Jazz And Blues Music During The Great Depression

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.

Due to the Harlem Renaissance, the United States now sees the African American community as a serious source of literature, art, and especially music. It was an opportunity for African Americans to resist the inequality and prove that if race was not a factor, that there may be aspects of African Americans that are appealing to whites The main idea of being free and open about everything regarding life has been passed down through the ages of African American culture to the music and poetry that we see and hear

It is often credited as the city that gave birth to jazz. However, the more in-depth the research, the more difficult it is to claim one city as the origin. New Orleans is an exciting city that keeps alive many of its early customs and traditions. The city is tolerant of all races and was a natural setting for the music of West Africa and Europe to meet and merge. When considering New Orleans the birthplace of jazz, one must keep in mind that slaves were brought first to Virginia in 1619 and that the first instrumental jazz was recorded in New York City in 1917.

The positive legacies that Charlie Parker left behind were his numerous record-ings that are still influential today, the fact that he redefined virtuosity with his style, helped define new bebop vocabulary, and he created a style that is rooted in the Kan-sas blues tradition. Charlie Parker’s recordings that he did with his musical group made an admirable and profound impression on the listeners and makers of jazz and he also became the first artist to make a recording with orchestral accompaniment. The nega-tive legacies Charlie Parker left behind were his influences of drug and alcohol on other musicians in hopes that they would play like him. His drug and alcohol addiction influ-enced other jazz musicians, causing jazz musicians lives and

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.

Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, often called the grandfather of jazz, pioneered the artform and to this day is considered one of the most influential musicians of all time. When asked to describe jazz, he famously responded “If you have to ask, you’ll never know”. Many have criticised this reply for its vague nature and for not directly answering the question, but I believe this quote describes jazz and its purpose perfectly. What Armstrong was trying to say was that jazz is meant to be felt rather than thought about. The purpose of improvisational music is to provide a framework for musicians to display unique creative ideas through spontaneous improvisation, and in doing so, communicating with the audience in a way that other genres of music simply

Southern states justified slavery by using many points. They used the economy, history, religion, legality, social, and humanitarianism. One reason was that if all slaves were freed, there would be a very high unemployment. Another reason the South had was that having slaves would boost the economy. Southern states defended slavery by using history:” Slavery has been legal for a long time before now, so it is a natural thing to do.”

A few famous artists who contributed to our history in entertainment during this time were, Louis Armstrong, Roland Hayes, Jackie "Moms" Mabley, and Ella Jane Fitzgerald. These are famous artists and musicians that came from Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance. In conclusion, during the Great Migration, people of color were both able to be free and to start a new life. Even though they still faced a terrifying amount of segregation and racism, steps were made to further equality.

This increased involvement of African Americans in the arts came largely through the Harlem Renaissance. In this time of cultural prosperity for black Americans, authors such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston grew famous for their work. With these new African American leaders in cultural activities rising to fame, many other African Americans followed, as they saw the successes of these other African Americans (though the advancement of African Americans in this Jazz Age was soon cut short by the Great Depression). Furthermore, the popular culture of the Roaring Twenties helped to normalize previously taboo behavior, particularly for women. This meant the increased use of birth control, an effort led by activists such as Margaret Sanger, and increasingly promiscuous “flappers,” or young, single women.

For with this new freedom to go anywhere they wanted to go it was, as the elders saw, when the younger generation rebelled against traditional prohibitions. Dancing became a popular outing for the young people while elder people were against the newly popular jazz music for they did not like its “vulgarity” and “moral corruption” it influenced. From out of the streets of New Orleans, New York and Chicago were filled with newly discovered jazz bands while radio stations and phonograph records brought the tunes across the nation to thousands of listeners. Jazz music was not only the way it influenced Americans but also through ways such as Jazz poetry. Jazz poetry was created when property and music were merged together.

(“Jazz is a music style that first gained popularity in southern cities like New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century. It is a very emotional brand of music that reflects the trials and hardships felt by the people who performed its tunes. A Jazz concert can be a fantastic opportunity to not only hear some great music, but learn about its cultural significance in American history. All of this can be reflected in a well-written report about a jazz concert”.) by Bill Varoskovic. The latest concert that I attended On wednesday october 21,2015 was the cumberland county college jazz showcase.

Jazz has been an influential part of American History since the twentieth century. Jazz was influence prominently by African Americans around 1917. Roger Kamien and Anita Kamien authors of the book Music Appreciation states, “Jazz can be described generally as music rooted in improvisation and characterized by syncopated rhythm, a steady beat, and distinctive tone colors and performance techniques” (Kamien) Within jazz, there are different styles which vary upon location or where they originated in. Some include, “New Orleans style (or Dixieland), swing, bebop, cool jazz, free jazz, and jazz rock” (Kamien).

Introduction 1. Jazz is a music genre in which artist express themselves with instruments and a type of tune, to let their audience know what they have been dealing with or what they have experienced in their lives. Jazz has a lot of history and it’s one of the most popular genre in the United States. a. Jazz was born in the United States. It’s the best music to represent America because artist have a way to express themselves through their music.

“I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.” Miles Davis’ passionate statement describes the distinctive innate ability to formulate music that transcended all musical genres, generations and nationalities. According to Bernal, Davis moved Jazz forward through his constant search for brand-new musical expressions.

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.