The Soloist

ezilla, Michael. "Blues and Gospel Recording Artists from 1920s Left Imprint on Today's Music | Penn State University." PSU. Penn State University, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2016. This article describes how blues and gospel artists from the 1920s influenced today's music greatly. It touches on the fact that blues is one of jazzs greatest influence. It summarizes what blues is, and the aspects of blues that have found their way into the seams of jazz. The article…

The Work Itself Ella Fitzgerald achieved a multitude of accomplishments in her life. One of the many were her thirteen grammies. These grammies were: Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist in 1958 and 1959; Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1962; Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal in 1976 and 1979; Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female in 1980, 1981, 1983, and 1990; and Grammy Award for Best Historical Album in 1995. These awards she…

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…

Jazz, a genre of music that originated in African American, is one of the most influential music style in the world. It is the production of a blend of influences from different countries and different cultures, giving rise to many distinct styles. As the Jazz musician Ahmad Alaadeen once said, “Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world.” Among the early music styles, Ragtime and Blues are two contributors which largely influenced the emergence…

Today, we consider the violin to be an elegant, sophisticated instrument. However, in 1878, George Dubourg published an account entitled, “The Violin”, in which he makes the bold statement, “instead of a bow-arm, must ladies be allowed only the arm of a beau? Why should not a lady play on the violin?” . Even once playing the instrument was considered acceptable, being a professional musician as a woman was rare until the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries . Even in today’s modern society,…

accustomed to lying; found it, indeed, indispensable for overcoming friction” (171). Following up to Paul’s dishonesty towards the faculty at school, he also decides to lie to the audience during his job at Carnegie Hall about his “acquaintance with the soloists who came to Carnegie Hall” (179). Paul fabricates an even bigger lie and tells the audience that “he was going to travel for awhile; going to Naples, to California, to Egypt (179). Paul’s dishonesty towards the audience proves that he…

Consequently, vocal performance dominates Pygmy music; there is minimal usage of instruments in Pygmy music. In fact, the clapsticks are the only instrument used in the track. The track does not feature soloists; instead, different voices and melodic patterns are weaved together to create a polyrhythmic texture. Pygmy music is a reflection of the Pygmies’ egalitarian social structure. Each singer is equally important to the musical performance. The interlocking…

My paper’s approach to Louis Armstrong’s small band performance in Australia is organized by song. In each of these song sections, I describe what is generally going on. Intermixed amongst my musical review, I also interject my personal feelings and perceptions to what is occurring. I have organized my structure this way in order to provide a methodical structure to my analysis. Louis Armstrong starts playing the trumpet in the first song, “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” almost immediately…

The saxophone is still considered, and in many ways, will always be the youngest wind instrument to have a foothold in western classical music. Having been developed and patented by instrument creator and businessman Adolphe Sax in 1846, the saxophone had already missed out on much of the literature and masterworks written for other wind instruments centuries before its time. Additionally, much of the major classical musical works written for the instrument happened during its constant…

Suicide is consider an act of taking one’s life voluntary or intentionally. Until this day studies and observation is still being done to understand the cause or decision to take one’s life. A well know sociologist by the name of Emile Durkheim has pioneered and made an effort to understand a horrifying human action towards one self with case studies and factual data. Many people who commit suicide tend to be portrayed as mentally ill or a lunatic in some cases. Assumptions that seemed factual…