...Christopher Goff Mr. Rogers ELA March 6, 2015 Duke Ellington Duke Ellington was a major figure in the history of jazz music. During his career which lasted more than half of a century, he composed thousands of songs. Duke Ellington created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in Western Music, while still playing what he called “American Music”. Duke Ellington will forever remain one of jazz’s music innovators. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on April 29, 1899. His parents were James Edward Ellington, and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. As a child growing up in Washington D.C, he loved music. At the age of four Duke listened to his mother play a popular piano tune called “The Rosary”, Duke cried saying the song was so pretty....
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...Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was a jazz musician that was a composer, pianist and bandleader of jazz orchestras. Ellington was born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. Ellington started to get a profile at a cotton club in Harlem with his orchestra he led. By the 1930’s Ellington and his orchestra had a tour and Europe and was being known by many. At this point Ellington wasn’t even the category of jazz, he was in the category of American Music. In Ellington’s orchestra were some excellent jazz musicians, such as saxophonist named Johnny Hodges. His band was the best-known orchestra in history of jazz. The band members that were apart of Ellington’s orchestra stayed in it for several decades. Ellington has several songs written by his band members that have been popular. Ellington had a writing companion named Billy Strayhorn, who was his composer-arranger-pianist. When Ellington was 7 years of age he started to take piano lessons from a young lady. His mother decided to have him around a lot of women so he could live elegantly and to be respectful. As he grew older his friends noticed that he was well mannered and was dressed nice, so they gave him the nickname “Duke”. Duke did not want to always play the piano. His dream was...
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...Now that the 21st century has begun, people often forget individuals and arts that helped shape what it is to be American art. One of these innovators was Duke Ellington, a composer, jazz pianist, and big band leader. No other artist single handedly has defined American Music as this jazz giant. He gave American music and jazzes an identity, the first true American art form. Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, DC on April 29, 1889 to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Ellington. At the age of seven, the young Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscalps. Both of his parents were pianists. James Edward Ellington preferred operatic bits as Daisy played primarily parlor tunes. At this point in his life, Edward Ellington was more interested in playing baseball with his mates rather than playing the piano. During this time in his childhood, Ellington would acquire his famous pseudonym “Duke.” The title came from his schoolmates. Edward was reared by his mother and her dignified friends. Through this, he developed a Great Gatsby esque demeanor demonstrating a sense of grandeur and grace similar to a noble gentleman of that era and ones forgotten. Many of his peers noticed and deemed him “Duke” Ellington. Ellington’s interest in the piano would not reemerge until he began sneaking into local pool halls looking for the thrills of an older lifestyle. Furthermore, while in those pool halls, he began listening to eclectic styles of the pool hall...
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...Appreciation 29 April 2012 Duke Ellington (1899-1974) Edwin Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. He was a son of a butler who had occasionally worked at the White House. He was a major figure in our history of jazz music, his career spanned more than half a century. He started playing the piano in the jazz band, during that time he composed thousands of songs for the stage, screen and contemporary songbooks. He created the most distinctive sounds in Western music and he continued playing what is called today as American Music until shortly before his death. When he turned 7 years old he was called "Duke" because of his gentlemanly ways. He held fast to his own standards of innovation and stylishness. He wrote his first composition," Soda Fountain Rag," at the age of 15. He was considered among the world's greatest composers and musicians. The French goverment gave him their highest award, the Legion of Honor, while the government of the United States bestowed upon him with the highest civil honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He had played over 20,000 performances worldwide over the span of his 50-year career. He took his first piano lesson around age seven or eight and he didn't retain the lessons that long. He was more favored to play baseball as a youngster . Duke went on a vacation in Asbury Park and he heard a pianist named Harvey Brooks playing. Duke sought Harvey out in Philadelphia where Harvey showed Duke some ...Expand to read...
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...Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was a jazz musician that was a composer, pianist and bandleader of jazz orchestras. Ellington was born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. Ellington started to get a profile at a cotton club in Harlem with his orchestra he led. By the 1930’s Ellington and his orchestra had a tour and Europe and was being known by many. At this point Ellington wasn’t even the category of jazz, he was in the category of American Music. In Ellington’s orchestra were some excellent jazz musicians, such as saxophonist named Johnny Hodges. His band was the best-known orchestra in history of jazz. The band members that were apart of Ellington’s orchestra stayed in it for several decades. Ellington has several songs written by his band...
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...The Jazz Age: Prevailing Opportunities for African Americans Thesis and Outline Thesis: The increased popularity of jazz music led to a growing acceptance of African American culture and presented African Americans the opportunity to gain social status. Introduction During the Jazz Age, jazz music, primarily dominated by African Americans before 1920, began to gain popularity among whites and transformed into an important aspect of American culture. The increased popularity of jazz music led to a growing acceptance of African American culture and presented African Americans the opportunity to gain social status. The Beginnings of Jazz music and Prevailing Opportunities for African Americans Music has always played an essential part in African...
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...Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington is one of the most accomplished Jazz musicians of all time. He was born in Washington D.C. in 1899. Duke Ellington’s father worked as a butler at the White House, and both his father and mother were amateur pianist. As a young child Ellington preferred sports to music—which quickly changed. Ellington dropped out of high school in 1917 to pursue his music career, and by the mid-twenties had relocated to New York. Ellington’s spotlight to fame came from Harlem’s Cotton Club. Duke Ellington performed at the Cotton Club for a continuous six years, which during that time was a place where many distinguished musicians were born. Ellington is largely responsible for the birth of the “Big Band” era of Jazz. However, Ellington frequently referred to his music as “American Music”. He is credited with the composition of over 3,000 songs....
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...19 July 2010 Jazz as a Black American Art Form : Definitions of the Jazz Preservation Act JEFF FARLEY Jazz music and culture have experienced a surge in popularity after the passage of the Jazz Preservation Act (JPA) in 1987. This resolution defined jazz as a black American art form, thus using race, national identity, and cultural value as key aspects in making jazz one of the nation’s most subsidized arts. Led by new cultural institutions and educational programs, millions of Americans have engaged with the history and canon of jazz that represent the values endorsed by the JPA. Record companies, book publishers, archivists, academia, and private foundations have also contributed to the effort to preserve jazz music and history. Such preservation has not always been a simple process, especially in identifying jazz with black culture and with America as a whole. This has required a careful balancing of social and musical aspects of jazz. For instance, many consider two of the most important aspects of jazz to be the blues aesthetic, which inevitably expresses racist oppression in America, and the democratic ethic, wherein each musician’s individual expression equally contributes to the whole. Balanced explanations of race and nationality are useful not only for musicologists, but also for musicians and teachers wishing to use jazz as an example of both national achievement and confrontation with racism. Another important aspect of the JPA is the definition of jazz as a ‘‘ high ’’...
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...Jazz is a very bulky genre, especially to cover in just 60 minutes. However, this lack of time has allowed me to condense my beliefs about it one strong section believe that changed Jazz completely. Trumpets complete the sound of a Jazz band and I believe that it is the most important section. There are a few artist that transformed the trumpet section and their innovation set the bar for nothing below perfection. Jazz without trumpets would be equivalent to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without peanut butter because it just would not be the same. So what makes the trumpet so special? The trumpet is by far the loudest and sharpest sounding horn in the band. The interesting shaped horn amplifies sound with the bends on pipes within it. This makes playing trumpet natural for leaders, and to become successful with it if they are good too. In 1894, early trumpet pioneer Buddy Bolden became the first known jazzman simply because he was a trumpeter. From then on other musicians followed this trend and the trumpet reigned king ever since. King Oliver was a very influential band to bring out the best of what the trumpet could offer. Musician Louis Armstrong began his ride to fame with this group in 1922. Armstrong's playing technique was honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. Armstrong also almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art...
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...The club operated from the 1920's to the 1930's. The Cotton Club was mostly about jazz. Jazz is the art of individuals working in unison to make one sublime sound. This establishment was for whites only, all though it featured some of the best black entertainers and jazz musicians this era had to offer. In 1920, heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson opened the Cotton Club under the name “Club Deluxe” on the corner of 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in the heart of the Harlem district. Owney Madden, a prominent bootlegger and gangster, took over the club in 1923 while imprisoned in Sing Sing and changed its name to the Cotton Club. A deal was arranged between the two that allowed Johnson to still be the club’s manager. Madden used the cotton club as an outlet to sell his number one beer to the prohibition crowd. The Cotton Club was a “Whites-only” foundation. Even in the heart of Harlem, the race line divided the black performers from the white patrons. Inside the Cotton Club, African themes were exploited and only "jungle music" was played to an all white audience. Duke Ellington put together one of the most talented jazz bands ever to walk on stage to play for the patrons of The Cotton Club six nights a week. As the twenties went on, Ellington would continue his huge success at The Cotton Club into many classic recordings, cementing Duke Ellington to go down in history as one of the great jazz musicians and entertainers ever. In 1931, Ellington left his thrown at the cotton...
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...Classical Composer Report Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, was an american jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader, and pianist, and was considered to be the greatest composer in the history of jazz music and one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Duke was born on April 29th, 1899 in Washington, DC and was raised in a musical household where he started piano lessons at the early age of seven years old. He wrote his first piece at age 15 called “Soda Fountain Rag” inspired by his job as a soda jerk. Although, he did not start playing professionally until he was 19 and slowly after started his first group called The Dukes Serenades. When Duke started to become successful and his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilbur...
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...Jazz was one of the styles of music that spread tremendously from the streets of Harlem to all over the nation. This time was known as the “jazz age”, a time when innovative ideas and modernism with rapid cultural and social changes took place (Achlin). Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith had a huge impact on Jazz and swing music from the blues and gospel slave (“The Harlem Renaissance”). Duke Ellington, a renowned jazz artist, began to reflect the "New Negro" in his music, particularly in the jazz suite Black, Brown, and Beige (Oppenheim). Through applying the concept of the "New Negro," the depiction of African-Americans in American art music shifted from a misrepresentative stereotype to a depiction of people of African descent as significant contributors to the American cultural landscape (Oppenheim). William Grant Still, the most prominent African-American art music composer of the time, was greatly influenced by the concept of the "New Negro," a theme frequently evident in his...
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...Blood on the Leaves: Kanye West as a Contemporary “Jazz” Composer “Blood on the Leaves” by Kanye West – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9os5qNv_RI Kanye “Yeezy” West’s polarizing album “Yeezus” is a defining moment in the history of hip-hop. Kanye’s confrontational lyrics coupled with brash production work perfectly captures a sense of urgency. The urgency to redefine music as well as critically examine the world around us. With political undertones combined with the playfulness of hip-hop, Kanye’s frustration is captured as he weaves his way through the album. One of the stand-out tracks of this album is “Blood on the Leaves,” which juxtaposes varying ideas of slavery and explores what it means to be “enslaved.” Because the production of hip hop music is primarily created with the use of electronic musical instruments like Akai’s Music Production Controller (MPC), it is easier to “sample” music. Sampling music is based around the idea of taking certain sections of songs or sound recordings and reusing it to create a new song entirely. The sampling of primarily funk, soul, and jazz music in hip-hop is the direct result of the music lineage of African Americans in the twentieth century and therefore shares certain commonalities. The many overlaps between the genres in terms of style and lyrical content allows for these samples to coexist harmoniously in hip-hop tracks. Sampling is derived from the idea that referencing another artist will add to the potency of one’s music...
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...Jon Williams History 102 Historical Paper 3-2-09 Effectiveness of the Harlem Renaissance There has been plenty of talk about our nation’s history and how America became what it is today, and the Harlem Renaissance has been one of the most understated eras of our country’s history. The Harlem Renaissance not only boosted the quality of life for African Americans, but it also sparked tremendous progress with how all of America viewed the once hidden talents of African Americans during that time period. Also, it influenced a whole new generation of African American arts and literature in the United States. The Harlem Renaissance was an African cultural movement that was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Some historians say that it is unclear as to when it actually started, but Dr. Cary Wintz, chair of the department of history at Texas Southern University, claims that the Harlem Renaissance began in 1919 and lasted until the mid-1930’s. (Wintz) It began when many socially conscious and intellectual African Americans moved from the economically depressed south to the industrial cities of the north to take advantage of the employment opportunities that had risen because of World War I. As more and more socially conscious and educated blacks moved to Harlem, it started to become the cultural center for black people in America. The Harlem Renaissance had a huge impact on African American literature. Most blacks during that time period had a sense of wanting...
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...Essay 13 1. What approach to jazz does Wynton Marsalis personify? How does he personify it? In considering this issue, refer to his life, his role in the jazz repertory movement, and in particular his work as a composer. According to the class notes and textbook, Marsalis is a trumpeter, spokesman for jazz tradition (not fusion or avant-garde), leader of Jazz at Lincoln Center; born in NOLA to musical family; trained at Juilliard, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers; modeled quintet on Davis's; raised funding, became eclectic, greater clarity in improve, loosened strictures; first post-pop, writes with historicist bent, pastiche of jazz styles. He is also an articulate and influential spokesperson for traditional jazz aesthetics. The neoclassical school develops at the beginning of the 1980’s. It, by definition, implies a pursuit of “new” expressions of “classic” jazz. In this case… mostly jazz from the 1950’s. (style) Wynton has an overtly strong interest in composition over improvisation sometimes and resists excessive importation from competing musical styles like classical and rock. His work with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra upholds the works of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington as exemplars of the jazz tradition, and downplays the importance of such developments as fusion and the avant-garde. The influence of Ellington on Marsalis's compositional style, musical values, and jazz career calls attention to a historical approach. Marsalis does beyond traditionalism; however...
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