Jazz
Jazz originated in the African-American communities of the Southern United States around the turn of the 20th century. Characterized by a unique mixture of influences, such as the tradition of New Orleans Brass Bands (itself fusing West African Music and European military Brass Band music), it was largely influenced by Ragtime and Blues, and quickly developed into one of the more popular musical genres by the 1930s with the development of Swing.
The general sound of jazz has changed many times over the past century, but one element that is present within most jazz is improvisation. Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern; forms of Traditional Folk Music of the Black Americans in rural areas were also highly improvisational. Along with improvisation, blue notes and syncopated polyrhythms have also been recognized as features that are fundamental to jazz expression. Effectively, the genre has spawned its own vocabulary within music theory to describe its unique playing style, including concepts such as "swing" (a sense of rhythmic "feel" or "groove" created by musical interaction between performers) and the extensive use of the ii–V–I progression.
Among the earliest recognized styles were Dixieland, emerging in New Orleans in the 1910s, and Stride, an early form of piano music that evolved from ragtime. The Jazz Age ensued in the following two decades, and after having enjoyed nationwide popularity for the first time, the prominent sound began to shift from the dance-oriented Big Band Swing format to focusing on smaller groups that played the more rhythmically complex Bebop style, developed in the mid-40s.
The shift to bebop saw the focus placed on the virtuosic capabilities of single soloists, a characteristic that defined jazz at large in coming decades. In response to the energetic, 'fiery' style of the latter, Cool Jazz, a calmer and mellower playing technique, arose shortly afterwards. The controlled arrangements which borrowed from Classical Music aided in the advent of the further classical-influenced Third Stream approach. Soon Latin-infused styles appeared, such as Afro-Cuban Jazz, and later Samba-Jazz inspired by Brazilian Music; these would eventually contribute to the formation of the broader Latin Jazz movement. More experimentation followed, causing the emergence of Modal Jazz (which utilized musical modes instead of chord progressions as the basis of harmonic framework), and a decade later that of Free Jazz, which appeared in the dawn of what would become the more widespread Avant-Garde Jazz movement. In mid-60s, amidst the American civil rights movement, John Coltrane led the emergence of a style known as Spiritual Jazz, which incorporated influences from an eclectic range of religious and non-Western, notably Southeastern Asian, traditional music.
An era of fusion followed, specifically with other genres of African-American music, such as Jazz-Funk, the early incarnations of which shared similarities with the, by then established, sound of Soul Jazz. As the popularity of Rock music was becoming more prevalent in the 70s, practices such as Jazz-Rock and Jazz Fusion were born, combining the improvisational spirit and harmony of jazz with the electric instrumentation, amplified sound, and rhythmic vocabulary of rock music. The blend received a fair amount of criticism, and for many jazz purists, fusion was virtually incomprehensible as part of the accepted jazz tradition. Despite this, some of jazz's significant innovators, among them Miles Davis, crossed over from the Hard Bop scene into fusion, and later into the more commercial Smooth Jazz. By the 1990s, the mainstream popularity of Electronic music birthed what is known as Nu Jazz, a loosely defined genre that became a new avenue of exploration for jazz listeners.
Acid Jazz
Acid jazz is a genre that uses elements of Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop and to a lesser degree Soul and House. It was a movement in the UK, in the early 90s. Some of the major players in this genre are Ronny Jordan, Jamiroquai and Incognito.
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Considered the basic form of Latin Jazz, Afro-Cuban Jazz has its origins in "Habanera rhythm" (a combination of tresillo and the backbeat), an Afro Cuban music from the nineteenth century brought to New Orleans and evident in many pre-1940s jazz tunes.
In New York City, during the early 1940s, the Cuban musicians Mario Bauzá and Frank Grillo "Machito" and the work of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo evolved to include clave-based rhythms as "Cubop", a combination of Bebop and Afro-Cuban Music. The simplification of these rhythms gave birth to new Cuban genres as Mambo and Chachachá.
In the early 1970s, the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna and Irakere became the acts to revive the genre.
Afro-Jazz
(also known as African Jazz)
Afro-jazz is a fusion of Jazz with African-styled percussion and rhythms.
Arabic Jazz
A blending of Arabic Music and Jazz. It has a high level of improvisation, and the repertory of instruments consists of typical Jazz instruments, especially saxophone, as well as the Arabic oud. Some of the most important artists are Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Anouar Brahem, and Rabih Abou-Khalil.
Avant-Garde Jazz
Avant-garde jazz came into prominence in the 1960s. Combining elements of both traditional jazz and avant-garde art music, the genre attempts to break down the boundaries of jazz by experimenting with its defining characteristics such as rhythm, harmony, melody, structure, and instrumentation. Avant-garde jazz is also characterized by a heavy use of extended techniques, including overblowing, multiphonics, and flutter-tonguing. Compositions in the genre can range from dense, complex, and thoroughly composed works to the loose and improvised sounds of Free Jazz, a subgenre of avant-garde jazz.
Among the most famous leaders of the movement were John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and Eric Dolphy.
Bebop
(also known as Bop)
Bebop is a style of Jazz characterized by fast tempos, improvisation, irregular melodic phrasing, and complex harmonies and chord structures. Inspired by Swing music, bebop was developed in the 1940s and 50s by musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk. Unlike the earlier big bands, these musicians utilized smaller combos and created music less suitable for dancing. Bebop songs typically begin with a melodic "head" but are dominated by extended solo improvisation over a set chord structure. The emphasis is placed on harmonic exploration rather than the catchy melodies of Swing and Big Band. Initially outside the mainstream of Jazz, bebop is now one of its most popular and well-known forms.
Big Band
Big band Jazz music is commonly associated with the golden era of Swing in the 1930s and 1940s. It is performed by the eponymous ensemble line-up, which consists of 10 or more musicians split into various instrument sections. This includes several brass and woodwind aerophones (multiple trumpets, trombones, saxophones and clarinets) and usually a rhythm section of piano, guitar, bass and drums. Other instruments that are often used are French horn, tuba, banjo, flute and vibraphone, as well as a string section being common in pre-swing big band music.
Emerging in the early 1920s, the big band format grew out of the Dixieland of New Orleans, increasing the orchestra size and placing a greater emphasis on pre-determined structure. Hired arrangers designated which particular instruments would perform solos (and which would perform backing accompaniment) and dictated when they would perform them. Hotel dance bands were very important to the early evolution of the big band era, with pioneering bandleaders such as Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Vincent Lopez performing early examples of big band music with their orchestras. Plenty of leaders and performing musicians during this time period went on to greater success and fame in later years, including Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. British Dance Bands also appeared in the UK in the 1920s as a uniquely British spin on the big bands of the USA. With the huge popularity of radio in the 1930s following The Great Depression and the advancement of sound equipment and technology for recordings and live music, both big band and swing music soon became a national craze. Big bands played in concert halls and ballrooms in major cities all over the USA, whilst 1933 saw the invention of the Jukebox, enhancing the popularity of jazz music further still. Prior to WWII, big band music became one of the most popular forms of American music, providing the public with uptempo jazz that they could easily dance to.
In the ensuing decades, big band music saw various developments. Stan Kenton revolutionised the Progressive Big Band approach in the late 1940s, fusing the format with Western Classical Music compositional techniques. Later, Experimental Big Bands pushed the boundaries of the genre even more, with releases such as 1968's The Jazz Composer's Orchestra and 1972's Let My Children Hear Music eschewing traditional big band structures and sounds in favour of heavy Avant-Garde Jazz and Third Stream influences. The overlapping of big band with other jazz subgenres became commonplace from the 1950s onwards, including Vocal Jazz (Ella Fitzgerald), Cool Jazz (Gil Evans) and Jazz Fusion (Jaco Pastorius). Big band's influence was also apparent in TV and cinema, including various James Bond themes and works by Quincy Jones.
British Dance Band
A British genre that came from the dancehalls of the 1920s and 1930s, combining a British take on Jazz with the Music Hall tradition.
Bulawayo Jazz
Bulawayo jazz is a style of Jazz that emerged from the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in the early 1950s. The lead is assumed by the alto sax in ensembles including tenor sax, trumpet, guitar, double bass, tuba, trombone, and banjo.
Bulawayo jazz was brought to the Western world by Hugh Tracey, who recorded the material of Bulawayo Jazz: Southern Rhodesia, Zimbawbe 1950, '51, '52 in the early 1950s. Along with Gypsy Jazz, it was the sole jazz scene existing outside of the USA in the late-1940s/early-1950s.
A prominent Zimbabwean jazz player from the 1950s was August Msarurgwa. Msarurgwa was the leader of The African Dance Band of the Cold Storage Commission of Southern Rhodesia and composed the hit "Skokiaan". This may be the most well-known Bulawayo jazz song and has been covered by such artists as Louis Armstrong, The Four Lads, Alma Cogan, Bill Haley and His Comets and Herb Alpert, among many others.
The style is no longer leading the scene in Zimbabwe, replaced by modern popular genres like Kwaito. Nevertheless, some artists like The Cool Crooners are still playing Bulawayo jazz in clubs in Bulawayo and Harare.
Cape Jazz
Cape jazz is a style of Southern African Music that developed parallel to American Jazz in the early 20th century. The style gained more commercial exposure from the 1970s onwards, with performers such as Abdullah Ibrahim (aka ...) and Johnny Dyani.
The musical climate in Cape Town in the early 1900s was comparable to that of New Orleans, with both finding inspiration in Blues and other folk songs of Creole slaves. Musically, Cape jazz is relatively up-tempo and danceable, sharing similarities with the keyboard-driven Marabi (another South African jazz style), though Cape jazz places more emphasis on improvisation and harmonising brass and vocal parts and less on catchy melodies and heavily repeated chord patterns. Alongside the piano, the line-up also commonly features a wide array of brass, string and percussion instruments (particularly the Goema hand drum) that, historically, could be carried in a street parade.
In 1974, Ibrahim wrote and recorded what is now considered the definitive Cape jazz composition, "Mannenberg", along with other major instrumentalists associated with the genre, such as saxophonists Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen. Since the 1980s, widespread interest in both the genre and the actual term itself has been promoted by labels such as Mountain Records, and much of the music from over the years is collected on various artist compilation releases. Newer proponents of the style include ensembles The Goema Captains of Cape Town and the Cape Jazz Band, led by long-time Cape jazz drummer Jack Momple.
Cartoon Music
Cartoon music refers to the unique style pioneered in the late 1920s and 1930s by Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott. Combining freewheeling Jazz and warped Big Band arrangements with various Western Classical Music and Modern Classical approaches and methods, the resulting sound is frantic, zany, comic and playfully chaotic, typically closely matching the onscreen actions of cartoon characters and the beat of their movements.
Whilst not composing music for cartoons himself, many of Scott's distinctive melodies from the late 1930s and early 1940s were adapted and arranged by Stalling during the latter's illustrious 30-year career scoring hundreds of Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons (specifically Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies). Stalling's work was hugely influential and immediately set the template, with contemporary composers in the industry such as Scott Bradley (of Tom and Jerry fame), Milt Franklyn (Stalling's successor at Warner Bros.), Winston Sharples and Frank Marsales adopting the style.
The concept of writing music so closely related to picture such as in cartoons became known as 'Mickey-Mousing' within the industry. Composers are concerned with matching cues to the often frenetic-paced slapstick violence and comedy in the film, using metronomic 'hit points' and frame numbers, dealing with a matter of milliseconds. This results in constant, jarring, sudden changes in tempo, meter, accent, dynamics, timbre and overall mood. Common instrumental tropes include vibraphones accompanying light movements; pizzicato strings; sliding trombone sounds to indicate objects falling or drooping; quirky, hyperactive Sounds and Effects and crashing cymbals and drums for collisions. The avant-garde effect of the music was complimented by some composers utilising elements of academic music forms such as Serialism and Impressionism, for example, Bradley's use of Arnold Schoenberg's 'twelve-tone technique' in some of his 1940s work.
The style is not limited solely to soundtracks and has been incorporated into various projects by musicians in different fields, including John Zorn and Fantômas.
Chamber Jazz
Chamber jazz is Jazz made by mostly small acoustic-based ensembles with emphasized improvisation and influenced by Neoclassicism and Traditional Folk Music. It is often influenced by the classical music of non-Western cultures, mainly South Asian Classical Music, Persian Classical Music, and East Asian Classical Music. It is sometimes seen as Third Stream that takes a more pared-down approach, eschewing that genre's orchestral elements and opting instead for ensembles resembling those used in Chamber Music.
Cool Jazz
Cool Jazz arose in the late 40s alongside, and in response to, the development of Bebop. In a counterpoint to the energetic, improvisational, 'fiery' style of Bop, Cool Jazz unfolds at a much mellower pace, with a subtle and restrained emotional 'coolness'. The soloing tends to be less frantic and improvised than that of other jazz styles, but often maintains a melodic and harmonic complexity. The controlled yet complex arrangements borrow from the ideas of 20th-century composers, and over time helped open up the even more classically influenced Third Stream style. Miles Davis, Lennie Tristano, and Dave Brubeck are among the original developers of Cool Jazz.
Dark Jazz
(also known as Doom Jazz, Noir Jazz)
Dark Jazz is a form of slow tempo contemporary Jazz music. The dark atmosphere of this genre is inspired by Film noir soundtracks, in particular Ascenseur pour l'échafaud by Miles Davis and the work of Angelo Badalamenti, as well as being influenced by Dark Ambient music.
The most typical acts include Bohren & der Club of Gore and the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.
Dixieland
(also known as Hot Jazz, New Orleans Jazz)
Dixieland is one of the earliest styles of Jazz that developed in New Orleans in the 1910s. The term came from the name of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band who were one of the first ensembles in Jazz to publish an official commercial recording, to which the term was further used to describe all Jazz ensembles who played in this style including early Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Kid Ory and King Oliver.
Dixieland took influence from both Ragtime and early Blues music, mainly in structure and harmonic development. In contrast to later Jazz trends like Big Band that normally had a few designated soloists while others played accompanying roles, Dixieland usually had all instruments at some point take the role of soloist playing in an improvisatory manner with instruments normally trading accompaniment/solo roles in each recurring verse. There were often polyphonic sections, where each instrument would play their own melody whilst retaining the same harmony, sometimes sounding contrapuntal and cacophonous yet still maintaining consonance unlike the polyphonic sections in later forms of Jazz such as Bebop. Harmonic structures within Dixieland Jazz were often straightforward and easy to follow.
Dixieland ensembles were usually small but often used piano, trumpet (often muted), clarinet and drums. The saxophone was not really popular during Dixieland's prime and rarely used, however it was not uncommon to use more unconventional instruments such as banjos and vibraphones.
As Dixieland grew in popularity it began to spread to other states until eventually declining at the prime of the Swing-era in the 1930s. Many Jazz artists conformed to the Swing trend and Dixieland fell into obscurity. Although no longer popular in the present day, it was highly influential on the preceding Jazz movements particularly among the use of improvisation, with songs such as "When the Saints Go Marching In" still being well known to even non-Jazz fans (a track often played by Dixieland ensembles).
ECM Style Jazz
(also known as ECM Third Stream)
ECM style (also known as ECM jazz) is style of music in Jazz lineage that emerged in the mid-1970s and is associated with ECM Records (ECM stands for "Edition of Contemporary Music"). ECM style can be seen as creative reaction to Free Jazz (which was at that time seen as most forward-looking form of jazz), pursuing different elements of expression than the often violent and dissonant aesthetics of free jazz. Although ECM style have taken few cues from free jazz, it rather followed the way of Jazz Fusion. It has been partially influenced by restrained and subdued aesthetics of Cool Jazz and mainly by Third Stream in incorporating various compositional elements of Western Classical Music, though in lesser degree the avant-garde styles of Modern Classical. In addition to it ECM style compositions are often influenced by or even based on various Traditional Folk Music sources.
Although ECM style is obviously associated with ECM Records, it doesn't mean that it refers to any record released by it. ECM style has entered the common usage - for lack of better name - as reference to specific genre of jazz and can currently refer to releases outside of ECM Records (e.g. some of Oregon's records before they actually signed for ECM Records are referred to as already done in ECM style). Conversely, not every jazz record from ECM Records is ECM style. Although the term has been invented amongst listeners and enthusiasts, it has been already treated by jazz scholars, too.
The artists who have been crucial in coining the basic language of the genre were initially from ECM, though: Jan Garbarek (beginning with records Witchi-Tai-To and Dis), Keith Jarrett (especially The Köln Concert), Ralph Towner (with Solstice), Eberhard Weber (Later That Evening) or Miroslav Vitous (First Meeting). Their approach is usually described as "ascetic", "restrained" or "meditative" and their playing can be characterized by long, slow-pacing gestures that are preferred to displays of virtuosity, usage of silence, subdued expressivity and attention to "spatial" organization in music. They approach their instruments in more traditional way compared to free jazz, not pushing them to their expressive limits. ECM style jazz is tonal, although it doesn't operate with instantly recognizable melodies, it is often quite static and close to Impressionism in its treatment of textures and atmospheres. Rhythmically the music is straight (often in straight eight-notes) and doesn't have the "swing" feel that's common to majority of jazz. The adjectives usually associated with ECM style are "dreamy", "ethereal", "icy", etc. This particular style has been fortified by ECM Records founder and producer Manfred Eicher, who approached the sound engineering with clarity and detail usually associated with recordings of classical music. These recognizable sound engineering qualities are usually referred to as "ECM sound".
The basic ECM style was fully established in the 1980s. During the following years it has refined its language and increased the range of non-jazz influences in order to emphasize its meditative and relaxing qualities. With help of such qualities ECM style has gradually gained some mainstream following. Currently the genre has found home amongst many Scandinavian jazzmen and what is sometimes referred to as "Scandinavian jazz" is basically the ECM style. Amongst the more contemporary artists representing this genre are Arve Henriksen and Nik Bärtsch.
Ethio-Jazz
(also known as Ethiopian Jazz)
Ethio-jazz combines Jazz with traditional Ethiopian musical styles. Mulatu Astatke, an Ethiopian, who studied music abroad in the UK and US, is credited with introducing the vibraphone and conga drums to Ethiopian music. More broadly, ethio-jazz is inclusive of the blending of Western and Latin sounds with traditional Ethiopian Azmari styles in the 1950s through the 1970s.
Ethio-jazz gave rise to Ethiopian Funk with Mulatu Astatke contributing the vibes to one of the best known Ethiopian funk tracks, ዋሊያስ ባንድ [Walias Band]'s Musicawi Silt. Record production in Ethiopia ceased in the late 1970s due to censorship by the government. Although artists who did not go into exile continued to make cassette recordings, they were not widely distributed. After the changes in the government in the 1990s, there was renewed interest in the genre as documented by the Éthiopiques CD series.
European Free Jazz
(also known as FMP Style Free Jazz)
European free jazz is a type of Free Jazz developed in Europe in late 1960s and 1970s, although nowadays it is peformed by many non-European musicians as well and the nationality of musicians plays no role in determining whether they work within this genre.
American free jazz of the late 1950s and 1960s introduced new approaches to individual improvisation which arose from dissatisfaction with limitations within Modal Jazz or Hard Bop. However, it still retained many crucial Jazz characteristics like swinging rhythm or melodic vocabulary. This distinguishes it from the European style of free jazz, which moved much further from the jazz tradition and got rid of many of the characteristics still present in the American brand. European free jazz often lacks swinging rhythm, takes much more liberties with use of atonality and noise, and even uses "extended techniques" to create unusual sounds. It often contains only short melodical phrases as nods to jazz tradition, but their overall significance is diminished. European free jazz was crucial in the development of Free Improvisation and many of its musicians later practically moved away from jazz completely.
Key figures in development of this genre include Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Kowald and Fred Van Hove. The label FMP also played an important role in the development of this genre.
Experimental Big Band
Experimental big band music refers to Big Bands who dispense with the traditional Jazz structures and Swing sounds, instead performing Avant-Garde Jazz and pushing the boundaries of the medium.
Radical innovation within the big band line-up had already been attempted with Stan Kenton's Progressive Big Band approach in the 1940s, introducing Western Classical Music compositional techniques and idioms, but not going as far as to fully embrace the avant-garde sounds and influences found in the later experimental big bands. The latter started to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s, with bandleaders Charles Mingus, Bill Dixon, Sun Ra and Don Ellis experimenting with the big band format. Works by these plus others such as The Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden and Globe Unity Orchestra incorporated influences of contemporary jazz and/or Modern Classical trends, most notably Free Jazz and Third Stream.
In the 21st century, the genre continues to exist and evolve, with bands like Fire! Orchestra, Angles 9 and Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra incorporating disparate elements such as distorted Jazz-Rock, Balkan Folk Music and EAI respectively, creating their own unique take on the experimental big band template.
Flamenco Jazz
Flamenco jazz is the combination of Jazz and contemporary flamenco (also known as Flamenco nuevo). It was pioneered in the late 1960s by Spanish saxophonist Pedro Iturralde and famous guitarist Paco de Lucía. The latter became the most prominent exponent of the style, collaborating with many important figures in the world of jazz and especially Jazz Fusion. Alongside Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin he recorded the live album Friday Night in San Francisco, which presented the genre to a much wider audience. Other well-known jazzmen to collaborate with Paco include Larry Coryell and Chick Corea. Pieces like "Zyryab", where jazz improvisation is integrated into the core elements of flamenco, specifically the flamenco mode and the Andalusian cadence, were nonetheless criticized by flamenco purists. In 1992, noted producer and arranger Arif Mardin directed Jazzpaña, bringing together some of the most prolific Spanish and American flamenco jazz musicians.
Since the late 1980s, younger generations of flamenco musicians have expanded the genre as criticism from the conservative side of the flamenco world waned. Pianist Chano Domínguez was amongst the first to follow Paco's approach, while established guitarists such as Tomatito and Gerardo Núñez have also taken part in jazz projects. Carles Benavent followed their footsteps but with a different instrument, the bass guitar. In 2002, trumpeter Jerry González formed a band called Los Piratas del Flamenco featuring famed cantaor Diego el Cigala, who would later collaborate with Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés, combining flamenco jazz with Afro-Cuban Jazz. Flutist and saxophonist Jorge Pardo and percussionist Tino di Geraldo are amongst the major exponents of the genre. Newer flamenco jazz acts include Enriquito, whose group combines a jazz quartet with a tablao flamenco, and Alexis Cuadrado, an ambitious Spanish bassist residing in New York.
Free Jazz
(also known as Free-Form Jazz)
Free Jazz is a Jazz music subgenre with origins in the early 1960s. Appearing in the dawn of what would later become the more widespread Avant-Garde Jazz movement, Free Jazz attempts to break free from the conventions and patterns imposed by earlier Jazz subgenres in terms of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic sequences and changes within which improvisation, one of the essential aspects of Jazz, occurs. Dissonance, atonality, disposal of regular harmonic structures and increased rhythmic changes are prevalent in the style. The movement would take its name from Ornette Coleman's 1961 release Free Jazz, credited for serving as the foundation of later recordings of a more "free" nature associated with the genre. A short list of Free Jazz musicians includes Coleman, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Albert Ayler, Anthony Braxton and Peter Brötzmann.
Free Jazz would be influential in the development of Free Improvisation, with which the genre would share certain ties, but which would eventually expand outside of Jazz's rhythmic drive, vocabulary, aesthetic and instrumentation.
Gypsy Jazz
(also known as Jazz Manouche, Gypsy Swing, Hot Club Jazz)
A genre developed in France that combines Jazz with several aspects of Romani Folk Music. Although many instrument lineups are possible, the guitar and violin are the most common solo instrument, standing starkly in contrast to typical jazz, where saxophones, trumpets, etc. are far more common. Clarinet and accordion are also commonly used, and the rhythm guitar is often played with a percussive technique known as "la pompe", largely replacing the drums. Django Reinhardt was a major figure in creating the genre by helping to fuse the aforementioned gypsy elements with the Swing sound of his era.
Hard Bop
A subgenre of Bebop that emerged in the mid-1950s and remained popular through the '60s. Hard bop was pioneered by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers who brought in influences from Rhythm & Blues and Gospel. Thus the music tends to have blues-inflected melodies, and its development was in part an attempt to produce a more danceable form of bebop. The style was adopted and expanded in the mid-'50s to early '60s by artists such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.
Jazz-Funk
Jazz-funk is a form of Jazz highly influenced by Funk. It incorporates funk's comparatively basic and propelling rhythm and repetitive bass grooves into a jazz setting, replacing jazz's classic swing rhythm with that of funk, favouring a steady groove over melody and chord progressions. Jazz-funk tracks sometimes make use of a horn section supplying riffs, are often lengthy and based on a one chord or two chord vamp of the rhythm guitar and prominent bass line as the starting point for the solo instrument, often a keyboard, saxophone or electric guitar.
Early jazz-funk of the late 1960s shared some similarities with Soul Jazz which started in the late 1950s and was also called 'funky jazz' until the early 1960s. But while soul jazz (like Soul) was influenced by Rhythm & Blues and Gospel, jazz-funk takes its cues directly from funk. Jazz-funk (unlike soul jazz) quickly became associated with funk's typically electric and electronic instrumentation: Most of the genre worked with electric funk guitar lines, electric bass, as well as electric keyboards and synthezisers from the 1960s onwards, influencing the later Synth Funk. Though there are important examples of relatively conventional jazz-funk such as Herbie Hancock's Fat Albert Rotunda (1970), the genre therefore has large overlaps with Jazz Fusion influenced by Avant-Garde Jazz, such as on Miles Davis' record Bitches Brew (1970) or the more tightly groove-oriented On the Corner (1972), which based their fusion sound on avant-garde jazz as well as funk rhythms.
While these more experimental outings remained influential, jazz-funk's mainstream breakthrough is largely attributed to Hancock's hit album Head Hunters (1973) and the records following it, with commercially successful acts like Weather Report throughout the 1970s. This less avant-garde and almost danceable style of jazz-funk remained the template for the following decades, with contemporary bands like Medeski, Martin & Wood leaning towards the former, and artists like John Scofield leaning towards the latter approach. Starting in the 1980s, jazz-funk's groove also impacted the Dance and Hip Hop-influenced Acid Jazz.
Jazz Fusion
Jazz Fusion is a style of music derived from Jazz, incorporating elements of different musical traditions: the electric sound and the riffs of Rock music, the rhythms of Rhythm & Blues and Funk, the elaborate compositions of Classical Music, and various forms of worldwide Folk music traditions, are gathered in a jazzy environment of highly complex improvisation and experimentation, following the movement of Avant-Garde Jazz of the 50s and 60s. Instruments such as electric guitars and keyboards become commonly used. The experimentalist jazzmen/jazzbands Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell or Soft Machine are considered to be pioneers of this genre.
Jazz Poetry
Jazz poetry emerged during the 1920s as a form of poetry incorporating the style and the rhythms of Jazz, which simultaneously began to expand amongst the African-American communities of the US. The earliest so-called jazz poets, such as Carl Sandburg, only included jazz in their poetry as a thematic element, predating the first wave of authentic jazz poetry in which authors such as Langston Hughes embraced the musical aspects of jazz, especially its rhythm and repetition. Hughes' first book, The Weary Blues is considered the first collection of genuine jazz poems.
The genre gained great popularity during the Harlem Renaissance, as many poets merged poetry and jazz continuing the trend started by Langston Hughes. This movement was revived during the 1950 by the poets of the beat generation, who in many cases included jazz poetry as part of their characteristic Beat Poetry. This heterogeneous group of poets included Amiri Baraka, Jack Kerouac and Sterling Brown. Some authors, like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, usually collaborated with jazz ensembles, giving rise to the definitive fusion of jazz and poetry. Albums which clearly convey this musical blend include Poetry and Jazz at the Blackhawk by Kenneth Rexroth, who is considered the founding father of the San Francisco Renaissance.
During later decades, a third wave of jazz poetry was spearheaded by Gil Scott-Heron and Jayne Cortez with different approaches. While the former included jazz elements as a mere artistic device used to evoke his Afro-American origins, the latter focused her poetry on the melodic patters and cadences of jazz. Scott-Heron's work preceded the rise of Hip Hop, amongst whose derivative forms is Jazz Rap, which encompasses many formal aspects of poetry jazz, and renders them with modern hip hop production methods. Nevertheless, jazz poetry continued to be cultivated, along with the many other branches of contemporary poetry, during the past few decades by poets like Hayden Carruth and Yusef Komunyakaa.
Jazz-Rock
Jazz-Rock is a form of rock music strongly influenced by Jazz in terms of its structure and/or instrumentation. Its origins can be traced back to the late 1960s, where artists such as Soft Machine and Frank Zappa created extended, improvisational jams which favoured (but were not limited to) traditional rock instruments. Jazz-Rock can also refer to less experimental forms of rock incorporating the sound and style of jazz within a pop-song structure (Chicago, Steely Dan).
Kwela
(also known as Pennywhistle Kwela)
This sound from South Africa emerged from Marabi in the early 1950s. Kwela is rooted in Malawi and local South African traditional music such as Zulu music, and is influenced by Jazz as well. The four bar themes get repeated and mildly varied. The happy melodies of Kwela are mostly played by different flutes such as pennywhistle flutes and are often accompanied by banjo or guitar. Kwela became popular in Malawi as well and was prominent worldwide in the 1950s. The most significant artists are South African Lemmy "Special" Mabaso and Spokes Mashiyane, Malawian Donald Kachamba, as well as South African Elias & His Zig Zag Jive Flutes who performed in 1958 the internationally famous song Tom Hark.
Latin Jazz
Latin jazz is a broad term used originally for talking about Afro-Cuban Jazz but nowadays, due to its evolution, for the eventual fusion of jazz with Latin American rhythms, especially genres with African origin. Although its origins are traced from the late nineteenth century, the appearance of Mario Bauzá is considered fundamental to the consecration of the genre (musician who participated in one of the basic songs in the genre: The Peanut Vender (El manicero) / True Love (Amor sincero)) and introduced the music to Dizzy Gillespie and became the musical director of Machito
Latin jazz is used to employ straight rhythm (or "even-eighths"), and conga, timbale, güiro, bongos, and claves are percussion instruments often used in place of the drum kit, featured in solos.
Through history other musicians have added to the evolution and complexity of the genre: Tito Puente, Cachao, Gato Barbieri, Ray Barretto, Bebo Valdés, among others. And it's considered by many critics as the backbone of the development of the Latin American Music in the twentieth century (from Latin Rock to Salsa).
Note: Genres as Bossa Nova and Samba-Jazz are included under Brazilian music.
Marabi
Marabi is a South African Jazz style with origins in the 1920s. This genre came to existence in the ghettos and the shebeens of Johannesburg and is rooted in traditional South African music. The formerly simplistic organ and piano style (resembling Ragtime to a certain extent, and often accompanied by different percussion instruments and later on also played by reeds) was brought to a larger audience and taken to a higher artistic level by artists such as Abdullah Ibrahim, Johnny Dyani, Basil Coetzee, The African Jazz Pioneers, Miriam Makeba (early period) and others. This sound came to prominence as it was used as a form of protest against the exploitation of the people of South Africa. From a more Swing-based marabi combined with Zulu and Xhosa cultures emerged Kwela and Mbaqanga. These made the international popularity of marabi music genres increase respectively in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Mbaqanga
Mbaqanga is a popular Zulu genre of South African music, that emerged from the traditional Marabi Jazz and Swing as well as Kwela popular South African genres. Mbaqanga is much more based on Big Band Swing. It appeared in the early 1960s from South African shebeens. Like Kwela, Mbaqanga has rural Zulu roots and continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The early prominent Mbaqanga artists were Makgona Tsohle Band, Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens, Sipho Mchunu accompanied by Johnny Clegg with Juluka band. Today this genre is less active although Mahotella Queens reduced to three members are still performing.
Modal Jazz
A style of Jazz that utilizes musical modes as harmonic framework over traditionally used chord progressions. It took its start in the late 1950s when artists such as George Russell began experimentation with a modal approach to their music. Since then, some of the most well known jazz artists began using modal progressions in their music, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock. Modal jazz is often cited as a precursor to Avant-Garde Jazz.
New Orleans Brass Band
New Orleans brass bands started out in the late 19th century and early 20th century and are an integral part of the New Orleans traditions. At the beginning the style was combination of European military bands and African folklore (due the prominence of blacks and creoles in the city), and at the crack of the century it grew side by side with Jazz music. A key difference with other types of brass bands is the inclusion of the sousaphone instead of the bass violin to play the bassline. Other typical instrumentation of the New Orleans brass bands include trumpet, trombone, saxophone, clarinet, bass drum and snare drum. Olympia Brass Band, The Original Tuxedo 'Jass' Band and Eureka Brass Band are some of key names of early New Orleans brass bands.
Due to the portability of the instruments, New Orleans brass band are well known for playing in the streets and easily joining various concerts. The bands also perform in jazz funerals, one of the sacred traditions of New Orleans.
New Orleans brass band enjoyed a revival in the late 60s, but most prominently in the 80s with the success of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Rebirth Brass Band. These modern bands would keep the traditional setup, but included elements from other genres like Funk and played at a faster pace. In the 90s bands like The Soul Rebels started adding Hip Hop elements into the mixture. New Orleans brass bands remain popular to this day with newer bands like Hot 8 Brass Band forming, but also can be found in other American cities and all over the world with bands such as Youngblood Brass Band (Madison, WI), Jack Brass Band (Minneapolis, MN), Black Bottom Brass Band (Japan) and The Bad Ass Brass Band (UK).
Post-Bop
Post-Bop is a term within Jazz to describe the development of a type of small group jazz music of the early to mid-1960s. The term was not used during the time the genre was initially active and has only recently been created to describe this type of jazz. Its sound although notoriously difficult to define is characterised by the integration of various ideas from the contemporary jazz scenes of its day to generate a distinct hybrid jazz sound, distinguishable from its roots in Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Hard Bop or Modal Jazz.
The origins of the Post-Bop is evident in the works of the era of artists such as Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans.
Jeremy Yudkin in his book "Miles Davis, Miles Smiles, and the Invention of Post Bop" summarised post-bop as: “an approach that incorporated modal and chordal harmonies, flexible form, structured choruses, melodic variation, and free improvisation. It was freedom anchored in form. We can call it post-bop.”
Progressive Big Band
Progressive big band was pioneered by Stan Kenton in the late 1940s as an attempt to introduce Western Classical Music compositional techniques into the Big Band genre. Kenton himself dubbed his approach "progressive jazz". Groups playing progressive big band maintained the 10+ member ensembles of traditional big band, but instead of making dance-oriented music they focused on heavier, more complex, modernistic arrangements that were designed for listening and performance rather than a night on the town. Arranger Pete Rugolo played a significant part in the development of the genre, producing important albums such as City of Glass. Rugolo was replaced in Kenton's band by Bill Russo, whose contributions to the genre are also notable.
Progressive big band preceded and is different from Experimental Big Band, which is a big-band approach to Avant-Garde Jazz. Although both styles allowed room for improvisational techniques, the progressive groups remained grounded in the traditional big-band ethos, pushing the envelope by tweaking around the fringes with elements of traditional Western classical music, which would eventually evolve into Third Stream. On the other hand, experimental groups such as Globe Unity Orchestra went a bit further afield, focusing on incorporating elements of Free Jazz and Modern Classical into the big-band format.
Samba-Jazz
(also known as MPM)
A genre developed in Brazil in the early 1960s that presents a synthesis of Bossa nova and the rhythms of Samba with American Jazz, particularly Bebop and Cool Jazz.
Smooth Jazz
Smooth Jazz is an outgrowth of the Jazz Fusion style, beginning in the late '60s. The sound is almost entirely built around a simple and repeating melody taking the forefront (soprano saxophone being the common lead), and backed by (often synthesized) Funk, Pop, or Rhythm & Blues rhythms. Soloing and improvisations are practically non-existent, as the music is meant to be as pleasant and easily absorbed as possible. Often considered a derisive term, Smooth Jazz is somewhat synonymous with 'muzak' or 'elevator music', and is closely related to Adult Contemporary and Sophisti-Pop for its common theme of remaking popular songs into the Smooth Jazz style. George Benson and Pat Metheny were early popularizers of the style.
Soul Jazz
Soul jazz is a subgenre of Jazz that appeared during the 1950s, when Gospel, Rhythm & Blues and later Soul started to influence the style of prolific jazz musicians such as Horace Silver, whose composition "The Preacher" quickly became a staple of the genre. The characteristic "groove" of soul jazz became especially popular during the late 1950 and the early 1960s, when Hard Bop was becoming the leading form of jazz. Hence, both genres developed in close association with each other to the extent that a great deal of soul jazz fell within the scope of hard bop.
During the first half of the 1950s, R&B-influenced jazz emerged as an alternative to both Cool Jazz and Bebop. The appearance of soul jazz represented the fusion of different Afro-American musics as a response to the "white" sound of West Coast jazz; all of this during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. Soul jazz hits in this era include Illinois Jacquet's "Port of Rico" and Jimmy Forrest's "Night Train". When hard bop evolved out of bebop in the mid-1950s, many ensembles fully embraced soul jazz, giving rise to a movement that would last until the late 1960s. Amongst the first to explore the combination of hard bop and soul jazz were a first generation of tenor saxophonists with a swing and bebop background as well as notable r&b influences. These included Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Gene Ammons and Ike Quebec, who were followed by a younger generation with Stanley Turrentine, Houston Person and Grover Washington, Jr.. Besides the tenor saxophone, the quintessential soul jazz instrument was the Hammond B-3 electric organ. The first and most crucial organist in the history of soul jazz was Jimmy Smith. His lead was followed by other important figures such as Johnny Hammond, Baby Face Willette, Shirley Scott, Richard "Groove" Holmes and Jack McDuff. The popular organ trio configuration usually included guitarists such as Grant Green, Kenny Burrell and Pat Martino.
Some of the most representative soul jazz albums were produced during the mid-1960s. These include Soul Message by Richard "Groove" Holmes, Let 'Em Roll by Big John Patton, Alligator Bogaloo by Lou Donaldson and That's Where It's At by Stanley Turrentine, which features heavily gospel-influenced pianist Les McCann. As the end of the decade approached, soul jazz began to evolve into more adventurous styles of jazz, notably Jazz-Funk. Hard bop had already developed into freer forms such as Post-Bop, and other experimental genres like Free Jazz were also prevalent. The most important artist to take soul jazz beyond its original boundaries was Freddie Hubbard, who combined soul jazz with jazz-funk and post-bop in his two critically acclaimed albums of the early 1970s, Red Clay and Straight Life. However, by the mid-1970s soul jazz was already considered old-fashioned and, even though new artists such as Charles Earland managed to keep the style alive, it has remained largely eclipsed by more popular jazz genres ever since.
Spiritual Jazz
Spiritual Jazz is a style of Avant-Garde Jazz music which emerged in the 1960s. It is closely associated with the musical and spiritual philosophy developed by John Coltrane in the mid-1960s (manifested as early as his seminal A Love Supreme album) which was passed on to his collaborators Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.
Stylistically, spiritual jazz is marked by a mixture of jazz with approximations of ethnic music styles (often a blend of styles evocative of African, Indian, and East Asian musical traditions), religious music of non-Christian traditions, and the ecstatic, transcendental aspects of Free Jazz. This radical style was closely linked to various African-American political and spiritual movements, such as the Nation of Islam and Afro-Centrism, the introduction of Zen philosophy and yoga in America, a resurgence of Egyptology, as well as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.
Stride
(also known as Stride Piano, Harlem Stride)
Stride is a style of early piano music that evolved from Ragtime. Often faster and more complex than Ragtime, Stride Piano can also be seen as one of the most popular early forms of Jazz, developing its style later on to include improvisation, blue notes, and more advanced swing rhythms. James P. Johnson is known as the “Father of Stride Piano”.
Swing
Swing music began in the 1920s, with its prime era between 1935-1945, and was one of the most popular styles of American music until shortly after World War Two. Swing Jazz relies on a larger backing rhythm section (comprised of drums, guitar, bass (stand-up or electric), piano or organ, and sometimes a tuba, in varying groupings) than other Jazz styles. This lays the groundwork for the 'lead' section, usually including brass (e.g. trombone, trumpet) and woodwinds (e.g. saxophone, clarinet). Creative and intricate soloing takes the fore on the bandleaders instrument of choice, giving each song its particular character. Swing is an up-tempo music that is highly danceable, its most famous dance perhaps being the Jitterbug. Swing enjoyed a brief but powerful revival during the late 90s, and its well-known original artists such as Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, and Count Basie remain popular to this day among Jazz enthusiasts.
Swing Revival
(also known as Retro Swing)
Swing Revival, also known as Neoswing, was a period of renewed interest in the Swing and Jump Blues music styles of the thirties and forties that occurred around the turn of the millennium. Rather than being a direct copy, however, the scene incorporated elements of other genres, such as Rockabilly, Ska and Punk Rock.
Third Stream
Third stream is essentially a blending of Jazz and Western Classical Music, with improvisation as a key element. The term "third stream" has been coined by conductor Gunther Schuller, whose music often displayed jazz influences. Charles Mingus, Moondog, and Bill Evans are some of the most notable artists in the genre.
Vocal Jazz
Vocal jazz is a popular song style that emerged in the USA in the early 20th century. The primary focus and main "instrument" is the voice, with an emphasis on song-based forms and the intimacy and passion of the lead delivery rather than avant-garde structures and extended instrumental improvisation. The Jazz backing is generally intended to complement the singing and to set the mood to the singer's story.
The union of jazz music and singing has origins in Blues and Standards singers in the late 1910s and throughout the 1920s, such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Marion Harris. In the mid-1920s, Louis Armstrong's popularization of nonsense 'scat' vocalizations showcased the human voice as an art form within the field of jazz.
During the huge popularity of Big Band and Swing in the 1930s and 1940s, a wave of celebrated vocalists performing jazz standards and Traditional Pop emerged. Bandleaders such as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey sought to employ singers, whilst Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan all defined an era which, by the 1950s, became the golden era of vocal jazz. The phrasing, intonation and overall expressiveness with which the lyrics are delivered have been hugely influential to the medium of singing as a whole ever since.
Vocal jazz has continued to exist and evolve, with The Manhattan Transfer and Bobby McFerrin finding success in the 1970s and ‘80s and older, prime-era singers such as Nina Simone, Helen Merrill, Maxine Sullivan and Abbey Lincoln still recording and performing during this time. In the 1990s and post-millennium, the genre still maintained a moderate degree of success, with solo singers such as Dianne Reeves, Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum demonstrating their influences and paying tribute to the great vocalists of the past.
Yass
Yass is a term coined at the beginning of 1990s by Polish Avant-Garde Jazz musicians Tymon Tymański, Mazzoll and Tomasz Gwinciński to describe the cross-genre, frequently arrhythmic, improvised music they played with e.g. Miłość, Łoskot and Mazzoll & Arhythmic Perfection. Yass comprises the stylistics and elements of genres ranging from Folk to Punk Rock.
The Yass scene emerged in Tricity (an aggregate of the three neighbouring towns of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) and Bydgoszcz whose Mózg became the "home venue" for Yass performers (e.g. Koncert w Mózgu) with its own label releasing a number of Yass productions.
A good overview of the Yass scene comes with the compilation album Cały ten Yass! released by Jazz Forum magazine just after the genre's heyday.
Defintions courtesy of rateyourmusic.com