   #copyright

Jazz

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical genres, styles,
eras and events

   Jazz
   Stylistic origins: Blues and other African American folk music,
   Ragtime, West African music, European marching bands, 1910s New
   Orleans.
   Typical instruments: Saxophone – Trumpet – Trombone – Clarinet – Piano
   – Guitar – Double bass – Drums – Vocals
   Mainstream popularity: 1920–1960
   Subgenres
   Avant-garde jazz – Bebop – Cool jazz – Dixieland – Free jazz – Gypsy
   jazz – Hard bop – Jazz fusion – Kansas City Jazz – Latin jazz – Modal
   jazz – M-Base – Smooth jazz – Soul jazz – Swing – Trad jazz – Third
   stream
   Fusion genres
   Acid jazz – Asian American jazz – Calypso jazz – Jazz blues – Jazz
   fusion – Jazz rap – Nu jazz – Smooth jazz – Bossa Nova
   Jazz around the world
   Australia – Brazil – Spain – Netherlands – France – India – Italy –
   Malawi – United Kingdom
   Jazz musicians
   Bands – Bassists – Clarinetists – Drummers – Guitarists – Organists –
   Pianists – Saxophonists – Trombonists – Trumpeters
   Other topics
   Jazz standard – Jazz royalty – Origin of the word jazz

   Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana,
   United States around the start of the 20th century. Jazz uses blue
   notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and
   improvisation, and blends African American musical styles with Western
   music technique and theory.

Overview

   Trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong, a well-known jazz musician
   Trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong, a well-known jazz musician

   Jazz has roots in the combination of West African and Western music
   traditions, including spirituals, blues and ragtime, stemming from West
   Africa, western Sahel, and New England's religious hymns, hillbilly
   music, and European military band music. After originating in African
   American communities near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz
   styles spread in the 1920s, influencing other musical styles. The
   origins of the word jazz are uncertain. The word is rooted in American
   slang, and various derivations have been suggested. For the origin and
   history of the word jazz, see Origin of the word jazz.

   Jazz is rooted in the blues, the folk music of former enslaved Africans
   in the U.S. South and their descendants, which is influenced by West
   African cultural and musical traditions that evolved as black musicians
   migrated to the cities. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis states that "Jazz
   is something Negroes invented...the nobility of the race put into sound
   ... jazz has all the elements, from the spare and penetrating to the
   complex and enveloping."

   The instruments used in marching bands and dance band music at the turn
   of century became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds, and
   drums, using the Western 12-tone scale. A "...black musical spirit
   (involving rhythm and melody) was bursting out of the confines of
   European musical tradition [of the marching bands], even though the
   performers were using European styled instruments."

   Small bands of black musicians, mostly self taught, who led funeral
   processions in New Orleans played a seminal role in the articulation
   and dissemination of early jazz, traveling throughout black communities
   in the Deep South and to northern cities.

   The postbellum network of black-established schools, as well as civic
   societies and widening mainstream opportunities for education, produced
   more formally trained African-American musicians. Lorenzo Tio and Scott
   Joplin were schooled in classical European musical forms. Joplin, the
   son of a former slave and a free-born woman of colour, was largely
   self-taught until age 11, when he received lessons in the fundamentals
   of music theory. Black musicians with formal music skills helped to
   preserve and disseminate the essentially improvisational musical styles
   of jazz.

Improvisation

   Reggie Workman, Pharoah Sanders, and Idris Muhammad, c. 1978
   Reggie Workman, Pharoah Sanders, and Idris Muhammad, c. 1978

   Jazz as a genre is often difficult to define, but improvisation is a
   key element of the form. Improvisation has been an essential element in
   African and African-American music since early forms of the music
   developed, and is closely related to the use of call and response in
   West African and African-American cultural expression.

   The form of improvisation has changed over time. Early folk blues music
   often was based around a call and response pattern, and improvisation
   would factor in the lyrics, the melody, or both. In Dixieland jazz,
   musicians take turns playing the melody while the others improvise
   countermelodies. In contrast to the classical form, where performers
   try to play the piece exactly as the author envisioned it, the goal in
   jazz is often to create a new interpretation, changing the melody,
   harmonies, even the time signature. If classical music is the
   composer's medium, jazz is able to stand up for the rights of the
   performer too, to 'adroitly weigh the respective claims of the composer
   and the improviser'.

   By the Swing era, big bands played using arranged sheet music, but
   individual soloists would perform improvised solos within these
   compositions. In bebop, however, the focus shifted from arranging to
   improvisation over the form; musicians paid less attention to the
   composed melody, or "head," which was played at the beginning and the
   end of the tune's performance with improvised sections in between.

   As previously noted, later styles of jazz, such as modal jazz,
   abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the
   individual musicians to improvise more freely within the context of a
   given scale or mode (e.g., So What on the Miles Davis album Kind of
   Blue). The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, even call for,
   abandoning chords, scales, and rhythmic meters.

   When a pianist, guitarist or other chord-playing instrumentalist
   improvises an accompaniment while a soloist is playing, it is called
   comping (a contraction of the word "accompanying"). "Vamping" is a mode
   of comping that is usually restricted to a few repeating chords or
   bars, as opposed to comping on the chord structure of the entire
   composition. Most often, vamping is used as a simple way to extend the
   very beginning or end of a piece, or to set up a segue.

   In some modern jazz compositions where the underlying chords of the
   composition are particularly complex or fast moving, the composer or
   performer may create a set of "blowing changes," which is a simplified
   set of chords better suited for comping and solo improvisation.

History

1800s

   African American music traditions had already been a part of mainstream
   popular music in the United States for generations, going back to the
   19th century minstrel show tunes and the melodies of Stephen Foster.
   Public dance halls, clubs, and tea rooms opened in the cities. Black
   dances inspired by African dance moves, like the shimmy, turkey trot,
   buzzard lope, chicken scratch, monkey glide, and the bunny hug
   eventually were adopted by a white public.

   The cake walk, developed by slaves as a send-up of formal dress balls,
   became popular. White audiences saw these dances in vaudeville shows.
   The popular dance music of the time were blues-ragtime styles. Tin Pan
   Alley composers like Irving Berlin incorporated ragtime influences into
   their compositions.

   Buddy Bolden is generally considered to be the first bandleader to play
   the improvised music which became known as Jazz. His band started
   playing around 1895 in New Orleans parades and dances. Although no
   recordings remain of his music, here is a link where you can hear Jelly
   Roll Morton's memory of Bolden's theme song, as well as obtain
   references on Bolden. Charles "Buddy" Bolden.

1910s

Ragtime

   Rhythms brought from a musical heritage in Africa were incorporated
   into Cakewalks, Coon Songs and the music of "Jig Bands" which
   eventually evolved into Ragtime, c.1895 (timeline). The first Ragtime
   composition was published by Ben Harney. The music, vitalized by the
   opposing rhythms common to African dance, was vibrant, enthusiastic and
   often extemporaneous.

   Notably the antecedent to Jazz, early Ragtime music was in the format
   of marches, waltzes and other traditional song forms but the consistent
   characteristic was syncopation. Syncopated notes and rhythms became so
   popular with the public that sheet music publishers included the word
   "syncopated" in advertising. In 1899, a classically trained young
   pianist from Missouri named Scott Joplin published the first of many
   Ragtime compositions that would come to shape the music of a nation.

Dixieland/New Orleans Jazz

   A number of regional styles contributed to the development of jazz. In
   the New Orleans, Louisiana area an early style of jazz called "
   Dixieland" developed. New Orleans had long been a regional music
   center. In addition to the slave population, New Orleans also had North
   America's largest community of free people of colour. The New Orleans
   style used more intricate rhythmic improvisation than ragtime, and
   incorporated "blues" style elements including " bent" and " blue"
   notes, and using the European instruments in novel ways.

   Key figures in the development of the new style were trumpeter Buddy
   Bolden and his band, who arranged blues tunes for brass instruments and
   improvised; Freddie Keppard, a Creole who was influenced by Bolden; Joe
   Oliver, whose style was bluesier than Bolden's; Kid Ory, a trombonist
   who refined the style; and Papa Jack Laine, who led a multi-ethnic
   band.

Other regional styles

   Meanwhile, other regional styles were developing which would influence
   the development of jazz.
     * In 1891 in Charleston, South Carolina, Reverend Daniel J. Jenkins,
       an African-American minister, established the Jenkins Orphanage,
       which included a variety of orphanage bands. The orphanage bands
       were trained to perform popular and religious music, and members
       such as William "Cat" Anderson, Gus Aiken, and Jabbo Smith went on
       to play with jazz bandleaders like Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton
       and Count Basie.

     * In the northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime
       developed, characterized by rollicking rhythms, without the bluesy
       influence of the southern styles. The music had collective
       improvised solos, around a melodic structure, that ideally built to
       a climax, supported by a rhythm section of drums, bass, banjo or
       guitar. The solo piano version of the northeast style was typified
       by Eubie Blake. " Stride" piano playing, in which the right hand
       plays the melody, while the left hand provides the rhythm and
       bassline, was developed by James P. Johnson. Johnson influenced
       later pianists like Fats Waller and Willie Smith. Recordings spread
       the "Hot" new sound across the country. James Reese Europe was a
       prominent orchestra leader. Tim Brymn performed with a northeastern
       "hot" style.

     * In Chicago in the early 1910s, saxophones vigorously "ragged" a
       melody over a dance band rhythm section, blending New Orleans
       styles and creating a new "Chicago Jazz" sound. Chicago was the
       breeding ground for many young, inventive players. Characterized by
       harmonic, inovative arrangements and a high technical ability of
       the players, Chicago Style Jazz significantly furthered the
       improvised music of its day. Contributions from dynamic players
       like Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman and Eddie Condon along with the
       creative grooves of Gene Krupa, helped to pioneer Jazz music from
       its infancy and inspire those who followed.
     * Along the Mississippi from Memphis, Tennessee to St. Louis,
       Missouri, the "Father of the Blues," W.C. Handy popularized a less
       improvisation-based approach, in which improvisation was limited to
       short "fills" between phrases.

1920s

   The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas,
   January 1921.
   The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas,
   January 1921.

   With Prohibition, the constitutional amendment that forbade the sale of
   alcoholic beverages, speakeasies emerged as nightlife settings, and
   many early jazz artists played in them. The inventions of the
   phonograph record and of radio helped the proliferation of jazz as
   well. Radio stations helped to popularize Jazz, which became associated
   with sophistication and decadence that helped to earn the era the
   nickname of the " Jazz Age." In the early 1920s, popular music was
   still a mixture of things: current dance songs, novelty songs, and show
   tunes.

Key figures of the decade

   Paul Whiteman, the self-proclaimed "King of Jazz," was a popular
   bandleader of the 1920s who hired Bix Beiderbecke and other white jazz
   musicians and combined jazz with elaborate orchestrations. Whiteman
   commissioned Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which was debuted by
   Whiteman's Orchestra. Ted Lewis was another popular bandleader. Some of
   the other bandleaders included: Harry Reser, Leo Reisman, Abe Lyman,
   Nat Shilkret, George Olsen, Ben Bernie, Bob Haring, Ben Selvin, Earl
   Burtnett, Gus Arnheim, Rudy Vallee, Jean Goldkette, Isham Jones, Roger
   Wolfe Kahn, Sam Lanin, Vincent Lopez, Ben Pollack and Fred Waring.

1930s

Swing

   The 1930s belonged to Swing. While the solo became more important in
   jazz, popular bands became larger in size. During that classic era,
   most of the Jazz groups were Big Bands. The Big bands such as Benny
   Goodman's Orchestra were highly jazz oriented, while others (such as
   Glenn Miller's) left less space for improvisation. Key figures in
   developing the big jazz band were arrangers and bandleaders Fletcher
   Henderson, Don Redman and Duke Ellington. Swing was also dance music,
   which served as its immediate connection to the people. Although it was
   a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to
   improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex.

   Over time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to
   relax, and white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians. In the
   mid- 1930s, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist
   Lionel Hampton, and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups.
   During this period, swing and big band music were very popular.

   The influence of Louis Armstrong can be seen in bandleaders like Cab
   Calloway, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and vocalists like Bing Crosby,
   who were influenced by Armstrong's style of improvising. The style
   further spread to vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday;
   later, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan, among others, would jump on the
   scat bandwagon.

   An early 1940s style known as "jumping the blues" or jump music used
   small combos, up-tempo music, and blues chord progressions. Jump blues
   drew on boogie-woogie from the 1930s, with the rhythm section playing
   "eight to the bar," (eight beats per measure instead of four). Big Joe
   Turner became a boogie-woogie star in the 1940s, and then in the 1950s
   was an early rock and roll musician. (Also see saxophonist Louis
   Jordan).

   The mid 1990's saw a revival of Swing music fueled by the retro trends
   in dance. Once again young couples across America and Europe
   jitter-bugged to the swing'n sounds of Big Band music, often played by
   much smaller ensembles.

Kansas City Jazz

   Memorial to Charlie Parker at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and
   Highland in Kansas City
   Memorial to Charlie Parker at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and
   Highland in Kansas City

   Kansas City Jazz in the 1930s marked the transition from big bands to
   the bebop influence of the 1940s. During the Depression and Prohibition
   eras, the Kansas City Jazz scene thrived as a mecca for the modern
   sounds of late 1920s and 30s. Characterized by soulful and bluesy
   stylings of Big Band and small ensemble Swing, arrangements often
   showcased highly energetic solos played to "speakeasy" audiences. Alto
   sax pioneer Charlie Parker hailed from Kansas City. Tom Pendergast
   encouraged the development of night clubs featuring musical
   improvisation. In 1936, the Kansas city era waned when producer John H.
   Hammond began sending Kansas City acts to New York City.

European Jazz

   Outside of the United States the beginnings of a distinctly European
   jazz started emerging. At first this came mostly in France with the
   Quintette du Hot Club de France being among the first non-US bands of
   significance to jazz history. The playing of Django Reinhardt in
   particular would be important to the rise of gypsy jazz, which is one
   of the earliest genres to start outside the US.

Gypsy Jazz

   Originated by Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt, Gypsy Jazz is an
   unlikely mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall "musette" and
   the folk strains of Eastern Europe. Also known as Jazz Manouche, it has
   a languid, seductive feel characterized by quirky cadences and driving
   rhythms. The main instruments are steel stringed guitar (particularly
   those of the Selmer Maccaferri line), violin, and upright bass. Solos
   pass from one player to another as the other guitars assume the rhythm.
   While primarily a nostalgic style set in European bars and small
   venues, Gypsy Jazz is appreciated world wide, and continues to thrive
   and grow in the music of artists such as Biréli Lagrène.

1940s

Bebop

   In the mid- 1940s with bebop performers such as saxophonist Charlie
   "Yardbird" Parker, pianist Bud Powell and trumpeter John Birks "Dizzy"
   Gillespie helped to shift jazz from danceable pop music to more
   challenging "musician's music." Differing greatly from Swing, Bebop
   divorced itself early-on from dance music, establishing itself as art
   form but severing its potential commercial value. Other bop musicians
   included pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Kenny "Klook-Mop" Clarke,
   trumpeters Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro, saxophonists Wardell Gray
   and Sonny Stitt, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Max Roach, and vocalist
   Betty Carter.

   The beboppers borrowed from the innovations of key earlier musicians –
   in particular, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Art Tatum – and
   carried their ideas several steps further, introducing new forms of
   chromaticism and dissonance into jazz. Where many earlier styles of
   jazz improvisation kept close to the basic key and melodic line of the
   piece, bebop soloists engaged in a more abstracted form of chord-based
   improvisation. This often involved the use of "passing" (i.e.
   additional) chords, "substitute" chords, and altered chords which
   stepped outside of the basic key of the piece. Notes usually thought of
   as temporary dissonances in earlier jazz were used by the boppers as
   key melody notes – for instance, the flattened fifth (or augmented
   fourth) of the scale. The style of drumming shifted too, from the
   earlier four-to-the-bar bass-drum pulse to a more elusive and explosive
   style where the ride cymbal was used to keep time while the snares and
   bass drum were used for unpredictable accents.

   These divergences from the jazz mainstream of the time initially met
   with a divided, sometimes hostile response among fans and fellow
   musicians. (Louis Armstrong, for instance, condemned bebop as "Chinese
   music.") But it was not long before bebop's influence was felt
   throughout jazz: older big-band leaders like Woody Herman (extensively)
   and Benny Goodman (briefly) experimented with the style, for instance.
   By the 1950s bebop had become an accepted part of the jazz vocabulary,
   and it has gradually over the years come to form the bedrock of modern
   jazz practice. While contemporary jazz musicians will study jazz from
   the 1920s and 1930s, they rarely attempt to duplicate those styles
   exactly (unless they are playing in a repertory band or trad jazz
   outfit); but all young jazz musicians are expected to learn bebop
   repertoire and style thoroughly.

1950s

Free jazz and avant-garde jazz

   Peter Brötzmann 2006
   Peter Brötzmann 2006

   Free jazz and avant-garde jazz, are two partially overlapping subgenres
   that, while rooted in bebop, typically use less compositional material
   and allow performers more latitude. Free jazz uses implied or loose
   harmony and tempo, which was deemed controversial when this approach
   was first developed.

   Early performances of these styles go back as early as the late 40s and
   early 50s: Lennie Tristano's Intuition and Digression (1949) and
   Descent into the Maelstrom (1953) are often credited as anticipations
   of the later free jazz movement, though they seem not to have had a
   direct influence on it. The first major stirrings of what free jazz
   came in the 1950s, with the early work of Ornette Coleman and Cecil
   Taylor. In the 1960s, performers included John Coltrane, Archie Shepp,
   Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Pharoah Sanders, Sam
   Rivers, Leroy Jenkins, Don Pullen, Dewey Redman and others. Peter
   Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Chefa Alonso, William Parker, Derek Bailey
   and Evan Parker are leading contemporary free jazz musicians, and
   musicians such as Coleman, Taylor and Sanders continue to play in this
   style. Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from
   criticism by traditionalists in recent years.

Vocalese

   The art of composing a lyric and singing it in the same manner as the
   recorded instrumental solos. Coined by Jazz critic Leonard Feather,
   Vocalese reached its highest point from 1957-62. Performers may solo or
   sing in ensemble, supported by small group or orchestra. Bop in nature,
   Vocalese rarely ventured into other Jazz styles and never brought
   commercial success to its performers until recent years. Among those
   known for writing and performing vocalese lyric are Eddie Jefferson and
   Jon Hendricks.

Mainstream

   After the end of the Big Band era, as these large ensembles broke into
   smaller groups, Swing music continued to be played. Some of Swing's
   finest players could be heard at their best in jam sessions of the
   1950s where chordal improvisation now would take significance over
   melodic embellishment. Re-emerging as a loose Jazz style in the late
   '70s and '80s, Mainstream Jazz picked up influences from Cool jazz,
   Classical jazz and Hard bop. The terms Modern Mainstream or Post-bop
   are used for almost any Jazz style that cannot be closely associated
   with historical styles of Jazz music.

Cool Jazz

   Evolving directly from Bop in the late 1940s and 1950s, Cool jazz's
   smoothed out mixture of Bop and Swing tones were again harmonic and
   dynamics were now softened. The ensemble arrangement had regained
   importance. Cool became nationwide by the end of the 1950s, with
   significant contributions from East Coast musicians and composers.

Hard Bop

   An extension of Bebop that was somewhat interrupted by the Cool sounds
   of West Coast Jazz, Hard Bop melodies tend to be more "soulful" than
   Bebop, borrowing at times from Rhythm & Blues and even Gospel themes.
   The rhythm section is sophisticated and more diverse than the Bop of
   the 1940s. Pianist Horace Silver is known for his Hard Bop innovations.

1960s

Latin jazz

   Latin jazz has two main varieties: Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz.
   Afro-Cuban jazz was played in the U.S. directly after the bebop period,
   while Brazilian jazz became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

   Afro-Cuban jazz began as a movement in the mid-'50s. Notable bebop
   musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor started Afro-Cuban
   bands at that time. Gillespie's work was mostly with big bands of this
   genre. The music was influenced by such Cuban and Puerto Rican
   musicians as Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente, Mario Bauza, Chano Pozo, and
   much later, Arturo Sandoval.

   Brazilian jazz is synonymous with bossa nova, a Brazilian popular style
   which is derived from samba with influences from jazz as well as other
   20th-century classical and popular music. Bossa is generally moderately
   paced, played around 120 beats per minute with straight, rather than
   swing, eighth notes, and difficult polyrhythms. A blend of West Coast
   Cool, European classical harmonies and seductive Brazilian samba
   rhythms, Bossa Nova or more correctly "Brazilian Jazz," reached the
   United States in 1962. The subtle but hypnotic acoustic guitar rhythms
   accent simple melodies sung in either (or both) Portuguese or English.
   Pioneered by Brazilians' Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, this
   alternative to the 60's Hard Bop and Free Jazz styles, gained popular
   exposure by West Coast players like guitarist Charlie Byrd &
   saxophonist Stan Getz.

   The best-known bossa nova compositions have become jazz standards. The
   related term jazz-samba essentially describes an adaptation of bossa
   nova compositions to the jazz idiom by American performers such as Stan
   Getz and Charlie Byrd, and usually played at 120 beats per minute or
   faster. Samba itself is actually not jazz but, being derived from older
   Afro-Brazilian music, it shares some common characteristics.

Jazz fusion

   In the late 1960s, the hybrid form of jazz-rock fusion was developed.
   Although jazz purists protested the blend of jazz and rock, some of
   jazz' significant innovators crossed over from the contemporary hardbop
   scene into fusion. Jazz fusion music often uses mixed meters, odd time
   signatures, syncopation, and complex chords and harmonies, and fusion
   includes a number of electric instruments, such as the electric guitar,
   electric bass, electric piano, and synthesizer keyboards.

   Notable performers of the late 1960s and 1970s jazz and fusion scene
   included Miles Davis, keyboardists Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock,
   drummer Tony Williams,guitarists Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin,
   Frank Zappa, Al Di Meola, jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, Sun Ra, Narada
   Michael Walden, Wayne Shorter, and bassist-composer Jaco Pastorius.

   Miles Davis recorded the fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew
   in 1968 and 1969. Chick Corea performed and recorded with his Return to
   Forever band. Ex- Miles Davis drummer Tony Williams had a band called
   Lifetime with Allan Holdsworth and Larry Young among others. Herbie
   Hancock had a funk-infused band called the Headhunters band. Guitarist
   Larry Coryell had a band called the Eleventh House, and John McLaughlin
   played with a band called the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Josef Zawinul and
   Wayne Shorter joined forces to launch Weather Report which was the
   longest lasting Fusion Group and perhaps the most successful. UK band
   Soft Machine influenced the development of fusion in the UK.

   In the late 1970s and early 1980s, jazz fusion gradually turned into a
   lighter commercial form called pop fusion or " smooth jazz" (see
   paragraph below). Although pop fusion and smooth jazz were commercially
   successful and garnered significant radio airplay, this lighter form of
   fusion moved away from the style's original innovations. In the 1990s
   and 2000s, some fusion bands and performers such as Tribal Tech
   continued to develop and innovate within the genre.

Modal

   As smaller ensemble soloists became increasingly hungry for new
   improvisational directives, some players sought to venture beyond
   Western adaptation of major and minor scales. Drawing from medieval
   church modes, which used altered intervals between common tones,
   players found new inspiration. Soloists could now free themselves from
   the restrictions of dominant keys and shift the tonal centers to form
   new harmonics within their playing. This became especially useful with
   pianists and guitarists, as well as trumpet and sax players. Pianist
   Bill Evans is noted for his Modal approach.

Soul Jazz

   Derived from hard bop, soul jazz was one of the most popular jazz
   styles of the 1960s, in terms of record sales. Improvising to chord
   progressions as with Bop, the soloist strives to create an exciting
   performance. The ensemble of musicians concentrate on a rhythmic
   "groove" centered around a strong bassline. Horace Silver had a large
   influence on the soul jazz style, with his songs that used funky and
   often Gospel-based piano vamps. Soul jazz ensembles usually gave a
   prominent role to the Hammond organ, and some groups, such as 1960s
   organ trios, were centered around the Hammond's sound.

1970s

   The stylistic diversity of jazz has shown no sign of diminishing,
   absorbing influences from such disparate sources as world music, avant
   garde classical music, and a range of rock and pop musics.

   Beginning in the 1970s with such artists as Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley,
   the Pat Metheny Group, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, and Eberhard Weber,
   the ECM record label established a new chamber-music aesthetic,
   featuring mainly acoustic instruments, and incorporating elements of
   world music and folk music. This is sometimes referred to as "European"
   or "Nordic" jazz, despite some of the leading players being American.

1980s

   In the 1980s, the jazz community shrunk dramatically and split. A
   mainly older audience retained an interest in traditional and
   "straight-ahead" jazz styles. Wynton Marsalis strove to create music
   within what he believed was the tradition, creating extensions of small
   and large forms initially pioneered by such artists as Louis Armstrong
   and Duke Ellington. Marsalis's work has influenced a wide range of
   musicians who have been dubbed the "Young Lions"; but it also attracted
   much criticism from musicians, critics and fans who found his
   definition of jazz too narrow, or who found his own recreations of
   earlier styles unconvincing.

Smooth jazz

   In the 1980s, drumming became much louder and more active in jazz
   music. The tones of saxophones were rougher and the bass lines were
   more invasive. However, when jazz reached the 1990s this harsh type of
   music was replaced by a refined and quiet style. This style was
   referred to as “smooth jazz,” “cool jazz,” "contemporary jazz," or
   "c-jazz" for short. Some think these names are ambiguous because this
   so-called “smooth jazz” or “cool jazz” was no smoother than the ballads
   during the swing era, and it was also totally different than the “cool
   jazz” of the 1950s. When this music was played, instead of the
   improvised solos being adventuresome they were actually very stylized.
   For instance, the saxophone improvisations by Kenny G were considered
   "light fusion." His music became popular because it was basically
   background music with a beat meaning that people could ignore it just
   as well as they could listen to it. Some musicians gave this music the
   name "fuzak" (cf. muzak) because it was a soft, pleasant fusion of jazz
   and rock. By the late 1990s smooth jazz became very popular and was
   receiving a lot of radio exposure. Some of the most famous saxophonists
   of this style were Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G and Najee and of
   course they had many imitators. Kenny G’s sales alone reached the
   millions from 1986 to 1995. Some musicians thought of jazz as just a
   decorative type of music instead of being substantial. However, Kenny
   G’s music and smooth jazz in general defined a large segment of jazz
   during the 1980s and 1990s. Not only is smooth jazz played on the radio
   and in jazz clubs, it is also played in airports, banks, offices,
   auditoriums and arenas (Gridley).

   Gridley, Mark C. Concise Guide to Jazz: Fourth Edition. New Jersey:
   Pearson Education. 2004.

Acid Jazz and Nu Jazz

   Styles as acid jazz which contains elements of 1970s disco, acid swing
   which combines 1940s style big-band sounds with faster, more aggressive
   rock-influenced drums and electric guitar, and nu jazz which combines
   elements of jazz and modern forms of electronic dance music.

   Exponents of the " acid jazz" style which was initially UK-based
   included the Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, James Taylor Quartet, Young
   Disciples, Incognito and Corduroy. This was a natural outgrowth of the
   Rare Groove scene in the UK that had begun as an alternative to the
   prevalent Acid House parties of the 1980s. Halfway between the driving
   beat of house music and the Soul Jazz and Funk related sounds of Rare
   Grove was Acid Jazz. In the United States, acid jazz groups included
   the Groove Collective, Soulive, and Solsonics. In a more pop or smooth
   jazz context, jazz enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s with such bands as
   Pigbag, Matt Bianco and Curiosity Killed the Cat achieving chart hits
   in Britain. Sade Adu became the definitive voice of smooth jazz.
   Improvisation is also largely ignored giving argument whether the term
   "Jazz" can truly apply.

Funk-based improvisation

   Jean-Paul Bourelly and M-Base argue that rhythm is the key for further
   progress in the music; they believe that the rhythmic innovations of
   James Brown and other Funk pioneers can provide an effective rhythmic
   base for spontaneous composition.

   These musicians playing over a funk groove and extend the rhythmic
   ideas in a way analogous to what had been done with harmony in previous
   decades, an approach M-Base calls Rhythmic Harmony.

Jazz rap

   The late 80s saw a development of a fusion between jazz and hip-hop,
   called Jazz rap. Though some claim the proto-hip hop, jazzy poet Gil
   Scott-Heron the beginning of jazz rap, the genre arose in 1988 with the
   release of the debut singles by Gang Starr ("Words I Manifest," which
   samples Charlie Parker) and Stetsasonic ("Talkin' All That Jazz," which
   samples Lonnie Liston Smith). One year later, Gang Starr's debut LP, No
   More Mr. Nice Guy and their work on the soundtrack to Mo' Better Blues,
   and De La Soul's debut 3 Feet High and Rising have proven remarkably
   influential in the genre's development. De La Soul's cohorts in the
   Native Tongues Posse also released important jazzy albums, including
   the Jungle Brothers' debut Straight Out the Jungle (1988, 1988 in
   music) and A Tribe Called Quest's debut, People's Instinctive Travels
   and the Paths of Rhythm (1990, 1990 in music). Guru continued the jazz
   rap trend with the critically acclaimed Jazzmatazz series beginning in
   1993, in which modern day jazz musicians were brought into the studio.

1990s

Electronica

   With the rise in popularity of various forms of electronic music during
   the late 1980s and 1990s, some artists have attempted a fusion of jazz
   with more of the experimental leanings of electronica (particularly IDM
   and Drum and bass) with various degrees of success. This has been
   variously dubbed "future jazz," "jazz-house," " nu jazz," or "
   Junglebop." It is often not considered to be jazz because although it
   is influenced by jazz, improvisation is largely absent.

   The more experimental and improvisational end of the spectrum includes
   Scandinavian artists such as pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, trumpeter Nils
   Petter Molvær (both of whom began their careers on the ECM record
   label), the trio Wibutee, and Django Bates, all of whom have gained
   respect as instrumentalists in more traditional jazz circles.

   The Cinematic Orchestra from the UK and Julien Lourau from France have
   also received praise in this area. Toward the more pop or pure dance
   music end of the spectrum of nu jazz are such proponents as St Germain
   and Jazzanova, who incorporate some live jazz playing with more
   metronomic house beats. Aphex Twin, Björk, Amon Tobin and Portishead
   are also notable as avant-garde electronica artists.

2000s

   In the 2000s, "jazz" hit the pop charts and blended with contemporary
   Urban music through the work of neo-soul artists like Norah Jones, Jill
   Scott, India.Arie, Jamie Cullum, Erykah Badu, Amy Winehouse and Diana
   Krall and the jazz advocacy of performers who are also music educators
   (such as Jools Holland, Courtney Pine and Peter Cincotti). A debate has
   arisen as to whether the music of these performers can be called jazz
   or not (see below). Also pop singer Christina Aguilera recorded a
   jazz-based album titled Back to Basics and released it in 2006.

Debates over definition of "jazz"

   As the term "jazz" has long been used for a wide variety of styles, a
   comprehensive definition including all varieties is elusive. While some
   enthusiasts of certain types of jazz have argued for narrower
   definitions which exclude many other types of music also commonly known
   as jazz, jazz musicians themselves are often reluctant to define the
   music they play. Duke Ellington summed it up by saying, "It's all
   music." Some critics have even stated that Duke Ellington's music was
   not in fact jazz, as by its very definition, according to them, jazz
   cannot be orchestrated.

   There have long been debates in the jazz community over the boundaries
   or definition of “jazz.” In the mid-1930s, New Orleans jazz lovers
   criticized the "innovations" of the swing era as being contrary to the
   collective improvisation they saw as essential to "true" jazz. From the
   1940s and 1960s, traditional jazz enthusiasts and Hard Bop criticized
   each other, often arguing that the other style was somehow not "real"
   jazz. Although alteration or transformation of jazz by new influences
   has been initially criticized as “radical” or a “debasement,” Andrew
   Gilbert argues that jazz has the “ability to absorb and transform
   influences” from diverse musical styles.

   Commercially-oriented or popular music-influenced forms of jazz have
   long been criticized. Traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed the
   1970s jazz fusion era as a period of commercial debasement. However,
   according to Bruce Johnson, jazz music has always had a "tension
   between jazz as a commercial music and an art form" .

   Gilbert notes that as the notion of a canon of traditional jazz is
   developing, the “achievements of the past” may be become “...privileged
   over the idiosyncratic creativity...” and innovation of current
   artists. Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins argues that as the
   creation and dissemination of jazz is becoming increasingly
   institutionalized and dominated by major entertainment firms, jazz is
   facing a "...perilous future of respectability and disinterested
   acceptance." David Ake warns that the creation of “norms” in jazz and
   the establishment of a “jazz tradition” may exclude or sideline other
   newer, avant-garde forms of jazz.

   One way to get around the definitional problems is to define the term
   “jazz” more broadly. According to Krin Gabbard “jazz is a construct” or
   category that, while artificial, still is useful to designate “a number
   of musics with enough in common part of a coherent tradition”. Travis
   Jackson also defines jazz in a broader way by stating that it is music
   that includes qualities such as “ 'swinging', improvising, group
   interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being 'open' to
   different musical possibilities”.

   Where to draw the boundaries of "jazz" is the subject of debate among
   music critics, scholars, and fans. A debate the musicians themselves
   very rarely bother to enter.

   For example:
     * Music that is a mixture of jazz and pop music, such as the recent
       albums of Jamie Cullum, is sometimes called "jazz."
     * James Blunt and Joss Stone have been called "jazz" performers by
       radio DJ's, and record label promoters.
     * Jazz festivals are increasingly programming a wide range of genres,
       including world beat music, folk, electronica, and hip-hop. This
       trend may lead to the perception that all of the performers at a
       festival are jazz artists – including artists from non-jazz genres.

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