Ethel Waters was born on October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Ethel Waters was an African American blues singer, and gospel vocalist, and actress, who was raised in poverty, she never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. Ethel said she had a difficult childhood, and was never cuddled or liked or understood by my family members. Ethel got married at age 13 years old, but left Her abusive husband, and became a maid in a Philadelphia Hotel. On her 17th birthday, she attended a costume party at a nightclub on Juniper Street, where she was persuaded to sing two songs, her singing impressed the audience so much she was offered work at Lincoln Theater in Baltimore, Maryland, where she earned $10.00 a week, but her manager cheated…
As any country music fan comparing Hank Williams Sr. and Willie Nelson was an interesting challenge. Both are country music idols noted for changing the industry. The lives of both legends have similarly beginnings, with times of struggle, and time of success. But what marks the difference in these two influential men was the means of how they ended up coping with fame of being in the lime light.…
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 7, 1962, was Troyal Garth Brooks who is now known nationally as a country music singer. He was the youngest child of his father and mother, Troyal Raymond Brooks, Jr., who was a draft man for an oil company; Colleen McElroy Carroll a 1950's era country singer of Irish. Both his mother and father had been married before so that gave Garth four half-siblings. They then had Kelly and Garth together. Where they lived in Yukon, Oklahoma the family would host talent nights weekly.…
He was not shy of the humans he was fabled to have assisted in creating, and would teach them lessons about human nature and behavior through his tricks and stories. This view of America’s small wolves is far more respectful and thoughtful than that of the European settlers that settled the…
Hank Williams Jr. was born in Shreveport, Virginia On May 26th, 1949. He started his singing career at the age of 8 and started performing at shows. Hank discovered a new combination of music by combining southern rock and blues with country music which gave him his own unique style of music. Hank’s father died when Hank was three. That didn’t stop him from being the country music star that he aspired to be.…
Joan Baez is one of the most influential folk singers, but also recorded pop, rock, and gospel music as well. Originally growing up in Staten Island, NY, her father began to work at MIT in Massachusetts, where Baez began performing in clubs with small audiences, and was only paid twenty-five dollars a week. Baez met Bob Gibson who she performed with at the Newport Folk Concert in 1959. The two of them sang a duet of “Virgin Mary Had One Son”. Soon after that performance, Joan signed with Vanguard, and recorded her first self-titled album, Joan Baez.…
During the civil war, John William “Blind” Boone was black and born in Miami, Missouri, May 17, 1864. Because of his brain fever, he was forced to remove his eyes. He was almost blind from birth and that was a way he named as “blind” Boone. Regardless of poverty, disability, and racism, he became a well-known composer and musician. Also, it is worth finding his valuable characteristics and understanding how his musical inspiration affected American popular music.…
Toward the end of your participation in the online discussion for Lesson 3, submit your final assessment of why so many people seem to consider Elvis a seminal figure in rock. Include in your written discussion the role of mass media and its possible influence on cultural fashion. Also include references from the online discussion where appropriate. Be sure to cite your sources. Elvis Presley, also known was the “King of Rock,” played a very important part in the 50s.…
The masterful, classic composition “Potato Head Blues” by legendary musician Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven band is widely regarded today as one of Armstrong’s finest recordings. This song is a quick-paced jazz melody with the trumpet along with the piano providing what I believe is to be a 4 beat per measure rhythm. “Potato Head Blues” also sounds different from that of Joplin Rags since I counted 2 beats per measure. The song also does not seem to have much variation with a constant piano theme throughout unlike if you are comparing it to Louis Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues” with numerous instruments including the use of the piano and trumpet which blend nicely together to create a enlightening sound. In regards to the tuba vs. double…
1. Singer’s initial principle is as follows, “if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it” (866) According to Singer this is means that it one must prevent something bad or avoid cause any more damage events from happening but are not required to promote something good in return. (866) He goes on to explain that this principle only applies when we do not have to sacrifice anything from a moral standpoint that is deemed comparably important.…
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.…
James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is a tale of suffering. It is the story of two brothers from Harlem who cope with their pain and suffering in different ways. Sonny is shown as a troubled youth who grows into a troubled man.…
Each person has his or her individual path to follow, no two paths are exactly the same; but, every now and then, paths interweave and people construct bonds with each other. In the case of Sonny and his brother, the narrator, in James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, their paths were parallel with one another until they grew up. Sonny left the slums of Harlem, aspiring to become a musician, while his brother settled in Harlem and became a teacher. Although the narrator and his brother ended up with completely different lives, the narrator being a family man with a teaching job and Sonny, an ex-convict playing jazz at a club, are ironically more similar than they are portrayed.…
A Negro spiritual is a type of religious song originating among Black slaves in the American south. They are African-American spirituals that emerged from a mixture of the brutal institution of slavery, Christian influences, and African culture. There was a joy of love, mercy, grace, judgment, etc. among the themes enfolded throughout the songs. The Negro spiritual that caught my attention would be “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”.…
Music is a powerful language which speaks to us, move us, and fills us with emotions. In “Sonny’s Blues”, the voice of jazz reflects the relationship between two brothers. The unnamed narrator who represents one of the one of the sides of the African American experience. Sonny the titular character of the story, Sonny represents the other side of the African American experience. In “Sonny’s Blues” we find an important description of how a musician can express his feeling through his music.…