Most early jazz was played in small marching bands or by solo pianists. Besides ragtime and marches, the repertoire included hymns, spirituals, and blues. The bands played this music at picnics, weddings, parades, and funerals. Characteristically, the bands

During the 1920s, large groups of jazz musicians began to play together, forming the big bands that became so popular in the 1930s and early 1940s, (the swing era). The development of the big band can be majorly credited to the achievement of Duke Ellington and his revolutionary song, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”. This soon became the new word for music played with a happy, relaxed beat. A new style also started in the early 1940’s when a group of musicians started experimenting with more complicated chord patterns and melodic ideas. This group included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, and pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. This new approach became known as bebop, or bop. Most bop musicians had exceptional techniques that enabled them to play long, dazzling phrases with many notes. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, jaz

Some topics in this essay:
United America, Louis Armstrong, Orleans Louisiana, Bud Powell, Jazz According, Ain’t Swing”, Duke Ellington, Philharmonic” Jazz, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, bands played, jazz improvisation, duke ellington, jazz music, music world,