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Jazz In The 1920s Essay

667 Words3 Pages

The Jazz Leader Of The Roaring 20s

The 1920s was known as “The Jazz Age”, but it wasn’t just based on the music but the freedom it gave to African Americans. Jazz music exploded as popular entertainment in the 20s and brought African-American culture to the white middle class.The Jazz Age was a post-World War I movement in the 1920s from which jazz music and dance emerged. Although the era ended with the outset of the Great Depression in 1929, jazz has lived on in American popular culture. The rise of jazz coincided with the rise of radio broadcast and recording technology, which spawned the popular "potter palm" shows that included big-band jazz performances. One of the greatest African-American Jazz leader and originator of the big band jazz was no other than Duke Ellington. He was American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years. …show more content…

Looking at music today we see little of one’s creativity to make their own sound, for example Kelly Clarkson “Already Gone” and Beyonce “Halo”. But in the 1920s we rarely see the same sound within each note of a song. Duke Ellington brought a level of style and sophistication to Jazz that it hadn't seen before. Although he was a gifted piano player, his orchestra was his principal instrument. Jazz was based on the sound and how the rhythm made you feel while modern day music is based on the lyrics that come out of the artist mouth. Ellington and the rest of the ten members of the band created something that is known as the “big band” sound during their time spent at The Cotton Club, which means that there are multiple players for each instrument. This type of band featured trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, bass, guitar, drums, and the piano. Playing at the Cotton Club helped the band grow and a lot of the band’s most famous songs came from this time

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The Harlem Renaissance helped to promote a renewed source of black cultural pride through self-expression by people like Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Some of Duke Ellington’s contributions to the Harlem Renaissance is his long musical career. He made swing a very popular style of jazz to play, and his band was a huge local hit. He inspired many musicians today, with his piano playing skills, and his band’s attributes (Trombone plunger, etc.). This shows that Duke Ellington added many things during the Harlem Renaissance.

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Therefore many musicians stayed in Ellington’s ensembles for lengthy periods of time, such as Harry Carney who was in Ellington’s band for close to forty-seven years. Ellington was also a great business man who helped the band find venues to perform concerts, even when Big Band Swing was beginning to decline. This was instrumental in sustaining his band and continuing their

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Jazz was a big part of the 1920’s and still is today. The jazz music relates to today because it helps us to relax when people are stressed. Music also helps people release their emotions whether it be a good day or even a bad day. In the 1920’s jazz was very popular and people would go to parties and dance to the jazz music and have a good time. The two artists that were popular in the 1920’s were King Oliver and Louis Armstrong.

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Ellington was different from his predecessors as he thought more about musical form. He also was different as he chose to rarely solo on the piano and would compose music that was made solely for his bandmates separate talents as soloist. He would also put instrument in roles that were not normal to give his bands a different sound that made them even more popular. He and his band in the 1920s also introduced “jungle music” which had more african influences. Ellington was also able to keep most of his original bandmates throughout his career where he died and his son took over.

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The “Jazz Age”, also known as the Roaring Twenties, is a period in the history of America that began after World War I. It is considered the “Jazz Age” because of the new style of music/ dance styles that had become popular at the time. When the words “Jazz Age” are said, people most likely think of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington: two of the most influential musical artists who changed the way we knew music. There are tons of important people that contributed to the progression of the early 1920’s that aren’t as well known. Among the people that had influence towards the world that we have now was Dorothy Parker.

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What made him so unique was that he wrote for the players themselves, allowing each player to have their own sound. Ellington is one of two major figures in jazz whose career goes over decades, but not only that he remained unique and creative even through an evolving modern time. All through his life he was a superior example of how much a black man could achieve and experience in America, even though he had to endure racism everyday. Ellington's numerous bands and orchestras could not be imitated, their sounds every time were so unique and their style of the compositions were instrumental. Many of the music Elington composed described life in the black community and his emotions and feelings towards it.

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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

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Duke Ellington was a celebrated pianist and composer of a jazz orchestra. Born in 1899, Ellington proved himself to be an ardent American composer through his numerous orchestra functions until the end of his life in 1974. He is known to have made several collaborations with other jazz musicians through his world tours. Among Ellington’s achievements include changing the attitude of jazz and making it to be accepted as a form of art. Benny Goodman was also a jazz maestro who was born in 1909 and died in 1986.As a bandleader, Goodman was also reputed to have enhanced the image of jazz music, to the extent that it become respectable.

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Colonial Williamsburg shows life in the 1700’s as the Revolutionary war was heating up and how the different people went about their daily routines, along with showing architecture dating back to the 17 and 1800s. One of the most important buildings there is the Capitol, originally built in 1705, the Capitol is deeply entwined throughout Virginian history as a link to the colonial times when American colonists struggled to rise for independence. The Capitol had great importance during colonial times and still holds value with the citizens in Williamsburg and all over the country. It, also has a strong connection with the motto “That the future may learn from the past”. This building is deeply deserving of a commemorative coin because it held the Governor’s Council and the House of Burgesses, helped us learn tyranny was unjust, and was built by contractor Henry Cary who created the Wren building.

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Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington: Pianist, conductor, songwriter, and bandleader. Since his early teen years, Ellington left his mark on the genre of Jazz music with countless compositions and numerous variety forms that would be displayed for almost half a century. Ellington’s music career redefined many aspects of American music. His musical styling blended elements such as: his signature pursued ragtime, the blues, minstrel song, and others. It was this new complex, and diverse styling that would become a hot commodity of sorts, used in multiple settings including the nightclub scene, theaters, ballrooms, concert halls, and more.

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He showed the other bands and jazz ensembles at the Cotton Club how much you can do on piano and how it is more than an accompaniment. Delving deeper into Ellington’s impact on music, his jazz composition changed the future of the genre as a whole and its artists. While on NPR Music’s radio station, singer Nancy Wilson hosted a documentary where she informs that “Ellington vividly communicated universal ideas, while inventing musical concepts that helped elevate jazz to a sophisticated art form (Wilson).” Afterward, in the documentary, she spoke about “Duke's inexhaustible quest to discover new musical ideas, as he experimented at his piano through the night. rhythm was a fundamental element in all of Ellington's works (Wilson).”

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Developed by African Americans, Jazz combined elements of European and West African musical traditions with African American forms of ragtime compositions, minstrel numbers, and blues songs. (Batchelor, Bob. " The Jazz Age: Music.") Jazz music featured many instruments like the saxophone, drums, pianos, trumpets, clarinets, violins, etc. Jazz helped influence dance, fashion, and culture in the 1920s.

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Kaleb Diers Duke Ellington's Musical Mark Duke Ellington was a popular pianist in the 1920’s whose ambition led him throughout his career. It is important to learn about musicians like Duke, because the music world will never leave a person's daily life. It’s also important to compare and contrast techniques from the 1920’s to that of the present day. Duke Ellington was one of the greatest musicians to remember, because of his childhood, actual career, and his legacy.

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This kept the music exciting and let him and the musicians create their music. One of the most important styles of music was the use of big-band. This consisted of large ensembles with saxophones, brass, and rhythm. His creation of big band jazz increased during the 1940s’ and became a popular genre of

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The Jazz Age was a term used by F. Scott Fitzgerald to refer to the 1920s, but it was also a cultural movement that took place in America during this decade. It was also known as “the Roaring Twenties”. This movement coincided with the end of the World War I and the introduction of the mainstream radio. The era ended with the crash of 1929, which caused the Great Depression.

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