Duke Ellington: Annotated Bibliography Essay

The Harlem Renaissance was a burst on African American’s expression of culture, arts, and writings throughout the 1920’s. It was in Harlem, New York, the movement allowed many African American poets, painters, musicians, authors and philosophers to express the beliefs in their people's culture. They wanted to be equal to white people so they showed that through their talents. Louis Armstrong was a key asset to the Harlem Renaissance due to his inspiring music and playing his instruments for African Americans people during this period.

Duke Ellington was a jazz author, conductor, and entertainer amid the Harlem Renaissance. During the developmental Cotton Club years, he explored different avenues regarding and built up the style that would rapidly bring him overall achievement. Ellington would be among the first to concentrate on melodic shape and sythesis in jazz. Ellington composed more than 2000 pieces in his lifetime.

James Weldon Johnson’s excerpt argued that African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance were establishing themselves as active and important forces in society whom were also accomplishing great artistic achievements. Langston Hughes, a leading African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote literature about the pain and pride

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. He not only affected the people around him with his music, but he ended up affecting the oncoming generations as well. This contributed to the renewed sense of black cultural pride through self-expression by his style of

What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong and Fleurette Africaine (Little Flower) by Duke Ellington.

James Van Der Zee was a photographer who was key for understanding the Harlem Renaissance, while also becoming known for his detailed imagery of African-American life.

The Harlem Renaissance was the development of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in the African American history. It started in the early 1920s and lasted up till the mid 1930s. During this time period, there was a lot of advancements in African American literacy, music, theatre and and visual arts. The African Americans became significant figures in the American society. The Harlem Renaissance was beneficial and had a positive impact on the African Americans because they became important figures with creativity in the American society.

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

Duke Ellington had a successful career and musicians and jazz fans all around the world. Whenever musicians young or old bring up jazz music in a discussion, jazz fan or classicist in any part of the world the name Duke Ellington is mentioned. Starting young after maturing he had a lot of memorable events throughout his life. Duke Ellington had a big impact on music during his time. He is considered by many to be the most brilliant Jazz composers in American history.

Langston Hughes is known as one of the most influential African American poets. He has a large collection of works that still influence African American society today. Hughes contributed towards the Harlem Renaissance, which produced a surge of African American works in the 1920s. In addition, Langston Hughes is also known as one of the most inspiring African American civil rights activists and advocated for African American unity and solidarity. One of his most famous works is “Negro,” which is a poem that highlights African American identity through the personification of African American heritage. The narrator is the personified figure that connects African Americans by explaining historical allusions that contributed to African American heritage and culture. This personified narrator enhances the theme of unified heritage among African Americans in the poem “Negro” with the use of structure, historical parallels, and historical context.

Duke Ellington was a renowned personality in the music industry as he had been very successful and notable composer and pianist. He also had been band leader of jazz orchestra and throughout his professional career of fifty years; he had been leader of the orchestra from the year 1923. He was born in 1899 and passed away in 1974. He had been a notable figure in the music industry and spent an active professional career in the field. That is why; his personality is worth to be studied so that lessons might be drawn from his life. He considered his music as part of category of American Music and he devoted his life to music to give new meanings to the field (PBS).

We all know that the power of the Black community in America came from deep in their soul. Their strength and will to fight segregation , and their love can be felt in the civil rights movement. Their ability to express their minds in a non- violent way connects to the soul music that James Brown created. James Brown’s music was a mixture of R&B and gospel. Which in a way connects to what Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to do during the civil rights movement.

Jazz is such a unique and distinguished genre of music that delights the ear of every person who listens to it. Found in New Orleans, it grew in fame all around the world and will always be popular. Why New Orleans? The history of the founding jazz and what impacted it is astonishing.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of revolutionary styles of music, dance, and literature that presented the hardships and culture of African Americans. The “Trumpet Player,” by Langston Hughes portrays the theme of the therapeutic effects of music through the development of an African American trumpeter’s music. The free verse poem “Trumpet Player” epitomizes the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz through the unique use of inconsistent rhymed and unrhymed lines mixed with the use of colloquialisms.