|
Acid
Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa
Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World
Fusion
---------
----------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-------------
------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-----------
--------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-------------------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-------------------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
---------------
----
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
------------
-------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
----------
---------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-------------------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
----------------
---
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
--------------
-----
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
----------------
---
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-----------------
------------
-------
Acid Jazz
Acoustic Blues
Acoustic Chicago Blues
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Avant-Garde
Ballads
Big Band
Boogie Woogie
Bop
Bossa Nova
Cabaret
Classic Female Blues
Classic Jazz
Contemporary Funk
Contemporary Jazz
Cool
Country Blues
Crossover Jazz
Dance Bands
Dixieland
East Coast Blues
Folk-Jazz
Free Funk
Free Jazz
Fusion
Groove
Hard Bop
Instrumental Pop
Jazz Blues
Jazz-Rock
Jive
Jump Blues
Latin Jazz
M-Base
Mainstream Jazz
Modern Electric Blues
New Orleans R&B
New Orleans Jazz
Piano Blues
Piedmont Blues
Post-Bop
Progressive Big Band
R&B
Ragtime
Soul-Jazz
Standards
Stride Swing
Texas Blues
Third Stream
Trad Jazz
Traditional Pop
Urban Blues
Vocal-Pop
Vocalese
West Coast Blues
World Fusion
-----
|
JAZZ
STYLES
Acid
Jazz
The
music played by a generation raised on jazz as well as funk
and hip-hop, Acid Jazz used elements of all three; its existence
as a percussion- heavy, primarily live music played it closer
to jazz and Afro-Cuban than any other dance style, but its insistence
on keeping the groove allied it with funk, hip-hop and
dance music. The term itself first appeared in 1988 as both
an American record label and the title of an English compilation
series which reissued jazz-funk music from the '70s, called
rare groove by the Brits during a major mid-'80s resurgence.
A variety of acid jazz artists emerged during the late '80s
and early '90s: live bands such as Stereo Collective, Galliano
and Jamiroquai as well as studio projects like Palmskin
Productions, Mondo Grosso, Outside and United Future Organization.
Acoustic
Blues
A
general catch-all term describing virtually every type of
blues that can be played on a non-electric musical instrument.
It embraces a wide range of guitar and musical styles including
folk, the songster traddition, slide, fingerpicking, ragtime,
and all of the myriad regional strains (Chicago, Delta, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Texas, Piedmont, etc.) that thrived in the early
days of the music's gestation. But Acoustic Blues is
not limited to merely guitar music; its "acoustic" appellation
being an elastic enough term to also include mandolin, banjo,
piano, harmonica, jug bands, and other non-electric instruments
including home made ones, like the one string monochord bottleneck
diddleybow.
Acoustic
Chicago Blues
This
describes the version of music emanating from the Windy City
in the years before the twin arrivals of Muddy Waters and
electric guitars changed everything. Chicago was recording
central for most blues recording artists of the 1930s and
1940s and most performers were plugged into was became
known as "the Bluebird Beat," an acoustic based progenitor
of the later Chicago blues band lineup. Its music is earmarked
by what is usually described as a "hokum style," heavy
on lyrics that promote a light hearted atmosphere, propelled
by a jazz influenced beat and a more city derived slant
to it.
Afro-Cuban
Jazz
Afro-Cuban
jazz is a combination of jazz improvising and rhythms from Cuba
and Africa; it is also known as Latin Jazz although several
of its practioners prefer the former term. There were some hints
of Afro-Cuban jazz in isolated cases during the 1920s and '30s
(Jelly Roll Morton's "Spanish tinge" in some of his more rhythmic
piano solos, a few Gene Krupa performances where he sought to
include South American rhythms and even in the Latin pop
music of Xavier Cugat) but one can really trace its birth to
trumpeter-arranger Mario Bauza. Bauza introduced trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie to the masterful Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo (they
teamed up during 1947-48 to create innovative music before Pozo's
death) and also persuaded Latin bandleader Machito to use jazz
soloists. During the late '40s Stan Kenton began to integrate
Latin Rhythms in his music and, with the rice in popularity
during the 1950s of Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, Afro-Cuban jazz
caught on as one of the most popular jazz styles. In more recent
times some groups have developed Afro-Cuban jazz beyond its
boppish roots, performing Monk and Coltrane tunes, adding funk
to the mixture and having more adventurous solos. The spirit
of the music (a true fusion between North, South and Central
America) and an emphasis on infectious rhythms are the keys.
Avant-Garde
Avant-Garde
Jazz differs from Free Jazz in that it has more structure
in the ensembles (more of a "game plan") although the individual
impro- visations are generally just as free of conventional
rules. Obviously there is a lot of overlap between Free Jazz
and Avant-Garde; most players in one idiom often play in the
other "style," too. In the best Avant-Garde performances it
is difficult to tell when compositions end and impro- visations
begin; the goal is to have the solos be an outgrowth of the
arrangement. As with Free Jazz, the Avant-Garde came of age
in the 1960s and has continued almost unnoticed as a menacing
force in the jazz underground, scorned by the mainstream that
influences. Among its founders in the mid- to late 1950s
were pianist Cecil Taylor, altoist Ornette Coleman and keyboardist-bandleader
Sun Ra. John Coltrane became the avant-garde's most
popular (and influential) figure and from the mid-1960s on
the avant-garde innovators made a major impact on jazz,
helping to push the music beyond bebop.
Ballads
The
word "ballad" often has two meanings: a lyrical and melodic
piece that can be sung, or simply any selection taken at a slow
tempo. In the "AMG" we generally use the former definition while
the latter can be said to be played at a "balled tempo." Although
there were sentimental ballads in the 1800s, the idiom
came of age with the rise of the great American popular song
and such composers as Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin
and Cole Porter among others. Even if there have been some standard
ballads written since 1970 (only a few from the pop and rock
fields are easily transferable to jazz), the majority of the
repertoire of jazz-influenced ballad singers tends to date from
the 1920-60 period.
Big
Band
Big
Band refers to a jazz group of ten or more musicians, usually
featuring at least three trumpets, two or more trombones, four
or more saxophones and a "rhythm section" of accompanists playing
some combination of piano, guitar, bass, and drums. "Big band
music" as a concept for music fans is identified most with the
swing era, although there were large, jazz-oriented, dance bands
before the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, and large jazz-oriented
concert bands after the swing era.
Classification
difficulties occur when music stores shelve recordings by
all large jazz ensembles as though it were a single style,
despite the shifting harmonic and rhythmic approaches employed
by new ensembles of similar instrumentation that have formed
since the swing era.
By lumping the music of all large jazz bands together, marketers
overlook the different kinds of jazz that large groups have
performed: swing (Duke Ellington and Count Basie), bebop (Dizzy
Gillespie), cool (Gerry Mulligan, Shorty Rogers, Gil Evans),
hard bop (Gerald Wilson), free jazz (some of Sun Ra's work
after the 1950s), and jazz-rock fusion (Don Ellis' and Maynard
Ferguson's groups of the 1970s). Not all of them are "swing
bands."
Many
listeners consider "big band" to denote an idiom, not just
an instrumentation. For them, the strategies of arranging
and soloing that were established during the 1930s link all
large jazz ensembles more than the different rhythmic and
harmonic concepts distinguish those of one era, for example
bebop, from those of another, for example those of jazz-rock.
Another
important consideration is that journalists and jazz fans
of the 1930s and 1940s drew distinctions between bands that
conveyed the most hard-driving rhythmic qualities and frequent
solo improvisations and those that conveyed less pronounced
swing feeling and improvisation. The former were called "swing
bands" or "hot bands" (for example, Count Basie's and Duke
Ellington's). The latter were called "sweet bands" (for example,
Wayne King's, Freddy Martin's, and Guy Lombardo's). Although
the big band era ended by 1946, there have been some large
orchestras used in jazz ever since if virtually none (other
than the Count Basie ghost band) operate on a full-time basis.
Nearly all are led by arrangers.
Boogie-Woogie
Boogie-woogie
is a jazz piano style using two pulses stated by the left hand
for every beat and the 12-bar blues chord progression as its
repertory. The brief, continuously repeating patterns from the
left hand give the style its identity. It's jazz flavor comes
from rhythmically and melodically playful phrases improvised
by the pianist's right hand.
First
popularized during the late 1920s by Pinetop Smith, boogie-woogie
experienced a strong revival during the late 1930s and early
1940s through the recordings of Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons,
Pete Johnson, Jimmy Yancey, Cripple Clarence Lofton, and Cow
Cow Davenport. This genre had considerable influence on accompaniment
styles in the popular music called rhythm & blues, as
well as the beginnings of rock 'n'roll.
Bop
Also
known as bebop, bop was a radical new music that developed gradually
in the early 1940s and seemed to explode in 1945. The main difference
between bop and swing is that the soloists engaged in chordal
(rather than melodic) improvisation, often discarding the melody
altogether after the first chorus and using the chord as the
basis for the solo. Ensembles tended to be unisons, most jazz
groups were under seven pieces and the soloist was free to get
as adventurous as possible as long as the overall improvisation
fit into the chord structure. Since the musicians were getting
away from using the melodies as the basis for their solos (leading
some listeners to ask "Where's the melody?"), the players were
generally virtuosos and some from popular music a dancing audience,
uplifting jazz to an art music but cutting deeply into its potential
commercial success. Ironically the once-radical bebop style
has become the foundation for all the innovations that followed
and now can be almost thought of the establishment music. Among
its key innovators were altoist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie, pianist Bud Powell, drummer Max Roach and pianist-composer
Thelonious Monk.
Bossa
Nova
Influenced
by the West Coast jazz, in the 1950s composer Antonio Carlos
Jobim helped to form a new music that blended together gentle
Brazilian rhythms and melodies with cool-toned improvising,;
the rhythms are usually lightly as 3-3-4-3-3 with beats 1,4,7,11
and 14 being accented during every two-bars (played in 8/4 time).
Joao Gilberto's soothing voice perfectly communicated the beauty
of Jobim's music.
The late '50s film "Black Orpheus" helped to introduce Jobim's
compositions to an American audience and other important early
exponents of bossa nova were guitarist Charlie Byrd, tenor saxophonist
Stan Getz (Byrd and Getz teamed up for the highly influential
Jazz/Samba) and housewife-turned-singer Astrud Gilberto who,
along with her husband Joao and Getz, made "The Girl from Ipanema"
a huge hit. The very appealing bossa nova's popularity peaked
in the mid-'60s but it has remained a viable music up to the
present time.
Cabaret
As
a musical style cabaret refers to two different aspects of music.
The "night clubs" were initially opened to provide a place for
painters, writers, musicians and other artists to gather,
talk, perform and experiment. The key to understanding cabaret
as a style is that the music was all experimental. Avant-garde
styles, reactions to (or against) current trends and conventions
were formulated in the cabarets. Other styles include the music
that was performed in the cabarets when these clubs received
their repute for being associated with vice.
Cabaret music was considered bawdy, vampish, rhythmic and often
lewd considering the numerous lyrical double entendres. Melodic
lines could be smooth and soft when that form of stimulation
was wanted from and for the audience but most of the lines were
memorable, filled with motions and extended interval leaps.
There were few soft curves to these musical phrases. Cabaret
music was intended as an energized form of entertainment.
Classic
Female Blues
This
is the earliest aurally documented form of the blues. The classic
female blues singers of the 1920s were the first to get on record
and the first to have hits in the genre, subsequently reaching
a national audience and starting the first great push in recording
blues music of all styles. This strain generally features big
voiced female vocalists singing material with close connections
to pop music of the period (mid-'20s to early '30s), utilizing
primarily jazz backings, giving even the most gutbucket of performances
a more uptown air to them. The style of these women singers
is loud, brassy, sassy, and assertive with the occasional nascent
feminist sentiment being inserted into the lyrics from time
to time.
Classic
Jazz
Not
all jazz from the 1920s can be described as "New Orleans Jazz"
or "Dixieland." The 1920s were a rich decade musically with
jazz-influenced dance bands and a gradual emphasis on solo (as
opposed to collective) improvisations. Whether it be the stride
pianists, the increasingly adventurous horn soloists or the
arranged music that predates swing, much of the jazz from this
decade can be given the umbrella title of "Classic Jazz." Some
of the modern-day revivalists (many who can be heard on the
Stomp Off label) who look beyond the Dixieland repertoire into
the music of Fletcher Henderson, Clarence Williams and Bix Beiderbecke
(to name a few) can be said to be playing in this open-ended
style.
Contemporary
Funk
Contemporary
funk refers to a kind of jazz from the 1970s and 1980s in which
accompanists perform in the Black pop style of soul and funk
music while extensive solo improvisations ride atop. Instead
of using standard vocabularies of any modern jazz saxophonists
(Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman),
most saxophone improvisations in this style use their own repertory
of simple phrases that are loaded with bluesy wails and moans.
They draw upon traditions illustrated by sax solos on rhythm
& blues vocal recordings, such as those of King Curtis with
the Coasters, Junior Walker with the Motown vocal groups, and
Dave Sanborn with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
A
prominent figure in this genre is Grover Washington, Jr.,
who often solos in a Hank Crawford-like style over funk accompaniments.
These instances com- prise his best-known recordings, though
he is also capable of playing other styles of jazz. The Jazz
Crusaders (Wilton Felder, Joe Sample) achieved wide popularity
when they changed their repertory to this approach during
the 1970s and dropped "Jazz" from their band name. A considerable
portion of music by Michael Brecker, Tom Scott, and their
disciples uses this approach, though they can also play in
the jazz styles of John Coltrane and Joe Henderson. Najee,
Richard Elliott, and their contemporaries also perform in
this "contemporary funk" style.
From approximately 1971 to 1992, Miles Davis led bands in
a sophisticated variation of this style, though his saxophone
soloists also drew upon the methods of John Coltrane, and
his guitarists also showed modern jazz thinking and Jimi Hendrix
influence. Much of contemporary funk can also be classified
as "crossover."
Contemporary
Jazz
Contemporary
jazz refers to mainstream jazz performed in the '80s and '90s.
Usually, it is either a variation on classic, small group hard-bop
or slick fusion that concentrates on rhythms instead of improvisation.
Often, Contemporary jazz exhibits more rock and pop influences
than traditional hard-bop, but its bop origins are still quite
evident.
Cool
In
the late 1940s and 1950s cool jazz evolved directly from bop.
Essentially it was a mixture of bop with certain aspects of
swing that had been overlooked or temporarily discarded. Dissonances
were smoothed out, tones were softened, arrangements became
important again and the rhythm section's accents were less jarring.
Because some of the key pacesetters of the style (many of whom
were studio-musicians) were centered in Los Angeles, it was
nicknamed "West Coast Jazz." Some of the recordings were experimental
in nature (hinting at classical music), while some overarranged
sessions were bland but in general this was a viable and popular
style. By the late 1950s hard bop from the East Coast had succeeded
cool jazz although many of the style's top players had long
and productive careers. Among the many top artists who were
important in the development of Cool Jazz were Lester Young,
Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Shorty Rogers and Howard
Rumsey (leader of the Lighthouse All-Stars).
Country
Blues
A
catch-all term that delineates the depth and breadth of the
first flowering of guitar-driven blues, embracing both solo,
duo, and string band performers. The term also provides a convenient
general heading for all the multiple regional styles and variations
(Piedmont, Atlanta, Memphis, Texas, acoustic Chicago, Delta,
ragtime, folk, songster, etc.) of the form. It is primarily
- but not exclusively - a genre filled with acoustic guitarists,
embracing a multiplicity of techniques from elaborate fingerpicking
to the early roots of slide playing. But some country-blues
performers like Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker were to
later switch over the electric guitars without having to drastically
change or alter their styles.
Crossover
Jazz
With
the gradual decline of rock (from an artistic standpoint) starting
in the early 1970s, fusion (a mixture of jazz improvisations
with rock rhythms) began to become more predictable since there
was less input and inspiration from the rock world. At the same
time, now that it was proven that electric jazz could sell records,
producers and some musicians searched for other combinations
of styles in order to have big sellers. They were quite successful
in making their brand of jazz more accessible to the average
consumer. Many different combinations have been tried during
the past two decades and promoters and publicists enjoy using
the phrase "Contemporary jazz" to describe these "fusions" of
jazz with elements of pop music, R&B and world music. However,
the word "crossover" (which describes the intent of the performances
as well as the usual results) is more accurate. Crossover and
fusion have been quite valuable in increasing the jazz audience
(many of whom end up exploring other styles). In some cases
the music is quite worthwhile, while in other instances the
jazz content is a relatively small part of the ingredients.
When the style is actually pop music with only an insignificant
amount of improvisation (meaning that it is largely outside
of jazz), the term "instrumental pop" applies best of all. Examples
of crossover range from Al Jarreau and George Benson vocal records
to Kenny G., Spyro Gyra and the Rippingtons. All contain the
influence of jazz but tend to fall as much (if not more) into
the pop field.
Dance
Band
Although
virtually all jazz groups prior to the rise of bebop in the
early to mid-'40s played for dancers, the term "dance bands"
is used to describe orchestras of the 1920s and '30s whose primary
function was to play background music for dancers rather than
to serve as vehicles for jazz improvisations. The more progressive
dance bands of the early to mid-'20s (such as those led by Paul
Whiteman, Isham Jones and Ben Selvin) left some room for short
solos and by the late '20s most of the less commercial dance
bands had brief spots in their arrangements for trumpeters and
reed playersto solo after the vocal refrain. The dance bands,
although emphasizing the melody and vocalists, were generally
influenced by jazz and incorporated elements of swing after
the emer-gence of Benny Goodman in 1935 although they were often
classified as "sweet" bands. After 1945, dance orchestras became
less common, were often tied to nostalgia and were much less
relevant to jazz.
Dixieland
Because
the Dixieland revival (one could say fad) of the 1950s was eventually
overrun by amateurs, corny trappings (such as straw hats and
suspenders) and clichés, many musicians playing in that
idiom grew to dislike the term and wanted it to be changed to
"traditional" or "classic." But rather then blame the term or
the style, it seems more justifiable to separate the professionals
from the poor imitators. Dixieland, a style that overlaps with
New Orleans jazz and classic jazz, has also been called "Chicago
jazz" because it developed to an extent in Chicago in the 1920's.
Most typically the framework involves collective improvisation
during the first chorus (or, when there are several themes,
for several choruses), individual solos with some riffing
by the other horns, and a closing ensemble or two with a four
bag tag by the drummer being answered by the full group.
Although nearly any song can be turned into Dixieland, there
is a consistent repertoire of forty or so songs that have been
proven to be consistently reliable. Despite its decline
in popularity since the 1950s, Dixieland (along with the related
classic jazz and New Orleans jazz idioms) continues to flourish
as an underground music.
East
Coast Blues
This
genre combines two basic schools under one general heading.
The first and most notable consist of disciples of the Piedmont
school (primarily of the East Coast area's main Piedmont
style) who had relocated along the East Coast by the early to
mid 1950s and ended up comprising much of that city's early
blues revival scene in the mid 1960s. The second consists of
both electric R&B artists and modern performers hailing
from the area working in a variety of styles indigenous to the
overall genre itself.
Folk-Jazz
This
term is used for musicians from the 1950s on who often utilize
strong folk melodies as vehicles for solos. They tend to keep
their ears open to musical developments in other countries (world
music), emphasize quieter volumes and break down boundaries
between jazz and seemingly unrelated genres. Examples of folk-jazz
include som of the music of Jimmy Giuffre, Tony Scott (post-1959),
Paul Horn, Paul Winter and Oregon. Folk-jazz was a direct influence
on new age.
Free
Funk
Free
Funk is a mixture of avant-garde jazz with funky rhythms. When
Ornette Coleman formed Prime Time in the early '70s, he had
a "double quartet" (comprising two guitars, two electric bassist
and two drummers plus his alto) performing with freedom tonally
but over eccentric funk rhythms. Three of Ornette's sidemen
(guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer, bassist Jamaaladeen and drummer
Ronald Shannon Jackson) have since led free funk groups of their
own and free funk has been a major influence on the music of
the M-Base players including altoist Steve Coleman and Greg
Osby.
Free
Jazz
Dixieland
and swing stylists improvise melodically and bop, cool and hard
bop players follow chord structures in their solos. Free jazz
was a radical departure from past styles for typically after
playing a quick theme, the soloist does not have to follow any
progression or structure and go in any unpredictable direction.
When Ornette Coleman largely introduced Free jazz to New York
audiences (although Cecil Taylor had preceded him with less
publicity), many of the bop musicians and fans debated about
whether what was being played would even qualify as music; the
radicals had become conservatives in less than 15 years. Free
jazz, which overlaps with the avant-garde (the latter can utilize
arrangements and sometimes fairly tight frameworks), remains
a controversial and mostly underground style, influencing the
modern mainstream while often being ignored. Having dispensed
with many of the rules as far as pitch, rhythm and development
are the success of a Free jazz performance can be measured by
the musicianship and imagination of the performers, how colorful
the music is and whether it seems logical or merely random.
Fusion
The
word "fusion" has been so liberally used during the past quarter-century
as to become almost meaningless. Fusion's original definition
was best: a mixture of jazz improvisation with the power and
rhythms of rock. Up until around 1967 the worlds of jazz and
rock were nearly completely separate. But as rock became more
creative and its musicianship improved, and as some in the jazz
world became bored with hard bop and did not want to play strictly
avant-garde music, the two different idioms began to trade ideas
and occasionally combine forces. By the early 1970s, fusion
had its own separate identity as a creative jazz style (although
sneered upon by many purists) and such major groups as Return
to Forever, Weather Report, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles
Davis' various bands were playing high-quality fusion that mixed
together some of the best qualities of both jazz and rock. Unfortunately
as it became a money-maker and as rock declined artistically
from the mid-'70s on, much of what was labelled fusion was actually
a combination of jazz with easy-listening pop music and lightweight
R&B crossover. The promise of fusion to an extent went unfulfilled
although it continues to exist today in groups such as Tribal
Tech and Chick Corea's Elektric Band.
Groove
Groove
is a sub-set of soul-jazz, one that is injected with the blues
and concentrates on the rhythm. It is a funky, joyous music,
where everything in the performance is there to establish and
maintain the groove. There's a steady beat to the music, whether
it's uptempo funk or slow blues. Usually, groove is performed
by small combos that feature guitar, organ, bass and drums.
Horns, especially saxophones, can be featured, but sometimes
the presence of too many horns moves the music too close to
hard-bop, which tends to be cerebral. Groove is emotional and
physical, hitting your soul. In many ways, it's almost spiritual,
since everyone is working collectively for the greater good,
and, at its best, it locks into rhythms that are nearly hypnotic.
Groove always has funky rhythms, bluesy vamps and, usually,
gospel overtones to the playing. There a re solos, but they
are worked into the overall feeling, the overall groove of the
music, and in the end, that's what counts with groove.
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