Herbie Hancock's Influence On Jazz Music

In life, there are few things as organic as jazz music. With its raw sound and scrappy roots, one cannot help but feel life head-on whilst witnessing players produce such a sound right before their eyes. Its origins and arch are a product of the United States’ national culture and identity. Jazz exists not only as a deeply rooted form of art but as a cultural marker, particularly during its commercial peak in the first half of the 20th century. Its impact transcends borders, and it is one of the most beloved musical genres worldwide. The history, popularity and influence of jazz on human culture make it the seminal American art form.

“Even before Jazz, for most New Orleanians, music was not a luxury as it often is elsewhere - it was a necessity” (“A New Orleans Jazz History, 1895 - 1927”). Without music, New Orleans’ culture would not be the same as it is today. Jazz was not only an immense part of culture in New Orleans, but in the rest of the United States as well. Eventually, Jazz even diffused across the oceans, where different cultures gave their own twist to Jazz. A large factor to many individual cultures, Jazz widely influenced the youth on what they are and what they could be. Jazz exhibited the morals of the young generation, and therefore was a significant influence in the 1920s, not only in the United States, but in Europe as well.

For Strayhorn, melodic and harmonic development was most important. His famous song “Lush life” illustrated the composer’s early style. The whole song had a quite slow tempo, and vocal part was exaggerated. The chord progression of the piano accompanied the vocal which drifted smoothly up and down with the change of emotion, while the percussion and string sections were presented softly in the background. Remarkably, the leading position vocal in this song also illustrated the change of focus from band to vocalist in the late Swing era.

The purpose of this post is to discuss an aspect of jazz that was charged or influenced by race, gender, religion, or another social aspect. I chose to write about a Duke Ellington album, Black, Brown and Beige. Duke Ellington was known for expressing the feelings of African Americans without being angry. However, you could still feel the pain, sadness and angst, and it was always done through a filter, with a feeling of triumph at the end. The album debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1943 with mixed reviews.

Miles Davis, one of jazz’s most influential musicians with career that expanded six decades. Davis was known for his always changing style, from bebop to rock. He had been part of the bebop, cool jazz, hardbop, modal, rock-fusion movements, and shortly before his death working with hip-hop fusion. Throughout his entire career, Miles Davis preferred the audience recognize him for what he was doing then, not what he had done in the past. Over his sixty-year career he had earned several nicknames: The Sorcerer, the Prince of Darkness, and the man who walked on eggshells. In this paper, I plan to examine the influences that Miles Davis had on jazz. Starting with the bebop era, when his career first began, to his final collaboration released following his death.

Essay question 1. Starr and Waterman note that “the use of encoded, or hidden, meaning in the blues has its roots in many earlier genres of African American music.” These coded messages often take the form of referencing local landmarks (i.e., “where the southern cross the dog”) and sexual references (i.e., “That Black Snake Moan”). How do these traditions continue to impact popular music?

In the 1920s the African American was starting in earnest to place his or her stamp on American culture as a whole. It is in the era the seeds of revolution were planted that would bear fruit in the Civil Rights era of the mid 20th century. As the African Americans in New Orleans did make jazz the African Americans in New York and Chicago made Jazz what it is today and it helped many people see that what they live in is not what the have to stay

This period of time was a post World War One movement from which jazz music emerged. Jazz is “a truly indigenous musical form based off of improvisation” which included “African American blues, ragtime, and European-based popular music” (Lapsansky 243). Its roots originated in the south, where it quickly spread north because of the Great Migration of African Americans. Famous musicians like Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith became famous because of their ability to improvise (vocally and instrumentally) and their exceptional performances in big cities like New York. Jazz was so important around this time that “It was a symbol of the Roaring Twenties” (Lapsansky 244).

• Until the middle of the 1950’s “Jazz dance” was more commonly referred to as tap dance due to tap being performed to jazz music. VIDEO • Jazz music can be traced back to the times of slavery. In America slaves were not allowed to speak their native language and were forbidden to use their drums. Music became a means of survival. • Slave work songs were created, to pass time, in the form of “call and response”.

All genres of music have someone who is well known for their talents and contributions towards their genre. Duke Ellington was a big hit during his time and continues to inspire people in the jazz industry. His career lasted about 50 years allowing him to move the souls of many with his ear for wonderful music. During this time he wrote many songs and even a contemporary songbook. Ellington was an amazing composer, pianist, and conductor.

Now, jazz musicians are renowned for professionalism, refinement, and culture. Jazz is a fine art, a representation of humanity’s progress. As jazz musicians, we need to maintain a higher set of values than any other type of musician. So if we, Manouche Jazz musicians, don’t care about the fate of the Romani, yet we play their music, then our profession is hypocritical. If we pretend to hold ourselves to the level that jazz is defined by, while also appropriating the music of an already struggling culture, Manouche Jazz musicians, in particular, are hypocritical appropriators.

Jazz music was seen as a symbol of “modern” cultures of the cities. Many young adults used Jazz music to express their rebellion to their elders’. Jazz also benefited African Americans because it was a symbol of rebellion towards the set of standards in society, allowing them to move forward in status and culture. Furthermore, poets like Langston Hughes made a huge effect in American history with their works.

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.

The conditions of New Orleans leant itself nicely to the synthesis of African music and in fact made it hospitable to the creation of jazz music. Not only did the geographic setting of New Orleans help make Jazz music possible, but the abolition of slavery and the historical contexts did as

The second stanza uses the imagery of the trumpet player’s “tamed down / patent-leathered” (12-13) hair, to represent the forced “tam[ing] down” of African Americans and their culture. The third stanza includes two metaphors using alcohol to characterize the jazz music as soothing like “honey” but energetic and forceful because it is “mixed with liquid fire” (19; 20). The music’s energetic and powerful rhythm is characterized by “the rhythm [...] is ecstasy / distilled from old desire–“ (21-24). The concept of social immobility resulting from social inequality is exemplified in the fourth stanza by the disparity between “The Negro[‘s]” “Desire / that is longing for the moon” and the reality that his “moonlight’s but a spotlight,” and the moon a “[moon] of weariness” (1; 25-26;