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Jazz Greats!: Part 1 of 2


© Deborah Jeter

Feb 7, 1997


Since this is Black History month in America, I thought passing along some information on some Jazz musicians would be the most appropriate and fun thing to do. This article has pictures to accompany it that are located at my music education site. This information can easily be turned into a music lesson. All you have to do is show the picture that can be copied and printed on your color printer, print out the information in this article to accompany the picture and then go to the following sites midi.com or Jazz Fan Attic to get some jazz samples of these great musicians. VOILA! You have yourself a cool jazz lesson!
    I'll present these "Jazz Greats" chronologically.

  • Jazz Great, #1 - Joe King Oliver:

      Born: New Orleans, Louisiana, May 11, 1885

      Died: Savannah, Georgia, April 8, 1938

    Joe "King" Oliver was the first important jazz cornetist. His career began in New Orleans with the Olympia and Eagle brass bands. "King" Oliver helped and encouraged Louis Armstrong. As Louis put it, "He became like a father to me." Joe King's Creole Jazz Band was formed in Chicago in 1922 and made history with its 1923 Gennett records and his big band of 1926-1928, the Dixie Synocopators, was a Who's Who in black jazz of the time. His compositions, including "Dippermouth Blues", "Doctor Jazz", and "Canal Street Blues", are all jazz standards. "Dippermouth" was a nickname given to Louis Armstrong when he was attending the Waif's Home for Boys. In the 1930's Oliver led several touring bands and he retired in 1937.

  • Jazz Great #2 - "Jelly Roll" Morton:

      Born: Gulfport, Louisiana, September 20, 1885

      Died: Los Angeles, California, July 10, 1941

    Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton grew up in New Orleans. Morton's nickname, "Jelly Roll" was given to him when he was a young man, playing the piano in what was called, "sporting houses".

    *Because this is supposed to be appropriate for a classroom of children, I won't go into any further explanation. ;-)

    Morton was one of the most rational of jazz philosophers. He was probably one of the most influential in instigating the move from ragtime to jazz as we know and call jazz today. He was a conscious and deliberate innovator. Morton was a formally trained musician. He played piano in local brothels, toured in vaudeville, and free-lanced in Chicago and California before recording with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1923 and with his own Red Hot Peppers in 1926. His library of congress recordings, made in 1938, present a capsule history of jazz. Virtually all of his many compositions are now

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    Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages
    10.   September 14, 1997 3:31 PM
    Leigh, that link to the software suggestions is:
    Freeware/Shareware.

    Hope it helps.

    Deborah Jeter
    Suite 101 -

    -- posted by Deborah_Jeter
    9.   September 11, 1997 4:23 PM
    Leigh, I think you will be helped by the article that I have submitted for publication on Friday, September the 12th. It will be featured in the "Suite Spot" which you can access easily just by clicki ...

    -- posted by Deborah_Jeter
    8.   September 10, 1997 9:32 PM
    Deborah, I just finished finding the site and reading what several of you had told me about the jazz music style of Harry Connick, Jr. I got lost in the links that were given, though, because at this ...

    -- posted by LeighA
    7.   September 10, 1997 8:51 PM
    David, I would really like that. As far as the Louis Armstrong songs, I believe that they discovered a whole new batch a few months back that had never been released. Maybe what you heard was the begi ...

    -- posted by Deborah_Jeter
    6.   September 9, 1997 11:41 PM
    I heard a GREAT collection of Joe King Oliver recordings about a week ago on the radio. The selections all featured Louis Armstrong and I believe were all recorded in 1923 or could that have been 193 ...

    -- posted by DavidS_9



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