A Critical Analysis Of The Performance By Branford Marsalis

I stood up in front of a hundred curious, gleaming eyes. “Hey guys,” I began, “I’m going to show you why the trombone is the coolest brass instrument ever!” I immediately whipped the slide out and performed a series of sequential glissandos, each one with more vigor than the last. That morning, I was performing with my school’s jazz band at the KIPP Elementary Academy in Philadelphia. Over a decade passed since I had last stepped foot in a Philadelphia school, when I attended the James Dobson School in kindergarten, yet the cozy gymnasium and the children’s crisp uniforms instantly evoked memories of my childhood. But one thing I did not remember from the past was having the opportunity to experience jazz at a young age. Thus, I desperately wanted to display the awesome power of brass instruments that is the soul of jazz music and inspire the kids to partake in the timelessly euphoric journey of music that I am blessed to have taken.

It is critiques like this one that are valuable to the jazz community. It is important to evoke emotions through words when talking about jazz. Amiri Baraka’s article “Jazz and the White Critic” introduced his readers

I.Introduction: Good afternoon everyone, my name is Giselle Levario. I am a freshman here at NMSU with a love for music and today I will be informing you all about one of my favorite music genres, Jazz and it’s history. First, I will talk why Jazz was important to society during the Great Depression. Second, I will discuss the various techniques and rhythms used in a Jazz ensemble and finally, I will discuss why Jazz music is still influential to today’s society and music culture.

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro Life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia clubwoman… turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifestations—likewise almost anything else distinctly racial…She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug as near white in smug as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist …to change through the hidden force of his art that old whispering “I want to be white,” hidden in the aspirations of his people, to “Why should I want to be white? I am Negro—and beautiful.”

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul-the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia club woman , turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifetations-likewise almost anything else distinctly racial... She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug and as near white in soul as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, to change through the force of his art that old whispering "I want to be white, hidden in the aspirations of his people, to "Why should I want to he white? I am Negro-and beautiful"

“JAZZ” is a documentary by Ken Burns released 2001 that focuses on the creation and development of jazz, America’s “greatest cultural achievement.” The first episodes entitled, “Gumbo, Beginnings to 1917” and “The Gift (1917-1924), explain the early growth of jazz as it originates in New Orleans and its expands to Chicago and New York during the Jazz Age. In assessing the first two episodes of Ken Burns' 2001 documentary, "JAZZ," this essay will explore the history of jazz, the music's racial implications, and it's impact on society. In doing so, attention will also be given to the structure of the documentary, and the effectiveness of documentary film in retelling the past.

Duke Ellington's pre-eminence in jazz is not only because of the very high aesthetic standard of his output and not simply due to his remarkable abilities as a pianist, composer and bandleader, but also to the fact that he has extended the boundaries of jazz more than any other musician, without abandoning the true essence of the music. Perhaps no other American musician left such a massive and challenging legacy in composition and performance.

In 1894, a young, quietly colorful Charles Ives enters Yale University. He enters with a strong musical foundation provided by his father and community and a vision of what he thinks music can be. Horatio Parker, Ives’s composition professor unashamedly informs Ives that his vision of music seems blurry, perhaps even nauseating, to the astute, cultured musician. Ives quickly develops anger towards Parker’s traditional tutelage and rarely recognizes the positive effects Parker has on his compositions. Here begins the battle between new and old that Ives and Parker embarked upon during Ives’s college years, however the story starts and ends far from their four short years together.

From its inception, Jazz has applied both innovative approaches in different degrees and boundless configuration. And has continually amplified, progress, and modify music through various distinctive episodes of growth. So, an all-encompassing denotation of jazz is likely vain. Additionally, jazz as a music whose prime attribute was “improvisation,” for example, revealed to be too regulated and chiefly false. Meanwhile composition, adaptation, and ensembles have also been imperative constituent of Jazz (for most of its backstory). Furthermore, “syncopation” and “swing,” often viewed as important and distinctive to jazz, are certainly lacking the genuineness of it, whether of the 1920s (or of later decades). However, the prolonged perception that swing could not transpire without syncopation was utterly refuted when trumpeter Louis Armstrong often produced vast swing while playing repeated, and unsyncopated quarter notes (Armstrong, L., Fitzgerald, E., & Middleton, V. (1988). Satchmo. Gong.)

Our music industry would not be what it is today without one of America’s greatest music legends, Duke Ellington. He made major breakthroughs at a time when the odds were against him. The pioneer who scouted these new regions of musical space more than any other jazz musician of the time was Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974). (Tirro 1993)

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

Winston’s love for jazz is evident in his room, in his teaching and in the way he plays. The success of Tucson’s jazz community is largely owed to him.

Who knew the Jazz life could be so dangerous yet amazing. In Bill Crow’s book “Jazz Anecdotes Second Time Around” I learned that it sucked to be a jazz musician. Although the lime light and fancy dressing like Jelly Roll Morton might have been amazing most of their deaths were pretty tragic. Most musicians decided to let their drug addiction send them twirling to their deaths or a car accident that took out many. This book was filled with both entertaining and boring stories I oddly seemed to enjoy.

Often labeled as America’s classical music, jazz has spread like wild fire since it’s origin in the early 20th century. Jazz was birthed by post Civil War African-Americans that finally had the freedom to express their African heritage combined with their new American culture. Initially, jazz was seen as inferior music in America and it was only played and heard in heavily African-American communities. However, the reach of jazz has grown to an international scale. This global outreach has musically connected cultures that now have a common ground where they can allocate ideas and traditions.

The mystery of Jazz and its powerful impact on the music community can be explained largely by the context of it’s creation. Jazz was born in the United States, and because of this, many have referred to Jazz as “America’s music.” Like America, Jazz has a balance between structure and spontaneity. It capitalizes on the fluidity of the musicians, having several different instruments with independent spirits, coming together as one to form a great piece of music. Unlike other styles of music, Jazz has a certain way about it that makes it stand-alone in the world of genres. It improvises, moves, and transforms itself in a moment’s notice based on the musician’s intuition. Just as America harbors democracy, so too does a jazz ensemble, showing both the responsibility to a larger group, yet still allowing room for individual freedom. It all comes down to how well others can respect the overall framework and structure of the jingle.