Legendary Jazz Musicians
Jazz. What can you say about Jazz? It’s the great American Music. The original. It’s something that we as a country contributed to the world. One of the finest things. It’s unique, breath taking, and inspiring. It will make you cry, make you laugh, and make you take notice of the world around you. There is no one single style of Jazz that over shadows the other. From Big Band Swing to the Jazz Funk, it’s always been an expression of who we are as a society. Like any genre of music it has it’s legends. Legends that speak to us long after their corporeal bodies have departed. They live, they breath, and are remembered in the words and melodies that they have left for us to discover.
Duke Ellington was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in April of 1899. A great American composer, pianist and big band leader he is a prominent figure in the history of jazz. Ellington was not locked to one genre of music. His greatness spanned them all blues, popular, classical, and gospel. But his love, his passion was jazz. His career lasted for more than 50 years and included his orchestra, composing innumerable song books, scoring movies and tours around the world. His inventive use of the big band in his music, and his amazing charisma and eloquence elevated the perception of jazz to an art form that rivaled other traditional genres of music. His death in 1974 did nothing to lessen his reputation or his impact on the genre of jazz.
One can hardly speak of jazz and it’s history without some mention of Satchmo, or Louis Armstrong. He was one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. His skills as a trumpeter and singer threw him to the forefront of “American Music” or jazz in the early 1920’s. His inventive use of the cornet and trumpet had a profound impact on jazz. He shifted the focus of the music from the collective improvisations to solo performers. His distinct gravelly voice made him an influential singer, his great skill with improvisation lent to the bending of lyrics and melodies in a song for unique expressions. His skills as a scat singer, or using syllables instead of actual lyrics is a legend without equal. With his charismatic stage presence and that deep recognizable voice Louis Armstrong’s influence extended well beyond jazz music and by the end of his career in the 1960’s, he was regarded as a moving force on popular music as a whole.
The First Lady of Song. Her voice touched millions. In her lifetime Ella Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy’s and sold over 40 million albums. She was the most popular female jazz singer in the US for more than 50 years. Her voice was wide-ranging, accurate, flexible and ageless. She could sing sweet jazz, sultry ballads and imitate every instrument in the orchestra with just her voice. Jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Benny Goodman all had the pleasure of working with Ella. She performed at top venues all over the world and filled them to the rafters. Her audience was as diverse and varied as her vocal range. They were the rich and the poor, coming from all races and religions. For once there was no disagreement between such widely diverse groups, they all loved The First Lady of Song.
For nearly 60 years Miles Davis has been the embodiment of jazz music. His music, his fashion, and his international presence is still felt within the world of music. In 2006 Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. For over a half a century he dazzled us with his brilliance, exasperated us with his brutal honesty about himself and the world around him. Miles was, as if guided by some unseen hand, always in the right place at the right time. His father gave him his first trumpet when he was 13 years of age. It quickly became apparent that he was a prodigy with the instrument and was soon studying under jazzmen Clark Terry, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billy Eckstine. By the time he turned 18 he had been accepted to the Julliard School of Music. Miles didn’t stay long with Julliard, instead following his dream to play with legendary greats like Max Roach and Bud Powell. There wasn’t much that Miles didn’t touch on, not a sphere of music his art did not touch.
Jazz. An art form that spans the decades between what was to what is. The genre and it’s legends have touched every area of our art filled lives. Their influences are heard in every genre of music. The Great American Music. Jazz, the very meaning of cool. It touches you with it’s style. It will make you dance, make you sing, make you cry and make you laugh. There is no one way of jazz, no one school, that is set above the others. There is only the sounds, the music, and those voices that reach into our souls and strum the chord of humanity within us.
