Term paper on Jazz

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Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes is often considered a voice of the African-American people and a prime example of the magnificence of the Harlem Renaissance. His writing does embody these titles, but the concept of Langston Hughes that portrays a black man's rise to poetic greatness from the depths of poverty an

Led Zeppelin
The band Led Zeppelin is one of the greatest hard rock groups of all time. The band also has one of the best success stories in the history hard rock music. Led Zeppelins success in hard rock was achieved in the seventies and they even had a few hits in the late sixties. The musicians in Led Zepp

Jazz has been an influence in many artist's work, from painting to other forms

of music. Jazz is an American music form that was developed from

African-American work songs. The white man began to imitate them in the 1920's

and the music form caught on and became very popular. Two artists that were

influenced by jazz were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Stuart Davis. The influence is

quite evident in many of their works, such as Horn Players, by Basquiat, and

Swing Landscape, by Davis. Stuart Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1894. He

grew up in an artistic environment, his father was art director of a

Philadelphia newspaper, who had employed Luks, Glackens, and other members of

the Eight. He studied with Robert Henri from 1910 to 1913, made covers and

drawings for the social realist periodical The Masses, which was associated with

the Ash-can School, and exhibited watercolors in the Armory Show, which made an

overwhelming impact on him. After a visit to Paris in 1928 he introduced a new

note into U.S. cubism, basing himself on its synthetic rather than its

analytical phase. Using natural forms, particularly forms suggesting the

characteristic environment of American life, he rearranged them into flat

poster-like patterns with precise outlines and sharply contrasting colors. He

later went on to pure abstract patterns, into which he often introduced

lettering, suggestions of advertisements, and posters. The zest and dynamism of

such works as Swing Landscape reflect his interest in jazz, which Davis

considered to be the counterpart to abstract art. Davis is often considered to

be the outstanding American artist to work in a cubism idiom. He made witty and

original use of it and created a distinctive American style, for however

abstract his works became he always claimed that every image he used had its

source in observed reality. Davis once said " I paint what I see in

America, in other words I paint the American scene." Stuart Davis' works of

the late 1930's celebrate the urban and technological environment and are quite

complex and frequently recall Legers's brightly coloured geometric forms. Early

works depict saloons and ragtime musicians. Titles and images of his works in

the 30's reflect syncopation and unusual rhythm of jazz, particularly swing .

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in 1960, four years before Stuart Davis' death. At

an early age Basquiat showed an interest and love for drawing. His mother often

took him to The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Metropolitan

Museum of Art. At the age of seven he and a friend of his wrote and illustrated

a children's book. Basquiat was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock films, cars, comic

books, and Alfred E. Newman from Mad Magazine. By the time he was seven he was

an avid reader of French, Spanish, and English texts. In his teenage years

Basquiat ran away from home often. He did not like obedience. By 1978 he was in

with the "in crowd." The filmmakers and artists of New York. He

enjoyed doing graffiti work using the name SAMO ( same old *censored* ).

Basquiat's career was divided into three broad phases. From 1980 to 1982 he used

painterly gestures, mostly skeletal figures that signal his obsession with

mortality. He also used figures that represent street existence, such as

policeman,...

Marshall, Richard. Jean-Michel Basquiat. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Wasserman, Emily. The American Scene - Early Twentieth Century. New York:

Jupiter Art Library, 1984.