Jazz Music

Jazz Music (Your name) (Course instructor) (Course title) (Date of submission)  Introduction Art and Music are crucial elements in human experience. Appreciation and understanding of art and music could be quite useful in widening an individual’s character as well as strengthening the existing relationship among people. In the present time, jazz music has come to be conspicuous, relevant and increased in popularity so to speak. This music genre is presently studied in various learning institutions, both public and private across the world. The purpose of this paper is to study jazz music and Davis Miles, one of the famous jazz maestros in 1970s as well his popular album “Bitches Brew”. Jazz Music Jazz is a kind of music that emanated within the African American communities in America during the 20th century or earlier. Its origin, which was particularly based on the adoption of European harmony by African Americans, involved the taking of European elements and incorporating them into the extant African music. This is more depicted through improvisation, blue notes, polyrhythm, swung notes and syncopation. In addition, Jazz has also continued to incorporate since its inceptions various elements from the American popular culture. Specifically, ragtime and blues elements are combined in forming arrhythmic and harmonic structures that are improvised in jazz music (Kirchner, 2005). Though this kind of music has spread and continues to spread in many parts of the world, its roots can be traced in America. The music components a have been drawn from various state, regional and local cultures resulting into distinct styles and ways of playing the music. Some of the jazz styles includes but not limited to: free jazz, punk jazz, jazz rock, nu jazz, m-base, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, jazz rap, indo jazz among others. In providing on what he terms as a broader definition of Jazz, Elsdon, (2003) explains that it is a type of music which includes such qualities such as improvising, swing , group interaction, openness to various musical possibilities as well as developing individualized voice. Jazz music is specifically based on the concept of improvisation. It has continued to develop while at the same time balancing conventional forces in the pursuit of novel approaches and ideas. In the present perspective, jazz music continues to grow at an escalating rate while at the same time following similar patterns of its tradition. The significance of improvisation in jazz is largely based on its presence in traditional types of this music. For instance, the early forms of blues emanated partly from common songs related to work as well as garden hollers of the African American workers. These kinds of songs were based on a call and response restructure. However, early blues were as well improvisational. The history of jazz music can be traced from ragtime up to the present period. Jazz, which has not yet received a clear definition spans more than one hundred years from its inception to the present day. It is in jazz where an actor will be able to interpret a specific tune in personal ways. In this music, it is almost impossible for an artist to do a particular composition more than once. A jazz performer is at his or her whims to change rhythms, time signature, or harmonies any time he or she felt so in the course of performance. Apparently, jazz music performance depends upon personal experience, the performer’s mood, and interactions of the audience, musicians, and personal perspectives. In essence, jazz music is not concerned on selecting a tune, rather a musician creates an ideal in his or her mind and with the drive of passion and will he or she plays the music. The peculiar expressions in this music may be derived from human emotions, people’s history as well s experiences. MILES DAVIS Mile Davis was a famous jazz musician from America. He was born in 1926 and died in 1991. Apart from him being a popular jazz musician, he was also a trumpeter, music composer and bandleader. The musician was quite significant during the 20th century jazz music. This is due to the fact that he greatly assisted a lot in shaping the different forms of jazz music including free jazz, hard bop, cool jazz and fusion. He also worked with other popular musicians as their bandleader including: Mulligan Gerry, Garrett Kenny, Williams Tony, and Jarrett Keith among others (Simon and Schuster, 1999). Davis is still regarded as the most influential figures of the 20th century jazz music. Mele’s charisma of pursuing music started when her mother Mae Cleota, persuaded him to learn piano while he was still young. Cleota was herself good as a pianist especially in blues but did not want to disclose this to her son. At the age of 13, she enrolled him at a music school near her home. His father provided him with a trumpet and with the school’s musician, Buchanan Elwood arranged his music lesions. Davis’s father was particularly keen on how he played his trumpet and would correct him each time he did a mistake. At 16, Davis was already enrolled in one famous jazz band at 17 where he spent one year. At this time, other bands, noticing his potential tried to persuade him to join various bands, but he was restricted by his mother who wanted him to first of all to finish his high school education. The musician first came into the limelight in the 2006 when he was inducted into the Roll Hall and Rock jazz performance. His first album “kind of blues” was released in 1959. This is the album that actually elevated him in this jazz music industry. The album received recognition by being awarded a platinum certification by the American Association of the recording industry. Additionally, the album also received recognition and commemoration from the US house representative during its 50th anniversary. This recognition was an aspect of honoring Mr. Davis as well as reaffirming jazz music as a state treasure. Davis style largely owes to the tradition of African- American performance. These styles, which largely emphasizes on the emphatic interactions, i...