Benjamin O. Davis

Miles Davis recorded this song in his album Milestones, and includes great artists such as Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Miles Davis is one of the most influential trumpeters in all of jazz history and took multiple musical directions during his five-decade…

The article, ‘The Mysterious Jazz’ by Greenville Vernon and Jelly Roll Morton’s 1938 oral history Library of Congress Recording talks about the origins of Jazz. Jelly Roll Morton’s perspective on the origin of Jazz is more historical than that of Greenville Vernon. They have similar perspectives on how the origin of Jazz came about, however, Jelly Roll Morton is able to expand more on the history and origin of Jazz. In the New York Tribune, ‘The Mysterious Jazz’ article by Greenville Vernon…

Despite rising to significance nearly twenty years apart, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong share a common accomplishment: single-handedly changing the musical genre of jazz forever. With his trumpet in hand, Louis Armstrong took the jazz world, and even the entire world of music by storm with his famous gravelly voice and his focus on solo performances in jazz, a change of pace from the prominent collective improv focused jazz of the time. While making these groundbreaking changes to jazz,…

The movie Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle is a heart-rending story about a young drummer and his endeavour to become one of the great Jazz drummers. The grind and determination of the story's nature instills itself well to the exploration of the forces behind motivation and how it influences human actions. Throughout the movie, Andrew has to sacrifice smaller, more basic needs in order to reach the level of drumming demanded by his conductor, Fletcher. Starting off slow with physical needs,…

Listening to Jazz for the Soul Jazz is widely regarded as one of the most influential types of music in American History. Since it’s formation, jazz has represented the literal sound of freedom for many African Americans. James Baldwin’s “Sonny's Blues,” tells the coming of age story about a young man named Sonny and his life as an aspiring jazz musician. To become one of the great jazz musicians Sonny must focus on listening to those around him including his older brother. Ironically the…

Sal Salvador was conceived in Monson, Mass. on November 21, 1926. His family unit moved to Stafford Springs, Connecticut in 1927. Salvador's first guitar was given to him by his dad. His principle musical enthusiasm for the starting, which he had in the same manner as various of his buddies, was playing hillbilly music. Amid the mid 1940s Sal started to end up amped up for jazz music essentially through the recordings of trumpeter Harry James. Sal Salvador first started playing jazz on an…

similarities in their tutelage, rise to fame and personas. Miles Davis and Kanye West, despite having so much between them, contain many parallels when observing what made them into icons. Miles Davis is one of the greatest, if not the greatest jazz musician ever. His album, “Kind of Blue”, is the best selling jazz album of all time, going platinum four times. That is nearly four times the sales of the runner up. The second best,…

Evaluating the presidency of Jefferson Davis is somewhat of a difficult task. When determining how effective a President was while in office, one has to look at many different aspects, as there is so much they have to do. A president who was a great military leader might be remembered poorly if he wasn't able to pull his country out of economic hardship, just as a president who was able to recover his country from depression might be if he lost a lot of men in an unsuccessful war. The problem…

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4th 1901 in New Orleans. His tough and painful childhood began when his father abandoned the family Shortly after he was born. Over the next 12 years Louis lived with his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong. At six years old Louis, and three other boys, formed a vocal quartet, It was here where he first felt his love of music grow, sometimes making up to $10 simply from those passing by tipping him, and his friends, in mere pennies. At twelve Louis was sent to…

Hanya Holm’s ideology, as well as her movement quality, is woven throughout Gus Giordano’s career and his approach to movement. Giordano successfully established a technique that, like Holm’s approach, took advantage of other dance techniques, such as ballet and modern, and morphed components of each into a new art form (Sabo, Made in America 44). Not only did Gus use others’ techniques, but he also anticipated the manipulation of his own technique to fit into his students’ personal style.…