Essay --

How Jazz Musicians Influenced the Harlem Renaissance Jazz music was changed forever during the blossoming Harlem Renaissance, due to the great singers that changed the genre forever. Jazz music was a way for African Americas to get a sense of freedom. Singers like Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Lionel Hampton, for example, all took advantage of this freedom. Holiday, Armstrong and Hampton were so important to jazz music because they are still influence music today. Billie Holiday was born April 7th, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. â€Å"Holiday’s life was tinged with constant sadness, and she made every performance sound as if she had lived through the melancholy lyrics of the songs† (Shipton â€Å"Holiday†). She moved to New York with her mother and she sang in local clubs in Manhattan, even though she had no experience schooling. Throughout her career she faced racism as she traveled, especially when she sang in an all-white big band; this inspired her to join the desegregation movement. One of her most famous songs â€Å"Strange Fruits† was about southern lynching. During her career,...