Music

Although some people believe that gospel jazz is a fairly recent type of music, its roots began long before the birth of most other musical forms, and impacted nearly all of them. Gospel jazz, also referred to as the blues, emerged out of the intense emotional experiences endured by downhearted people throughout history. The Origin of Gospel Jazz During the 18th century, the African slaves who tended the fields of the American South expressed their faith through songs called ‘Negro Spirituals’, which often included heart-wrenching cries, later adopted by the jazz sibling known as the blues. This deeply emotional and …

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Pianist and singer, Harry Connick Jr. is a young musician with a sound that is often compared to Frank Sinatra.Born on September 11, 1967 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Joseph Harry Fowler Connick was a musical prodigy. His parents were both lawyers, but they owned a record store and encouraged their son’s interest in music. Connick started piano lessons at age 3, and joined a New Orleans jazz band at age 10. At 18 he studied at New York’s Hunter College and later at the Manhattan School of Music. At 19 he released his first album for Columbia Records and began …

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One of today’s youngest and most talented jazz musicians is Norah Jones. Born in New York City on March 30, 1979, Norah attributes her musical influences to her mother’s extensive album collection. Jones began playing piano at the age of seven and discovered singing while attending high school. She did not branch out to jazz piano until she was a student at the University of North Texas. er first gig on her 16th birthday—an open mic night at a local coffeehouse, where she performed a version of Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You”. After graduation, Jones entered the University of North …

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Born into a musical family on November 16, 1964, Diana Krall’s passion for music quickly developed. By the age of 4 she was listening to her father’s jazz albums, taking piano lessons, and making music with her family.In early childhood, the young Diana and her family would gather at her grandparents’ home in Nanaimo, British Columbia every Sunday to play music. Her mother and father both played the piano and her grandmother was a singer.In her teens, Krall joined the high school jazz band. And at 15, she landed her first gig, playing piano three nights a week at a …

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Eleanora Harris (a.k.a. Billie “Lady Day” Holiday) was born in Philadelphia in 1915. She had a hard childhood—her father abandoned the family and Billie was cared for by abusive relatives. She was raped at 11 years old, and spent her entire childhood in poverty.In 1929, at the young age of 14, Holiday moved to New York where she worked as a maid and as a teenage prostitute. “I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody business but my own.” -Billie Holiday In 1930, she also began to sing in bars and restaurants to avoid eviction. At first, singing was …

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Bandleader and composer, Miles Davis’ music is regarded as the most important in the development of improvisational techniques.Born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois, Miles Dewey Davis belonged to a middle class family. He grew up playing in his high school band as well as in several local R&B groups. “I’ll play it first and tell you what it is afterwards.” – Miles Davis Noticing his love and talent for music, Davis’ father sent him to Juliard to study music. He, however, did not spend much time there. Instead he dropped out to play with Charlie Parker’s quintet from …

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Louis Armstrong is regarded as the most influential musician in jazz history.He was born in poverty in New Orleans in 1901. His father was a workman, and his mother was a maid and a prostitute. His father abandoned the family soon after Louis’ birth.In the third grade, Armstrong dropped out of school. He spent his time roaming the red light district of Storyville with other boys. His delinquency eventually landed him in the Colored Waifs Home around age 12. “If ya ain’t got it in ya, ya can’t blow it out.” – Louis Armstrong This event was more of a …

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One of the most influential styles of jazz to emerge from the early half of the 20th century was known as “swing.” Swing Jazz quickly caught fire and spread amongst all racial demographics in the era leading up to World War II, and produced some of America’s most renowned musical figures and leaders. This style is extremely important to the evolution of popular music in the U.S., as it bucked some of the more sacred and traditional elements of mainstream popular music and pushed it into edgier, more creative territory. Origin of Swing Jazz The roots of swing jazz can …

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The syncopation and synthesis of African and European classical music gave birth to ragtime jazz, a variety of innovative rhythms that brought about an era of phenomenal music, which is still popular today. This type of jazz enjoyed its most significant fame from 1897 through 1918, influencing some of the best artists over the past century. Ragtime jazz was born in America’s red-light districts. Cities such as New Orleans and St. Louis were enjoying these rhythms long before they were published into piano sheet music, from march tunes to dance numbers. In 1893, at the unforgettable Chicago World’s Fair, from …

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Who could have ever predicted that replacing clarinets with saxophones would create a musical phenomenon as massive as big band jazz? This type of jazz is said to have emerged in the 1920s and gave birth to the popular Swing Era. Big bands were diverse, ranging anywhere from 10 to 25 musicians; yet, as different as they were, all were comprised of three groups of instrumentation. Big bands had three sections: rhythm, reed and brass. Brass was comprised of trombones and trumpets, reed was made up of saxophones, and rhythm consisted of drums, piano, guitars and bass. The band played …

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