Miles Davis

The Life of Art Tatum Author Taylor Jr. who goes by the name of Art Tatum is said to be the greatest jazz pianist of all time, known for his famous two-handed runs. Art was born in October 13, 1909 in Toledo, OH to pianist Mildred Hoskins and Guitarist Arthur Tatum Sr. Completely blind by cataracts in one eye and nearly blind in the other, Art played music by ear, mimicking the sounds he heard from other musicians such as Fats Waller. He played so well that by age three he was considered a…

Courtney Amon Jazz Band Mr. McCarthy 04/07/2017 A Master Jazz Trumpeter In the world of music, especially Jazz, we have heard of many great musicians over the years, such as Nat King Cole and Louie Armstrong, but there is one that I think stands above all especially when it comes to trumpeter’s. One does not usually need to look to far down a list of greats before they find this world class trumpeter, Chet Baker. Chet has had many accomplishments in the music world, but also has had…

Duke Ellington Duke Ellington was a famous jazz musician in the 1920s. He was the leader of a band and composed songs such as “Ko-Ko”, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing”, and “Cotton Tail”. The jazz he played was distinctive just like his band was. Ellington was more than just a musician, however. Many people thought he was an apolitical man, however this was untrue. Ellington, like most Americans, practiced his rights in politics. Duke Ellington spent his life focused on…

Duke Ellington (1899-1974) is known to many Americans as the leader of a swing-era dance band as well as a writer of pop tunes. Some musicians and jazz fans also know him as a major composer--arranger. In fact, there are musicologists and journalists who consider Ellington to be America's greatest composer, which puts him in a league with Charles Ives and Aaron Copland. Though many jazz fans think of Ellington as a pianist too, few scholars have examined how unique and original his approach to…

The concert I decided to attend was on Thursday, March 31st, at 8pm in Kemp Recital Hall. The concert consisted of ISU Jazz Combos. Speficaly, there were two different combos, the Marko Combo and the Nolan Combo. Within the Marko Combo, the songs of Stablemates by Benny Golson, Desfinado by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Everybody wants to be a Cat by Robert and Richard Sherman, Ballade de Papillon by Jeff Arbisi, and One for Trane by Mickey Bass were played. The Marko Combo consisted of Kevin Buck and…

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…

Gus Giordano is known for his amazing choreography in Jazz dance. He was born on July 10, 1923 in St. Louis, Missouri. Giordano was introduced to Jazz dance when he was 5 while on a trip to New Orleans to visit family. His cousin had taught him the Charleston dance step and he was hooked. When he returned home he soon began to study dance with a local dance teacher. Minette Buchman is whom Giordano credits his early training to. Giordano took ballet and theater dance classes as well as vocal…

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…

Racism was always mixed with jazz. But it just “created tension and strengthened” around the community at times but that changed in the 1930s. In the 1930s the Great Depression hit America which made a big impact in the economy and affected every part of America. Jazz music was mostly affected by the depression, people began staying “home and listening to the radio, instead of spending their money and going to nightclubs” (History of Jazz). In effort to save the jazz music and its popularity,…

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…