In the book Blue like Jazz there is a couple of conversion stories I would like to talk about. The first one comes from Chapter 4. It is the conversion of Millers friend Penny. Penny was a person who did not like Christians and Christianity based on the stereotypes that she had seen and the world has given to them. In the chapter it says that Penny wanted nothing to do with Christianity until she met a friend from her school. She went to college at the same place as miller, which is reed college, and after her freshman year she decided to study at a school in france. While there she was introduced to another student from Reed who she was very fond of and her…
I watched the film “Dedicated to Chaos PBS Episode 7” . The film talks about the changes Jazz was going through during WWII. Many Americans were already used to Swing music that it was already considered America’s music during the war. Although Swing music was popular among the majority of Jazz musicians, some musicians were in fact tired of the many restrictions found in Swing. So they decided to change the formula of Jazz music once again to create a highly complex form of Jazz: Bebop.…
Following the swing era, which had come into existence in the 1930’s after the Great Depression, a new and more innovative jazz style merged in the 1940’s known as Bebop. Bop was not as popular as swing because unlike swing, Bop was not a dancing jazz style. Bop however did bring a new musical dimension different from swing. The Bop jazz style focused on advanced improvisations, emphasis on solos, and just musical virtuosity in general. Two of the most influential musicians in the advancement of bebop were saxophonists Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzie Gillespie. Dizzie was the first and most important bop trumpeter and composers of the Bop era. Gillespie was very influential…
The bebop sound that Charlie Parker created morphed with Clifford Brown's style of attacking every note, and came to be called "hard bop." What was equally noted, alongside Brown's virtuoso ability, was his nature—kind, hard-working, clean-living,…
Over the years jazz music has gone through many musical evolutions throughout its history. At its height in the 20s and through the 40s, jazz big bands were one of the most popular forms of musical entertainment in America. After World War II, there seem to be a shift within the jazz community as more and more jazz musician broke away from the big band genre. Many of them created smaller more intimate groups that wanted to put more of an emphasis on solo improvisation, instrumental virtuosity, and complex chord progressions. This new genre would become known as Bebop through innovators such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and others.…
Charlie moved to New York City after a short stay in Chicago. He found work playing in swing bands but started experimenting with his own style of playing. Late at night, he would gather with other musicians who wanted to play fast-paced, fiery music. This jazz style would later become known as bebop. At first many of the older jazz artists and fans did not like bebop. The unpredictable beats and lengthy improvisations were not like the smoother rhythms of swing music. For swing fans, jazz was music for dancing. Unlike swing, bebop was powerful music for…
Bebop jazz, which "slowly evolved from late swing and transition period jazz" (Jazz and the Beat Generation), was quite a shock to the white population when it first appeared on the scene during the Depression. This intricate compilation of sounds became the staple for all that was anti-commercial and as much a part of African-American roots as possible. The reason for such separation between blacks and whites when bebop became so popular is that white musicians were in it for the commercial success, seeing no other reason to play jazz but for financial gain and recognition. Blacks, on the other hand, turned bebop jazz into a personal expression devoid of as much materialistic impression as possible. This new attitude caused great dissent…
The Jazz Age was a cultural movement that began around 1918, post WWI. It was born in New Orleans but later spread around the world, it was a beautiful mixture of jazz and march banding styled music and was often played by African-Americans. It was the first time that people began to move to the cities rather than in rural areas. It was the first time that African American were given the opportunity to progress in a society that failed them since the ending our slavery. After the war, new trends began to surface, for example: dancing, music, fashion, theater and all the other arts in an attempt to help ease the post-war feeling of the nation.…
The “Globalization of Jazz” is occurred when musicians from all around the world that were assimilating bebop and post-bop styles into the music of their culture in interesting and creative ways and creating new hybrid styles. Jazz had absorbed musical influences from other cultures and the reciprocal absorption of jazz into other parts of the world was…
Called also bop, bebop is a style of jazz with its characteristics being fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation founded on the mixture of harmonic structure and melody. Its origins began in the early and mid-1940’s, where it became synonymous with modern jazz, as the two of them came to a certain maturity point in the 1960’s. Its roots were from New York City.…
I started dancing before I can remember, but I have been told that I was just about three. I started out at a studio that I cannot remember, doing ballet and tap. Yet, because my entire class would have been so young it can hardly be considered dance, but rather a general physical activity with friends. When I was about to turn six my entire family moved, so I changed studios to the one I am at. I still only did tap and ballet for about three years, when I started to fall behind because everyone else was taking jazz and contemporary. So when I was going to be turning nine I started jazz and contemporary. They were all so different, but they all were quite similar (except for tap, that was pretty different). When I was asked which was my favorite I could not decide because I liked them all for different reasons. I liked jazz because I now…
Jazz is one of the musical genres that represent America. It had a combination of influences from Africa and Europe. When Africans were brought to the United States as slaves, they brought their music and culture with them. Samuel A. Floyd Jr. stated “…particular musical tendencies were brought with Africans to the New World…and spread throughout African-derived populations in the United States, eventually becoming an integral part of the music we know as jazz.” African slaves used musical expression for social purpose in the 1800s; they sang songs when they are working or they played drums. The immigration of Europeans started in the seventeenth century. They brought the instrumentations, the tonality, the chords, and the form into the United…
African American culture since the Harlem Renaissance. During its formative period, bebop's roots in Harlem helped to preserve its connections to the African-American jazz community. That neighborhood provided an ideal environment for this musical experimentation, as these musicians often played together at musicians’ homes exchanging ideas freely. Dizzy Gillespie's apartment was an especially popular site for such gatherings. According to saxophonist Budd Johnson, “We used to hang around up at Dizzy's at 7th Avenue, and all the musicians used to come up there. Dizzy was sort of like a school also, and used to sit down at the piano, and of course, he was playing the modern [chord] changes”. Utilizing this supportive environment, Gillespie and Parker honed their musical vision and technical command of their instruments, and in the process influenced virtually every Bebop musician with their mastery of improvisation. And their influence, and that of bebop, has been described as “…the lingua franca of…
Dixieland jazz sounds are created when an instrument plays the melody or a variation on it, and the other instruments improvise around that melody. This works in jazz’s key element of improvisation. Next, swing jazz. Jazz music reached its height during the swing era. Swing music is unique in its strong rhythmic drive and “call-and-response” usage. As we discussed earlier, jazz music is unique in its rhythm, particularly swing, an element prominently incorporated in swing jazz, hence the name. Without this rhythmic element, swing music would not have the original jazz style. Mainstream jazz is considered to be extremely complex in nature, but it still contains important elements of jazz, including subtle use of rhythm, improvisation along with pre-arranged introductions, and “blues notes.” Despite introductions that are composed ahead of time, Mainstream still has the important element of improvisation. This shows us that jazz has evolved from the original style in to new styles that incorporate new and different elements. Funky Jazz, basically Mainstream’s alter ego, even contains the elements essential to original jazz style. Many of the original Funky jazz pieces were influenced heavily by blues and contain an abundance of “blues notes.” The rhythm of funky jazz is very simple, but funky jazz still includes strong jazz…
I am doing my end of the semester paper on Jazz music. Jazz was created in the twentieth century and was said that it was, “created to bring people together.” Jazz was also known in many cities around the time of the jazz age, but the city that was known as the birthplace of jazz was New Orleans. There are many important names that people still know today from the jazz ages. One important name during the jazz age was Louis Armstrong is known for many Jazz songs like “What a Wonderful World”, “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Go down Moses.” Another name was Billie Holiday and she was known for “God Bless the Child” and “Billie’s Blues.” The other name was Duke Ellington, who have many recordings like “Take the A Train”, “Black and Tan Fantasy”,…
