Miles Davis

The saxophone proved to gain acceptance when it came to America. Oddly enough, a woman by the name Elise Boyer Hall (1853-1924) was the first to perform on and let the United States know how truly incredible the saxophone is. She began learning the saxophone while she was recovering from typhoid fever. She commissioned many solo works from world renowned composer that had written for this new instrument. A few of these composers include Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy and Georges Bizet.…

Shaw ‘Nuff by Dizzy Gillespie and His All-Star Quintet may come across as swing after only a single play but, as the ear parses out what it is actually hearing, it begins to sound more like a combination of the best parts of swing and traditional jazz. The quintet is composed of a saxophone, trumpet, piano, double bass, and drums. The trumpet has its own unique sound, which could come from either a mute or the style in which the musician is playing. The bass does more than keep time, which is…

Louis Armstrong is the father of jazz. Personally, I am not a music aficionado by any means but even I know who Louis Armstrong is. For him to collaborate with Earl Hines meant a lot to the development of jazz. The reason for this they were two of the most talented jazz musicians ever. What really made this important however is their different skill sets. Louis Armstrong was a wizard at the trumpet while Earl Hines was a magician at the keys. This collaboration showed how you can seamlessly…

The differences between these two kinds of Jazz mentioned in the test seems to have more to do with “the five-year gap between them,” a lot can happen in five years especially with the introduction of record players and the radio (Starr & Waterman, 88). The suggestion that “the ODJB’s recordings are rooted in the past,” being more similar to ragtime than The Creole Jazz Bands style of Jazz, which “points toward the future of jazz” makes a valid point (Starr & Waterman, 88). ODJBs were playing…

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,…

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…

Born Cabell Calloway III, on December 15, 1907, in Rochester, NY, Cab Calloway was a multitalented individual. Not only was he a big band leader during the swing era of jazz, but he was also an actor, author, drummer, and singer. With humble beginnings in a large family, Calloway was exposed to music at an early age. His parents expected him to follow his father’s footsteps into the world of law, but after some time at Chicago’s Crane College, Calloway realized his true passions were in the…

Scott DeVeaux is a professor and an author who specialized in jazz and American music. He is currently teaching at the University of Virginia. His book The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History that was published in 1997 had won the American Book Award, an ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award, the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society, and the ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Sound Research. His other published books and articles include Jazz, which was co-author with…

If you are a jazz guitar artist, or just enjoy jazz and play to some degree, you can create your own business teaching jazz guitar! There are many things you can do, from teaching guitar lessons to creating a guitar video, to writing jazz lyrics, to creating a book or CD or DVD teaching other people how to play jazz (or as some people refer to it, modern jazz). Let's say you already play or sing in a jazz guitar band or group of some kind. Start by handing out a few business cards at your…

Duke Ellington’s Past: Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 into a middle-class family that lived in Washington D.C. Growing up Duke was a very talented boy. He began learning the piano at the age of 7 age and he was also interested in art. Because of his gentlemanly ways he was nicknamed “Duke”. When he was 15 he wrote his first composition which was called “Soda Fountain Rag”. At the age of 17 Duke was awarded an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in New York but he denied…