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Neagu Romina Georgiana

Anglo-American Studies, 2nd year

The History of Jazz


John William Coltrane. Duke Ellington. George Gershwin

Jazz began its development in New Orleans where King Oliver, a cornet player that Louis
Armstrong idolized, was performing in the early 1900's. Steamboats using the Mississippi further
helped spread the sound of jazz as many of the New Orleans jazz bands and musicians performed
as entertainment on the boats.
In the 1920s the music of jazz began to migrate to a big band format combining elements
of ragtime, black spirituals, blues, and European music.
John William Coltrane
John William Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. At
the age of three his family moved to High Point, NC, where young Coltrane spent his early years.
His father, John Robert Coltrane, died in 1939, leaving twelve year-old John and his mother on
their own. His mother, Alice Blair Coltrane, moved to New Jersey to work as a domestic while
John completed high school. John played first the clarinet, then alto saxophone in his high school
band. His first musical influence was the tenor saxophonist Lester Young of Count Basie's band.
The John Coltrane quartet first formed in April of 1960 with Coltrane playing tenor
saxophone, McCoy Tyler on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Harrison on bass. It was
during the first years of this group that Coltrane graduated from an above-average tenor
saxophonist to an elite bandleader, composer, and improvisor. My Favorite Things, the epic
album featuring Every Time We Say Goodbye, Summertime, But Not For Me, and the title
track, was recorded in 1960. This was undoubtedly Coltrane's most successful and popular
album, and granted him the commercial success that had eluded him thus far in his career.
Perhaps due to this success, Coltrane's approach to his music began to shift during 1961-62,
moving towards a more experimental, improvisational style. This free-jazz alienated many of
the fans Coltrane had collected after My Favorite Things, but at the same time expanded the
horizons and definition of jazz. Among the more popular recordings of the quartet in the
following years were Africa Brass (1961), Ballads (1962), A Love Supreme (1964), and
Meditations (1965), as well as concerts recorded at The Village Vanguard (NYC) in 1961 and
at Birdland, also in New York, in 1963. Coltrane's continuing desire to break new boundaries
with his music, though, led to the end of the group in January 1966.
During the mid-1960's the turmoil in Coltrane's professional life was mirrored by
disruptions in his personal life. In the summer of 1963 he moved out of the house he shared with
his wife, Naima, and moved in with Alice McLeod. Coltrane had met Alice, a pianist, in 1960,

and they had been friends since then. A son, John Coltrane Jr., was born to Coltrane and Alice on
August 8, 1964; this was followed on August 6, 1965 by a second son, Ravi. A year later
Coltrane divorced Naima and married Alice. A final son, Oran, was born to Coltrane and Alice
on March 19, 1967. On July 17, 1967, John Coltrane died due to complications arising from his
years of alcohol and drug abuse.
Duke Ellington
By the time of his passing, he was considered amongst the worlds greatest composers
and musicians. The French government honored him with their highest award, the Legion of
Honor, while the government of the United States bestowed upon him the highest civil honor, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom. He played for the royalty and for the common people and by the
end of his 50-year career, he had played over 20,000 performances worldwide.
Dukes parents, Daisy Kennedy Ellington and James Edward Ellington, served as ideal
role models for young Duke, and taught him everything from proper table manners to an
understanding of the emotional power of music. Dukes first piano lessons came around the age
of seven or eight and appeared not to have had that much lasting effect upon him. It seemed as if
young Duke was more inclined to baseball at a young age. As Dukes piano lessons faded into
the past, Duke began to show a flare for the artistic. Duke attended Armstrong Manual Training
School to study commercial art instead of going to an academics-oriented school. Duke began to
seek out and listen to ragtime pianists in Washington and, during the summers, in Philadelphia or
Atlantic City, where he and his mother vacationed .
Later, Duke was taken under the wings of Oliver Doc Perry and Louis Brown, who
taught Duke how to read music and helped improve his overall piano playing skills. Duke found
piano playing jobs at clubs and cafes throughout the Washington area. Three months shy of
graduation, Duke dropped out of school and began his professional music career.
In 1923, Duke left the security that Washington offered him and moved to New York.
Through the power of radio, listeners throughout New York had heard of Duke Ellington, making
him quite a popular musician. It was also in that year that Duke made his first recording.
Ellington and his renamed band, The Washingtonians, established themselves during the
prohibition era by playing at places like the Exclusive Club, Connies Inn, the Hollywood Club
(Club Kentucky), Ciros, the Plantation Club, and most importantly the Cotton Club. Thanks to
the rise in radio receivers and the industry itself, Dukes band was broadcast across the nation
live on From the Cotton Club. The bands music, along with their popularity, spread rapidly.
Duke Ellington and his band went on to play everywhere from New York to New Delhi, Chicago
to Cairo, and Los Angeles to London. Ellington and his band played with such greats as Miles
Davis, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Louis Armstrong. They
entertained everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to President Nixon. Before passing away in 1974,

Duke Ellington wrote and recorded hundreds of musical compositions, all of which will continue
to have a lasting effect upon people worldwide for a long time to come.

George Gershwin
George Gershwin played a prominent role in one of the most colorful eras of American
popular music: the so-called age of Tin Pan Alleyroughly 1890-1930when popular music
became big business. In Tin Pan Alley (28th Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue in New
York City) numerous music publishing houses poured forth popular songs each year. The musical
theater and the private parlor rang with the sounds of ragtime, romantic ballads, and comedy
songs. Talented composers such as Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern, among dozens of
lesser figures, fed this lucrative music-making machine and flourished.
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn in New York City on Sept. 26, 1898, the son of
Rose and Morris Gershovitz, immigrants from Russia. After settling in New York's Lower East
Side, his father changed the family name to Gershvin; when George entered the professional
world of music, he altered the name to Gershwin.
In 1924 the prominent bandleader Paul Whiteman asked Gershwin to write an original "jazz"
work for a concert. The result, Rhapsody in Blue for piano and jazz band, was Gershwin's debut
in the concert hall as pianist and composer, his first attempt at writing an extended piece, and the
first time jazz rhythms and blues-oriented melodies were used successfully within a classical
framework.
Reviewing the premiere, Olin Downes wrote that the "composition shows extraordinary talent,
just as it also shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk." These
aims were demonstrated again in the Piano Concerto in F (1925), commissioned by Walter
Damrosch for his New York Symphony; Three Preludes for piano (1926); and An American in
Paris (1928), premiered by Damrosch and the New York Philharmonic. After Rhapsody in Blue,
Gershwin himself scored all his orchestral works.
Gershwin's best songs have proved to be some of the most durable of his era, and his
classical works give his career a dimension shared by none of his Tin Pan Alley companions. His
fondness for African American music is responsible in part for the rhythmic vitality and bluestinged lyricism of all his works. His best scores, especially those utilizing Ira Gershwin's
trenchant and sympathetic verses, are as fresh, vigorous, and unconventional as any written for
the American musical theater. Moreover, Gershwin's music has a peculiar American stamp
recognized the world over.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Isaac Goldberg, George Gershwin: A Study in American Music (1931; new enlarged ed.
by Edith Garson, 1958)
"George Gershwin." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved January 21,
2015 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404702447.html
http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/johncoltrane.Retrieved January 21, 2015
http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/dukeellington.Retrieved January 21, 2015

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