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A Jazz History Essay

Decent Essays

The history of Jazz is interesting as seen in its origin, its most influential artists, and changes through the decades. I can relate to this topic a lot because I actually play drums and jazz was the very first thing I was taught. My dad played guitar and we would both jazz up together and actually writing music. I picked up playing Jazz pretty quick and started picking up a couple gigs here and there when I was young. Till this day I still play jazz at some local bars every once in a while. About two years ago I flew to New York with my drum teacher to go play a three-day jazz festival. Jazz has been a big part of my life and I always enjoy playing it and listening to it. First things first jazz was born in the United States in the early 20th century. It was actually formed from a music style called blues. Blues is the foundation of jazz also as well as the prime source of rhythm, rock ‘n’ roll, and country music. In New Orleans they also had different types of church music, African drumming, dance styles, church music and etc. When they put all these things together jazz was born. New Orleans was the only place in the New World where slaves were allowed to own drums and just be able to be themselves. We still see this love and appreciation for music and rhythm today. …show more content…

Surprisingly a lot of people don’t know the name Louis Armstrong, Louis being one of the most influential artist in the history of music. He was known to be the king of jazz or the jazz original. He perfected the improvised jazz solo, as we know it. But before Armstrong, Dixieland was the style of jazz that everyone was playing. Louis Armstrong was the first to develop the idea of musicians playing during breaks that expanded into musicians playing individual solos. He had a famous quote “If you don’t feel it, you’ll never know it”. He was loved throughout the world and sadly passed away in New York City on July 6,

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