Jazz Vs West African Music

Improved Essays
Jazz, a type of music first developed by African-Americans in the early twentieth century, can have many different definitions based on who you ask and what their correlation of jazz is. However, Merriam Webster defines jazz as, “Jazz developed especially from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch.” Jazz in a sense is a mixture of music surviving from West African music; black folk music forms developed in the Americas; European popular and light classical music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Jazz has no limitations, no course of music. Many describe jazz as an emotional genre in a sense where the composer

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The History Of Jazz

    • 1314 Words
    • 5 Pages

    All music genres and styles have their beginnings, some better documented than others. Whether it be an effect of time period or geographical location of the birth of a music styling or it be related to the culture of a music that may practice and oral tradition as opposed to a written down, notation style of music. Regardless of the reasons, all music has it’s start. One of the more recent developments in music history is that of Jazz. Jazz is one of these styles that’s dawn is somewhat up in the air amongst music scholars and historians.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Ragtime Research Paper

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Billie Holiday was a prominent blues singer in the 1930's. Jazz resulted from a synthesis of ragtime, blues, and traditional African folk styles. By allowing musicians to improvise, jazz creates a polyphonic texture that is always unique. One of the greatest jazz legends of all time was the trumpet player, Louis…

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Coined as ‘hot’ music, jazz grew out of the colorful city of New Orleans and reached widespread popularity in the 1920’s (Gioioa 30). The African American community was largely responsible for the creation of jazz music, however influences can be seen from many different ethnic groups and communities. A combination of the blues, ragtime, and Tin Pan Alley songs can be heard when listening to jazz and its improvisational style set it apart from preexisting genres. Creole of Color Brass Bands During the 1890’s and early 1900’s brass bands had become hugely popular in New Orleans and around the country.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jazz was a new genre of music that emerged in the 1920s. It consists of blended instrumental ragtime and vocal blues which created an exhilarating new sound. As a result, this music became a popular hit and spread across the country. In addition to jazz, jazz orchestra became popular. It was jazz music performed with drums, saxophones, pianos, and many more.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jazz Age The Jazz genre has blossomed during the 1920s that has carried an impact to modern day. When the Great Migration happened, many African Americans had migrated from the South into the Northern and Western area. The known and pronoun white area had become a diverse community. The movement was followed by the Harlem Renaissance; also created because of their culture and artistic abilities such as painting, writing, music, and more.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Jazz Opportunities

    • 2450 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The Jazz Age: Prevailing Opportunities for African Americans During the Jazz Age, jazz music, primarily dominated by African Americans before 1920, began to gain popularity among whites and transformed into an important aspect of American culture. The increased popularity of jazz music led to a growing acceptance of African American culture and presented African Americans with the opportunity to gain social status. Music has always played an essential part in African American life and its aspects have influenced the creation of jazz. Jazz music, referred to as “jass” before the 1920s, is heavily rooted in African-…

    • 2450 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Music has played a very inspirational part in American culture; there are many different types of genres that correlate with the times. African American’s musical culture was brought to the United States through the bonds of slavery. Music and dance have always been a spiritual and traditional part of the African-American culture. Jazz is a type of genre that was created through the roots of previous styles of music and has grabbed the ears of many for generations. Through relevance and astounding musical composers, jazz has been listened to and enjoyed by many different social demographics and races.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ever since the greats, such as Beethoven and Mozart, classical music has been a staple in society as “real music”, but some like Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews prefer a different beat of the drum, or in this case blow of the horn. Some art historians say that jazz had its start with Buddy Bolden and his first band in 1895. Others think it was the more well-known Nick LaRocca with his Dixieland Jazz band, and their premier record Lively Stable Blues. Either way jazz started near the 20th century and has been an influential stylistic form of music ever since. Jazz really began flaring up in the early or roaring twenties.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Harlem Renaissance

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jazz music, as well as similar styles, integrated themselves into white culture:”Black musicians began to merge with white musicians[...] As time progressed, black music became more acceptable in white culture. Most blacks were a big part of jazz, however, some were a little slow, as Laban Hill writes, “[...]wealthy blacks felt that jazz music was more acceptable[than it was previously]”. Music and dance are the gateways to the soul, and Hill expresses that in his writing. Music and dance is something that everyone can relate to, and Hill describes how: “[...] distinctly African American music and dancing had a greater on the majority white population than [...] literary or artistic creations”(Hill 56).Music is a way to the heart of humans, we are drawn to melodies and beats.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe the highest point of human achievement is art instead of war or technology. What distinguish us from other species is art, what we usually describe as a diverse range of human activities. People may not enjoy carving or drawing, but music is an art form that everybody can enjoy. Jazz music has a feature that other music form doesn't have, it spread so quickly and become so popular in 20th Century, which helped black people gained lots of benefit of American society, and eliminate much racial discrimination. The most important are Jazz helped black build their second home of the United States.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    F. Scott called the 1920’s the “Jazz age.” Jazz is a musical form based on improvisation. Jazz was made into three different forms of music African American blues, ragtime, and European-based popular music. Louis Armstrong have a major part with the jazz influenced. Mr. Armstrong was a unofficial ambassador of Jazz.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    What exactly is jazz? According to Virgil Thomson, the American critic and composer, “Jazz, in brief, is a compound of (a) the fox-trot rhythm, and (b) a syncopated melody over this rhythm” [1]. An understanding of the elements of jazz allows the listeners to further appreciate the very art that has defined American culture for generations. Critical to the development of jazz are African and European music, brought by the foreigners who sought a better life in the New World and who were sold to into slavery, respectively. Originally from New Orleans around the 1890s, Jazz remains today as a remarkable type of art form that is crucial to American culture and history.…

    • 1721 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The billionaire, J. Paul Getty, once said, “The Roaring Twenties were the period of that Great American Prosperity which was built on shaky foundations.” The During the 1920s, the nation doubled in wealth and most farmers moved to the cities. But, 600,000 farmers lost their jobs during the 1920s. The 1920s was called the “roaring 20s” because society was improving by the inventions that were being made to cure diseases like insulin. But, the music was becoming smoother with instruments like trumpets, banjos, and the trombone.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jazz Compare and Contrast Jazz was the music of the 20’s people who listened to it back then were considered rebels. The artists that really got the ball rolling with this new sound was Jelly Roll Morton, Joe King Oliver, Sidney Bichet, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. These men changed the way people looked at music for ever. They come from different backgrounds but impact the music world in a long lasting way, which leads to their own situations by the end of their careers.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On African Music

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Without African music we would not have some of the most popular genres of music that we have today. African music influence helped create genres like jazz, gospel, blues, soul and even hip hop and reggae. The traditional song and dance created by native Africans spread all over the world as its fusion with other type of song helped create the music we all know and love today. The spread of the African music can be traced to the slave trade that shipped Africans all over the world. The one thing many Africans were able to take with them was their musical traditions and songs.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays