How Did African Americans Influence Jazz

Picture this: the year is 1926 and you are walking down the street in downtown Chicago. You pass a crowded club, where you hear the upbeat and speedy rhythms of music pouring out. The sound consumes you, fills you with joy, and persuades you to dance. You walk into the club to find numerous people swinging and tossing themselves around each other, enjoying the fast-paced and boisterous music. This is the appearance of jazz music, and in the early 20th century, jazz music swept the nation. With artists like Jelly Roll Morton, Joe King Oliver, Sidney Bichet , Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, jazz filled the souls of Americans, promoting a free and fun lifestyle. Although these artists had different beginnings,

The birth of jazz music is often credited to African Americans, though it didn’t take long to expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterised by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class societies. Big cities like New York and Chicago were

The Jazz Age was a national undertaking that took place in America during the 1920’s, also known as “the Roaring Twenties” from which both jazz music and dance emerged. Despite the era ending with the beginning of The Great Depression in the 1930’s, jazz has lived on in American pop culture. The birth of jazz music is often credited to African-Americans, but it soon expanded to America’s white middle class. This resulted in jazz being combined by both African-American traditions and ideals with white middle class society.

Jazz has always been a part of the American tradition. Some may say they like Jazz for its rhythmic twist and turns. Others may love the soothing melodies from an improved Trumpet solo. All in all, Jazz has been an American staple and has molded today’s popular music, into what it is today. It’s very different from classical music, which is written out and strict. Jazz is much more. It’s made up of spontaneity and improvisation, which makes up an idea on the spot. There are many wide varieties in Jazz. There is Bebop Jazz, Avante Garde Jazz, Acid Jazz, Free Funk Jazz, Soul Jazz, Swing Jazz, and many, many more! These forms of Jazz can be seen and heard in some of your favorite music of Today. It’s been widely used by the world. There is an important reason as to why this genre contributes to the growing of music. We first take a look into the root of all Jazz. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the country of Africa was the first known country to use rhythm primarily for the element of musical expression, and ensembles composed entirely of percussion instruments created extended polyrhythmic works. These polyrhythms, which means the “layering of multiple rhythms.”, were record in Western music. African music did not use paper, or sheet music. Instead, they relied on Aural rituals, learned by ear and also used” spontaneity, which is later said to be known as improvisation”. In Africa, most of the music that was expressed was for religious

During the time of the bustling 1920’s a new movement in American culture was booming. As the great migration was rapidly growing, new ways of expressing emotions were blossoming into a revolutionary movement. This movement of the “New Negro,” also known as the “Harlem Renaissance” was quickly coming into the light of society, exploding in the Harlem neighborhoods of New York City as artistic ideas took turns that nobody could ever imagine. Among these new creations of artistic creativity the most prominent was the clear transformation that music went through during this time. Boundaries were beginning to break in society as well as in music as rules were being broken and new forms of music were simmering, thus, Jazz was born.

One of the most iconic happenings in this age was the creation of jazz. Jazz had always been popular in night clubs in the south but during the great migration, jazz was brought to the north. After just a few weeks, jazz was the new fad and everyone was playing it. “Jazz flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised instrumental solos…improvisation meant that no two performances would ever be the same…” (The Decade That Roared, page

The most popular new genre of music was Jazz. Jazz was created by African Americans by putting music and poetry together. Even though African Americans sit at the start of this new craze, overall, they tended to be treated the same as they were before they developed this form of music. Jazz affected both the fashion industry and literature in the 20’s. This was the first time in history that a minorities culture was preferred over the mainstream culture.

KEVON FELMINE 00024526 Jazz has long been the pride of African American culture but as the inventors of the genre, blacks have not reaped the rewards because of the US racial system that dictates black inferiority. There have been many positives attributed to jazz as it gave opportunities to black musicians to be heard on radio and in clubs by white audiences dating back to the early 1900’s. Since most black jazz musicians were from the lower class, it created an avenue to earn money through their talents. However, racial prejudice brought with it, cultural appropriation and as jazz became popular with white America, white musicians attempted to steal the ownership of the genre. For instance, The Original Dixieland Jass Band that gained recognition

In the 1890’s, a number of music publishers set up shop in a district of Manhattan, referred to at the time as Tin Pan Alley (Brackett, 1). These New York City music publishers and songwriters dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Before the decade was over, musicians from the African American culture created a new genre of music called “ragtime” which heavily influenced jazz artists. During the 1920’s jazz was one of the most popular

Jazz is consider one of the most influential types of music an America History. Some of the greatest artist in the world have contribute to the success jazz have had not only on America History but throughout the world. This paper will explain the history of jazz, where it all came from and the effect it has had on the America Culture.

Dance and music clubs became tremendously popular in an effort to improve the quality of life for many people. Jazz’s influence on America could be described as a positive for cultural diversions. This new genre of sound paved a way for artists to express their feelings, but also different types of music were created and jazz began to spread around the US.

Originating in New Orleans, jazz rose to prominence during the 1920’s and America saw the popularisation of music with the availability of market such as the gramophone and radio. Some sought out jazz as a destructive force that seemed to influence bad behaviour in a new generation however it is undeniable the freedom in nature it expressed unto a

The Jazz Age represents a period in the 20th century starting from about the end of the first world war to the beginning of The Great Depression. During this time jazz became a popular genre of music and led to the creation of many sub-genres. It originated in New Orleans and other areas of the south eastern portion of the U.S. with Dixieland, which later on spread to other major cities and evolved into big band jazz and swing. It connected the drastically different cultures of the musically inclined individuals of New Orleans and the troubled african american culture of the south. This changed many people’s lives, giving them plentiful opportunities for gaining popularity in the musical epicenter of New Orleans.

The beginning of Jazz and its Effects on America Jazz is art in the form of music. It is general associated with African Americans. It is associated with Black Americans because it has styles that came from Black American folk traditions and it is expressive of and root in the experience of the Black American. Officially Jazz music came to be in 1917 (Anderson, 2004). Jazz became popular between all races in the 1920s (DeVeaux, 1991).

Even though Jazz music was predominantly of African-American audiences, it grew to all listeners of music regardless of their race. But, if we look at the audience of today, the listeners of Jazz music are white. Jazz was also able to grow during its height because of the fact that music was able to be recorded. This gave everyone the ability to hear this genre of music, even if they were not able to go out and enjoy it live. Also during this time and through the mid-century Jazz was the dance music of Americans. Jazz in fact influenced the younger crowds in how they dressed, their language, as well as a certain attitude. Most of all, Jazz, more than most other music, has been firmly related with the societal, political, and financial impacts of American urban communities and in addition the changing status of American workmanship and music all through the