*African+Americans-+Jazz+Age

joshua " big home slice" leclerc pd.7 Who was Gershwin and how is he connected to the Jazz Age (hint: Raphsody in Blue)? How did Jazz reflect 1920s society? ||
 * [[image:http://www.albany.edu/faculty/jjpowers/risp361/projects/F_Viau_Jim/jazz.jpg width="188" height="181" align="left"]] __**Guiding Questions: ﻿ **__ Discuss African-Americans in the entertainment industry (movies, music) and the emergence of "Jazz". Discuss the accomplishments of important African-Americans during this time period (entertainers, writers, athletes).
 * Joshua Leclerc
 * Joshua Leclerc

Pd.7

African American Jazz

Brass trumpets, saxophones, and bassists all work in harmony to make genre or a type of music that we call Jazz. This originated from different places with similar styles of music like New Orleans and their Dixieland or hot jazz some may say. Even the word has history behind it, for example the word generated from “jass” which was a slang term in Chicago for the type of music they listened to. The best part of jazz is that it’s not even a set style of music, it changes every day. Most of the time nothings written, nor practice that’s why jazz doesn’t even have a set meaning either, people just play what they feel and other people join in fitting their feelings into it to. This was just a brief description of what jazz is looked like today but the history is where the interesting part comes in.

By 1808 the act of slave trading brought over half of a million slaves to America, which also brought their musical traditions along with them. The music the Africans brought over was used in many cases like for work, ritual, and even field hollers. They used single-line melody and call and responses pattern. Rhythms used by African speech patterns, and the African use of “pentatonic scales” led to “blue notes” in blues and jazz. Also, when slavery was abolished African Americans couldn’t really come by jobs in regular places like stores and such. The majority of Africans actually got into the “low-class” entertainment in dances, shows, and by which many marching bands were made. Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. In 1897 William H. Krell was the first to publish a piece of ragtime music called “Mississippi Rag” which was played on a piano. Pianist Scott Joplin also created his own ragtime music called “Original Rags” the following year then had an international hit called “Maple Leaf Rag”. As Jazz went through phases it had its up and downs and during the prohibition in the United States jazz started to get a bad name. For example many members of the older generation thought that it threatened old values and culture for African Americans. Even the media started to give jazz a bad name saying that Jazz caused the death of a celebrated conductor, even though the real cause was a heart attack. 1920 was not such a great year for the new genre of music called jazz. media type="file" key="Exploring_Music__Jazz____La_Rosita_.mp3" width="240" height="20"

In the following years a pianist/composer George Gershwin had came up to be. He composed music for Broadway and the classical concert hall. He has many famous compositions that became jazz standards recorded in many ways. He died in an early age because of a brain tumor caused because he got hit with a golf upside the head but leaves a legacy no one can comment upon. > > > > > Also his music style and influence on jazz is effected every one like Maurice Ravel who just based all his music on what Gershwin did when he was alive. He also made a lot of player piano roll recordings. He also did a complete version of rhapsody in blue. There are many player piano rolls recorded till today but none can compare to the pieces made by George Gershwin.
 * The 1945 [|biographical film] [|//Rhapsody in Blue//] starred [|Robert Alda] as Gershwin.
 * George Gershwin was inducted into the [|Long Island Music Hall of Fame] in 2006.
 * The [|George Gershwin Theatre] on Broadway is named after him. [|[32]]
 *  [|The George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Musical Achievement Award] was established by UCLA to honor the brothers for their contribution to music and for their gift to UCLA of the fight song "Strike up the Band for UCLA." Past winners have included [|Angela Lansbury] (1988), [|Ray Charles] (1991), [|Mel Torme] (1994), [|Bernadette Peters] (1995), [|Fra] [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/George_Gershwin_1937.jpg width="317" height="400" align="right" caption="File:George Gershwin 1937.jpg" link="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/George_Gershwin_1937.jpg"]][|nk Sinatra] (2000), [|Stevie Wonder] (2002), [|k.d. lang] (2003), [|James Taylor] (2004), [|Baby face] (2005), [|Burt Bacharach] (2006), [|Quincy Jones] (2007), [|Lionel Richie] (2008) and [|Julie Andrews] (2009).
 * The [|Congressional Gold Medal] was awarded to George and Ira Gershwin in 1985. Only two other songwriting recipients, [|Harry Chapin] and [|Irving Berlin], have had the honor of receiving this award. ( [|http://en.wikipedia.org][|/wiki/George_Gershwin] )

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