The music that played in African American clubs was faster and wilder than the jazz played by the white dance halls, but even the jazz in the African American clubs was tame in comparison to the jazz of New Orleans. King Oliver is the best example of the shift in style that occurred when musicians moved from New Orleans to Chicago. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band was highly successful in New Orleans. The early New York Jazz music was influenced by ragtime music, which had been popular there in the early 1900s. Scott Joplin had played in New York, and other great musicians followed in his footsteps.
Guitarists such as Blind Blake and banjo players like Charlie Poole inspired musicians with their styles and techniques (“1920s Jazz, Blues, Radio”). Blues was well known in the 1920s and was even quoted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby; the song “The Sheik of Araby”, written by Harry B. Smith, Francis Wheeler and music by Ted Snyder in 1921was quoted therein. This same song would be covered decades later in 1962 by the band which would become known around the globe as The Beatles, showing the influence that the music of the 1920s had on decades to come (“1920s Jazz, Blues, Radio”). Apart from jazz and blues, another style of music in the spotlight of the 1920s was the show tunes of Broadway. Broadway was truly heating up in the 1920s, with over fifty
On the streets, in dance halls, and in Storyville cabarets like The Big 25 and Pete Lala’s, Freddy Keppard and King Oliver experimented with music so new, it didn’t even have a name. New Orleans, the devastated but recovering city, forever will be associated with the birth of jazz music, the first original art form developed in the United States, which went on to spread across the continent and around the globe during the 20th century. 3. Restrictions upon the use of African drums impacted
His style then became simpler, replacing the experimentation of his earlier years with a more mature approach that used every note to its greatest advantage. He rerecorded some of his earlier songs with great results. In 1924, Armstrong enjoyed a brief stint with bandleader and arranger Fletcher Henderson in New York City. By the time jazz pianist Lil Hardin, who would become the second of his three wives, persuaded Armstrong to work independently around 1925, he had switched from the cornet to the trumpet. During the next few years he made recordings fronting his own musicians; depending on the number assembled, they were known as the Hot Five or the Hot Seven.
He started off with an average jazz band of ten people but through the thirties and forties that number greatly expanded. He started playing in small nightclubs, theaters, and on the radio. His biggest break is considered to be when he got the chance to play at one of the most popular nightclubs of the time in Harlem, The Cotton Club, when another performer (King Oliver) turned down the offer, from that day forward Duke Ellington became well-known name
Two years later, while playing onstage at a small regional show, he caught the ear of bandleader Ben Pollack and was given a spot in Pollack’s band. Goodman made his first recordings with the band in Chicago in 1926, but began his band leader career in 1928 when he produced his first recordings as the lead of Pollack’s ensemble (Vitale, 2009). When major musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Jimmy Dorsey joined the emigration of artists away from Chicago to New York, Goodman followed (Stockdale, 1995). In New York, Goodman’s career soared. He put together his first band in 1934 and was given a spot at Billy Rose’s new theater restaurant The Music Hall (Stockdale, 1995).
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
Being the “melting pot” country, led to many immigrants coming from many different countries, and they bring the sounds with them. During the early stages of America, many immigrants come from Europe and Africa. In the beginning the term “Root music” was used to describe music made by white of European ancestry music, often in the south. As the century progressed, the definition of folk music expanded to include the song styles - particularly the blues - of Southern blacks as well. In general, folk music was viewed as a window into the cultural life of these groups.
Music has showed and changed a lot throughout all these years. In the 20’s to about the late 30’s it was all about patriotic and instrumental music. George Gershwin a famous American composer wrote the piece An American In Paris. The song was about an American tourist that went to Paris and how he got along there. Another famous composer was Irving Berlin, he wrote the piece God Bless America.
When speaking to anyone who is familiar with dance found in the 1920’s through the 1960’s, it is naturally commonly acknowledged that the father of not only the Jive but also the entire Swing Dance division was the Lindy Hop. It is accepted that the true start of the Lindy Hop was in the early 1920’s, yet there are some pieces of evidence that can be interpreted to similar dances, dated back to nearly the 18th century. Combining a wide variety of popular dances worldwide led to the creation of the Lindy Hop. Many of these dances were created and developed in the African American dominated communities. Similar to the way that Jazz was viewed as a music that could absorb and evolve with alternative forms of music; the Lindy Hop was designed to also encompass the constant evolution of social desires and cultural needs, while keeping a basic foundation.