“Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.” (Miles Davis NYC, 1959) Jazz music was brought to America by African-Americans in the early 1900s. Jazz performances were mostly in the evening. Jazz was not a revolution, it is a revolution. Miles Davis, a legendary jazz composer and musician, said that Jazz is a revolution. It left a positive impact on American Society in the 20th century.
This kind of music is a hybrid between European-Western Music, African Music and culture, and later American Music. Jazz music has similar harmonic and orchestrational techniques to European music, which is where classical music originated. African music gave jazz its rhythmic feel, drumming styles, and emotion. Jazz originated …show more content…
The piano, another classical instrument, was used to play chord progressions, melodies, harmonies, bass lines, or all of the above. Piano was and is still mostly used for composing any kind of music. So, seeing a jazz pianist play more than chords is not uncommon. The snare drum, the concert bass drum, and the cymbal, were turned into what is now called, a drum set. It was used to keep time and exaggerate style and dynamic. Other melodic instruments, like trumpet and clarinet, were taken from the orchestra and used for jazz too. And around this time, in 1846, Adolphe Sax, invented the Saxophone, the most commonly played instrument for …show more content…
Rewinding back to the 1890s, so many ragtime compositions were published and played all over America. Ragtime even spread to Europe, where it was loved. It was an early genre of Jazz and is mostly in duple meter (time in 4/4 or 2/4) and played by piano, a melodic instrument such as saxophone, clarinet, or trumpet, and bass. At this time, marching bands and military bands were the tradition of American music. Ragtime music was heavily inspired by composers like John Philip Sousa (b.1854-1932), who was the band leader of the US Marine Band, and later the John Philip Sousa Band. Sousa was also known as “The March King” for writing some classic American Patriotic Marches, such as “Stars and Stripes Forever,” “The Washington Post,” “El Capitan,” and “The Thunderer.” (Marine Band Corps) Marching band left an influence on Ragtime music with its sense of rhythm and drum correlation. One of the first Ragtime composer Scott Joplin (b.1868–1917), an African American musician, wrote one of the first big ragtime hits, “Maple Leaf Rag” and then three years later, “The Entertainer.” The music was very loveable in the United States. However, the mass popularity in Ragtime left a negative message on some people. In 1901, the same year, President McKinley was assassinated, Ragtime music was suppressed by the American Federation of Musicians. "Resolutions were adopted characterizing 'Ragtime' as 'unmusical rot.' Members were encouraged to 'make every