... a rejected woman abused by her lover in Duke Ellington's short film Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life. In her scene, she sang the song "Saddest Tale . She felt that since her career was blossoming, she needed someone to help her organize burgeoning career so she turned to agent Joe Glazer ... unhappiness and frustrations. Because of the immense racism exerienced by many blacks in America, there are no live recordings of Billie and Artie Shaw, the song they were able to record was "Any Old Time". By the end of the 1930s, Billie was able to perform with twwo verry successful bands...

• Word Count: 2313
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... Orleans but met in Chicago. The "Dixie Jazz Band One-Step" is a very fast and almost frantic song performed in a rag style. The drummer plays a boom-chick feel in many parts of the song but also plays the bass drum only on the down beats and uses wood blocks and cowbells for added percussion ... . The song was originally created by all the musicians improvising their individual parts and once it was written, the song was always played the same way. There are no long improvised solos in this piece. The instruments ... woman piano player and all band members being of african-american descen...

• Word Count: 455
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Orleans but met in Chicago. The "Dixie Jazz Band One-Step" is a very fast and almost frantic song performed in a rag style. The drummer plays a boom-chick feel in many parts of the song but also plays the bass drum only on the down beats and uses wood blocks and cowbells for added percussion ... . The song was originally created by all the musicians improvising their individual parts and once it was written, the song was always played the same way. There are no long improvised solos in this piece. The instruments ... woman piano player and all band members being of african-american descen...

• Word Count: 455
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Café Society was one of the first popular night-spot that had an interracial audience. It was here that she would release the one song that would catapult her career to an all new level. It was in this time that she also received her first and only movie role(Walker ... good and was a success for all black people, but this would not be the last time Billie would speak out against racism (Walker). In her song, "Strange Fruit,"" Billie depicts the horribly grotesque scene of the high and mighty South's pride Lynching. At this time hate in the South was at ... refused to record it. He s...

• Word Count: 1369
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... jazz musician to just let go and pour his heart out with an instrument. In a Jazz piece, the song is often just a starting point or frame of reference for the musicians to improvise around. The song might have been a popular ditty or blues that they didn't compose, but by the time they were finished ... with it they had composed a new piece that often bore little resemblance to the original song (Alexander). Jazz is distinctively an American form of music. Its history occupies a much smaller span of time. Its origins are found in the early 1900s ... to show and reflect their talents thr...

• Word Count: 1887
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... is by ear or actually reading music. Really studying music involves learning music theory and musical form. To understand music you must first know how the song is structured based on chords and rhythmic passages. Blues originated in Missippissi around the nineteenth century. Blues or "12-bar blues", as it is called, ... was known for his ability to improvise and play be-bop. Duke Ellington was a big band arranger and composed over 150 tunes. Count Basie was known for the song "Down Basie Street." Charlie Parker was a great Jazz pianist. (Morrison 51) Louis Armstrong, was a profound Trum...

• Word Count: 919
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... do not to this day. The drummer of the Jazz ensemble provides the beat that keeps the group together but even he is interacting with the other soloists as the song is performed. Perhaps the most interesting point of comparison between the two types of music is in improvisation. Improvisation is the ability to play and compose spontaneously "on the spot ... , popular songs were put together by an arranger and soloists played improvisations over the repeating sections in order to lengthen the song for dancing. With the advent of Bop, improvisation assumed great importance. The musicians me...

• Word Count: 2090
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography

... everything and go against the norm of society. Billie had many hits like "Fine and Mellow" and "Lover Man", but none of these songs shocked the world like "Strange Fruit", a song about a lynching in the south. "Southern trees bear a strange fruit/ Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/ Black bodies swaying in the Southern breeze/ Strange fruit hanging from ... shocking to America and I"m sure made a lot of white southerners very angry. Billie Holiday is a true American hero for overcoming the racism that surrounded her and confronting the issue in a song for the whole nation to hear...

• Word Count: 568
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and be a popular performer would have excited Armstrong greatly. For example the popular music artists Macklemore & Ryan Lewis created a song about an extremely polarizing issue, gay marriage named "Same Love." This song offended some people, yet that did not stop this song from being played on YouTube 95 million times (Snell). The only way Armstrong was allowed to put his emotions on ... ...

• Word Count: 619
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , when at last, her poor health almost completely immobilized her. She died in 1996. Billie Holliday didn't have the vocal range Ella Fitzgerald had. Holliday however, would carefully review each song and select it based on its lyrical content. She wanted deep songs, songs that meant something to her. This is evident in the delivery of her words when she sings ... example of this. It is a sad poem about a lynching, but to hear it from Holliday's lips, it goes from sad to devastating. Ella on the other hand, could take any song and make it beautiful. Her three-range octave voice could be ...

• Word Count: 616
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... played for royalty got him the title, "The Ambassador of Jazz." Later on in life he recorded a song called "What a Wonderful World," which is the song he is known for by the people who don't know much about his musical career. Audiences today know this song because of its use in Good Morning, Vietnam. Louis's movie career also included his star role in ... ...

• Word Count: 924
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... individual players. Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson Band and right off the bat influenced the whole section of cornets. Many of the musicians began to add the flavor of Louis's song into their music (Armstrong1 2). Many years later Louis returned back in Chicago and he began recording a series of music. "He made a series of small band recordings that rank among the ... tone and tremendous range"(Cook 723). In many of Louis's songs he employed a new style of singing. Armstrong introduced the style of singing called scat singing in 1920's on a hit song called "Heebie Jeebies". Sca...

• Word Count: 1017
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the bed brakes down?" The kids at the danced absolutely loved it and begged him to play more since he didn't know any other song he played it again improvising heavily, by the end of the evening the song had become a hit. While on vacation in New York one summer Duke caught word of one man who was referred to as a monster ... ...

• Word Count: 942
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... in 1922. But it wasn't 1929 when he caught a break writing the score for the Broadway hit "Hot Chocolates" with lyrics supplied by his friend Andy Razaf. His most famous song "Ain't Misbehavin- was part of this show, which also featured the great Louis Armstrong. Waller was a great entertainer and in 1934 and at George Gershwin's party, with a delightful performance, one ... music was more joyful and enjoyable, and his performances even more delightful. Waller contributed to music in many diff erent ways, besides being an amazing pianist, a great entertainer and a skillful song writer, ...

• Word Count: 845
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... , and even when played electrically, are kept at an acoustic level of volume, to help keep a balance in the music. Information about songs and their artists: Maple Leaf Rag This song was the one that set off the craze for rags. It was published in 1899 and cut as a piano roll in 1916 with the composer allegedly at the piano. Maple ... behind him. Other soloist's join in with these and other themes, the ensemble plays all together, and the record as ends quietly as it starts. This is not the best song Ellington ever wrote but it sets a mood and holds it, leaving a strong since of instrume...

• Word Count: 1230
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... it with a less popular and smaller one. In the 196o's, Louis became known as America's Ambassador, because he toured so much of the world. He recorded the song "Hello Dolly", and it was the #1 song in 1963, years after jazz was no longer popular. Armstrong's health began to fail after he sang another of his hit songs, "Oh What a Wonderful World". Louis ... ...

• Word Count: 311
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... it with a less popular and smaller one. In the 196o's, Louis became known as America's Ambassador, because he toured so much of the world. He recorded the song "Hello Dolly", and it was the #1 song in 1963, years after jazz was no longer popular. Armstrong's health began to fail after he sang another of his hit songs, "Oh What a Wonderful World". Louis ... ...

• Word Count: 311
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... into being some form of a western like country. In Japan, they would listen to the popular music that had been made in America and make their own version of the song and translate the lyrics of the songs.9 This began to be a reoccurrence with the Japanese using America for their customs. In the 50s and 60s, Japanese musicians made a big impression ... ...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and Hot Seven, recorded many themes that would cause much furor such as the composition ''West end Blues'', in which the final chorus by Armstrong was a masterpiece or of the song "Heebie Jeebies" which would be the first time where he began inventing words, when in a recording session, the sheet music fell on the floor and this spontaneity, was incorporated into ... ...

• Word Count: 1036
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... suggests that Hughes considers himself forgotten wreckage, and all his writing is wasted and forgotten. Its tone reeks of depression and self-pity, "On the shoals of Nowhere, Wasted my song Yet taken by the sea wind And blown along."" Unfortunately, Hughes died feeling as though his writing did not help his race, and that his legacy was to be forgotten ... ...

• Word Count: 1313
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... in 1968. Satchmo lived a full life that was amazing for anyone, never mind for an Afro-American that had everything working against him from day one. Armstrong's most well known song-Hello Dolly was recorded in 1964. It hit number one on the Billboard charts on April 8th. It was accompanied by one of movies he starred in which shared the ... ...

• Word Count: 1911
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... musicians who brought this change were cornetist "Bix", saxophonists Benny Carter, Johnny Hodges, and Coleman Hawkins. Jazz took its next important step in 1932 when Duke Ellington composed and recorded a song called "It Don't Mean a Thing IF It Ain't Got That Swing." Soon swing became the new word for music played with a happy relaxed jazz beat (World Book 1986). Most swing ... ...

• Word Count: 846
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... most memorial of all was an acute dramatic intensely that she could make all of her lyrics profound and deeply irresistible. She new the impact came from the words of a song rather than any specific feature of the melodic or harmonic construction. Holiday's music continues to be incredibly popular, and the best window into her life is her autobiography, Lady Sings ... ...

• Word Count: 690
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 ... ...

• Word Count: 595
• Approx Pages: 2

... one of those people. Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer, who was considered one of the greatest singers in the history of jazz. Fitzgerald received the name "first lady of song"(Ella Fitzgerald, Encarta), when she successfully brought jazz into the mainstream culture. Within the 60 years of Fitzgerald's life she had created an everlasting record of art, Fitzgerald's jazz styles ... ...

• Word Count: 538
• Approx Pages: 2