Through this practice, African American jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, their contemporaries and many more before and after them, have made jazz a constant yet ever-evolving genre of expression, and united musicians across the world for over a century.
Through this practice, African American jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, their contemporaries and many more before and after them, have made jazz a constant yet ever-evolving genre of expression, and united musicians across the world for over a century. As a white person who plays, performs, and loves jazz, I want to remind the reader, and myself as I write this, of the complex history and social context that shaped jazz music.