I read the book Jazz Legend: Ella Fitzgerald by Tanya Lee Stone. I have always shared a love for music, but especially jazz. Jazz’s rhythmic and upbeat tone really fueled my passion for its music. Although I don’t play a particularly jazz like instrument, jazz is and always will be my favorite type of music. That is the reason why I chose this book Jazz Legend: Ella Fitzgerald she was one of the most humble, kind, caring and funniest artists of jazz. This book highlights the highs and lows of her career as a musician. I would recommend this book to a jazz or any other music enthusiast like myself. Ella was a poorer child growing up. She would never really have a lot of money until her heyday in the 1920’s. When Ella was a teenager she found
She was a very wealthy girl at first, but then she lost almost all of her money and some of her family. She had to move to America and work so she and her family could live. As she got older she had to deal with myriad of challenges such as Marta and her friends trying to get workers to strike, Mama gets valley fever from the dust storm, and Esperanza and other Mexicans face discrimination in the United States. Facing these challenges are very hard for Esperanza, but she had to persevere and never give up.
Starting with the Great Depression: The Great Depression was a major stock market crash that began in 1929 and went on for several years. People were left with no money and they were forced to sell everything they had, which meant they didn’t have a place to stay and sometimes families would have to separate due to the Great Depression. Afterwards became World War II. WWII may have had an impact on her life and art because it was a hard time for everybody, even for years after. It was a hard time in America, but it created a major change within our country.
Have you ever wondered what African Americans went through during the Harlem Renaissance? How they were treated every day? The violence they went through? Even how the Harlem Renaissance helped shape their culture? Well, today is your lucky day.
Furthermore, Ellison’s passion for jazz music and blues had led him to reflect his novel. His familiarity with jazz was taken from his musical background. According to the author of Jazz Country Horace A. Porter: “Ellison began playing trumpet when he was eight, and he listened to and practiced playing ‘hard driving blues’” (3) He also added: “jazz musicians were as a group among Ellison’s several boyhood heroes” (3). Hence, jazz music was considered as an important point within his life since he got inspired by musicians as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Luke Jordan.
Many people admired her for her creative idea of adding other cultures in her music, so that she can connect with diverse
Jazz in New Orleans 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.
Her brothers left as well, leaving her mother and her four sisters. Her mother tried her best to support the children. Once they were old enough, they all worked as sharecroppers, and helped harvest the cotton in their cotton farm. When Bessie turned 12, she accepted the Lord at Missionary Baptist Church in Texas. After Bessie graduated from high school, she traveled to Oklahoma to attend Oklahoma Colored Agricultural school and Normal University school.
Her way of writing is very straight forward and she backs up what she says with history. Talking about the different time periods and how people thought at the same time. She compared different artists, male and female to one another, so that a total picture
Often referred to as "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was one of the most popular female jazz singers in the United States. Throughout her career, Ella was awarded thirteen Grammys and sold over 40 million albums. With a voice that not only encompassed a large range, but a dynamic and powerful sound, Ella could sing almost anything from scatting to the popular tunes of her day. She performed in the top venues all around the world to packed houses, with audiences as diverse as the music she created. Ella came from a small town and impoverished family, but through her talent and determination, skyrocketed to fame creating a legacy that has withstood the sands of time.
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. The Duke Ellington Orchestra was the "house" symphony for various years at the Cotton Club.
Billie Holliday's life was tragic. Born into poverty and out-of-wedlock, she rose to a position of artistic preeminence in the world of jazz, but her personal life was one of constant turmoil and struggle. She fought seemingly endless wars-with drug addiction, narcotics agents' harassment, racial discrimination, self-serving lovers, and with human parasites in and out of the music business. Withal, her vocal artistry was joyously and bitters sweetly transcendent. Many serious listeners consider her the greatest jazz vocalist ever.
Billie Holiday is one of the most influential jazz singers of her time. Her attitude, determination and most of all her music inspired artists throughout time and inspired major social change. Throughout her lifetime she explored the world of jazz, her identity, and how far the limits of her talent would take her. She exchanged her poor life, full of drugs and scandal for a life of performing the arts and showcasing her talents and abilities. Her incredible determination led her to do what she loved regardless of what anyone thought , which led to her inciting major social exchange; moving black suffering into white consciousness.
III. a. Maya Angelou was an avid writer, speaker, activist and teacher. As a result of the many hardships that she suffered while growing up as a poor black woman in the south she has used her own experiences as the subject matter of her written work. In doing this she effectively shows how she was able to overcome her personal obstacles. Her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) tells the story of her life and how she overcame and moved forward triumphantly in spite of her circumstances.
She was a multi-talented person as Toni Morrison, a friend and contemporary of Angelou, expressed: “She had 19 talents and used 10. And she was a real original.” (qtd, in Sherwell, 2014).
The purpose of this post is to discuss something that surprised me about the jazz history we have learned throughout the class. After taking this very informative and interesting history of jazz class I would have to say what has surprised me most is the many different styles of jazz. It kind of sounds dumb, but I never realized that there were so many. I thought jazz fell into one genre of music. We learned about swing, bepop, cool jazz, free jazz, hard bop, and fusion, just to name a few.