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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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