bellernado

 Ella Fitzgerald  Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1976) is heralded as the most famous female jazz singer in American History. She grew up in New York in poverty and at age 17 joined a local theater to sing, where she started gaining traction. She joined a band called "Chick Webb" as the main vocalist. It was through this band that she became known as a pivotal voice in the swing era in the 40's and 50's. After the leader of the band passed away, she took it over and renamed it "Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra". It was under this title that she released all her most famous albums. She transitioned into scatting, jazz, and bebop. She toured the world and collaborated with many famous singers like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra. Ella retired in the 90's due to health conditions with 13 Grammys and known as the "First Lady of Song". Here I have attached her most famous scatting song, in which she improvised a scat that lasted for...

 Tamborazo Zacatecano I chose this style of music because the Hispanic side of my family traces back to a central city in Mexico called Zacatecas, and I take every opportunity I can to learn more about it.  Tamborazo Zacatecano translates to "big drum band from the land of the grasslands". In other words, the style of music is known for its use of the tambora (a large bass drum) as a strong and heavy heartbeat throughout the song. Zacatecano refers to the people who lived in Zacatecas (the grasslands). This music was mostly played by silver miners and the military. The ensembles usually consisted of 2 trumpets, 2 saxophones, and a tambora. The music is striking, fast-paced, and very loud as it was meant to be performed during street parades and in war. The most famous military example is the unofficial national anthem of Mexico, "La Marcha de Zacatecas". It was created in 1891 when two Zacatecan musicians made a bet over who could make a better military march song i...

 How The Saxophone Became a Core Jazz Instrument I have always loved the saxophone. In fact, when I was in 5th grade, our music teacher had us all pick one instrument we wanted to learn, and I chose the saxophone. Unfortunately for me, my teacher didn't trust all 85lbs of me to hold and play a saxophone and instead handed me a clarinet. The clarinet and I did not get along very well, as I didn't necessarily like the way it sounded. There was this specific jazzy tone to a saxophone that drew me in, and I regret never learning to play it.  The saxophone was invented in the 1840's in Belgium by Adolph Sax. Get where the name comes from now? It was based on the clarinet, much like my beginning.  The jazz genre was born in the 1910's, although the saxophone did not join until the 1920's with the birth of swing. Jazz mostly consisted of trumpets, trombones, and clarinets, so when Sidney Bechet introduced the saxophone, it blended perfectly with the other brass instruments...