33 Harlem Renaissance Music Facts That You Should Know About!

Harlem Renaissance was a defining moment for African Americans living in the USA.

If you didn't know already, the Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural movement that took place during the 1920s and 1930s. The decade is defined by the prominence of African American culture in almost all creative forms, including music, art, theatre, and politics.

The name of this movement comes from its epicenter, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, and it's said to have been influenced from Paris, France. Whatever be the base of this time, the Harlem Renaissance remains etched in our memories due to the pride of African American artists who made a place for themselves.

Hence, it's important to learn about the different facts of this time to get acquainted with the struggles of African Americans.

So, do keep reading if you enjoy listening to African American music from that time.

If you enjoyed this article, why not also read about Chinese music facts and classical music facts here on Kidadl?

Fun Facts About Harlem Renaissance Music

Let's start by learning about one of the most interesting aspects of the Harlem Renaissance, its music. Jazz became a sensation in the African Americans and the whole world when the musical genre was specially brought forward by the movement. So, let's know a bit about the music during that time.

A notable shift during the Harlem Renaissance was the adoption of piano into the jazz scene.

Before that, the jazz bands usually consisted of brass instruments, but soon a new piano playing style, the Harlem Stride, changed things. It first caught up with the wealthy African Americans but soon spread throughout the country.

Even though jazz was all the rage during this time, the African American artists and composers also made use of genres blues, spirituals, and poetry written by other African Americans to include the essence of the community.

However, blues and jazz can undoubtedly be called the most popular musical genres of that time. Some argue that the movement of the Harlem Renaissance didn't just stop during the 1930s, but in fact, continues to date, giving us genres like hip-hop, bebop, rock and roll, soul, and disco.

The Harlem Renaissance was also when the 'race records' came into prominence as creations owned, produced, and performed by African Americans, usually for an African American audience.

Harlem Renaissance Music Artists

Without the famous music artists, the Harlem Renaissance may not have been as influential as it is to date. You may know the popular names such as Louis Armstrong, but let's learn a bit about the others.

Let's start with the women. One of the most notable musical artists of that time has to be Josephine Baker.

Along with being a part of the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine Baker was also involved in the French Renaissance. She was a dancer and singer who took part in several vaudeville shows. Her name would always be remembered when it comes to spreading the strong image of African American women.

Another influential woman was Bessie Smith, a blues singer involved in the vaudeville scene and was a follower of Ma Rainey. Bessie Smith is often known as the 'Empress of the Blues.'

A notable female performer of that time was Gladys Bentley, who used to cross-dress as a man. Billie Holiday is also known as Lady Day and was one of the African American women who brightened the Harlem Renaissance. Her iconic style included wearing gardenias in her hair.

Like any other movement during the era, the Harlem Renaissance was also dominated by men from the African American community. Music became a way to express themselves about the racial stratification present in society. And, any discussion of the movement is futile without mentioning Louis Armstrong, the vocalist and trumpeter who revolutionized the jazz scene.

Some other African Americans who played a notable role included Thomas Wright Fats Waller, who pioneered the modern piano used in jazz, and Duke Ellington, who composed over a thousand songs in his career. Cab Calloway is another notable African American name of that time.

His band used to play at the Cotton Club, a popular musical destination that could only be visited by white residents. In that era, he managed to break the records and sell a million copies of his original, Minnie The Moocher.

One of the less commonly known musical artists was Jelly Roll Morton or Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, a jazz pianist and a ragtime performer. He got his name from Jelly Roll Blues, one of the first jazz compositions to be published, and he even claimed to be the inventor of the musical genre.

Other notable African American musicians of the Harlem Renaissance included Roland Hayes, James Fletcher Henderson, William Grant Still, and James Price Johnson.

Harlem Renaissance Musical Instruments

As you might know already, musical instruments played a vital role in the art of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. The piano turned out to be a popular option for some defining artists of that age. However, let's know a bit more about the instruments.

One of the things that we must realize about the Harlem Renaissance is that the music of that age and the way musical instruments were used during that era have greatly influenced the way we play musical instruments today. A vital component of the blues and jazz were brass instruments, like the Selmar trumpet played by Louis Armstrong.

On the other hand, Dizzy Gillespie is known for playing a crooked or uniquely bent trumpet. It's said that he has been playing the trumpet for a while, but at some point, someone sat on his trumpet, which led to it bending.

However, Dizzy Gillespie thought the trumpet sounded better with the weird bend. He went on to revolutionize the Harlem Renaissance movement with his introduction of a new genre called bebop.

Facts About Harlem Renaissance Music's Origins

When it comes to the musical origins of the Harlem Renaissance, it's evident that the genres of blues and jazz played a vital role in the scene.

Jazz is said to have originated in New Orleans, a city in the USA, by mixing blues and ragtime during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jazz was predominantly performed by the African Americans, who were the driving force of the Harlem Renaissance.

Moreover, jazz of the Harlem Renaissance is said to have been influenced by the musical traditions of Western Africa and the music practiced by African Americans.

Jazz has also been a form of cultural expression among the African American community. It was significantly tied to the experience of being migrants living in the USA.

Having said that, there are no strict origins found in the music of this era. It was an amalgamated version of the different cultural forces and traditions that existed in Harlem and the rest of the USA.

Poets of the Harlem Renaissance

It may come as a piece of shocking information, but one of the most significant influences of the Harlem Renaissance was literature and poetry. People like Langston Hughes dominated the scene, who wrote about the everyday plight of African American people. 

The thought of the Harlem Renaissance is inescapable without mentioning Langston Hughes, who is through to be the driving force of this movement.

The American poet is known for being a pioneer of jazz poetry, and he was influenced by Walt Whitman. Langston Hughes was also the one who penned 'The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,' which he regarded as the manifesto for the movement.

'The Negro Speaks of Rivers,' 'Mother to Son,' and 'The Weary Blues' are some of the most popular poems written by Langston Hughes while the movement was going on.

James Weldon Johnson was a popular poet of the Harlem Renaissance who penned 'Lift Every Voice' and 'Sing,' a poem that became a cult piece in African American literature. A central figure during the Harlem Renaissance was Claude McKay, who is known for having written 'If We Must Die' as a retaliation against the treatment of black people.

Jean Toomer is another common name of the Harlem Renaissance, known for writing Cane. Interestingly, Toomer was one of the few participants who lived between white and black societies.

Apart from poetry, Harlem Renaissance also had a pretty good scene for other types of literature like novels, columns, and essays. George Schuyler was one such person who led the Harlem Renaissance through his columns.

Wallace Thurman was another author known for writing novels, the most famous being 'The Blacker The Berry.' Rudolph Fisher was yet another author who wrote notable novels like 'The Walls of Jericho' and 'The Conjure-man Dies.'

Among women, the most famous names have to be Zora Neale Hurston, known for writing The Eyes Were Watching God. Still, other eminent women like Anne Spencer, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, among others, played an essential role in the literary scene.

Did You Know?

Here are some facts that you may not know about the Harlem Renaissance. We will try to give you ten facts about the era.

One of the common Harlem Renaissance music activities was to visit the hotspots of culture in Harlem. 'Y' is said to have been the first place where classical music performed by African Americans was widely heard.

At the same time, the 'Jungle' of Harlem was home to several nightclubs like Bank's Basement Brownies, The Bucket of Blood, and Leroy's. However, a popular get-together form of that era was rent parties.

The Harlem Renaissance was also a time for blossoming African American art, along with music and literature. Works of artists like Aaron Douglas portrayed African Americans' plight and contained themes of the Harlem Renaissance.

Even though Harlem is said to have been the epicenter of this cultural movement, its influence reached nationwide and even to the African and Caribbean population of Paris.

Initially, the Harlem Renaissance was called the 'new Negro movement,' and Langston Hughes is said to have called it the time when 'the Negro was in vogue.'

A fun or interesting fact about Harlem is that it started to become a black neighborhood when the African American migrants were displaced due to the proposed projects of the Pennsylvania Station.

As we all know, Harlem is a neighborhood of New York City. Yet, did you know that Harlem was where Dutch settlers first resided in 1658? They started calling it Haarlem, after a place present in the Netherlands.

One of the reasons for this movement's start is WEB Du Bois' idea of Pan-Africanism.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) played a vital role in leading the movement, and the organization published journals and magazines. Among them the magazine, The Crisis had over 100,000 readers by 1918.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created many interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 33 Harlem Renaissance Music Facts That You Should Know About! then why not take a look at Cuban music facts or country music fun facts?