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“Music extra work essay”

The principal character in“The five pennies” of 1959 is Red Nichols he was born on May 1905 in Ogden, he died at the age of 60 in 1965.Red was an Americanjazz player, a composer, and a bandleader. He based his career inmusic where he recorded numerous varieties of musical styles. He wasthe best music player in his time and history had it that he appearedon over 4,000 recordings during the 1920’s.Nichols stems from afamily that had some talented musicians his father was a collegemusic professor (Nichols, 34). Red initiated his music career in 1920where he joined the Syncopating band and later moved to the JohnnyJohnson Orchestra in New York City after his first band broke up. In1959, Red rocked in Hollywood where the film the Five pennies gotaired, and it majored on Nichol’s career, in the movie, he playedhis part as the cornet but did not appear on a screen.

Red Nichols gets portrayedmusically as one of the best jazz players, most of his works areoutstanding and astonishing his music career did not have a smoothride as he kept on shifting from one band to another until in themid-1950’s when he starred in Hollywood films and he rose to fame.He made many compositions which got put into albums, Nicholspopularity as the best jazz player of his time made him receivehonors and in 1986, he got inducted into the Big Band as well as thejazz music hall of fame.

Red’s character gotportrayed in different ways, some of them included his astonishingabilities to read music and the possession of good techniques, healso worked under different record labels and recorded over 100 sidesfor the Brunswick label. Socially Red got portrayed as a veryinteractive man, and this gets evidenced by all his dealings with avariety of bands, he also worked with many different individual whohelped him in making his music (Jackson, 54). He got involved innumerous groups some of which he initiated them and acted as theleader, all these activities displays his social life as a musician.He had a wife and a family, and this brings out the aspect that hewas quite the opposite of what most players portray he valued lifeand his friends thus making him an individual who lead a healthylife.

The principle character in“The five pennies” Red Nichols belongs to a phase that existed inthe 1900’s most specifically in 1901 and onwards, during thisperiod, the evolution of jazz music had taken place, and the use ofsaxophones got instituted. There was massive build up of technologythat led to the advancement in instruments that got used in playingjazz music, initially drums got employed as music instruments butduring this phase that Red existed, the use of drums gotextinguished.

The new phase saw theemergence of whites such as Red Nichols into the music career.Initially, jazz music got viewed as the black man’s thing but aftera series of revolutions, the whites started embracing this culture,and they became the perfectionist in playing jazz music as well asmaneuvering through these sophisticated music instruments.

The life and music of theprinciple character reflect the issues revolving around thehistorical phase by his actions of basing his career on jazz musicsince in the beginning. It was the kind of music that got viewed as ablack man’s thing, but as time went by, the whites started gettingsome interest in the music, Red’s life gets based on composing andselling music. The historical phase gets marked by the evolution ofsome of the music instruments that got employed in the playing of thejazz music, and the principle character emerged as one of the greatjazz musicians despite him being a white. Nichol’s life revolvesunder music where his parents had a music culture, and perhaps thisspurred his interest in music, his upbringing had a bit ofenlightening on matters concerning music and the historical phaseperpetuated his life course and career as a musician.

The narrative of the film isvery enthusiastic. It portrays a story of a young man who had a hornand came with many expectations from the west where there were norestrictions to the indulgence in taking alcohol. He came with amission of revolting against the cornball rhythm makers as well aswanted to achieve success. His road got filled with a variety ofmishaps he entered into trouble with those that he encountered andin the end, he makes an epic comeback as a changed man. At some pointin the film, the story follows a new turning point where it becomessad especially in the middle and then suddenly all gets back tonormal the story unfolds gradually as the film proceeds to itsclimax but one might sense some unusual activities and behaviors suchas those of getting drunk recklessly.

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https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Five+Pennies+%281959%29+%28about+Red+Nichols%29&ampie=utf-8&ampoe=utf-8 retrieved on 20/5/2016.

Jackson, Travis&nbspA. &quotJazzand Spatiality: The Development of Jazz Scenes.&quot Performanceand Meaning on the New York Jazz Scene&nbsp(2012): 51-69.Print.

Nichols, Charles. &quotEnglishStudies in Scandinavia*.&quot The Modern Language Journal43.7&nbsp(1959): 321-323. Print.