Jelly Roll Morton Research Paper

Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. Only Charlie Parker comes close to having as much influence on the history of Jazz as Louis Armstrong did. Like almost all early Jazz musicians, Louis was from New Orleans. He was from a very poor family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve after firing a gun in the air on New Year's Eve. At the school he learned to play cornet. After being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. He didn't own an instrument at this time,

“Other kids could play cowboys and Indians and imagine that they’d grow up to be cowboys,” he wrote in his Living Proof autobiography. “I couldn’t do that. I knew that I would never grow up to be a cowboy or a fireman or the president of the United States. I knew I’d grow up to be a singer. That’s all there ever was, the only option, from the beginning.” http://www.hankjr.com/career-biography/

The person whom invented Jazz was born in uptown New Orleans on September 6, 1877 to Alice and Westmore Bolden. Charles “Buddy” Bolden grew up in one of the most musically rich cities in all of the United States during the time, and it would have great influence in his life. As a young man, Buddy made money as a barber, however his heart was truly in his music. The cornet was his instrument, and he could play like nobody else. He was famously known as “The King” because of how well he played the cornet, as well as his public demand and popularity.

As time went on Miles Davis III became a part of the music society. He first played

When J.J. Johnson was 11 years old, his mother, Nina, sent him to piano lessons, and he briefly played the baritone saxophone at school.  At the age of 14, J.J. Johnson’s classmates wanted to be in a band and needed a trombone player, so he took the opportunity and never looked back. Johnson and his friends were really enjoying the concept melody solos from the tenor saxophonist, Lester Young, and he was also drawn to the Trombone work of Dickie Wells. Therefore, around 1941 and 1942, J.J Johnson joined two bands called Clarence Love’s Regional Touring Band and Snookum Russell’s Band. Johnson then received a suggestion to join the band of Saxophonist Benny Carter for an extended tour, so the spring of 1945, Johnson worked with Carter’s band as a trombonist and a staff manager.

Many people knew Louis Armstrong as the “first real genius of jazz”(Shipton 26). He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. Louis was the illegitimate son of William Armstrong and Mary Est “Mayann” Albert. He was abandoned by his father, a boiler stoker, shortly after his birth and was raised by his paternal grandmother. Then, at the age of five, he was returned to the care of his mother, who at the time worked as a laundress. Together with his mom, they moved to a better area of New Orleans. This is where Armstrong first fell in love with music; he would listen to people playing any chance that he would get(Tirro). He would attend parades, funerals, churches and go to cheap cabarets to be able to hear some of the greats play

Watching Louis Armstrong’s live performance in Berlin during the year 1965 was a pleasure, especially because I am a great fan of his music. Throughout the concert in Berlin, Armstrong and his chamber orchestra played 13 different pieces. With the exception of Jewel Woods’ entrance on vocals for two songs, the makeup of the chamber orchestra did not change throughout the concert. As a result, the cello, clarinet, drums, piano, trombone, and trumpet remained vital parts of each song throughout the concert.

Aside from the typical cultural, social, and political factors influencing any musician’s style, an early life filled with poverty and hardship also shaped Louis Armstrong’s musical development. Some even theorize that it was Armstrong’s difficult upbringing that made his music so wise, so unique, and so revolutionary. Armstrong was an African American child growing up in the slums of New Orleans, close to abandonment, impoverished, and with too few constant people, resources, or homes. However, had his upbringing been different, his musical talents may never have been established to grow and thrive into one of the most internationally influential jazz musicians ever. When Louis Armstrong was placed in a boys’ home as a young boy, he was presented with the opportunity to play the cornet. He took up work in Joe (King) Oliver’s house, doing chores in exchange for musical lessons, developing into a

in Kansas City and became one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time. He led us

Miles Dewey Davis was born into a well-to-do family in the town of Alton, Illinois. The family owned a large portion of a farm where Miles learned to ride horses as a young boy. In 1927 the family moved to East St. Louis. Miles' mother, Cleota Henry, encouraged him to play the violin while his father bought him a trumpet when he turned thirteen and

He began playing the piano at age 10 and started performing in front of an audience at just 12 years old. He played in the red-light district bordellos in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ferdinand mainly played ragtime and the blues. However he mixed a little Caribbean dance music in his songs as well, which closely resembled the new jazz music. While playing at the bordellos, he earned the nickname, Jelly Roll. Young and confident, Jelly Roll Morton set off playing

Miles Dewey Davis III, the son of a music teacher and a dental surgeon was born on May 26, 1926, in Alton Illinois. At the age of thirteen Davis’ father introduced him to the trumpet and from then on he developed a love for playing the trumpet. Davis’ father paid for him to study under Elwood Buchanan, who owned and directed a private music school. Davis played professionally all throughout high school where he was often bullied and beat on for playing. He also got beat up for being a lame band geek in high school. At the age of seventeen he was invited to be in a band with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Soon after Davis left Illinois for New York, where he enrolled at The Institute of Musical Art (Now known as Julliard) Davis soon dropped

One night in 1937, a teenage musician named Charlie Parker joined a jam session onstage at Kansas City's Reno Club. It was a special because a big-time drummer, Jo Jones, was there. He was the drummer for Count

Maynard Ferguson, jazz legend, internationally renowned big band leader and one of the world’s greatest trumpet players with his Big Bop Nouveau Band. He draws upon bebop, straight-ahead jazz, funk, swing, classical and contemporary music to create a fresh sound within the classic big band form. (cite from Jazz Alley web site) Because me being Korean, I personally was little surprised and impressed by two Korean were members of his big band. A massive piano player, Ji Young Lee, pretty amazing in all pieces, her extended work on “but beautiful” was really lovely and the most memorable. Stockton, powerful drum player, thrilled the audience especially one of my friend, with his solos. He was banging away using all his gear, play in energetic and lively. M.F. and his band provided a remarkable arrangement of "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," as well as some elegant and very impressive, as Maynard ended a song by playing a soft muted trumpet, while the rest of the band played softer and softer, creating the effect of a fade-out.

In 1902, Morton started to use the word: jazz. Morton explained jazz had adapted French tunes and Spanish tunes in the early jazz time. He supported his idea with his song “La Paloma” that he was surprised the Spanish tune were perfectly in the tempos, and he arranged it into New Orleans style by changing the right hand only with more syncopation. Moreover, Morton criticized those people who did not play ragtime well; they tended to increase the tempo to make them sounded well. He believed that it was a mistake and he was confident that he was right because everyone took his style after. After talking about ragtime, Morton discussed harmony, break, and vibrato in jazz. He started with the purpose for each element, then gave detail explanations