Since the Harlem Renaissance, African-American musicians have portrayed black history as extended musical works. Jazz is full of such long-form compositions. Hear five examples from composers such as Oliver Nelson, Wynton Marsalis and Duke Ellington.

History As Symphony: The African-American Experience In Jazz Suites

History As Symphony: The African-American Experience In Jazz Suites

Blood on the Fields cover art

Ten Freedom Summers cover art

Duke Ellington's compositions present a timeless contribution to American music's legacy.

Victor Drees//Evening Standard / Getty Images

Detail from the original cover art to Duke Ellington's 1944 studio recording Black, Brown and Beige.

Courtesy of the artist

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s inspired several black artists to explore their African heritage and the black experience in America, from enslavement to life after emancipation and migration to cities in the north. In the musical world, pianist James P. Johnson composed Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody, a 12-minute portrait of a black community in Savannah, Ga. Yamekraw was orchestrated for a 1928 performance at Carnegie Hall by black composer William Grant Still, who would write his own Afro American Symphony in 1930.

Since then, many more African-American artists have employed the expansive concepts of suites, symphonies and extended works to render the saga of black life from Africa to America. Here are excerpts from five extended jazz representations of black history.

Copyright 2013 WFIU-FM. To see more, visit http://wfiu.org.

Filed in:

• NPR Music Essentials
• Music