Essays on Jazz

 Christenson & Walker (2004, p. 39-40) define project vision as the ability of a leader to get teams to work towards common team goals. This involves the communication of credible but reasonable goals in a way that is easy to understand, and compelling to follow. A successful project manager will be able to inspire teammates…

The 1920’s was a huge decade for the phenomena known as Jazz. Due to the closing of the seaport in New Orleans, musicians were forced to travel up the Mississippi to find work. Two of the cities most affected by this move were Chicago and New York. Chicago was home primarily for New Orleans traditional…

Clifford Brown was born in Wilmington, Delaware on the 30th of October 1930. Brown began playing a trumpet his father gave him in early high school, and by his late teens was playing in collage and other youth bands. Throughout high school he studied jazz harmony and theory, trumpet, vibes, piano, and bass with Robert…

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…

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…

“I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for. (49)” This thought is what is reflected in both “Sonnys Blues” by James Baldwin and “Pauls Case” by Willa Cather. Both Baldwin and Cather illustrate the problem of a young man growing up and taking on the responsibility…

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…

In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man Ellison makes strong connections between the musical jazz elements and the Battle Royal excerpt of the novel. The jazz element of improvisation is described to be spontaneous, on the spot, composing to come up with different melodies and is the prominent element used by Ellison in the Battle Royal excerpt…

Undertone Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the most well known poets/writers in the modern era. One of his most notable works was a series of fictional short stories called Tales of Simple. In these tales, Hughes uses symbolism to express his feelings and views on African American history through the character Jesse…