Jazz history

Jazz is the art of expression set to music! Jazz is said to be the fundamental rhythms of human life and man’s contemporary reassessment of his traditional values. Volumes have been written on the origins of jazz based on black American life-styles. The early influences of tribal drums and the development of gospel, blues and field hollers seems to point out that jazz has to do with human survival and the expression of life.

The origin of the word "jazz" is most often traced back to a vulgar term used for sexual acts. Some of the early sounds of jazz where associated with whore houses and "ladies of ill repute." However, the meaning of jazz soon became a musical art form, whether under composition guidelines or improvisation, jazz reflected spontaneous melodic phrasing.

The standard legend about jazz is that it was conceived in New Orleans and moved up the Mississippi River to Memphis, St. Louis and finally Chicago. Of course that seems to be the history of what we now refer to as jazz, however, the influences of what led to those early New Orleans sounds goes back to tribal African drum beats and European musical structures.

In reviewing the background of jazz one can

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

The C Soprano Saxophone was made by the H. Lester Young's improvisational approach is considered the fountainhead of cool jazz. World War II was over-the country was relaxed and jazz relaxed. He played swing, rhythm and blues, bebop, cool, third stream and hard bop.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982)

One of the original "rebels" of the bebop era, Monk's appreciation for early piano styles and his desire to express his personal ideas in pianistic terms led him to experiment with dissonance in a way that many musicians considered very unusual but strangely attractive. Born and raised in the New Orleans battleground neighborhood he learned to play cornet during a stay at "The Colored Waif's Home for Boys" where he was soon hired to play for parades and picnics. In 1945 he enrolled at the Julliard School of Music, but he quickly became more interested in the bebop sound that was sweeping New York clubs. Jazz began to import rock’s instruments, volume, and stylistic delivery.

Ragtime

Piano ragtime began to be published in the late 1890s. In 1955, Parker was elected by the Readers to the Down Beat Hall of Fame, just following his death.

Lester Young (1909-1959)

During the 1930's and 1940's Lester Young, along with Herschel Evans in the Count

Basie Band were innovator expanding beyond the limits of conventional swing. At this same time, four million slaves became American citizens. In the years just before 1940, the primitive blues form of boogie woogie became a popular fad. A half-century later, jazz, America’s great contribution to music, crossed the threshold of the universities and became seriously, even religiously

considered. But once you clear that first hurdle of jazz knowledge, the rewards that the music can provide are almost limitless.

Approximate Word count = 2420
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.