The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity, spanning the 1920s and to the mid-1930s. While reading the article “Black Renaissance: A Brief History of the Concept” I learned that the Harlem Renaissance was once a debatable topic. Ernest J. Mitchell wrote the article, explaining how the term “Harlem Renaissance” did not originate in the era that it claims to describe. The movement “Harlem Renaissance” did not appear in print before 1940 and it only gained widespread appeal in the 1960s. During the four preceding decades, writers had mostly referred to it as “Negro Renaissance.”…
• Dizzy Gillespie, a jazz musician and founder of Bebop, thought the rhythm of jazz was boring and wanted something new and fresh. He incorporated Latin music into his music by getting Chano Pozo to play the conga, a Latin drum, at one of his concerts in 1947 at Carnegie Hall. Dizzy was pleased with the new sound of his band and asked Chano to stay with the band. Chano introduced to Dizzy, Manteca and this infusion revolutionized Latin Jazz.…
Born in New York City, Artie Shaw would become one of the top bandleaders in the swing era. He began his musical career as a highly sought-after alto saxophone player in the New York area, and was able to benefit from the growth of radio and studio recordings. As he perfected his technical ability with various dance bands, he was still relatively unknown in the early 30's when he began to focus exclusively on the Clarinet while Swing music began to grow in popularity.…
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…
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His mother was a music teacher, and at a young age he became her pupil. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he discovered his calling of ragtime and stride piano, principally from his sometime organ teacher, Fats Waller. Basie made his professional debut as an accompanist for vaudeville acts. In 1928, after a short stint as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page 's Blue Devils. When that band broke up in 1929, he was hired by Bennie Moten 's Band and played piano with them for the next five years.…
Gillespie was aware of American music being generally composed of simple rhythm in comparison to the polyrhythms found in the rest of the African diaspora. He traced the lack of complex rhythms, as many scholars have, to the drum being taken away from slaves in America. He believed it important for a musician to acquire knowledge of what has come before, historically and musically; Gillespie was clearly a griot of his day. Openly sharing knowledge, Gillespie would hold meetings in apartments with a piano and in restaurants discussing theory with other musicians such as Kenny Clarke, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie…
The story of Count Basie is very much the story of the great jazz band that he led for close to 50 years (1935-1984), an orchestra with a distinctive sound, anchored by a subtle but propulsive beat, buoyed by crisp ensemble work and graced with legendary soloists still to date a catalogue of featured players which read like a Who's Who of jazz. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Count Basie band's achievement was his steadfast perseverance in staying strong with a 50-year music run with several honorable awards to match. He was a notable honorary member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.…
David Warren Brubeck, born on December 6, 1920 in Concord, California, “was one of Jazz’s first pop stars.”(Brown) In his younger years, his mother Elizabeth played an immense role in the conditioning of his music career. His two older brothers were musicians and Brubeck himself would eventually be playing at weekend dances by the age of fourteen. His schedule was from nine at night to as late as four in the morning. The strenuousness of it caused him to find playing unappealing, and he pursued his dream of being a rancher. His family had moved to a ranch in Ione, California when he was eleven, so he knew how things on the ranch worked. By the time he was eighteen, though reluctant to leave, he attended The College of Pacific in Stockton, California with the intent to study to become a veterinarian and return to the ranch. After only a year, he decided to change his major to music. While in still enrolled in college he, along with a man by the name of Darius Milhaud, whom Brubeck’s first son would eventually be named after, led a twelve piece band. By 1942, he met his wife Iola Whitlock and graduated that year with a degree in music. Immediately following, he enlisted in the Army. In 1944, Brubeck was sent to Europe, however, he never actually…
During his life he had recordings with the bands and also recorded under his name. In 1929 he went out by himself to be his own freelance musician. In the 1930’s he had his big band, his trio, quartet, and a sextet. During this time he also rotated performing on NBC’s Saturday night broadcast, with his swing band. His band also brought a new type of audience; the type that didn’t want to dance but to just watch and listen. When he was twenty-eight years old he was at the height of his career. The band even went on a cross-country tour and became quite famous. He even had a radio program called “The Camel Caravan”.…
The Harlem Renaissance was a time in which African Americans had an intellectual and inventive movement that thrived with the twentieth century. The Harlem renaissance contribution was based on the influential events of the “New Negro Movement” extended throughout the world. After the Civil War, a great number of people migrated to urban areas. Areas like these were such as Chicago or in New York City. This is where a different way of life developed for African Americans. (Fiero, pages 100-101).…
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…
Harlem Renaissance was African-American’s cultural movement that began in 1920, it was blossoming of African American culture in terms of literature and art starting in the 1920 to 1930 reflecting the growth of Black Nationalism and racial identity. Some universal themes symbolized throughout the Harlem Renaissance were the unique experience of thralldom slavery and egressing African-American folk customs on black individuality. African American population of United States highly contributed in this movement; they played a great role to support it. In fact, major contribution was made by black-owned businesses and publication of their literary works. Nevertheless, it relied on the patronization of whites.…
Renaissance is defined as a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity. The Harlem Renaissance was significant because it was like the rebirth of the African American culture. We could finally prove our worth, our intelligence, and show off our talents.…
Born in Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis grew up in a middle-class family in East St. Louis. Miles Davis took up the trumpet at the age of 13 and was playing professionally two years later. Some of his first gigs included performances with his high school bandand playing with Eddie Randall and the blue Devils. Miles Davis has said that the greatest musical experience of his life was hearing the Billy Eckstine orchestra when it passed through St. Louis. In September 1944 Davis went to New York to study at Juilliard but spend much more time hanging out on 52nd Street and eventually dropped out of school. He moved from his home in East St. Louis to New York primarily to enter school but also to locate his musical idol, Charlie Parker. He played with Parker live and in recordings from the period of 1945 to 1948. Davis began leading his own group in 1948 as well as working with arranger Gil Evans. Davis' career was briefly interrupted by a heroin addiction, although he continued to record with other popular bop musicians.…
Louis Armstrong was very productive from the 1920’s to the 1960’s; he provided jazz with its big leap forward. His Hot Five and Hot Seven group recordings for the Okelt records label between 1925 and 1928. They were the greatest that the label had accomplished in music to that point of time. Louis Armstrong’s father was a work man and his mother sold her body. But this did not stop Armstrong from doing what he was doing.…