Louis Armstrong

Heitor Villa-Lobos was a primarily self-trained Brazilian nationalist musician. From his teaching, composing, and performing, he gained much popularity during the twentieth century in Brazil and eventually the United States, but Many musicians in Europe did not like the music of Villa-Lobos. Many of these European critics believed Villa-Lobos’ music was futuristic, and did not represent the music of Brazil well. Until about the 1940s, Brazilian music was heavily influenced by European elements.…

On Friday, July 10th, the local instrumental jazz group Yuma Jazz Company played at Lutes Casino for a couple of hours. The instrumentation was fairly standard for a jazz group, with trumpet, saxophone, guitar, double bass, and drums (I believe those were electric). The guitar and bass, along with the drums, served as a sort of basso continuo, generally backing the horns, but occasionally taking up the melody for themselves, resulting in a texture that was thinly polyphonic. Also noticeable was…

In a music hall of Vienna, the pianist Friedrich Gulda performed Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with his superb skills and receive lasting applause. After the concert, Gulda rushed to a nightclub and start to play the jazz, behaved like another person. Surprisingly, he played Beethoven’s masterpieces and intoxicated jazz music equally well. It made people wonder, how would that be by mixing jazz and classical music? In the article “Jazz, America’s Classical Music”, Dr. Billy Taylor introduces…

Charlie Parker, or the ‘Bird’, was one of the best saxophone players in the world. His unique style of playing combined with this ability to combine chords rarely used in jazz, flowing seamlessly between them made Parker one of the greats. As a teenager, Parker was allowed the opportunity to play with the famous drummer Jo Jones, drummer of the Count Basie band, a most popular swing bands of the time. Parker enters his solo and starts to show off his unique style, but then he messes up, losses…

I wrote my music essay on the movie Hot Pepper. Hot pepper was released in 1973. The documentary alternates brief scenes of Clifton Chenier and his band playing in local joints in Lake Charles, informal conversation between members of the Creole community, and scenic shots of the people and places of Southern Louisiana, Lafayette. Most of the community is African American and speak french. Chenier is considered the king of Zydeco, a blend of blues and R&B music. During the shows of Clifton…

Duke Ellington is an originator of big-band jazz, Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist and band leader who composed thousands of scores over his 50 year career. Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 In Washington, D.C. At the age of 7 he started learning piano and got the nickname duke. He wrote his first composition ‘soda fountain rag’ at the age of 15. He was awarded an art Scholarship in the Pratt institute in Brooklyn, New York, Ellington followed his passion for ragtime…

For the Jazz Concert that I attended I saw the Nico Lembo Trio perform at Venkman’s in the Historic Fourth Ward of Atlanta. The Trio, consisting of drums, trombone, and electronic keyboard, had a sound that was heavily inspired by the “Cool Style” of Jazz in the early 1950’s with some hints of John Coltrane inspired Free Jazz elements. Throughout most of the performance the Trio played traditional instrumental jazz including classic songs by artists such as Miles Davis along with some original…

Coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald himself, the Jazz Age was the period that The Great Gatsby was set in. Synonymous to the name “The Roaring Twenties”, the Jazz Age was named for the prevalence of jazz music rather than the wealth of the time. The Jazz Age was an age of prosperity, prohibition, dancing, parties, and robust, lively music. The music that was born during this era was entertaining, refreshing, and it reflected the feelings of the decade as a whole. The Great Gatsby is a novel of…

Since everything has a start, the best way to explain anything, for the least amount of confusion, is to start at the very beginning. My question for the history books, is where did swing music come from? After research, since the United States is a relatively young country, I decided to extend my question to include the influence that the world has had on the development of swing music in the United States. The main source that will be used to discuss “swing” includes When Swing was the Thing…

Swing Dance begin in 1920s and 30s in America. In 1930s the words Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, and Swing were all interchanged terms. How the dance was discovered you may ask in the 1920s the black community were dancing to contemporary Jazz music and the discovered the Charleston and the Lindy Hop which was originated in Harlem. Something that I found really interesting is in 1936 Philip Nutl, was president of the American Society of Teachers of Dancing said that swing would not last. Here it is 2016…