STOCKTON- The month of February is known to feature the annually observed holiday, Black History Month. The main purpose of Black History Month is to commemorate important individuals and events in African American history. This event is observed by not only the United States, but countries such as Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. With this celebration comes the recognition of important black individuals in the artistic sphere. The most prominent black musicians were a part of a genre known as Jazz. This genre originated in African-American communities, particularly in New Orleans, Louisiana. This type of music created identity, originality and social unity between black musicians. What arises from the creation of this artform are prominent artists that expanded the music.
Also known as the King of Jazz, Louis Armstrong was a renowned jazz trumpeter and vocalist. His rise to fame started in the early 1920s with the rise of the Dixieland style of Jazz, which included features such as being extremely emotionally intense and featuring a lot of improvisation. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his talent, skill and personality. Although he is mainly celebrated for his trumpeting skills, it is really his distinctive gravelly-voiced singing that also had a huge influence on later artists. Another prominent artist during the Dixieland era of Jazz was Duke Ellington, who is considered the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of all time. Although he was a fantastic piano player, his true instrument was his orchestra, which he led for more than 50 years.
During the 1940s, a prominent era of Jazz emerged which is known as the bebop era. With a marvelous vocalist, Ella Fitzgerland, emerged and adopted this style. Also known as “Lady Ella”, the “Queen of Jazz”, and the “First Lady of Song”, Ella gained major acclaim with her unique style of singing known as scatting, which later inspired singers like Louis Armstrong. Her talent can be seen in the purity of voice, perfect intonation, clarity of diction, harmonic imagination, amazing memory and rhythmic sensibility and, most astonishing, the fact that her voice spanned three octaves. Her devotions as an artist were recognized in 1958 as she became the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award. Even with her declining health, she continued performing with her discography spanning more than 200 recorded albums throughout her extensive career.
In our modern day in age, jazz is still considered to be prominent, although it has adapted and changed throughout time. Jazz is no longer a genre, particularly in the United States, as it has expanded to countries like Brazil with the introduction of a genre known as Bossa Nova and Latin Jazz from Latin American countries like Cuba and Puerto Rico. Recently, a new age of Jazz artists has emerged with a significant artist staking her claim in the music world. Winning a Grammy for her Jazz Vocal Album in 2022, Esperanza Spalding is a bassist, singer and songwriter. She, in fact, is the first jazz artist to win a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. She attended Portland State University before transferring to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 2005. At the age of 20, she became the youngest teacher, an alumnus of Berklee. At the same time, she won a Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship. Included in her many talents is her ability to sing in several different languages, which include English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Within her music she blends Jazz with the other worlds of music, including Brazilian and Argentinian folk music. Currently, she continues to create and produce music while pushing the boundaries of Jazz as a genre.