Groundbreaking Black Musicians - Jazz & Hip Hop

This bundle includes two Google Slides presentations on Groundbreaking Black Musicians in Jazz and Hip Hop, featuring DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Eric B & Rakim, Queen Latifah Lauryn Hill and Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Nat King Cole. YouTube links are included right in the presentations and have been edited with appropriate start and stop times for convenience.

The hip hop Slides presentation includes NAfME music essential questions, has definitions for DJ and turntable skills (as well as Breakdancing at the end) and highlights methods for turntablism, how rhyme and rhythm have been used in rap, how women were breaking ground in hip hop music and includes links to the Google interactive turntables and and Incredibox so that students can practice their skills. There are also two versions of the slideshow, with a few changes in language and presentation for K-3 and 4-8th grades (and one video change) to ensure that all students are able to understand and appreciate the material. Each of these groundbreaking black musicians changed hip hop for the better, invented new ways of making music, and were amazing musicians, it's a school appropriate way to share a popular style of music and how it's made!

The jazz Slides presentation includes a timeline for each artist, but it as well as extra information and talking points, from Billie and gardenias, Duke and a "Spoonful of Sugar" comparison, it even asks students to put themselves in Louis Armstrong's place and imagine life growing up as a famous trumpet player! Then students get to choose from words used to describe Ella Fitzgerald's voice, and try to imagine what bebop sounds like (before hearing it of course!). The final selection is "L-O-V-E", a recent TikTok favorite from Nat King Cole, and a reminder that he while he was the first black man on the air with his own variety show, it only lasted for one season because no one would sponsor it.

Each of these groundbreaking black musicians changed music for the better, invented new ways of making music, and were amazing musicians! It's all about that beat!