to the past, and yet most people do not take advantage of it. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to open those of this generation up to a culture rarely discussed unless in a detailed study specifically catered to it. Jazz culture to be exact, is the topic at hand. Jazz culture expands throughout many genres and is expressed in many ways. The many genres of jazz are Big Band, jazz funk, modern jazz, smooth jazz, Latin jazz, and jazz fusion. Each of these comes with its own unique sound and origin. Latin jazz, for example, employs rhythms from both African and Hispanic backgrounds. The sound is particularly up tempo with divided eight beat patterns. Jazz artists who have portrayed these qualities of jazz to the world are at the very core of its culture. Many people who are in places of power in this society or are held in some form of esteem have had some exposure to the arts, whether it is classical or jazz. This is due to a desire to be culturally diverse which is a quality held in high esteem in regards to a more worldly point-of-view. There are many aspects of Jazz music that could be approached, but there is one point in particular that must be expressed in detail. The influence on the genre ... ... middle of paper ... ...d of Blue,” “an album now considered to be without equal in jazz history (Merod 67).” He spoke to Davis’ genius in how he leads. He is able to orchestrate elements of his projects to get them to have the feel he is looking for. He noted that “Most of “Kind of Blue” is the product of first takes (Merod 67),” which was due to the fact booking studio time cost money so it was usually a get it right the first time deal. Works Cited Ganter, G. (2009). It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. Popular Music & Society, 32(3), 433-435. doi:10.1080/03007760902786124 Schuster-Craig, J. (2011). The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music. Fontes Artis Musicae, 58(4), 442-443. Merod, J. (2001). The Question of Miles Davis. Boundary 2, 28(2), 57. GILBREATH, A. (2013). Unapologetic Vision. Brick: A Literary Journal, (90), 119.
Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." Miller, Quentin and Julie Nash. Connections: Literature for Composition. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 984-1006.
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Jazz Fiction Anthology. Ed. Sascha Feinstein and David Rife. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2009. 17-48.
Jazz is an American genre that developed from ragtime and blues in the early twentieth century in urban areas of the U.S. This genre is characterized by strong, prominent meter, improvisation, distinctive tone colors, and performance techniques. The development of Jazz made a postive, lasting impact after World War One ended. It became a way of bringing young people together. Jazz became the basis for most social dance music and provided one of the first opportunities for public integration. Subcultures like the gangs of New York and Chicago encouraged the subjugation of the black artists to the white man’s economic and social power, often resulting in gang leaders having complete control over
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Jazz Fiction Anthology. Ed. Sascha Feinstein and David Rife. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2009. 17-48.
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Jazz Fiction Anthology. Ed. Sascha Feinstein and David Rife. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2009. 17-48.
For Stanley, the blues tell the stories of the African-American community. Some of the stories talk about the harshness of their lives, but they also talk about the good times they had. [People] play the blues to get rid of the blues not to get them." (Lamb, 1). When people play or even listen to the blues, they are letting all of their worries go. They are not worrying about their job, the bills, or their kids. They are just trying to enjoy the moment when the blues are playing. The blues are some people's release from the stresses of their lives.
The word “jazz” is significant to America, and it has many meanings. Jazz could simply be defined as a genre or style of music that originated in America, but it can also be described as a movement which “bounced into the world somewhere about the year 1911…” . This is important because jazz is constantly changing, evolving, adapting, and improvising. By analyzing the creators, critics, and consumers of jazz in the context of cultural, political, and economic issue, I will illustrate the movement from the 1930’s swing era to the birth of bebop and modern jazz.
Musicologists have dated the ‘birth’ of blues to be around 1890 as a West African tradition involving blue indigo in which mourners at ceremonies would wear blue dyed attires to resemble their suffering . Although, blues derived from times of slavery, the Prohibition Era (1920’s), World War Two (1939-1945), and during the Vietnam War (predominantly 1960’s to 1970’s), it has been a continuously evolved form of music in America, in which the similarities have always remained; melancholy and protest.
Not only did Davis serve as an architype for upcoming musicians, he exposed his audience to the realities of an oppressed American by way of his music. Growing up he had to work harder than his white peers to get the same chance, and he took note of this. According to the book, Miles Davis: the definitive biography, Davis commented on using injustice as his motivation, “It made me so mad that I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn. If I hadn’t met that prejudice, I probably wouldn’t have had as much drive in my work” (Carr 6). Injustice made a profound influence on Miles. During the civil rights movement Miles Davis became a voice for the black community. Because of Davis’s initiative to deliver music that would bring strength and truth to the African American community, jazz music had become a symbol of power and strength instead of “black music.” In a book by Ingrid Monson she speaks about the relationship between the civil rights movement and jazz: “the defiance and resistance of jazz musicians has often been confused with romanticized politics of style that views music’s relationship to the civil rights struggle as mostly symbolic. Here the defiant attitude of musicians…has been viewed as the heart and soul of the relationship between music and politics” (Monson 56-57). Miles Davis was a manifestation of the
Sonny’s Blues is a short story written by James Baldwin. The story is written in the first person singular narrative style and it begins with the narrator who reads in the newspaper on his way to work about his younger brother Sonny, who has been caught in a heroine bust and jailed. The narrator becomes very disappointed in his brother that he does not write to him for a while but after his daughter Gracie, succumbs to polio, that is when he remembers his brother and writes a letter to him. The two brothers maintain contact through the letters till Sonny is released from jail. After his release, Sonny moves in with his brother and his family. During a family dinner, they flash back about their parents. The narrator describes their father as a drunk who died when sonny was fifteen. He liked his privacy just like sonny but they never used to get along. Sonny was a withdrawn and a quiet type while their father feigned to be big, loud-talking and tough. The narrator recalls the last time he saw their mother alive was before he left for war. He remembered his mother telling him to take care of his brother. The story talks of Sonny’s life in Harlem and how he tried to escape the stereotype of the community’s traditional social view. He tries to venture into jazz music which the narrator does not find suitable for him. Sonny gets lured into drugs in the attempt of escaping the darkness in his life and finds himself in jail. The narrator tries to help and understand his brother. When Sonny invites the narrator to Greenwich Village to watch him perform, the narrator is uncertain but accepts the invitation. As Sonny plays the piano, the narrator feels the magic in the music and can see how his brother’s emotions come alive and he is able to...
Kind of Blue is a phenomenal album recorded by the Jazz artist Miles Davis in 1959. This album was instrumental in introduced the modal style of Jazz that Miles helped to pioneer. The songs and sounds that come from this album are some of his best works, and they can be compared to some of the greatest recordings by other Jazz greats. The lineup of musicians features some of the best Jazz musicians on their respective instruments. One of the reasons for this is the mixture of Davis and Coltrane. Together they are an unstoppable force for musical perfection. Kind of Blue is a though provoking, entertaining and generally awe inspiring as a body of musical work.
Blues can be distinguished both as a musical form and as a genre (style) of music. The typical blues form consists of a 12-bar harmonic pattern that subdivides into three groups of four bars each. (A bar is one measure and in musical notation is indicated by a vertical line). The 12-bar pattern usually follows a traditional blues chord progression. This form was standardized in 1912 with the publication of “Memphis Blues” by musician and composer W. C. Handy. From the beginning, the blues form b...
Now a days, many believe that jazz is not that important of music genre, but with our history, jazz plays a big role. “Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but it is a gift that America has given to the world.”, quoted by Ahmad Alaadeen. Jazz in the 1920’s opened the eyes of whites and invited them into African American culture; it evolved Americans to where we are today since it brought a change to the music scene, an acceptance of African Americans, and a change of lifestyles.
Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis was a studio album released by Columbia Records. The album’s exact release date was August 17, 1959. The album, “Kind of Blue” consisted of the genres of modal and cool jazz, but focused mostly on modality. The album featured Bill Evans a pianist, Paul Chambers a bassist, Jimmy Cobb a drummer, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian Adderley as well as pianist Wynton Kelly on one track. The meaning or portrayal of the music on the album was a modal approach that altered and mixed playing styles of different musicians. Miles Davis main goal by releasing “Kind of Blue” was to get rid of modern jazz clichés. Through modal jazz Miles Davis ended up focusing on fewer chords and less concentrated harmonies. Through modal
Nisenson, Eric. The making of Kind of blue: Miles Davis and his masterpiece. Macmillan, 2001.