bringing music home
Q: When did you decide that you wanted to be a professional musician? A: In that weird sort of way that kids seem to know what really makes them happy, I always imagined I’d be a musician and that one day I’d have a record […]
The Prohibition Blog by Louise Balkwill As what we have come to know as “Traditional Jazz” grew in popularity and spread from New Orleans across the whole of America, new inventions and political changes also began to shape the music. The Prohibition in the United […]
Microphone Singers Blog by Louise Balkwill Until the 1920′, singing was a very different art; There were no microphones suitable for singing, so if you wanted to be a singer you had to be able to project your voice in a way that made it […]
Traditional Jazz Blog by Louise Balkwill If you have been following this blog series, you have read about ragtime music – a genre of piano-based music played from sheet music for high society. You will have also heard some blues – heavily improvised music, used […]
Blues Blog by Louise Balkwill Alongside the evolution of the music from Congo Square in the 19th Century, before the abolition of the slave trade in America, another type of slave music grew in the Southern plantations; Blues. Blues found its origins in the Mississippi […]
Ragtime Blog by Louise Balkwill In our last blog, we looked at Congo Square and the origins of Jazz music. Now we visit the 1890’s, when Ragtime appeared in its earliest form. Unlike the earlier music of Congo Square that was passed down aurally from […]
Blog by Louise Balkwill 2017 is a very special year for music – it marks 100 years since the release of the first ever jazz recording, “Livery Stable Blues” by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band! Since then, popular music has foxtrotted, swung, bopped, rocked and […]