Big Band Big band refers to a jazz group of 10 or more musicians, usually featuring at least three trumpets, two or more trombones, four or more saxophones, and a rhythm section of accompanists playing some combination of piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Big-band music as a concept for music fans i...

Early music is based mainly on the music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras. Many people like to define Early Music as ending in 1750, with the death of J.S. Bach. This is a handy date, but it misses the various stylistic changes taking place around that time, i.e....

John Coltrane Jazz, taking its roots in African American folk music, has evolved, metamorphosed, and transposed itself over the last century to become a truly American art form. More than any other type of music, it places special emphas...

American jazz is another non-European influence on twentieth-century composers. Musicians were fascinated by its syncopated rhythms and improvisational quality, as well as by the unique tone colors of jazz bands. Unlike a string-dominated symphony orchestra, a jazz band emphasizes woodwinds, brasses...

Known as the Jazz Age, the Roaring twenties, or the Boom, the twenties marked a time period when the economy excelled. Many people felt that this was a time when everyone got rich, drank hard liquor, and partied all the time. This was not the way it was at all and Fitzgerald wanted people to reali...

It seems unfair that the pages of our history books or even the lecturers in majority of classrooms speak very little of the accomplishments of blacks. They speak very little of a period within black history in which many of the greatest musicians, writers, painters, and influential paragon'' e...

Known as the Jazz Age, the Roaring twenties, or the Boom, the twenties marked a time period when the economy excelled. Many people felt that this was a time when everyone got rich, drank hard liquor, and partied all the time. This was not the way it was at all and Fitzgerald wanted people to realiz...

The People, Leisure, and Culture of Blacks During the Harlem Renaissance It seems unfair that the pages of our history books or even the lecturers in majority of classrooms speak very little of the accomplishments of blacks. They speak very little of a period within black history in which ma...

The Evolution of Rap Music All one has to do is simply observe their surroundings to realize the huge impact of rap music on today's society. The way people dress, talk, and act have all been influenced by the cultural phenomenon known as rap music. Almost every aspect of American culture has b...

While Jim Crow laws were reeking havoc on the lives of African Americans in the South, a massed exodus of Southern musicians, particularly from New Orleans, spread the seeds of Jazz as far north as New York City. A new genre of music produced fissures in the walls of racial discrimination thought t...

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24 September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the Mid- West of America. At the time of his birth America was changing into a country of growing cities and technological changes were happening. He was educated at Princeton University but he was a very poor st...

Remember the days when a person would have to wait in line for two days just to purchase U2 tickets? Remember the days of tapes and videos? Hey, let's get with the program, it's now the 21st century, the information, technology age. All one has to do is flick on the computer, get on-li...

Rap music began in the mid 1970's with artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Africa Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow. According to the encyclopedia based web site infoplease.com " the word rap is derived from a 1960's slang word for conversation. (www.kids.infoplease.com). This extraordinary style of mus...

November 1960 Today was my last official day at the University of Minnesota. I have decided to move to New York and where my idol, the legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie, is hospitalized with a rare hereditary disease of the nervous system. For the past 19 years I have been living with my parents i...

304. The number stuck in his head. She had told him 304. Al paced around his apartment, the heat thick in the air. 8:46 p.m. He lit a cigarette and smoked it to ease his nerves. His frustration had begun to weigh him down, but he refused to let it take over his sanity. The only thought...

In the late 1970s, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick discovered a short story by psychologist and philosopher Arthur Schnitzler called Traumnovelle, or "Dream Story". Penetrating into the precise mechanisms that govern human desire, emotion, and fantasy, the story caught Kubrick's imagination, and beca...

In the late 1970s, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick discovered a short story by psychologist and philosopher Arthur Schnitzler called Traumnovelle, or "Dream Story". Penetrating into the precise mechanisms that govern human desire, emotion, and fantasy, the story caught Kubrick's imagination, and beca...

Flowers in the Dustbin The sixties were turbulent times in American culture. With war, racism, and a changing society, the nation needed a way to channel their thoughts and emotions. Music became this channel. Some of the best music in the history of the America came from this time of social i...

Garcia Lorca Poet of the Andalusians Federico Garcia Lorca is one of Spain's most famous artists. He played a large role in transforming the Spanish theatre of the twentieth century. In addition to his original works for the theatres in Barcelona and Madrid, the traveling university the...

Currently, illicit drugs remain high on the list of concerns of Americans and are considered one of the major problems facing our country today. We see stories on the news about people being killed on the street every day over drugs. To many people drugs are only an inner-city problem, but in reali...

From the year 800 A.D, music has evolved and developed in many different ways over 6 main musical periods. These different stages in music's history all have their own distinguishing features such as the type of instruments used, the texture of the music and the sound that is created through di...

Automobiles There was no greater symbol of the 1920's than the automobile. The impressive leather coaching and customized interiors radiated luxury and prosperity. The relative ease of operation and reliability meant freedom. Beneath their hoods many of the cars exhibited impressively large eng...

By 1945, nearly everyone in the African American community had heard gospel music (2). At this time, gospel music was a sacred folk music with origins in field hollers, work songs, slave songs, Baptist lining hymns, and Negro spirituals. These songs that influenced gospel music were adapted and re...

The Greatest Guitarist of All Time Chris Van Duerm English February 13, 2001  Van Duerm 11 Anxious young fans swayed under open skies and heavy rains, reveling in the music and sustaining a mood of hope and renewal that would define their generation. Only some 80,000 people remained...

Says Who? Citizenship in America holds many rights. Among these rights are the right to vote, the right to bear arms, and the most widely treasured but largely manipulated, right to free speech. As a citizen of America the right to free speech comes along with many responsibilities, but fo...