However, jazz gained a wide audience when white orchestras adapted or imitated it, and became legitimate entertainment in the late 1930s when Benny Goodman led racially mixed groups in concerts at Carnegie Hall. Show tunes became common vehicles for performance, and, while the results were exquisite, rhythmic and harmonic developments were impeded until the mid-1940s. The blues, vocal and instrumental, was and is a vital component of jazz. With the passing of time, New Orleans jazz declined greatly by the 1970s. However it began to enjoy a bit of renaissance in the 1980s when Wynton Marsalis, who originally played hard bop and post bop, began to explore his roots.
Hamidi Brown Jazz History 2/24/13 Swing Era It never occurred to me that so many great influential musicians emerged during the swing era. Coleman Hawkins was the first musician I read about, His recording of “Body and Soul” emerged him to the forefront of national jazz, as referred to on (p.259). Hawkins worked in Europe with Benny Carter, Django Reinhardt, and others before he returned to the US. Soon after Hawkins was finish recording “Body and Soul” World War II began. Some of Hawkins ideas were seen as transitional, but many Americans loved his double time outburst over the chorus pattern, usually performed by Louis Armstrong 20 years earlier.
Benny Goodman; the King of Swing Benny Goodman was a man of many talents; musical and in personality. He came to be known as “The King of Swing”. The definition of music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color and Benny Goodman did that exquisitely with his clarinet. Goodman changed the face of the music world during the late “Roaring 20s” and early 1930s. Benjamin David Goodman was born in Chicago on May 30, 1909.
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland was one of the most respected American classical composers of the twentieth century. By incorporating popular forms of American music such as jazz and folk into his compositions, he created pieces both exceptional and innovative. As a spokesman for the advancement of indigenous American music, Copland made great strides in liberating it from European influence. Today, twenty two years after his death, Copland’s life and work continue to inspire many of America’s young composers, which shows the true power of his musical skill. Though Copland began writing his music in the mid 1920s it was in 1935 with “El Salón México” that Copland began his most productive and popular years.
Juan Blandino 3214 – 0193 November 10th, 2009 “Vaudeville Shows” Throughout the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, many forms of music and events came and went to help create the music today that soothes the soul and replenish the spirits. You may know it to be called jazz. But in order to fully appreciate the tunes of jazz, we must look at the history in which it is derived from. One of the main influences that helped jazz come to its still popular form today were vaudeville shows. Vaudeville was a popular form of theatre in the early nineteenth century that incorporated a variety of acts that ranged from acrobatics, comics and sketches and most importantly, musicians and singers.
By 1943 he began a series of annual concerts at Carnegie Hall, which was an indication of how much jazz was now accepted in prestigious western classical concert venues. Ellington used this opportunity to write longer and more ambitious works in several movements, like the epic musical history of African-American life, Black, Brown and Beige. Between 1927 and 1931 the Ellington Orchestra played its most famous residency. At the Cotton Club in Harlem, the band backed ‘jungle’ dance-theatre routines in a variety of shows, part of a new popular interest in African-American culture later known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Cotton Club years, the Ellington band
New crazes came along, and new kinds of music. But ragtime continued to be performed and recorded, and it clearly had a major influence on early jazz greats such as "Jelly Roll" Morton, and on early jazz styles such as Dixieland and "Harlem Stride" jazz piano. As jazz went on to develop other styles, ragtime faded and was nearly forgotten.” But some enthusiasts who were exploring the roots of jazz began a ragtime revival in the 1940's. The revival gained momentum very slowly until, in 1973, the movie ‘The Sting’ reintroduced ragtime to the general public. Classic rags, particularly Joplin's “The Entertainer’, became once again a part of the standard band and piano repertoire.
The Influence of the Jazz Age on the 1920s "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to," - Dorothy Parker. Dorothy had the right idea when she made this statement about the wealthy people of the 1920s. These socialites thrived under the post war prosperity. Famous for jazz music, wealthy people, and glittering parties, the 1920s were a magical time for privileged Americans. Prohibition was still the law of the land but it was a known fact that liquor was being consumed in secret.
Jazz which began as ragtime and blues was a very popular style in the clubs. “Dance wars” and “Jazz-a-thons” were the big thing for the Harlem nightlife at the time (Haskins, 1984) Though The Cotton Club had many bands and famous singers play there, its most famous band was Duke Ellington and the Washingtonians. They broke tradition by being the first band that was not from the area. Though all bands of the time were breaking tradition by being black (Haskins, 1984). The band brought the club to its peak.
Mambo included very little vocal sections, if any, but was primarily instrumental dance music. Mambo found its way to prominence after Perez Prado created a dance for this new genre. In 1943, he introduced his new dance at the La Tropicana night club in Havana, Cuba. After spreading his new genre of mambo to Mexico and New York City it had become a very popular, and by the mid 1950’s it had reached its height in New York City. Mambo was then played at the famous, Palladium Ballroom, where famous mambo dancers of the day such as Augie and Margo Rodriguez and Louie Maquina showcased