Jazz Improvisation Essay

No one could truly write a paper on a jazz artist without starting on where everything started. Jazz has been called America’s classical music. Along with the blues, its forefather, one of the truly native music to develop in America. We all know how jazz is known as improvisation and its rhythmic form. Also originated from the African American communities of New Orleans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet its impulsive, risky ventures into improvisation gave it critical cache that the blues lacked. Jazz was also and is still being a way of bringing people together and enjoying the moment. Like every other styles of music, some of them makes you want to dance, some makes you think or are filled with surprises. Rapidly the dance element faded into the background and improvisation became the key element of the piece. As it evolved, it split into numbers of different styles from the speedy, hard-hitting rhythms of the be-bop and the laid-back, mellow harmonies of jazz. Throughout the years, and in all the different styles, those still remain the qualities that defined Jazz.

Defining jazz is very difficult because there are too many varieties, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack as people say. Although the most common words that would best describe it are improvisation and swing feel. Improvisation is improvising; making things up as you go along

aka ‘just being in the moment”, it is never written down or rehearsed. Swing feel is the type that makes you get up and want to dance, clap your hand etc. whatever makes you want to start swinging or has a nice grove to it. Usually most jazz has no style designation. They refer to the sounds how everyone else referred them to just by naming a few musicians such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Nat King Cole etc.
Nathaniel Adams Coles knows by his artist name Nat King Cole was an American musician who first came to fame as a jazz pianist, also known for his soft baritone vocal style. He was the first American singer who got famous as a leading jazz pianist. All of his success is partially due to the fact that he was into music since he was kid. He learned how to play piano around the age of four with the help of his mother who also taught him how to play the organ. Cole was four years old when he had his performance yes! And it was at twelve that he began taking lessons not only for jazz, but gospel music and wester classical music. Also being one of the son of a pastor had his perks, he practiced even more on those occasions in public. As he grew, he abandoned classical music for his other musical passion, jazz.
Still being a teenager, he started his career in the mid-1930s where he adopted one of his artist name Nat Cole. He also led a band “shuffle along” which made their first professional recording in 1936 and also went on a national tour, with his brother Eddie who he joined forces with. Before his career took over, during the 1940s Cole was best known as an impressive instrumentalist. His improvisational skills were evident in some of his tracks such as ‘blues in my shower” and also “sweet Georgia brown”. While in a national tour in California, being the pianist, Cole decided to stay there. Years after King decided to form a trio in Los Angeles (guitar, double bass, piano) knows as the king Cole Swingsters and the King Cole Trio later on. They kept touring extensively and finally landed on the charts in 1943 with the song “that ain’t right”. Hit after hits, the trio got popular fast, having podcasts, radio shows and also performing in television soon after, also channeled into commercial hits.
In the 1950s, he was also known for his soft baritone voice, also performs in big band and was a major force in popular music for thirty years. As a start, he would sing between instrumental numbers, then people started requesting more vocal numbers. His distinctive baritone and keyboard skills rapidly made him a musical phenomenon. According to legend, Cole’s singing started when a drunken barroom patron wanted that he sings “sweet Lorraine”, but then again legends are not meant to be forcedly true. He scored numerous hits: Mona Lisa, too young, and unforgettable. He was a great performer, interacted with his audience the best that he could. Cole also got the chance to work with the famous Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and also famous arrangers such as Nelson Riddle. Of course those were not the only ones he had the opportunities to collaborate with, in that time he had also became friend with one of the star of the era Frank Sinatra. With the time too it was not all picture perfect, King had encountered with racism firsthand while he has been touring in the south. He also had been attacked by white supremacists during the mixed race performance in Alabama. He also took the stance of letting everyone know that he was not an activist, just an entertainer.
Nat had made it into television history, who was also the first African American to host a television show “the Nat King Cole show”.

It featured many of the leading performers like Count Basie, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett. Sadly, the shows did not last long, going off the air just a year after it got launched. Blaming it on the lack of sponsors, it was difficult to find one specially when no one would really sponsor a African American entertainers at the time. That did not stopped Cole on doing appearances on other programs such as the Ed Sullivan Show and The Garry Moore Show, and many other

more.
In 1964, Nat discovered that he suffered from lung cancer, he succumbed to the disease just months later on February 15,1965. After his funeral, his final recording L-O-V-E got released. Till this day, that title track still remains hugely popular and has been featured on a lot of film soundtracks. Nat King Cole surely passed away certainly had a young age, but for sure his music still has not and will never die. Fifty-one years later, I knew who the famous piano and improvisational skills Nat King Cole was without any adults teaching me about him.