The Darktown Strutters Ball, released in 1917, and written by Alberta Hunter, was one of the more popular songs during the era known as the Harlem renaissance. It was a great period for African Americans, but it was also a great period for new types of music. The blues was a musical form that stemmed from the post-civil war started in the south and slowly moved north. Jazz and blues were the music that was heard in Harlem’s nightlife. (Renaissance and Music, para. 1) Because of people like Louis Armstrong, Ceril Mack, or Eva Jessye Jazz and blues were able to blossom with several instruments and subgenres. The following information will be about how jazz started, those people's contributions, and the instruments/subgenres.
Jazz is a music that is still around today, and it was started over 100 years ago around New Orleans. Because New Orleans is a port city, Jazz and blues could be heard by many. People were going from here to there which allowed for the clash of ethnic cultures. The blues were started before Jazz, it came from work songs, field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, church music, and folk music. (Blues, para. 5) Unlike Jazz, the blues were first
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(Open Ears: Eva Jessye and the Harlem Renaissance, para 1) Eva was a talented musician, at a young age, she was a singer, choir director, composer, actor, teacher, and poet. “Eva lead a choir that was one of the top gospel, folk, and spiritual groups of the time…Known as ‘Original Dixie Jubilee Singers’ but they later changed the name to “Eva Jessye Choir”. (Open Ears: Eva Jessye and the Harlem Renaissance, para 2) To have your choir as a black woman during the early 1920s was a feat that should not be dismissed. She belonged to two groups that were disseminated during this time, women and African Americans. Without people like her, the renaissance wouldn’t have meant much, she was one of the few who was willing to risk for the
She proved that women can alter the course of political events, and she was very popular in the fight for equality because she had personal experience with slavery and talked about it in detail. She also showed people that limits on women's rights were also in the same system as slavery. She was very wealthy, which gave her an advantage over the people. Later, she kept fighting for women's rights and equality. This goes to show just how brave and determined she was.
In 1914, because of the pause of European immigration, black farmers from the south could get jobs in northern cities. With the new abundance of African Americans in NYC and their creative contributions to nightlife, music, and entertainment, the Harlem Renaissance started. The Harlem Renaissance inspired many pieces of music, literature, and art and revolutionized the future of black America. (Bodenner) During this time, new styles of music emerged, the most prominent being Jazz.
In the realm of music, African Americans celebrated blues music. The blues music that spread during the 1920s “expressed the longings and philosophical perspectives of the black working class” (). In addition to blues music, jazz became a dominant musical form which established Harlem as an exciting cultural center, resulting in abundant dance halls created where famous musicians such as the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, pianist Duke Ellington, and pianist Fats Waller could perform their unique solos and share their musical talents in an environment that embraced the freedom of self-expression. These developments that occurred in this period called the Jazz Age indeed empowered African Americans to use their musical talents in an effort to strengthen their traditions, culture, and racial status in an anti-black prejudiced society: “"Wild Dreams of Bringing Glory and Honor to the Negro Race," addresses the composer's difficulties in overcoming negative stereotypes, myths, and perceptions that were most often based in racial prejudice” (). Similarly, African Americans contributed to the field of drama, forming all black theatre groups and creating productions that often focused on portraying the folk experience (the experience of blacks in the South) and protesting racial oppression and black stereotypes.
Her proficiency as an opera singer inspired many future opera singers to start careers of their own. Without her, the opera industry might never have been integrated, and many famous Washingtonians would not have been able to perform. She showed that African Americans are perfectly capable of being fine arts performers by perfecting the Leider style of
When an artist makes a contribution and impact to their respective field, they are often adorned with titles that reflect their significance. Ma Rainey was known as the Mother of Blues (Wilson 19). Born Gertrude Pridgett, Ma Rainey’s began her career as a part and minstrel and vaudeville acts (Bogumil 19). Although singers such as Mamie Smith began recording music before Ma Rainey did, her successful vaudeville show earned her popularity throughout the United States (Springer 34, Bogumil 19). However, this success is not respected by Sturdyvant.
Also jazz music included improvisation meaning no two performances were ever the same. Improvisation with the voice, called scatting, was used by singers like Billie Holiday Bessie Smith. What popularized jazz music so much were the radios, just like literature had magazines. This allowed Americans, not just from Harlem, to listen to this new
Her music was very popular during a time of war and listeners reached out to her style of music in order to forget the bad happenings and enjoy good music. Today, she is still considered one of the best jazz vocalists to ever
There was a lot of new music that was being introduced like jazz, blues, dance music, and ragtime. “Almost all of these genres originated from the creative work of African Americans influenced by their culture and heritage” (Tennant). Jazz music influenced dance, fashion, and culture while blues music shared the stories of a prejudiced and segregated South, also personal trials. Blues music was heavily influenced by the African spirituals sung by those who were enslaved. Prior to the radio, music could be shared only through sheet music, piano rolls, or live performances.
According to the same website a type of music called blues also migrated towards Harlem but it was a more sad emotional type of music that showed their struggles in the post-war
What are The Blues? Where the Blues Started The Blues originated in the early 19th century as a form of a field hollers, a form of singing with quick or jumpy pitch changes, slaves would sing about their troubles, plans, and emotions while working in the fields in a call and response pattern. After the emancipation of the slaves, the genre almost completely vanished because of the lack of record keeping of African American culture during the 18th and 19th centuries. The lack of record keeping should have spelled the end for the Blues; however, all was not lost.
The Chicago blues is a subgenre of blues music local to Chicago, Illinois. It 's foundation is revolved around the sound of the electric guitar and its enhancer. In this paper, I will investigate what made is the essentialness of Chicago blues and what prompt to production of this subgenre in the city of Chicago and it 's legacy in the present setting. The blues initially started to show up close to the end of the 1800s after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“In a 1999 interview in The Paris Review, Mr. Wilson cited his major influences…the blues was the primary influence, followed by Jorge Luis Borges, the playwright Amiri Baraka and the painter Romare Bearden” (NY Times). The blues is different from other forms of music because it was only recorded by memory and was passed down through generations of African Americans. It began in North Mississippi in post-Civil War times. The blues music was influenced by African roots, church music, and rhythmic dance tunes which were called jump-ups. An evolution of African music created in the United States by slaves influenced the blue.
Sonny's Blues was written in 1957, 37 years after the roaring twenties had come to an end. Long after the great Migration, where millions of blacks moved to northern cities to escape Jim Crow, and embrace the new found possibilities offered. During this period African-Americans in New York, collectively gathered in Harlem mainly, it was usually alluded to as the black capital. There blacks shared culturally and also, influenced music greatly. This is also where the "new negro" persona was crafted, blacks were no longer going to be referred to as someone's mammies or boy.
In the short “Sonny’s Blues” James Baldwin depicts the struggles of African American Males in Harlem, New York during the 1950’s. Although he gives subtle hints about trends within the country, he only focuses on these two brothers and their journey. To spite the harsh reality of his surroundings Sonny turns to drugs and music as a means of escape and expression. Music specifically the blues is the most significant idea in this story. (Albert, 1984)
Jazz is most often thought to have been started in the 1920s as this explosive movement, but that is in fact not the case. Starting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century many African American musicians have started to explore their taste in improvising, and where better to do that than New Orleans (Anderson). Before the 1920s these jazz musicians have already been going around sharing the unique sound, but up until then, jazz had remained majorly in New Orleans. Interestingly during this period, a common jazz band would consist of a cornet, a clarinet, a trombone, and a rhythm section when at this period of time the clarinet is not commonly associated with being a jazz instrument, it moved into being the saxophone rather. A big