Walkin' and Swinging: A Jazz Piece Written by Mary Lou Williams and Performed by Andy Kirk

Bob Fosse still lives as the most prominent figure in the field of jazz dance. Fosse was an artist, his dances were a direct reflection of him: provocative, creative, motivated, driven, tough, ruthless, and full of humor. His choreography was sexual, highly demanding of even the most trained and skilled dancers, full of humor and at other times bleak cynicism. Throughout his works, Fosse tackled the full spectrum of human emotions. As an artist, Fosse was known for his uncompromising modern style. It grew to be unmistakable with his sexually suggestive forward hip-thrusts; the vaudevillian humor of hunched shoulders and turned-in feet; and the mime-like articulation of hands. It was through this unique voice and innovative style that Fosse

While in the head, the winds played a harmonization of one theme, the rest of the band just accompanied behind them, creating a rather homophonic texture. The form of the piece seemed rather simple, AAI, with larger structure of: intro-head-solos-head-tag. At the beginning of the piece, the drumset player was given room to improvise an intro, and it was nice to hear what he did especially after not having played many solos in the previous tunes. Right after the drumset player’s intro, the group jumped right into the head. This specific arrangement seemed to have written out snippets of Coltrane’s solo, because right after both iterations of the head, instead of jumping into the solo section there was a densely-harmonized saxophone soli that sounded like quotations. It was after this showcase and a few more embellishments from the rest of the group that the actual solos began. Most of the soloing was grounded on staying right on top of the changes and echoing the angular phrases in the head, not venturing out too far with the rhythms. I think the soloists did a good job of that, but could have taken more risks with playing around with the rhythms. However, being in the hot seat is already stressful enough on this piece that playing it safe is not a bad thing, it’s just about surviving at that

The end of the 1920s was known for the ending of the silent film in Hollywood. With the advancement of sound technology, it has transformed the way we view films in today’s world. It all began with a film called The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crosland, starring Al Jolson, Warner Oland, and May McAvoy. The film is about a little boy named Jakie, whose father is a Jewish cantor, and he defied his father by not wanting to follow the family tradition of cantors. He wanted to be a performer, specifically, a jazz singer. One day, he was discovered by his neighbor Moisha and thus he got beat up and kicked out of the house. Jakie vowed to never return home. A decade later, Jackie is a performer with the help of his lover Mary with a new identity by the name of Jack Robin who wears a black face when on stage. One night, his father fell ill and was asked to sing at the synagogue, however, it fell on the same day as his opening show on Broadway. Jakie had to make a tough decision choosing between his family or his career.

Whether you are dancing for passion, to get into shape or to just attain some mental peace, jazz is an excellent option to choose. This highly energetic dance form is unique and has revolutionised the way we look at dance.

Who was Miles Davis and why was he such an important element in the music of Jazz? Miles Davis, as we would know him, was born Miles Dewey Davis in Alton, Illinois on the 25th of May 1926 to a middle-class black family.. A couple of years later, Miles went on to St. Louis where he grew up. Since he was a youngster, Miles' hobby was to collect records and play them over without getting tired of them. Since his family knew Miles was so interested in the music of his time, primarily Jazz, for his thirteenth birthday Miles received his first trumpet, although he had been playing since the age of nine. With this Miles began to practice and play his trumpet along with his records. Who would have known that just three years later, at the

New Orleans jazz is attractive to the military culture in the shared aspect that “New Orleans jazz developed as a synthesis of social and cultural factors that merged at a particular time and place in history” (Metzger and Ernest 406). Moreover, “the usual New Orleans musicians’ response to disaster … has long been an inclination to use music to mitigate the harsh realities endemic to a city that finds itself perennially in harm’s way” (Raeburn 812) in which, post-WWI, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and most recently post-9/11, directly relates to military sentimentality. Further justifying the connection of the need to mitigate harsh realities with music, a sentiment shared between both New Orleans natives and U. S. Military communities, “the Naval School of Music add[ed] classes to perform in real-world settings that include performances in war-torn and developing countries” (Jones 52). This resulted in its recent curriculum “innovation [of] a New Orleans style brass band to provide the ability to send small, mobile acoustic groups to entertain audiences in difficult performance conditions” (Jones 52). The Naval School of Music takes direction from the employed fleet musicians and their supervisors’ feedback, rather than faculty, to quickly adapt a curriculum to the changing naval landscape (Jones 47-52).

The first song played was “Hope Street” written by Tom Harrell. The piece was started off with Jerald snapping his fingers to a quick beat and then the Trumpet (Lynn) starts with a loud entrance. The other musicians join in and copy his notes as he plays. When the trumpet hits the high notes he trills the note as he holds it before dropping back down in PITCH to match the rest of the instruments. The bass, drums, and guitar carry the beat and the trumpet and trombone take turns playing in a sort of solo. As the trumpet and trombone fall back into rhythm with the other instruments the tempo becomes quick and the guitar take the lead in the piece. All three “solos” mirror each other in notes and TEMPO as the rest of the instruments keep the rhythm and beat. All instruments join in at the same note and continue playing together now in a

In his CNN article, “When Jazz Stopped Being Cool,” writer John Blake uses the publication of “Jazz Festival: Jim Marshall,” to reflect on the life and times of Jazz music and the questions of if, how, and when it had died. This book pays tribute to the great quantity and quality of photographical works put forth by the prominent photographer Jim Marshall and contains written contributions by President Bill Clinton and Nat Hentoff, a music critic. Blake explains how Jazz music was shoved from the “mainstage” and “eclipsed” by Rock music, among other musical styles, by using three main theories. His first theory is that Jazz music stopped making money in the same manner that it had previously. It was surpassed by Rock album sales which

On November 14th, the Lawrence University Jazz Workshop, under the direction of José Encarnación, played a concert of five tunes in Harper Hall. This ensemble consisted of a full rhythm section, six saxophones, a trombone and a cello making up the trombone section, and four trumpets. The purpose of this concert was to demonstrate what the Jazz Workshop had been working on throughout fall term as well as function as a final exam. Over the course of about 40 minutes, they played five pieces of different styles that featured and challenged different parts of the ensemble.

Throughout the years there have been several amazing composers and artists around the world and Miles Davis is considered one of the finest in the jazz genre. As one of the greatest jazz musicians ever, he instrumental in developing new forms of music such as jazz fusion. Like many famous twentieth century composers and artists, Davis grappled throughout his career with drug abuse, however, his music is still inspirational today and will impact and influence future generations and push them to their creative boundaries.

Overall, there were several different pieces of different sub-genres of jazz music. The pieces that were played in the ensemble included the following: Slide’s Derangement by Slide Hampton, BBC by Bob Florence, Dangerous Curves by Matt Harris, Blues for 70 by John Clayton, Jazz Crimes by Joshua Reden, Isotope by Joe Henderson, Basie’s Back in Town by Ernie Wilkins. Each piece named above had its own uniqueness. The characteristics of each musical piece will be described below:

“Little Boy from Chicago” performed by Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy, written by Mary Lou Williams and Herry Wells, courtesy of BMG Entertainment. “Bouncing with Bean” written and performed by Coleman Hawkins, courtesy of BMG Entertainment. and “Evenin” performed by Count Bean, written by Mitchell Parish and Harry H. White courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment, I can go on and on, the documentary has a rich swing collection. *1937 to 1939 finds swing fans decrying the commercialization of big band jazz. The man who helped swing return to its roots was Coleman Hawkins.

The title of the fourth song was called, “Let’s get away from it all”. In their fourth song again, saxophone was played a huge role. From the beginning of the song piano kept playing same melody line repeated and saxophone was moving wide range of notes and pitch. The rhythm and the tempo of drum changed as saxophone changed rhythm and the tempo. The bass guitar helped drum to follow saxophone’s rhythm and tempo. The saxophone style was kind of similar with the how Louis Armstrong was playing a solo. There were two guitars, but saxophone dominated other instruments and it was difficult to hear other instruments.

The varieties of jazz dance reflect the diversity of American culture. Jazz dance mirrors the social history of the American people, reflecting ethnic influences, historic events, and cultural changes. Jazz dance has been greatly influenced by social dance and popular music. But, like so much that is “from America”, the history of jazz dance begins somewhere else.

I hear modern jazz being played and the synthesizer is heavily being used for the current song. I could not find the name of the song and there was no singing. The radio host then said that song was played by Chester Thompson. He did not say the name of the song, only the name of the artist. Now I hear another song that is very upbeat and lively. Again, no singing. This jazz is very fast paced. The piano is the core instrument of this song. The cymbals maintain a constant rhythm in the background. There seems to be two pianos playing as well. Now I hear a saxophone playing for the first time in this song in the middle of it. It is being played very fast and loud for that matter as well. I am starting to hear the flute as well now. The flute's