Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Improvisation in jazz music essay
Improvisation in jazz music essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Improvisation in jazz music essay
Abstract
This essay is a discussion of how the way jazz trumpeter Miles Davis changes his way of improvising, looking at two pieces from different times. The solos in the pieces were transcribed by myself and then analysed in detail. From these analyses, several conclusions on the style of improvising were drawn, and then the conclusions from the two pieces were compared. The piece ‘New Rhumba’, showed how Davis was using his technical ability to create an impressive solo, but was also leaning towards a more sparse and spacious form of improvising, where the times he doesn’t play are just important as when he does play, and the solo in ‘So What’, showed this new style in full. The analyses of the two solos also showed Davis’ ability to improvise solos in a way that it seemed as though he had already composed them. They were full of melodic tunes. This was also emphasized by the fact that Davis often would think of a motif, and would then repeat this, developing on it, creating variations of it. This all gave the solo a sense of unity. When people in the audience heard the solos, they would recognize things Davis was playing late in the solo, as variations on themes he was playing earlier on. On a more technical basis, it shows the difference in the two solos, of the amount of time Davis spends on notes outside the chord. In ‘New Rhumba’, the earlier piece, his use of extensions is greater, and there are far more times where he uses flattened, or sharpened extensions. The later piece, ‘So What’, is less active in this area. This essay reveals some of the aspects of Miles Davis’ style, which made him such a legendary, and influential jazz trumpeter.
Topic: A discussion of the development of improvisation in jazz music in reference to trumpeter Miles Davis.
Miles Dewey Davis was born on the 26th of May 1926, in Alton, Illinois. He became famous around the world for his incredible trumpet and flugelhorn playing, but he was also an accomplished keyboard player, and composer.
Although born in Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis lived in East St Louis. He came from a wealthy middle-class background. It isn't surprising to see that a person with the talent of Miles Davis came from a Davis' father musical family. His mother played the violin, and his sister played the piano.
John Philip Sousa was born in 1854, the third child of ten. He was born in Washington, D.C. His parents were immigrants. John
The music of jazz became an important aspect of American culture in the early 20th century. The crisp syncopation of ragtime and the smooth tunes of the blues seeped into American mainstream music through dance halls and saloons and later through ballrooms. Instruments like the piano, trumpet, trombone and clarinet became important and symbolized the “swing-feel” of jazz because of their capability to syncopate and improvise precisely. With the help of the booming recording industry, musical geniuses were discovered and their talent and contributions to the emergence of jazz spread throughout the entire country. Such musicians include composer, arranger and pianist Jelly Roll Morton who heavily influenced the development of early jazz by his unique piano style, his “invention” of musical notation for jazz, and his compositions that have become the core in the jazz repertory. Because the style was new and different and so successful in drawing in large audiences, musicians around the world tried to mimic it. Furthermore, Morton’s masterpieces were the first to show notation for complicated jazz music and thus, formed the basis for standard notation in jazz compositions today.
By the end of World War I, Black Americans were facing their lowest point in history since slavery. Most of the blacks migrated to the northern states such as New York and Chicago. It was in New York where the “Harlem Renaissance” was born. This movement with jazz was used to rid of the restraints held against African Americans. One of the main reasons that jazz was so popular was that it allowed the performer to create the rhythm. With This in Mind performers realized that there could no...
Sammy Davis, Jr. was born in Harlem on December 8, 1925, to Elvera Sanchez, a chorus girl, and Sam Davis, a dancer. He was raised by his father and grandmother. His father was in an act with Will Mastin, who was a close friend of the family. At a young age, Sammy joined the act as a singer and dancer. They were known as the “Will Mastin Trio”. It was not the best job, but it put food on the table.
...ts out. In fact that prompted them to play as loud as possible in order to overwhelm the Creoles. Buddy Bolden was one of the blacks that had the ability to do just that. Along with his strong sound that he strived for, he improvised standard ragtime and blues pieces. Unfortunately he didn’t have as much control over his life that he had over his trombone. He became an alcoholic, contracted syphilis, and then ultimately dies in a mental institution. It is sad that he died without knowing his contribution to the development of what we now call jazz. I made a conscious decision to highlight the information in this book that I had never read about in the past. On the contrary you should know that this book contains very detailed information on the parts of black American music history that is popular in today's society. It covers everything from slave songs to Motown.
High Blood Pressure is anything that alters in peripheral vascular resistance, heart rate, or stroke volume that affects systematic arterial blood pressure. Long term effect of high blood pressure are serious and can cause heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and retinal damage. Hypertension is another medical word that substitutes the meaning of high blood pressure. It is known as the “silent killer” because it does not create any symptoms. The most common reason for high blood pressure is arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is the thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries, occurring in old age. Four control systems have a job in maintaining blood pressure. These are the arterial baroreceptor and chemoreceptors’ system, regulation of body fluid volume, the renin- angiotensin system, and vascular autoregulation. Primary hypertension mostly occurs from a defect or malfunction in some or all of these
Davis’ playing Incorporated many styles, from bop to modal fusion. Oftentimes Davis was the victim of negative criticism because of his adopting sometimes unpopular styles of music, but he is most respected for being one of a few jazz musicians who continually took the music to newer and more creative heights.
Sousa was born on November 6, 1854 at a small place on 636 G Street, in southeast Washington D.C., near the Marine Barracks that would later have some influence on his music. (Sousa) His father played trombone in the Marine Band. Sousa was the third of ten children from John Antonio Sousa and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhous. Young Sousa grew up around military band music, and when he was just 6, he began learning a variety of instruments, such as; violin and piano. He also played flute, cornet, baritone, trombone, and alto horn. (Sousa)
Jazz is referred as “America’s classical music,” and is one of North America’s and most celebrated genres. The history of Jazz can be traced back to the early era of the 20th century of the U.S. “A History of Jazz” presents From Ragtime and Blues to Big Band and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. A strong rhythmic under-structure, blue notes, solos, “call-and response” patterns, and
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.
Through his contribution to early Jazz, he had a direct hand in developing the new field of academic jazz scholarship, although it had been extensively debated on his contribution. None the less, his talent formed a popularity that was surpassed by none, even to the point that once in his career; he was more popular than the Beatles. Undoubtedly, he was the first, if not the only to present Jazz to the public as a form of art. This changed the direction of Jazz to not just leisure listening music, but a teachable and complicated
“Persons intentionally choose to become nurses to help patients meet their health needs,” even when the patient is actively dying. (Wu & Volker, 2012) Hospice nursing and palliative care nursing are both considered end of life care. However, hospice nursing is typically given to patients with a terminal illness and who have less than six months to live. Palliative care is typically given to patients with a life threatening illness, and is used to increase the patient’s quality of life. Choosing a nursing career in either hospice or palliative care can be extremely difficult, but will provide an opportunity for great personal growth. At times, an end-of-life caregiver may feel responsible for their patient’s death, or they may feel isolated due to a lack of support. Nurses new to this field should “feel that their unit acknowledges death as a difficult event and that discussion of death is acceptable in the workplace.” (Lewis, 2013) The most rewarding, and also most difficult, part of being a hospice or palliative care nurse is the ability to be a part of your patient and their family’s life, including their loss, grief, and death. (Wu & Volker, 2012)
Teachout, Terry. "John Hammond's jazz." Commentary 122.3 (2006): 55+. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
One of the most enabling definitions of bisexuality comes from a bisexual activist named Robyn Ochs. According her her, “bisexuality is the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree” (Ochs). However, bisexuality did not always refer to sexual orientation. One of the first uses of the word ‘bisexual’ can be found in Psychopathia Sexualis, a late nineteenth-century forensic study authored by psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. The study was one among many which pathologized homosexuality. In this work, however, ‘bisexuality’ is used to describe what is now known as ‘intersexuality’ in which “a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male” (Eisner 14-15; What is Intersex?). Sigmund Freud’s idea of bisexuality more closely fits what we know as bisexuality today, however he regarded it as a primitive sexuality found in male children which would develop into heterosexuality or homosexuality later on (Eisner 15). Appropriately, one of the first people to refer to bisexuality as a normal, viable sexual orientation was Alfred Kinsey, himself a bisexual (Queen and Lawrence 1216). According to him, “the world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white” (Kinsey 639). Though as many as 1.8% of Americans identify as bisexual, many people continue to discriminate against them or assert that they do not exist (Gates). This kind of marginalization is known as biphobia. On the whole, the Wikipedia article for biphobia covers a variety of topics and presents goo...
Toni Morrison’s Jazz is an eclectic reading based on elements of African American culture that produce, surround, and are an integral part of literary text. As we know, African American culture is distinguishable from other American cultures by its emphasis on music. This attention to music has produced two original forms, blues and jazz, and has developed distinctive traditions of others like gospel. Jazz is based mainly on one of these forms, namely –as the title infer- on jazz. This form pervades the whole book and provides not only subject and theme but also literary technique for the novel. Consequently, Jazz is not only the novel about the jazz era but also a novel that develops jazz “strategies” and creates a “jazz” of its own.