While young, he started taking piano lessons, but these lessons dulled him. ... Duke studied Johnson, imitating everything, from notes to even the smallest wrist movements. ... One night at a tavern, the piano player had taken ill. ... Unfortunately for Duke, Fats Wallace was asked to play piano instead. ... The suite, called "Black, Brown, and Beige-, ended on a note of hope. ...
A New Orleans barber by the name of Buddy Bolden picked up his cornet and blew the first stammering notes of jazz in the year of eighteen ninety-one. ... It was and still is sometimes played fast and shallow, with intentionally still rhythms on a piano. ... Most swing-style groups had at least 10 musicians and featured at least three or four saxophones, two or three trumpets, two or three trombones, piano, guitar, bass, violin, and drums. ... Because of their size and the nature of the sectioning, everyone in the ensemble had to carefully start and stop each note together. ... You are wond...
Also, the African scale, which contains notes flatted on the 3rd, 7th, and sometimes 5th degrees, is directly translated into blues music, which also incorporates slides into its instrumental form. ... Primarily instrumental, ragtime was commonly performed on piano or arranged for brass bands. ... They were the first to use the piano as a rhythm instrument, and to combine it with the banjo, the tuba, and in later pieces, the upright bass, in a rhythm section. ... Finally, this music made the piano, drums, and bass important solo instruments, as in Bebop, all instruments played an equal r...
