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Norman Mason (American Musician)
Norman Kellogg Mason (born 25 November 1895 – 6 July 1971 St. Louis) was a Bahamian-born American jazz clarinetist, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader. Early life and career Mason was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to Ellis and Alice Leanora (née Bartlett) Mason. He began playing trumpet at age eight, as did his brother, Henry Mason. He immigrated to the United States in 1913, initially living in Miami. He toured with revues such as the Rabbit Foot Minstrel Show while still in his teens, and soon after became active on the New Orleans jazz scene. Soon after he played in bands in Chicago and St. Louis. Career At the end of the 1910s, Mason was playing with Fate Marable, when he began playing alto saxophone. Toward the beginning of the next decade, Mason was a member of Ed Allen's Whispering Gold Band, and soon after led his own ensemble, the Carolina Melodists (though they had no actual connection to North or South Carolina). For one year, he and the Melodists pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
