Essay On Stevie Wonder

He goes by the nickname of Bocephus. He has had that nickname forever now. He still is called that until this day. His full name is Randall Hank Williams Jr. He was named after his father Hank Williams.

     We will look into the life of James Brown. He is known for his music. In his life, he had to face many obstacles, but through determination, he changed his life cycle. We will touch on the influences in his life, developmental stage and theories that best fit his personality.

Ray Charles was born on Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, and grew up in Greenville, Florida. At the young age of five, he began losing his sight, and became completely blind by the time he was seven. However, this did not hinder Ray Charles at all, as he continued to persevere in developing his musical talents. One of the most unique aspects of Ray Charles was his unparalleled ability to crossover different genres of music. He mixed together genres such as blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, pop, and even country. With this integration, he created smash hits such as “I Got a Woman,” “Hit the Road Jack,” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” When a listener listens close enough to one of Charles’ songs, aspects of the various styles he incorporated can be heard not only through the way the lyrics are

James Marshall Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942 in Seattle Washington. James faced a somewhat difficult childhood as he was faced with many

Many great performers have come out of the jazz industry, but the most widely known is Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. Louis began playing at a young age when he was growing up in New Orleans. His greatest inspiration was Joe “King” Oliver. He began following him and eventually Oliver became Armstrong’s mentor. Armstrong practiced his instrument and eventually he became the jazz great everyone knows today. Armstrong’s unique singing and masterful improvisation transitioned jazz from the traditional style to a newer, more rhythmic style. He popularized scat singing and was the first musician to have his solo on a recording (Rodgers 85). The solos Armstrong performed along with his popular scat singing helped make jazz musicians more popular along with making the fans take notice of Armstrong and jazz itself (Rennert 8).

Have you ever wondered why George Strait is the King of Country music?  With Georges many followers across the world and many awards he received this means he would be set up for success right?  George has had a lot of major and minor challenges throughout his background and career, but that hasn’t slowed him down any on his awards and number one hit singles and albums.  Lets go over George’s background, career, and awards and number one hits.

“Little Louis” sung in a vocal quartet in his early teens. His rise to the top, though not overnight, occurred quickly, he played with mostly all the major bands in New Orleans over the next few years (Friedwald 350). In 1922, his mentor, King Oliver, invited him to work his Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. After recording with Oliver for over a year, Armstrong moved into what would become the most important early-jazz big band, Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra (Shipton 201). As if it were not enough that Armstrong would rewire instrumental music for the rest of the century, his singing did the same for vocal music. He sang much as he played, but with a playfulness and a rasp, that would forever be part of American culture (Winfield 167). The first important trend in New York Jazz was Hot Jazz that was an incendiary style introduced by Louis Armstrong (Winfield 170). He was known for both his joyous ways with the trumpet and his peculiarly touching and funny vocal style. There was a cheerful impatience in his playing, an optimistic confidence that led him to risk going over the top (Shipton 157). Louis Armstrong is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced (Shipton 160). Eldridge is the obvious link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. Armstrong could make an audience cheer, but Roy Eldridge, made those top and bottom notes feel like a natural part of what the horn should do (Friedwald 21). Blessed with

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901 to Mayanne and William Armstrong. His father abandoned his family during Louis' infancy. Louis spent the first years of his life with his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong. After age five, Louis moved back with his mother and his sister, "Mama Lucy." The family was forced to live in stark poverty. Louis got into some trouble when he was just 12 years old and was placed in the Waif's Home for Boys. It was there that he first received musical instruction and learned to play the coronet. He was released from the Waif's Home in June of 1914. He worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. Joe Oliver, one of the finest

Born in Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis grew up in a middle-class family in East St. Louis. Miles Davis took up the trumpet at the age of 13 and was playing professionally two years later. Some of his first gigs included performances with his high school bandand playing with Eddie Randall and the blue Devils. Miles Davis has said that the greatest musical experience of his life was hearing the Billy Eckstine orchestra when it passed through St. Louis. In September 1944 Davis went to New York to study at Juilliard but spend much more time hanging out on 52nd Street and eventually dropped out of school. He moved from his home in East St. Louis to New York primarily to enter school but also to locate his musical idol,

     Before even hitting a year as a soloist, Miles Davis put out his first album as a soloist named Birth of the Cool. This was definitely something to be marked down on the timeline of Jazz. The album was accurately named, being responsible for the stardom of Cool Jazz, a movement that the very new to the Jazz movement, Miles Davis, invented within his first year of success. The Cool Jazz, which featured Gil Evans, first appeared in the latter days of 1949.

When Jacksons Thriller album came in 1982, it became one of the world’s best-selling albums of all time. Gail Mitchell of billboard.com said that, within only a year the album sold for over 65 million copies. It is the first ever album to be certified as a 32x multi-platinum album. In 1984 the album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards including album of the year, not to mention every single on the album reached Billboard Hot 100. Just the awards their selves speak for how amazing this album was. Thriller consisted of just seven singles starring many hits with “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Thriller”, and “P.Y.T.” Each single was released at a different time first with, “The Girl Is Mine” on October 18, 1982 to Thriller being the final single released on January 23, 1984. Thriller was produced by Quincy Jones and recorded through Westlake Recording Studios.

Stevie Wonder Stevie Wonder has been a major figure within the Black Music scene over the last forty years. Stevie Wonder was born Steveland Judkins on May13, 1950, however, he now prefers to be known as Steveland Morris after his mother's married name. He was blind at birth. The cause was the prematurity of the eye.

James P. Johnson an influential jazz pianist and is known for his hit “Carolina Shout.” And finally, Coleman Hawkins played the tenor saxophone. He was actually one of the first musicians to be known for the instrument.

“The song has to be of a certain quality for me to sing…One aspect it would have to have is that it didn’t repeat itself” (Bob Dylan). Transforming into new people throughout his life, Bob Dylan reverted to the Bible and other religious findings in his songs. Dylan is able to reveal a fulfillment from spirituality as he perceives his music as a sacred landscape. Bob Dylan brings up a theme of religion, referencing the book of Isaiah in his 1967 song “All Along the Watchtower” as he writes a story about two people at the watchtower, where the significance of life is found. Dylan’s spiritual lyrics conceived his work as a an artist through imagination and religion that creates a hallowed dwelling for him to aqurie attainment.

After finishing Michigan School for the Blind Stevie Wonder sang at bars and restaurant’s in Michigan, United States. In 2001 Stevie Wonder married Kai Millard Morris and as the years past on Kai Millard Morris got pregnant and give birth to two healthy boys named Kailand Morris and Mandla Kadjay Carl Stevland Morris