James Buchanan Duke

What does it mean to have the blues? It can be described as a feeling of grief or loneliness and having internal despair. Having the blues can be temporary, just due to having a bad day. One can feel permanent blues due to emotional baggage from the past or outside forces causing stress to a person. Nevertheless, the feeling of blues was first expressed through various worksongs and spirituals sung by displaced Africans during the American slavery period. Black writers soon expressed the blues…

Billy Strayhorn was an incredibly gifted musician, as well as a talented arranger and composer, who was best known for his work while in the band Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. His love for music stemmed from his mother, a classically trained pianist, and from playing hymns on his grandmother’s piano at a young age. Strayhorn preferred to work in the shadows, content to arrange and compose music for the band as his employer wanted. Through working with Ellington, Strayhorn blossomed as an…

The piece of music that this paper will focus on is “Sing Sing Sing” by Benny Goodman. “Sing Sing Sing” is a fast pace swing song that features mainly trumpets and saxophones, a driving drum, and an unmistakable solo by the famous clarinetist- Benny Goodman. Benny Goodman was one of the driving forces of band desegregation during his time as a bandleader. “Sing Sing Sing” by Benny Goodman was a killer diller number, a popular dance piece, that embodies the swing era, and brought jazz out of the…

Western Swing Music From the 1930’s to the 1950’s a new genre had taken the spotlight. Consisting of country, jazz, polka, mariachi, pop, and blues, Western Swing had become very popular in the state of Texas. Known for dance music, Western Swing has continued to play an important role in Texas history. People of all cultures were influenced by this type of western music. It created joy, as well as energy to Texas. In the early 1900’s Bob Wills, who later became known the “King of Western…

It is amazing to think about when Louis Armstrong was born. Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans,Loiusiana in a section so poor that it was nicknamed the Battlefield. Louis Armstrong had a difficult childhood, his father was a factory worker and abandoned the family soon after Louis’s birth, his ,other often turned to prostitution, She left him with his grandmother.Amrstrong was obligated to leave school in the fifth grade to begin working. Contributions: So after all after…

The book begins with a modernist architect, Le Corbusier, visiting New York City. Le Corbusier marveled both the city and the musical culture of African-Americans. He believed, “jazz is an event representing the forces of today” (p. 3). The forces of today are the industrialization and mass production of American society. He even goes on to state that American society is a “machine for living” (p. 3). Le Corbusier believed jazz reflected and contained chaotic yet continuous rhythmic flow that…

This paper will inform you all about Bill Robinson and his carrer. Bill Robinson as known as “Bojangles” was a huge iconic African- American tap dancer and actor during the Harlem Renisance. Bojangles was best known for his Broadway performances and film roles. At the young age of five Robinson began his carrer, performing at the local beer gardens in Richmond,Virgina. At the age of nine he joined the Mayme Remington’s touring troupe. In 1891 he had joined a traveling company, performing as a…

After hearing the music on the list, Charles Mingus’s “Boogie Stop Shuffle” is the one that I like the most. Even though this song is actually the hardest one for me to distinguish all those instruments with each other. “Boogie Stop Shuffle” is from the Album Ah Um released in May 1, 1959, and it’s clearly is a 12-bar blues. The instruments are including Trombone, Piano, Saxophone, Trumpet, and Percussion. Besides of Charles Mingus, the artists are including Booker Ervin, Horace Parlan, John…

The songwriting team of songwriter Eubie Blake and Lyricist Noble Sissle were the ones who found success with shuffle along. Blake was born and raised in Baltimore. Blake had a religious mother but a drunken father. Blake began by performing hymns in church to later preforming at clubs and later Blake joined Sissle as a “Hell fighter member. Later the pair began performing in Vaudeville acts where they created the act Shuffle Along. Shuffle along was a huge success both colored and the white…

contribution” said Leonard Feather, the British-born jazz musician. Indeed, though contributing enormous brilliant jazz pieces to the swing era, Billy Strayhorn, compared to his collaborator Duke Ellington, was relatively unknown to public. Instead, living most of his professional life as the protégé of Duke Ellington, Strayhorn passed away in 1967 at too young an age to fully illustrate his own music to the world. Nevertheless, Strayhorn’s songs stood for their quality in the history of jazz,…