Horace Tapscott's Influence On Society

The article “Jazz and White Critic” by Amiri Baraka brings light to an element of jazz criticism that he is frustrated by. Baraka finds controversy in the ideas white critics write about regarding jazz music. Baraka states, “Most jazz critics have been white Americans, but most important jazz musicians have not been.” In the 1960’s, when Baraka made this statement, jazz was becoming more popularized and socially accepted. African American jazz musicians took a long, strenuous journey over decades to push their music into the spotlight to become one of the most popular music styles in society internationally. The special element of jazz is its raw emotion. Baraka distinguishes between “White Jazz”, music

The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a “darker brother,” as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and that inspired him. Although literary critics felt that Langston Hughes portrayed an unattractive view of black life, the poems demonstrate reality. Hughes used the Blues and Jazz to add effect to his work as well as his extravagant word use and literary

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.

Writing during the emergence of the “New Negro” movement, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes work to reconcile black life in white America. The trope used by the two poets within “The Harlem Dancer” and “The Weary Blues” is that of a performance and a single speaker’s recollection of it. While both depict an African-American performer presumably consumed by the isolation and oppression of their condition, the intensity of the performances prove to be vastly disparate. Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” features a much more transcendent performance than that of McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer” not only because of the relationship between the audience and the performer, but the degree of ubiquity in descriptions of the performer and the poetic form through

Alvin Ailey was a phenomenal choreographer, dancer, and activist whose work focused on the narrative of the African American during the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. Informed and inspired by black church services, gospel music, and everything spiritual, the collaborations between him and Duke Ellington come as no surprise. Ellington’s career also focused on depicting “the character and mood and feeling of [his] people”, except he executed this artistry through musicianship in composing, conducting, songwriting, and bandleading. Together, they were both able to uplift and celebrate the Black American and their rich culture, during a time of trauma and the unforgivable horrors of slavery, meanwhile revolutionizing and

Armstrong’s heartfelt ballad about the woes of being black in the 1920’s was one of the first cases of a musician utilizing his elevated status in order to achieve social justice. To Armstrong, his vision of the American Dream was being considered an equal among the white men of society. By saying that he is “white inside”, he is referring to his rise and acceptance into the white society because of his success as a jazz musician. However, he still faces inequality and oppression due to the masks and stereotypes that society places on him based on the superficial reason of his skin color. As a revolutionary historical movement for the African American community through many platforms, arguably one of the most important impacts of the “Harlem Renaissance was the wide range of political action taken by both organizations and individuals who demanded improvements in African American economic and educational opportunities”(Brown). The Harlem Renaissance began as a movement for music, but as it spread and the people began to watch the movement turned it into one with a political agenda and showed people how badly and shamefully African American were

Instead again this is the reality of the racial situation that blacks and African Americans faced during the first half of the 20th century. Whites were seen as being the dominant race. So we must ask ourselves how did we get from a place where black musicians were exploited, mistreated, unaccepted and unacknowledged in the jazz industry in the 20th century to present day where as a nation we seem to accept that the creation of Jazz music is one of the great achievements of black musicians in the competitive

Charles Mingus was one of the most influential and groundbreaking jazz musicians and composers of the 1950s and 1960s. The virtuoso bassist gained fame in the 1940s and 1950s working with such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and many others. His compositions pushed harmonic barriers, combining Western-European classical styles with African-American roots music. While examining his career is valuable from musical standpoint, his career also provides a powerful view of the attitudes of African-American jazz musicians (and Black America as a whole) towards the racial inequalities in America during that time. In addition to being a successful musician, Mingus was a very outspoken social commentator.

Langston Hughes’s book, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, presents several jazz pieces that express the suffering African Americans have had to face over many years. The vernacular tradition in these works, is expressed through the jazz music that plays in the background while the poems recited (Pasadena City College). The jazz music gives the poems a feeling of Blues, but also tends to have a more upbeat feeling during certain points of the poems. In Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, all of the twelve pieces have a connection to each other in various ways. The connections involve the degree of suffering, money, or success. In “Ode to Dinah” and “Horn of Plenty,” Hughes exhibits all three of these connections, both in similarities and differences.

The liberating and enduring cultural power of music has proven to be as timeless as the sunsets in California. Even though Jazz has evolved into smooth melodies, the genre was initially written off as “colored people music”. While this is a foolish racial commentary, the brilliant minds behind the ragtime movement were certainly ahead of their time. Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, better known to the Jazz community as Jelly Roll Morton, was amongst one of these artists who helped shed a positive light on Jazz.

Langston Hughes compositions are known for being the voice of the Harlem Renaissance. A considerable number of his written work shared the feelings of that time. This particular poem "Trumpet Player" mirrors that music can lift the agony remembered, but one always remembers the hardships. The poem shares that freed blacks still experienced the impacts of slavery. Because of this, they held onto music as a method for soothing the agony they persevered.

The Harlem Renaissance was an evolutionary period in terms of African-American cultural expression; in fact, the movement changed the way that black musicians, poets, authors, and even ordinary people perceived themselves. One of the most influential poets of the time was Langston Hughes. Hughes’ works display a pride in being black that most African-Americans are too afraid to show, even today. Moreover, he adamantly refused to submit to the sentiment that he should be ashamed of his heritage, instead believing that “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.”(p1990 From the Negro Artist). In the article “‘Don’t Turn Back’: Langston Hughes, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Jason Miller, Miller analyzes how Hughes’ poetry has been used by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama and how the House of Un-american Activities Committee affected that use.

Langston Hughes mixes imagery and jazz music to explain how a Negro musician frees him soul of his troubles. The first stanza informs the reader the burdensome pain the musician carries. Hughes describes the trumpet player look by stating in lines 3-4 that