Jazz Series
Ella Fitzgerald- Her life in Jazz The singer all singers call the best. The story of a young woman who against impossible odds achieved fame as a Jazz singer by the age of seventeen. At that young age she found herself at the heart of The Harlem Renaissance and American Jazz. She would go on to perform around the world for another 58 years.
Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance The Duke. Composer, dreamer, businessman. Genius interpreter of Big Band Swing and the Harlem Renaissance moment – melody maker and aficionado of putting on the Ritz – Sir Duke.
Paris Noir- Bricktop, Baker and Porter Jazz era Paris- risqué, exciting. Saloon host and doyenne of cafe society, Ada Bricktop hosted luminaries such as Cole Porter, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and F. Scott Fitzgerald at her Montmartre hot spot Chez Bricktop. Josephine Baker arrives on the shores of France in La Revue Negre, Cole Porter pens the lyrics and melodies of this bright young time in word history.
Jazz- In the beginning there was Satchmo Louis Armstrong. Grandson of slaves, iconic trumpeter and vocalist brings Jazz from the brothels of Storyville, New Orleans to the bright lights of New York City. Kid Ory, King Oliver and Fletcher Henderson were players in Armstrong's influential rise to stardom while the Chicago and New York mob fought over this charismatic Jazz star.
Birth of the Cool- Big Band swings into Bebop The first kind of modern jazz. At it's start, the intensity of Bebop was unacceptable not only to the general public but also to many musicians. The resulting breaches—first, between the older and younger jazz musicians and second, between jazz musicians and their public—were deep, and some say have never completely healed. The Bebop movement originated during the early 1940s in the playing of trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, guitarist Charlie Christian, pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Kenny Clarke, and the most intense of all, alto saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker.
Multi-media Music Presentations
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