Jazz (genre)
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| Jazz (genre) | |
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| Name | Jazz |
| Cultural origins | Late 19th–early 20th century, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
| Instruments | Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Clarinet, Piano, Double bass, Guitar, Drums |
| Subgenres | Dixieland, Swing, Bebop, Cool jazz, Hard bop, Modal jazz, Free jazz, Jazz fusion, Latin jazz, Smooth jazz |
Jazz (genre) Jazz is a musical genre that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in New Orleans, combining elements from African American musical traditions, European classical music, and Caribbean music. Jazz developed within communities shaped by Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, and the Great Migration, producing a rich constellation of styles, institutions, and figures that transformed American culture and influenced global music scenes across Paris, London, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro.
Origins and Early History
Jazz’s origins trace to the cultural milieu of New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast, where African American spirituals, blues, ragtime, brass band traditions, and Cuban rumba converged. Early performance venues included Storyville, riverboats on the Mississippi River, and social clubs tied to Creole communities. Pioneering ensembles and performers associated with this period include the Original Dixieland Jass Band, Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith, each linked to recordings, venues, and events such as the Columbia Records sessions and the proliferation of phonograph distribution. Migration to cities like Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles facilitated encounters with Harlem Renaissance cultural institutions, Apollo Theater, and recording hubs like Okeh Records and Victor Talking Machine Company.
Musical Characteristics and Elements
Jazz is characterized by syncopation, swing, improvisation, and distinctive approaches to harmony and rhythm. Harmonic practice draws on traditions from European classical music and innovations paralleled in works published by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, and George Gershwin. Rhythmic elements reflect connections to African drumming, Latin rhythms such as son montuno and clave, and the polyrhythms prominent in Caribbean and West African practices. Instrumentation emphasizes brass and woodwinds with rhythm sections anchored by piano, double bass, guitar, and drum kit. Formally, structures like 12-bar blues and 32-bar AABA standards appear in repertoires fostered by publishers such as Tin Pan Alley and venues like the Blue Note.
Styles and Subgenres
Jazz diversified into numerous styles including Dixieland, Swing, Bebop, Cool jazz, Hard bop, Modal jazz, Free jazz, Jazz fusion, Soul jazz, Latin jazz, and Smooth jazz. Major scenes and movements are associated with places and institutions: Harlem and the Savoy Ballroom for swing, 52nd Street and Minton's Playhouse for bebop, West Coast jazz and Los Angeles clubs for cool jazz, and New York City loft scenes for free jazz and avant-garde experiments. Cross-cultural hybrids emerged through artists engaging with Afro-Cuban musicians in Havana, collaborations with Brazilian artists tied to bossa nova, and fusions with rock and funk manifesting in albums produced at Electric Lady Studios and festivals like the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Key Figures and Influential Recordings
Seminal figures include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Norah Jones, Wynton Marsalis, and Esperanza Spalding. Influential recordings and albums include sessions such as the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, Giant Steps by Coltrane, Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Birth of the Cool by Miles Davis, Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus, Giant Steps sessions, Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins, The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman, and Billie Holiday’s recordings with Lester Young and Count Basie.
Cultural Impact and Social Context
Jazz intersected with movements and institutions including the Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Movement, World War II homefront culture, and postwar international cultural diplomacy programs run by the United States Department of State. Venues and festivals such as the Cotton Club, Carnegie Hall, Newport Jazz Festival, Village Vanguard, Blue Note, and Monterey Jazz Festival shaped public reception. Jazz influenced literature and visual arts through links to figures like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Pablo Picasso in Parisian crossovers, and has been cited in political debates involving censorship and cultural policy in venues from Congress hearings to mayoral arts initiatives in New York City and Chicago.
Performance, Improvisation, and Education
Performance practice centers on improvisation, small combo interplay, big band arrangements, and pedagogy in conservatories and institutions such as the Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Royal Academy of Music, and university programs at University of North Texas and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Education combines ear training, transcriptions of solos by artists like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, and study of harmony through texts and methods propagated by teachers affiliated with Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and workshops at Monterey Jazz Festival and Umbria Jazz Festival.
Evolution and Contemporary Trends
Contemporary jazz spans neo-traditionalist approaches championed by Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis, experimental trajectories from artists linked to ECM Records and the loft jazz era, and global hybrids involving artists from Nigeria, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, and Cuba. Technological and market shifts include digital production at studios such as Abbey Road Studios and distribution via platforms associated with Apple Inc., Spotify, and YouTube, while festivals like North Sea Jazz Festival and labels like Blue Note Records continue to promote new work. Current trends emphasize cross-genre collaboration with hip hop producers, electronic musicians tied to Warp (record label), and multidisciplinary projects connecting jazz with film scoring at studios such as Skywalker Sound.
Category:Jazz genres