Contents
Jazz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stylistic origins: Blues • Folk • March • Ragtime
Cultural origins: Early 1910s New Orleans
Typical instruments: Saxophone · Trumpet · Trombone · Bass Guitar · Clarinet · Flute · Piano · Guitar · Double bass · Tuba · Drums · Vocals · Vibraphone · Banjo
Mainstream popularity: 1920s–1960s
derivatives: Rock'n'roll, Rhythm and blues, ska, reggae, krautrock, drum and bass
Subgenres
Asian American jazz • Avant-garde jazz • Bebop • Big band • Chamber jazz • Continental jazz • Cool jazz • Free jazz • Gypsy jazz • Latin jazz • Mainstream jazz • Mini-jazz • Modal jazz • M-Base • Neo-bop • Orchestral jazz • Post-bop • Stride • Swing • Third stream • Traditional jazz • Traditional pop • Vocal jazz
Fusion genres
Acid jazz • Afrobeat • Bluegrass • Bossa nova • Calypso jazz • Crossover jazz • Dansband • Deep house • Free funk • Funk • Hard bop • Humppa • Jam band • Jazz blues • Jazzcore • Jazz funk • Jazz fusion • Jazz rap • Jump blues • Kwela • Livetronica • Mambo • Manila Sound • Math rock • Mod revival • Modern Creative • No Wave • Novelty piano • Nu jazz • Nu soul • Post-metal • Progressive rock • Punk jazz • Reggae • Rhythm and blues • Shibuya-kei • Ska • Ska jazz • Smooth jazz • Soul jazz • Swing revival • World fusion • Yé-yé
Regional scenes
Australia • Brazil • Cuba • France • Germany • India • Italy • Japan • Malawi • Netherlands • Poland • South Africa • Spain • United Kingdom
Local scenes
Cape Town • Kansas City • New Orleans • West Coast
Jazz musicians
Bassists • Clarinetists • Drummers • Guitarists • Organists • Pianists • Saxophonists • Trombonists • Trumpeters
Other topics
Jazz standard • Jazz royalty • Jazz (word) • Jazz clubs • Jazz drumming
Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music.[1] Its West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.[2] However, Art Blakey has been quoted as saying, "No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa".[3]
The word "jazz" began as a West Coast slang term of uncertain derivation and was first used to refer to music in Chicago in about 1915. From its beginnings in the early 20th century, Jazz has spawned a variety of subgenres, from New Orleans Dixieland dating from the early 1910s, big band-style swing from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s, a variety of Latin jazz fusions such as Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz, and free jazz from the 1950s and 1960s, jazz fusion from the 1970s and late 1980s developments such as acid jazz, which blended funk and hip-hop influences into jazz. As the music has spread around the world it has drawn on local national and regional musical cultures, its aesthetics being adapted to its varied environments and giving rise to many distinctive styles.
Definition
Jazz can be very hard to define because it spans from Ragtime waltzes to 2000s-era fusion. While many attempts have been made to define jazz from points of view outside jazz, such as using European music history or African music, jazz critic Joachim Berendt argues that all such attempts are unsatisfactory.[4] One way to get around the definitional problems is to define the term “jazz” more broadly. Berendt defines jazz as a "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of blacks with European music"; he argues that jazz differs from European music in that jazz has a "special relationship to time, defined as 'swing'", "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role"; and "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician".[4]
Travis Jackson has also proposed a broader definition of jazz which is able to encompass all of the radically different eras: he states that it is music that includes qualities such as "swinging', improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being 'open' to different musical possibilities".[5] Krin Gabbard claims that “jazz is a construct” or category that, while artificial, still is useful to designate “a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition”.[6]
While jazz may be difficult to define, improvisation is clearly one of its key elements. Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, a common element in the African American oral tradition. A form of folk music which rose in part from work songs and field hollers of rural Blacks, early blues was also highly improvisational. These features are fundamental to the nature of jazz. While in European classical music elements of interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment are sometimes left to the performer's discretion, the performer's primary goal is to play a composition as it was written.
In jazz, however, the skilled performer will interpret a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition exactly the same way twice. Depending upon the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with fellow musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician/performer may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will. European classical music has been said to be a composer's medium. Jazz, however, is often characterized as the product of egalitarian creativity, interaction and collaboration, placing equal value on the contributions of composer and performer, 'adroitly weigh[ing] the respective claims of the composer and the improviser'.[7]