Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Project
Final Project
4-29-16
MUSC 1040
Louis Bellson, Sarah Vaughan, and Joe Williams. He would later sign with
Pablo Records after being reached out to by Norman Granz, the founder of
Verve Records. The album Virtuoso, which he released in 1974, became his
best-selling album and is what really put him on the map. He was featured
on the album The Trio which also included musicians Oscar Peterson and
Niels-Henning rsted Pedersen. They would end up winning a Grammy in
1975 for Best Jazz Performance by a Group for their work in The Trio. While
he was at Pablo records he recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Herb Ellis, Duke
Ellington, and Benny Carter just to name a few. He did most of his music
collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald recording six duet albums with her. Joe
remained active in his music career up until he lost his battle with liver
cancer in 1994.
Jazz music was born in New Orleans in the early 1900s with influences
from both African and European musical traditions. In the early to mid-1800s
hundreds of thousands of African slaves were brought over to North America.
Those slaves brought along their native music traditions which included calland-response and single-line melodies. After slavery was abolished the newly
freed slaves had opportunities to learn about new musical traditions. Some
began to learn European instruments such as the saxophone, piano, violin,
and the trumpet. Most of those instruments are featured heavily in jazz
music.