Jazz essays

Jazz essays In the 1920s African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers were part of a great cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. After World War I many African Americans migrated to the North and settled in the city of Harlem, New York. It was during this time that the African American community would not only grow to be a recognized culture, but it would be a time in which the people of the society could express the talents which they developed within the American society. As Quoted from Langston Hughes: It was the period when the Negro was in vogue. The African Americans of the time not only gave us great: Culture, Literature, Art, and Entertainment The African American society did give us Jazz and Blues, but the question is why did they feel it was so necessary to implement such music into a society that never believed they were capable of being more than just slaves? The answer... the African American society didnt just give us Jazz and Blues because they wanted something to pass on to the generations to come, but rather they wanted to prove not only to themselves that they could be something but also to the high hat White folk that saw them as nothing. For many blacks of the time they were the New Negro: a person who calls for social order and demands that blacks fight back against racism and segregation in American society. And the way most blacks fought back, just as their ancestors did during the time of slavery was through music. As the need for expression grew, soon after came the birth of jazz-American music characterized by improvisation, and ensemble playing among other things. Jazz got its beginning through old time spirituals, it consisted of a theory that claimed: an infinite amount of melodies can fit the chord progression of any composition. But since it wasnt 1835 and it ...