Rapp on Jazz

American clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman was known as the “King of Swing,” who brought jazz to mainstream audiences in the 1930s and 1940s. 

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Louis Daniel Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901. This American trumpeter and vocalist went by the  nicknames "Satchmo," "Satch," and "Pops." He was among the most influential figures in jazz, with a career spanning five decades. 

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“God has wrought many things out of oppression,” begins Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous essay occasioned by the first Berlin Jazz Festival in 1964. “He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy.”

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The Gullah music of the South Carolina Lowcountry and the coast of Georgia have played a crucial role in the development of jazz.

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In Hollywood, he is known as “Dirty Harry,” an Oscar-winning director, or simply as the “Man with No Name” from a string of Spaghetti Westerns, but the multi-talented Clint Eastwood has also made his mark in jazz.

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Best known for his comedic turns on television in the groundbreaking English program Beyond the Fringe and blockbuster films like 10 and Arthur, Dudley Moore was also a successful jazz pianist and composer. 

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How many of us  had our first taste of jazz while watching A Charlie Brown Christmas? The now classic program debuted in 1965 and featured a groundbreaking score by pianist Vince Guaraldi.

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Jazz has shaped some of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1970s, including M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son, and Taxi.

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The Jazz Appreciation Forever Stamp was dedicated in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2011. Inspired by vintage jazz record album covers in Pasadena, Calif., artist Paul Rogers captured the spontaneity and improvisation of jazz musicians in his design for this stamp.

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