Black Voices – 1E6-7

Take the A train by Duke Ellington

The name of the song is a reference to the A line of New York’s subway. At this time, it ran from Brooklyn up to Harlem, the very heart of Black culture in New York in those days. This place gave many black artists the opportunity to* express themselves and to raise their voices. That is how black culture started to expand. The most popular genre was jazz, the speciality of Duke Ellington. That may explain why he chose to write this song; it takes part in that big movement called the Harlem revolution and so it celebrates black culture.

This song knew a huge success during the second world war. It has to be played by a jazz swing orchestra called a “big band jazz”. Duke Ellington (1899-1974)  was the bandmaster and the pianist of his orchestra. He was a great composer and he wrote several famous popular  american songs. He was committed in the fight for African Americans’ civil rights and he used his popularity to become one of the main spokesperson in this fight.

The world “historical” through the song Take the train A has a meaning of memory.It allows us to remember what was the origins of jazz and in which context this style has been developed. 

• to give SOMEONE the opportunity TO + INF

2.

Take the A train, Duke Ellington                    

Duke Ellington, whose real name was Edward Kennedy Ellington, was born on April 29,1899 and died on may 24, 1974. He was a famous American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra. He led it from 1923 until his death. His career lasted more than six decades.[1]

He was born in Washington, D.C., but he spent a big part of his life in New York City. He got famous thanks to his orchestra’s appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe.

The name of the song is a reference to the A line of New York’s subway. At this time, it ran from Brooklyn up to Harlem, the very heart of Black culture in New York at this time period. This place gave the opportunity to many black artists to express themselves and to raise their voices. That is how black culture started to expand. The most popular genre was jazz, the speciality of Duke Ellington. That may explain why he chose to write this song; it takes part in that big movement called the Harlem revolution and so, kind of celebrates black culture.

This song knew a huge success during the second world war.It has to be played by a jazz swing orchestra called a “big band jazz”. Duke Ellington (1899-1974)  was the bandmaster and the pianist of his orchestra. He was a great compositor and he wrote several american famous popular songs. He was committed in the fight for African Americans’ civil rights and he used his popularity to become a spokesperson in favor of this fight.

The world “historical” through the song Take the A train has a meaning of memory.It allows us to remember what was the origins of jazz and in which context this style has been developed. 

Félicité, Lisa, Marie

Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come

Sam Cooke (1931-1964) is an African-American gospel and soul singer and songwriter. He started singing at a young age with his brothers and sisters. At the beginning of his career he sung only religious songs then joined a gospel group. He is considered as the founder of American soul music. He wrote many songs such as: “You send me” or “A change is gonna come”. His death gave rise to a controversy, as he was shot shortly after releasing his most famous song: “A change is gonna come”.

The song was a symbol of the struggle for civil rights in the 60’s. He announced a change in the mentality of American people and the possible end of discriminations against black people. For example, at this time, black and white people couldn’t sit down next to each other during concerts in the South of the States. Sam Cooke released this song after being turned down in a motel in Louisiana. The song was covered by Barack Obama in a speech a few years ago.

STRANGE FRUIT

We decided to tell you more about Strange Fruit, a song performed by Billie Holiday for the first time
in 1939 at the Café Society in New York.
Eleanora Fagan alias Billie Holiday, nicknamed Lady Day, born in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915
and died in New York on July 17, 1991, is an American blues and jazz singer, considered as one of
the greatest singers jazz has ever known. Her mother brought her to New York in 1928. Billie started to
do housework in Harlem where she sung occasionally but ended up like her mother, prostituting
herself. She was arrested, spent a few months in Welfare Island Prison.

After being released, she acquired a certain reputation as a jazz
singer in several clubs and speakeasies. She auditioned at the Log Cabin in Harlem, where she
was hired as a paid singer. She then took on the name of Billie Holiday, in reference to the actress Billie
Dove, a silent movie idol at the time.
Taken from a poem written and published in 1937 by Abel Meeropol, it is > the song constitutes an artistic indictment
against racism in the United States and more particularly against the lynchings suffered by
African Americans, which reached a peak in the South of the United States at the time. In 1939, she
embodied a cry of outrage against the murder of black people in the United States. Almost
80 years after its release, the protest song “Strange Fruit” remains one of the most influential of
the 20th century. So “Strange Fruit” is > can be considered as  the first major song of the American Civil Rights
Movement. It has become a symbol of the struggle of the black community for equality. Indeed, the “strange fruits” which the song refers to are actually a metaphor for the bodies, hanging from the trees, of black people lynched in the 1930s in the southern

“A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial.” (wikipedia.org) –> by definition they are enforced by law representative and more often then not by the army.

Baptiste&Camille