Jazz Continued

     Jazz music was originally a genre of music that was popular with the black population in the south. Specifically a lot of great Jazz music was born in the city of New Orleans when several types of music, including folk music, the blues, church music, ragtime, and others, merged together into what we think of as Jazz. "Through his clear, warm sound, unbelievable sense of swing, perfect grasp of harmony, and supremely intelligent and melodic improvisations, he taught us all to play jazz." --Wynton Marsalis This quote is talking about the great Louis Armstrong. Born on August 4, 1901 it wasn't long until Armstrong began playing music at the young age of 13. Before Armstrong revolutionized the music scene, all musicians would be playing at the same time; this type of Jazz was referred to as Dixieland. However, Armstrong came up with the idea of some musicians playing during breaks; this developed into separate members of a band having their own solo though out the song. Armstrong died on July 6th 1971 in New York City.

     By far one of the most defining qualities of Jazz is the improvisation that the players incorporate into the music. The players normally play the rhythm of the song from music and then use improvisation for the solos. The Swing Jazz style that every one recognizes originally was introduced during the great depression. Swing became so popular because it is up beat and happy; as a result it made the people dealing with the great depression feel better, even if it was just for a short period of time. Because of the popularity of this type of music the mid 1930's became known as the Swing era.

     Another musician who greatly contributed to shaping the Jazz scene was Duke Ellington. Ellington was born in Washington DC on April, 29th 1899 and began studying the piano at age 7. Ellington later moved to New York to become a leader of a band.

     As Jazz starts to move into the 1940's it starts to become a type of music called bebop. Bebop was a faster passed version of Jazz that was getting away from the more traditional big bands and was starting to move toward just being smaller groups of musicians. In addition, bebop was a more complex version of Jazz that was technically more difficult to play. In the 1950's Jazz started to mix with some Cuban and Latin sounds to help add another dememtion to Jazz music yet again. As Jazz music is always changing growing and evolving in different parts of the world and in the United States it seems to keep people happy and having a good time; no matter white or black, rich or poor. Jazz has and always will be a type of music the forcefully brings people together.