Duke Ellington

Exploring the stories of swing musicians and their cultural interactions during their childhoods, one realizes that despite coming from different ethnicities, they are able to assemble eventually to create swing as adults. Indeed, Duke Ellington’s discussion on swing agrees to this idea and adds that as a boy, he grew up to the sounds of Southern Negroes incorporating Spanish syncopations to “rhythmic blues”. He further notes that Negro bands coming from the New Orleans tradition…

resurrection of the African American culture in the 1920 's. Blacks were given their motivation to verse, music, workmanship, and design. These black authors, performers, and craftsmen, for example, Paul Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Aaron Douglass gave us bits of knowledge of African American culture. In the…

instead of playing the guitar he plays the tenor saxophone (McGee, 2005). Riley King learned from a few different blues, and jazz musicians, a few are T-Bone Walker, Charli Christian, and Django Reinhardt. B.B. immensely changed the vibration of Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, by using the characteristics in his music but still made it his own (Blackwell, 2014). Riley started listening to the blues and jazz legends on Handy’s Park which is adjacent to Beale Street when he just moved to…

The Harlem Renaissance was the first pro-black movement that was not criticized or shamed upon by whites. It was the upcoming of African Americans' heritage after slavery. It also outlined the bravery of blacks, the conquering of oppression, and the presence of individuality during the 1920s. It transformed black culture as a whole and is worthy of recognition throughout history. This was the turning point in African American heritage in America , celebrating black culture. Coming from slavery ,…

Much like the electric guitar, the electric piano was actually not digitalized. Electricity was simply used to make the piano work. Many famous musicians, producers and pianists were using the electronic piano including the great Ray Charles and Duke Ellington…

clubs to radio broadcasts in the everyday American’s home, even ballrooms like Savoy and Roseland in New York were common venues for the latest Big Band tunes. The Big Band Boom also brought together the greatest jazz musicians (Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and the most famous Glenn Miller) and singers (Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra). The Big Band Era started seeing a decline in its popularity during the Postwar Big Band Era of the 1940s-present. It stilled…

Langston Hughes: A Harlem Man A quote by Langston Hughes says – “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose. (Hughes (1926))” As one of the most persistent figures, poets, during the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes’ work reached a wide range of viewers. He wanted to “express contemporary Harlem by borrowing from the ‘current of Afro-American popular music . . . jazz, ragtime, swing, blues, boogie-woogie, and be-bop.’…

“New Negro Movement” before later adopting the name the Harlem Renaissance. During this period there was an outburst of creative activity from African Americans that occurred throughout the different fields of art. Many African Americans such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, and Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few, had an impact on modern day arts during the Harlem Renaissance. William H. Johnson was one artist that made an impact during the Harlem Renaissance. He was a painter…

Speakeasies soon ushered in the age of Jazz music. The simultaneous introduction of the commercial radio which first opened up in 1920 accelerated the spread of Jazz. Speakeasies paved the way for great Jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bonjangles Robinson and Ethel Waters. In a Text of Interview in 1938, worker Frank Byrd describes the liveliness of African Americans in speakeasies. He quotes, “Everything they do is free and easy; typical of that group of hard-working…

the music. New technologies helped to form the way music was created. The 1920’s marked the start of modern music era. This era’s music had the blues, jazz, bands and broadway. Jazz was very popular, with most stars such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Jazz music moved many people,…