Mike Duke

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…

Louis Armstrong is an American icon in the jazz industry because of his unique voice. Armstrong was born in 1901 and lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. His most famous song, “What a Wonderful World,” put his career in the record books for the greatest jazz singer of all time. When I was younger, my grandmother would play “What a Wonderful World” every day I visited for lunch. Personally, this song has impacted and taught me to look at the world we live in with a positive attitude. Through…

Both Edison and Young attained their fame from one thing that they had in common, 'Originality'. On Edison's appearance at Riverwalk Jazz, in 1993, Edison mentioned that "All the musicians used to say they'd rather be the world’s worst 'originator' than the world’s best 'imitator'" as he knew the importance of being original. Lester Young's fame came from the similar reason. Rather than adopting the normal 'forceful' approach, he came up with a completely new concept in which to play his horn,…

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue One of the greatest albums in jazz - Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue has received innumerable commendations ever since its release in 1959 and has been admired by jazz fans far and wide. Miles Davis and his sterling band that consisted of top performers at that time together brought this masterpiece to the world. This album features Miles Davis on trumpet, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans on piano,…

Ornette Coleman (or in full- Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman) was born in Texas on the 9th of March 1930 and died last year (2015) on the 11th of June, in New York. He was a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He released loads of albums over the span of his career and is known to be one of the most important initiators of free jazz. When Ornette Coleman was a child he played alto, then moved onto tenor saxophone in his teenage years. His early style of jazz was influenced not only by…

soon after organized his own orchestra, Cab Calloway and the Alabamians, in which he was lead vocals. Calloway and his orchestra received much support from its fan base in Chicago. Calloway received so much praise that in 1929, he went on to replace Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club. Eventually in 1931, Calloway’s band, The Cab Calloway Band, replaced Ellington’s band to become the Cotton Club’s house act for eight years. According to Notable Biographies it was at the Cotton Club that he…

Attending for the first time a jazz restaurant was a great experience; I attended Jazz Kitchen at Downtown Disney. The restaurant has a New Orleans style jazz club upstairs, it has New Orleans dining rooms and an outdoor Jazz balcony. When we arrived we noticed the presence of the restaurant has contemporary art made out of wrought iron. At the center of the waiting area, there’s a water fountain made out of Jazz instruments, such as trumpets, saxophones, clarinets, and flutes. The restaurant is…

Jack Kerouac was obsessed with the word cool. He then joined to Jazz Music club, where he got the new concept of bringing his own music on. Jack the musician himself find Jazz music to connect with his soul within himself which made him join Jazz club. African American culture has their own celebration area for the word cool. African American celebrate the Cool Musical Industrial day and Jack changes the meaning of the beat. Kerouac bought many changes in the meaning of beat, cool, bought a…

Jazz in the 1920’s Every since World War I ended, jazz has become more and more popular. The last couple of years are sometimes referred as a “Jazz Age”. Today, we have an extraordinary specialist on jazz with us. Who can explain jazz better than Louis Armstrong? The one whose band is helping to popularize jazz and is being really influential for other jazz musicians? Ina: Welcome to Peoples Magazine Mr. Armstrong. It’s great to have you here. Armstrong: It’s a pleasure to be here. Ina: So to…

This report summarizes a concert performed at the Lincoln Center in New York in March 2016 by a Dixieland band “The Gotham Jazzmen”. This report will highlight the origin of the genre and the band, the characteristic features of Dixieland, The contribution of “Gothan Jazzzmen” to the genre, and an overview of the concert. When it comes to the origin of jazz, people tends to have some mixed opinion about its birth place although most research agreed on New Orleans being the motherland. It…