Jazz is the Most Authentic American Music - 2002-08-24

Jazz is the Most Authentic American Music - 2002-08-24. A new CD from the Life Music collection has gathered some of the finest examples from the history of jazz in America. Selecting only eighteen songs from the vast collection of jazz music was nearly impossible. However, classic music collections, especially curating the best jazz recordings, is one of the specialties of the Time-Life Institute. Nat King Cole led one of the first jazz trios, consisting of piano, guitar, and bass. Their performance of 'Route 66' by Bobby Troup, where King Cole plays piano and sings, with Oscar Moore on guitar and Miller on bass, set the standards for jazz playing. Just a month before the recording of Route 66 by the Nat King Cole group, Dizzy Gillespie, the trumpeter, and his orchestra performed 'A Night in Tunisia,' which was a turning point in jazz history. 'A Night in Tunisia' was Dizzy Gillespie's first recorded work, and at that time, he was only twenty-eight years old. In that performance, Milt Jackson played the vibraphone (from the xylophone family) and Ray Brown played bass. This song became the national anthem of bebop fans in the 1940s, a period known as modern jazz, and introduced Afro-Cuban jazz to America. It is evident that no classic jazz collection would be complete without the First Lady of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald. No one could collaborate with jazz giant Duke Ellington like Ella Fitzgerald, and it was her swing music that infused such liveliness into 'It Don’t Mean A Thing.' In 1956, Ms. Fitzgerald recorded her album titled 'Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook.' She also performed songs by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern. Aside from these timeless jazz vocals, saxophone enthusiasts must also have this CD.