The Harlem Renaissance in Connection to Duke Ellington

Jazz music was the vital element of this Harlem Renaissance. Two of these most common musicians were Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. The Cotton Club in Harlem was a common hot place for whites trying to love living jazz. The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant change that affected many areas of social life. This new era was characterized by a sense of pride and a desire to be a part of the American dream. My paper will touch the jazz scene in the first place.

The Harlem renaissance was a time when the Negro movement had become a symbol of the black community. It was a movement that began in the early 1800’s and the beginning of the renaissance. During the Harlem renaissance, the Negro movement was a very important part of the American society. It was a movement that brought about the revolution. The black church had a great influence on the African Americans. They were able to create a new style of art that would help them to become more successful. They wanted to change the world and the people of America.

The Harlem renaissance was a movement that began in the East. It was a movement that started with the black church. Blacks began to see the world differently. The black community was a very different place. Important places include Harlem, New York, Chicago, and the United States. Famous people include Martin Luther king Jr., W.E.B du Bois, and Malcolm X.

Duke Ellington was a prominent figure in the movement of African Americans. He was born in Harlem in 1899 and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, William F. Kennedy, was a Negro who lived in the south. In his early life, Duke played piano music and sang in the choir. He was a very popular musician and poet. He began singing with the blues. During his time in the army, he attended the University of Virginia. While in the army, he met Sonny Greer. Greer told Duke to pursue his career as a musician and became Ellington’s drummer.

Duke Ellington composed dozens of tone poems throughout his career. The earlier example of The Mooche would easily fall under that label, since it was music that Ellington intended to project specific feelings about Harlem and The Cotton Club. In 1940, Ellington composed another tone poem about life in Harlem, entitled Harlem Air Shaft. As you listen to Harlem Air Shaft, you are immediately transported to an apartment in the middle of a vibrant African-American neighborhood in New York, complete with the sounds of the people who inhabit the building. (By the way, an air shaft is an open courtyard in the middle of an older apartment building, allowing the residents to open their windows to get the air flowing through their apartments in the summer heat.) Ellington so strongly felt the need for all to experience this apartment building that he wrote the following program notes, which appeared on the sheet music and the record album in 1940: “”So much goes on in a Harlem air shaft.””[1]

Situating the Harlem Renaissance in area is nearly as complicated as determining its origins and time structure. Surely Harlem is middle to the Harlem Renaissance, but it serves more as the anchor for this change than as its only position. In actuality, the Harlem Renaissance both pulled from and distributes its effect across the United States, the sea, and the globe. And still, Harlem affected the creation, music, and work of nearly all of the participants at the Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem was the heart of Jazz, and Jazz continues to be prominent in music today. The music and movements created in Harlem shaped society today. In conclusion, Harlem and Jazz went hand in hand, and both have been the dominant forces in the American revolution of Race and social Justice. The Harlem renaissance was a period of great change and the new era of the negro movement.

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