Essays on Jazz

One musical style that developed in the twentieth century is jazz. While its roots may be African American, jazz is considered the only American contribution to music (Wright, 1996, p.390). Alongside with blues and popular music, jazz is music that explored during the age of musical diversity, drawing inspiration from “musical streams from the New…

There are various genres of music worldwide, each distinguished by unique characteristics. Among these is Jazz, a genre created primarily by black Americans in the early 20th century. Jazz combines elements of American and African tribal music. Jazz stands out from all other genres of music due to its numerous distinct characteristics. Three main distinctions…

Jazz, which evolved from African American folk music, has developed and changed over the last century to become an art form in America. Jazz has taken many forms over the past seventy years; there is almost always a single person who can be credited with the evolution of that sound. From Thelonius Monk, and his…

This paper will briefly discuss some of the music of Miles Davis and Steve Reich. While both of these composers were instrumental in the development of the kinds of music they composed and played, they have very different sounds. Steve Reich created minimalist music, while Miles Davis created jazz. In 1959, Miles Davis released, ”Kind…

Topdog/Underdog is a fated play in which all Americans instantly know the fate of the two main characters Booth and Lincoln; the emphasis becomes how Parks will go about portraying this death with African American characters. Parks’ main tool is the “rest” taken from a jazz influence to portray a structure in which African Americans…

The text describes the challenges encountered by Mr. Rutland, the founder of the National Jazz Hall of Fame (NJHF), as he attempted to establish a jazz museum in a former Paramount theatre. The primary obstacles can be summarized into three main categories: 1. Securing financial support for the venture; 2. Assembling a skilled team capable…

Listening to his recorded legacy, an incredible body of work that spans 1939 to 1994, there can be little doubt that Sinatra is the single greatest interpreter of American popular song-the one performer who elevated what he referred to as “saloon singing” to a high art. He had a lot of nicknames: “Chairman of the…

Dave Matthews was born outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 9, 1967. As a child he moved around a lot with his family to various parts of the world. And of an early age his mother taught him the evils of racism. When he was ten years old his father died of lung cancer,…

The origin of rock and roll comes from many roots that date back in the nineteenth century. African-American slaves brought by the early American Celtics during the 17th and 18th century in America brought along with them their native African music which was later influenced by the music of their masters. With the passing of…

The Valley of Ashes: ” This is the valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke, and finally, with a transcendent effort, Of ash-grey men, who dimly and already crumbling through the…