Jazz: what is it, what directions, who performs. Jazz music, its features and development history.

Blues

(melancholy, sadness) - originally - a solo lyrical song of American blacks, later - a direction in music.

In the 20s of the twentieth century, the classic blues was formed, which was based on a 12-bar period corresponding to a 3-line poetic form. Blues was originally music played by blacks for blacks. After the appearance of the blues in the southern United States, it begins to spread throughout the country.

The blues melody is characterized by a question-answer structure and the use of a blues fret.

The blues had a huge impact on the formation of jazz and pop music. Blues elements were used by composers of the twentieth century.

archaic jazz

Archaic (early) jazz- The designation of the oldest, traditional types of jazz that have existed since the middle of the last century in a number of southern US states.

Archaic jazz was represented, in particular, by the music of Negro and Creole marching bands of the 19th century.

The period of archaic jazz preceded the emergence of the New Orleans (classical) style.

New Orleans

The American homeland, where jazz itself originated, is considered the city of songs and music - New Orleans.
Although it is argued that jazz originated throughout America, and not only in this city, but it was here that it developed most powerfully. In addition, all the old jazz musicians pointed to the center, which they considered New Orleans. In New Orleans, the most favorable environment for the development of this musical direction developed: there was a large Negro community and a large percentage of the population were Creoles; many musical directions and genres actively developed here, elements of which were then included in the works of famous jazzmen. Different groups developed their own musical directions, and African-Americans created a new art that has no analogues from the combination of blues melodies, ragtime and their own traditions. The first jazz records confirm the prerogative of New Orleans in the origin and development of the art of jazz.

Dixieland

(Country Dixie) - colloquial designation of the southern states of the United States, one of the varieties of traditional jazz.

Most of the blues singers, boogie-woogie pianists, ragtime players and jazz bands came from the South to Chicago, bringing with them the music that would soon be nicknamed Dixieland.

Dixieland- the broadest designation musical style the earliest New Orleans and Chicago jazz musicians who recorded records from 1917-1923.

Some historians refer to Dixieland only as the music of white New Orleans-style bands.

Dixieland musicians sought a revival of classic New Orleans jazz.

These attempts have been successful.

Boogie Woogie

Piano blues style, one of the earliest varieties of Negro instrumental music.

A style that turned out to be very accessible to a wide audience.

full-sounding boogie-woogie style appeared due to the need that arose at the beginning of the twentieth century to hire pianists instead of orchestras in inexpensive cafes such as "honky-tonk". To replace an entire orchestra, pianists invented different ways of playing rhythmically.

Characteristic features: improvisation, technical virtuosity, a specific type of accompaniment - motor ostinato figuration in the left hand part, a gap (up to 2-3 octaves) between bass and melody, continuity of rhythmic movement, refusal to use the pedal.

Representatives of classic boogie-woogie: Romeo Nelson, Arthur Montana Taylor, Charles Avery, Mid Lux ​​Lewis, Jimmy Yankee.

folk blues

Archaic acoustic blues based on the rural folklore of the black population of the United States, in contrast to the classic blues, which had a predominantly urban existence.

folk blues- This is a kind of blues, performed, as a rule, not on electric musical instruments. It covers a wide range of playing and musical styles, and can include unfussy, simple music played on the mandolin, banjo, harmonica, and other non-electric jug bands (i.e. handmade) instruments. Folk blues gives the impression uncouth, somewhat informal music. In a word, this is real folk music played by the people and for the people.

Within folk blues there has been a more influential singer than Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie Patton, Alger Alexander.

Soul

(literally - soul); the most popular style of music in the 60s of the twentieth century, which developed from the cult music of American blacks and borrowed many elements of rhythm and blues.

There are several directions in soul music, the most important of which are the so-called "Memphis" and "Detroit" soul, as well as "white" soul, which is mainly inherent in musicians from Europe.

Funk

The term was born in jazz in the 50s of the twentieth century. The "funk" style is a direct continuation of the "soul" music. A form of rhythm and blues.

The first performers of what would later be referred to as “funk” music were jazzmen who played a more energetic, specific type of jazz back in the late 50s and early 60s.

Funk, first of all, is dance music, which determines its musical features: the ultimate syncopation of parts of all instruments.

Funk is characterized by a rhythm section brought to the fore, a sharply syncopated bass guitar part, ostinato riffs as the melodic-thematic basis of the composition, an electronic sound, an excited vocal, and a fast pace of music.

James Brown and George Clinton created an experimental funk school with PARLAMENT/FUNKDEIC.

Classic funk recordings date back to the turn of the 1960s and 1970s.

free funk

free funk- a mixture of avant-garde jazz with funk rhythms.

When Ornette Coleman formed Prime Time, the result was a "double quartet" (consisting of two guitarists, two bassists and two drummers, plus his viola) playing music in a free key but with eccentric funk rhythms. Three members of Coleman's band (guitarist James Blood Ulmer, bassist Jamaaladin Takuma, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson) later organized their own free-funk projects, and free-funk was the main influence of m-bass players, including violists Steve Coleman and Greg Osby.
Swing

Bop- a jazz style that developed by the mid-40s of the twentieth century and is characterized by a fast pace and complex improvisations based on playing out harmony, not melody. Bebop revolutionized jazz; boper created new ideas about what music is.

The bebop phase was a significant shift in emphasis in jazz from melody-based dance music to more rhythm-based, less popular "musician music". Bop musicians preferred complex improvisations based on chord strumming instead of melodies.

Bebop was fast, edgy, he was "hard on the listener".

Jazz Progressive

In parallel with the emergence of bebop, a new genre is developing in the jazz environment - progressive jazz. The main difference of this genre is the desire to move away from the frozen cliche of big bands and outdated techniques of the so-called. symphonic jazz.

Progressive jazz musicians strove to update and improve swing phrase-models, introducing the latest achievements of European symphony in the field of tonality and harmony into the practice of composition. The greatest contribution to the development of "progressive" was made by Stan Kenton. The sound of the music performed by his first orchestra was close to the style of Sergei Rachmaninov, and the compositions bore the features of romanticism.

A series of recorded albums "Artistry", "Miles ahead", "Spanish drawings" can be considered a kind of apotheosis of the development of progressive art.

(cool jazz), one of the styles of modern jazz, formed at the turn of the 40s - 50s of the twentieth century on the basis of the development of the achievements of swing and bop.

Trumpeter Miles Davis, who was one of the first performers of bebop, became an innovator of this genre.

Cool jazz is characterized by such features as a light, “dry” sound color, slowness of movement, frozen harmony, which creates the illusion of space. Dissonance also played a certain role, but differing at the same time in a softened, muffled character.

Saxophonist Lester Young coined the term "cool" for the first time.

Most famous musicians kula - Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, George Shearing, Milt Jackson, "Shorty" Rogers .
Mainstream

(literally - mainstream); a term in relation to a certain period of swing, in which the performers managed to avoid the clichés established in this style and continued the traditions of Negro jazz, introducing elements of improvisation.

The mainstream is characterized by a simple but expressive melodic line, traditional harmony and a clear rhythm with a pronounced drive. The characteristic features of early hard bop are the predominance of strongly accented rhythmic accompaniment, the strengthening of blues elements in intonation and harmony, the tendency to reveal the vocal principle in improvisation, and some simplification of the musical language.

The main representatives of hard bop are mostly black musicians.

Art Blakey's quintet JAZZ MESSENGERS (1954) was the first ensemble of this style to record on records.

Other leading musicians: John Coltrane, Sonia Rollins, Henk Mobley, Max Roach…

(literally - fusion, fusion), a modern style direction that arose on the basis of jazz-rock, a synthesis of elements of European academic music and non-European folklore. Starting not only from the fusion of jazz with pop music and rock, fusion as a musical genre appeared in the late 1960s under the name jazz-rock.

Among the innovations introduced with imagination and great musicality was the abandonment of the chord progression, which allowed the music to move in any direction.

Another change is in the area of ​​rhythm where swing has either been redefined or ignored altogether. Pulsation, meter were no longer an essential element in reading jazz.

Free jazz continues to exist today as a viable form of expression, and in fact is no longer as controversial a style as it was perceived at the dawn of its origin.

The connection of Latin rhythmic elements was present almost from the beginning in the mixture of cultures that originated in New Orleans. The musical Latin influence in jazz has extended not only to orchestras and groups with top-notch improvisers of Latin American origin, but also to combining local and Latin players, creating examples of the most exciting stage music.

In the 1950s and 60s, Latin rhythms (mainly bossa nova) were synthesized with Brazilian elements of samba. Discovered by Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, this style has become an alternative to hard bop and free jazz.

The more danceable qualities of the polyrhythmic music of Latin jazz greatly expanded the audience of fans of this style. The potential for the further development of jazz is currently quite large, since the ways of developing talent and the means of its expression are unpredictable, multiplying by the combined efforts of various jazz genres encouraged today.

Mainstream - leading, the main jazz style that appeared in the 30s of the 20th century among the leaders of jazz groups, most of which were big bands. Leading jazz musicians would jam at various clubs just to play jazz. This club jazz, performed by small groups of leading jazzmen and recorded in studios, became known as the mainstream. This is traditional jazz, without any innovation. After the onset of avant-garde jazz, the mainstream revived in a new quality only in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century. Nowadays, modern mainstream refers to any modern jazz music that is far from traditional jazz.

jazz music Kansas City developed in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the time of the economic crisis in the United States, or the so-called Great Depression. This is a jazz style with a pronounced blues coloring, the so-called "urban blues". The brightest representatives of this style were Count Basie, who began his career as a jazzman in the orchestras of Walter Page and Benny Moten, vocalist Jimmy Rushing, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Cool jazz (cool jazz) took shape in the 1940s and 1950s. This is a soft, lyrical style of jazz music, with more subtle improvisation, without the pressure and some aggressiveness that was characteristic of early jazz. The representatives of cool jazz were saxophonist Lester Young, trumpeter Miles Davis, trumpeter Chit Baker, jazz pianists George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, Leni Tristano. The masters of the cool jazz style were the amazing vibraphonist Milt Jackson, saxophone masters Stan Getz, Paul Desmond. A significant role in shaping the style was played by melodists and arrangers Ted Dameron, Claude Thornhill, Gil Evans.

West coast jazz appeared in the 50s of the 20th century in Los Angeles. Its founders are the musicians of the famous jazz nonet Miles Davis. This style is even softer than cool jazz. Absolutely not aggressive, calm, melodic music, in which, however, there is a huge space for improvisation. Prominent West Coast jazz players were Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Art Pepper, Bud Shenk (saxophone), Shelley Maine (drums), Jimmy Joffrey (clarinet).

progressive jazz formed around the end of the 1940s. This is mostly experimental jazz, music focused on the symphonic achievements of European composers, on an experiment in the field of tonalities and harmony. The followers of this style of jazz music tend to move away from the patterns, from the hackneyed techniques of traditional jazz. They focus on finding and applying new forms of swing in jazz: a specific technique for performing music on various instruments, polytonality, and rhythm changes. The development of this style is associated with the name of pianist Stan Kenton and his orchestra, who recorded a whole series of albums "Artistry". A huge contribution to progressive jazz was made by arrangers Pete Rugolo, Boyd Ryburn and Gil Evans, drummer Shelley Maine, bassist Ed Safransky, trombonist Kay Winding, singer June Christie. The Gil Evans Big Band and musicians led by Miles Davis recorded a whole series of albums of music in this style: Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Spanish Drawings.

modal jazz appeared in the 1950s. Its appearance is associated with the names of experimental musicians: trumpeter Miles Davis and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. These musicians borrowed certain modes from classical music, which became the basis for building a jazz melody and replaced chords. This jazz style is characterized by deviations from tonality, which gives the music a special tension, the use of national African, Indian, Arabic and other scales, regularity, and inconstancy of tempo. Music began to be built exclusively on melody, which was based on the use of frets.

soul jazz appeared in the 1950s. Soul jazz chose the organ as its central instrument. Soul jazz is based on blues and gospel. This style of jazz is distinguished by its special emotionality, passion, the use of rapid rhythms and exciting musical transitions, bass figures. The audience listening to this music certainly experienced a special feeling of unity. This style was complete opposite foggy, lyrical cool jazz with a bluesy sad base. The organ stars within this style were Jimmy McGriff, Charles Erland, Richard "Grove" Holmes, Les McCain, Donald Patterson, Jack McDuff and Jimmy "Hammond" Smith. Musicians who performed soul jazz music made up trios or quartets, but nothing more. The tenor saxophone played an equally important role in soul jazz. Prominent saxophonists included Gene Emmons, Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine, Eddie "Tetanus" Davis, Houston Person, Hank Crawford, and David "Dump" Newman. Soul jazz is not analogous to soul music. These are musical styles that originate in different musical directions: soul jazz in gospel and bebop, and soul music in rhythm and blues, which only reached its peak in the 1960s.

Groove became a form of soul jazz. This jazz style is often referred to as funk. This style is distinguished by bright dance rhythms (slow or fast), lyricism, positivity of the melody, in which there are blues shades. This is positive music that creates good mood and urging the audience not to stand still and start moving in its exciting rhythms. The style is not alien to improvisations, which, however, do not stand out from the collective sound. Organ masters Richard "Groove" Holmes and Shirley Scott, Gene Emmons (tenor saxophone) and Leo Wright (flute, alto saxophone) became prominent musicians of this style.

Free Jazz ("The New Thing") appeared in the late 50s of the 20th century as a result of experiments that made it possible to find a very flexible musical form, completely free from chord progressions. In addition, the musicians ignored swing. The real revolution in rhythm was the inattention to pulsation, meter and groove, which until then were the basis of jazz rhythms. In this style, they became secondary. Free jazz abandoned the usual tonal system, the music in this style is atonal. The founders of free jazz are saxophonist Ornette Coleman and pianist Cecil Taylor, and later Sun Ra Arkestra and The Revolutionary Ensemble.

creative jazz is one of the varieties of avant-garde jazz. This style was born, like many others, as a result of the experimental activity of musicians in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century. It is not much different from free jazz. In this music it was impossible to distinguish between theme and improvisation. Improvisational elements merged with the arrangements, flowing smoothly from them. It was impossible to understand where the beginning and where the end of the soloist's improvisation was. The founders of creative jazz were pianist Leni Tristano, saxophonist Jimmy Joffrey, melodist Gunter Schuler. This style is played by pianists Paul Blay, Andrew Hill, saxophone masters Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers, as well as musicians from the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Fusion (alloy) is a jazz style that originates in the 1960s, when jazz began to connect with popular music and rock, and was also influenced by soul, funk, rhythm and blues. At the beginning, the name fusion was applied to jazz-rock, the prominent representatives of which were the bands "Eleventh House", "Lifetime". The appearance of fjn is also associated with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report orchestras. Fusion is a fusion of jazz, swing, blues, rock, pop music, rhythm and blues. Fusion is spectacle, it's fireworks various styles. This is bright, varied, light, interesting music. Fusion is in many ways an experiment and, I must say, successful. The prominent musicians of this jazz style were drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, guitarists Pat Metheny, John Scofield, John Abercrombie and James "Blood" Ulmer. , saxophonist and trumpeter Ornette Coleman.

post-bop is a jazz style that emerged in the 1960s in the wake of the rise of popular music. Post-beepop was formed on the basis of funk (groove, soul) using individual elements Latin music. Saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Wayne Shorter became representatives of post-bop.

acid jazz- this not quite jazzy style appeared in 1987. Its basis was funk, which is intertwined with elements of bebop, hip-hop, soul and Latino. This is the dance music of Britain, in which there are rhythms, but there is absolutely no improvisation. That is why many do not include acid jazz in the list of jazz styles. Groove Collective, Guru, James Taylor, as well as the Medeski, Martin & Wood trio in the initial period of creativity became prominent representatives of acid jazz.

Smooth Jazz- this relative of jazz arose on the basis of the fusion style. Smooth Jazz is characterized by a lack of solos and improvisation. The sound of the whole band is more important than the sound of its individual members. Smooth jazz is performed on synthesizer, viola, saxophone-saprano, guitar, bass guitar and drums. Representatives of this style are Chris Botti, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Larry Carlton, Stanley Clark, Al Di Meola, Bob James, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall, Bradley Lighton, Lee Ritenur, Dave Gruzin.

Such a style of music as jazz (according to English jazz) is a form of musical art that appeared in America at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of the merging of European and African cultures and subsequently spread throughout the world.

Jazz is precisely that delightful music, lively, vibrant, constantly evolving, which has retained that divine rhythmic talent of the inhabitants of the "Black" continent, their unsurpassed skill in playing various drums, the bewitching sound of their ritual and church chants.

And if we add here the choral or solo church chants of Baptists or Protestants, then that very indescribable jazz musical cocktail is formed, in which seemingly incompatible things, interacting with each other, give us this delightful music.

The origin of jazz music is very extraordinary. Its development was dynamic and bright, this was accompanied by unusual and even wonderful events that influenced the formation of world musical art.

Distinctive features of jazz music:

• specific polyrhythmia, which is based on syncopated rhythms;
• bits are represented by a constant pulse;
• in swing there is some deviation from the beat, a set of rhythmic texture techniques is well traced;
• remarkable property of improvisation;
• bright and colorful harmonic and timbre musical range.

Improvisation as the main element of jazz

Jazz music is based on a combination of improvisation with a previously thought-out musical melody, not necessarily written down. Even several musicians in an ensemble can engage in improvisation, despite the distinct sound of the soloist. The general artistic image of a musical composition depends on the interaction of the members of the ensemble with each other and their connection with the audience.

In addition to the special expressiveness and significance of rhythmic sounding, African roots brought this musical direction and other characteristic features, such as: the perception of almost all instruments as percussion instruments and on which you can beat the rhythm, predominantly colloquial intonations during vocal performance, some imitation of colloquial speech while playing the guitar, piano or a variety of percussion instruments.

The development of jazz music in the future began to occur due to the development by musicians of more and more rhythmic and harmonious-sounding jazz models.

History of Jazz

As mentioned above, jazz arose from the depths of African culture and was "brought up" in the best traditions of the music of the peoples of the "Black" continent, who were forcibly brought from Africa to the lands of the New World as a cheap work force and turned into slaves. Often they did not come from one particular tribe, did not know each other's language and could not understand even a chained “brother in captivity” next to them. But in order to survive, they learned to understand each other, learned to be one whole people with common culture and traditions, including the general musical art. The performance of African melodies is characterized by the use of complex rhythms, dance movements with characteristic clapping and stomping. All of them, together with blues melodies, formed the basis of a new direction in the art of music.

The whole process of interaction between African and European cultures, which was also subject to constant changes and assimilation with the cultures of other peoples, began at the end of the 18th century, continued throughout the 19th century and, finally, at the beginning of the 20th century led to the emergence of a completely new direction in the music of that time. It turns out that to some extent the history of the whole world is practically inseparable from the history of the emergence of jazz in America.

Official "birth"

Jazz was "born" as a new musical trend in the South of the United States of America in the city of New Orleans. First stage development of jazz music is characterized by a common improvisation on the same musical composition performed by the main soloist on the trumpet, the musician on the clarinet and the performer on the trombone - and all this against the background of the bravura sound of marching music in combination with percussion instruments.

First Jazz record

February 26, 1917 was one of the significant and significant dates in the development of jazz music. When there were five musicians in a New York City recording studio, the typical Caucasians recorded the first jazz record. Before its birth, such a phenomenon as jazz was considered part of the local musical folklore, the musical tradition of a limited part of the African American population of America.

After this record was heard by the whole of America (by the way, it was the legendary ensemble "Original Dixieland Jazz Band"), the entire population of this vast country was simply shocked and stunned by the unusual sound. It was then that jazz took its rightful place on the musical Olympus and began its victorious march around the world.

Jazz at the beginning of the 20th century

Already in the early 20s of the twentieth century, the fundamental features inherent in this particular style of music were formed:

• this is the measured pulsation of the double bass and percussion instruments, creating a swing effect;
• virtuoso performance of a musical composition;
• an unusual presentation of vocal improvisation with virtually no words.

In vocals, only individual syllables are often used, the so-called "skat", a musical technique in which the voice acts as a certain musical instrument, without carrying practically any semantic load.

Blues and swing in jazz

Blues sound also occupies a significant place in jazz music. Already in more late period development of this musical genre these two stages, New Orleans and Chicago, were called by the common name "Dixieland".

In the 20s of the last century, a complete system called "swing" was formed in American jazz, which is characterized by the formation of a new type of orchestra, the so-called big band. Due to the increase in the number of musicians in the ensemble, it was no longer possible to create a collective improvisation and had to switch to an arrangement of a musical work recorded on notes. Thus, it was then that the formation of the arrangement as a manifestation of a special composer's skill began.

big band

Such a musical ensemble as a big band includes three groups of instruments, such specific sections, which can sound individually like a common polyphonic musical instrument:

1. a saxophone section (which later became a clarinet section);
2. the so-called "brass" section (the use of trumpets and trombones);
3. rhythm section (piano, guitar, double bass and percussion instruments).

Solo

At the same time, solo improvisation arose, created on the principles of "chorus" or "square", which is a variation equal in duration, i.e., the number of bars, with the main theme of the piece of music played against the background of the same chordal musical accompaniment. It is to him that the musician-improviser adjusts his new melodic passages.

Jazz 30s

In the 30s of the last century, when American jazz was gaining more and more momentum in popularity, a musical performance of 32 measures became very common. In swing, the so-called "riff" has become popular, which is a phrase of two or four measures, repeated by musicians throughout the musical improvisation of the soloist.

One of the first such jazz ensembles was the famous orchestras conducted by jazz masters Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie and Benny Goodman. Duke Ellington in the 40s of the last century in his work was based on the traditions of large cyclic forms of Negro and Latin American musical folklore.

Already in the 30s of the twentieth century, jazz in America was put on the rails of commerce, because something that is very popular sells better. Then, among the true lovers and connoisseurs of jazz, a whole movement appeared, defending jazz ideals at the beginning of its inception.

Bebop and bop

A huge role in the victory of this movement was played by the Negro bands of the 40s, which discarded in their work all the extra attributes of popularity: the danceability of melodies, their pop and song. The musical theme itself was performed almost in unison, almost in its original form, the dance component was completely discarded.

This style of jazz performance became an absolutely new milestone in the development of this direction, and was called "bebop" or "bop". Such talented jazz musicians and performers as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and many others boldly carried out their musical experiments in this direction. Over time, this has borne fruit, laying the foundation for the formation of a completely new type of musical art, which in our time has very distant connections with the jazz pop and dance style.

In the late 40s - mid-60s of the twentieth century, the development of jazz as a stylistic direction in music went in two different directions.

The first direction consists of such styles as “cool” (from English cool) and “west coast” (from English. West Coast), which have such characteristic features as the ability to enjoy the experience of both classical and modern music of a serious nature, such as concert performance or polyphonic sound.

The second direction consists of the styles of "hardbop" (from English hot, energetic) and close to it in the manner of performance "soul-jazz" (from English soul), they combine the basics of bebop and the traditions of the good old Negro folklore, incendiary rhythms and melodies of religious chants of American blacks, the so-called spiritual.

These two mainstreams have many similarities, such as a desire to improvise freely without necessarily being divided into "squares" and a particular liking for swinging different time signatures.

60s in the development of jazz

At the beginning of the 60s, active experimental actions began in jazz in the field of improvisation, which has no boundaries and restrictions even in the form of binding to a particular composition, such experiments were called Freejazz.

The modal principle is gaining more and more popularity among performers and musicians of jazz music, which implies a constant choice of the sound range, and not a clear division into “squares”.

To find such sound sequences, musicians look for them in the culture of the peoples of Asia, Africa, in the musical heritage of European countries and in other places.

Fusion

When the 70s come, the time of electric guitars comes and a youth rock direction of music develops, which is based on a finer division of the beat than it was before. This style of music was called Fusion (from the English fusion - alloy).

Listen to jazz!

Thus, it turns out that the history of the formation of jazz music is a whole historical saga about a difficult and thorny path to its goal. It's about what binds individuals into a single whole, what makes us move forward and boldly experiment, not being afraid of condemnation and non-recognition of others. it amazing story great love for music that people carry throughout their lives.

It remains for us to get great pleasure and invariably be surprised by those bold and dizzying experiments of jazz musicians, to become witnesses of the formation of completely new musical styles and trends, because everything is just beginning!

Jazz is a unique phenomenon in the world musical culture. This multifaceted art form originated at the turn of the century (XIX and XX) in the United States. Jazz music has become the brainchild of the cultures of Europe and Africa, a kind of fusion of trends and forms from the two regions of the world. Subsequently, jazz went beyond the United States and became popular almost everywhere. This music takes its basis in African folk songs, rhythms and styles. In the history of the development of this direction of jazz, many forms and types are known that appeared as new models of rhythms and harmonics were mastered.

Characteristics of Jazz

The synthesis of two musical cultures made jazz a radically new phenomenon in world art. The specific features of this new music were:

• Syncopated rhythms that generate polyrhythms.
• Rhythmic pulsation of music - beat.
• Beat deviation complex - swing.
• Constant improvisation in compositions.
• A wealth of harmonics, rhythms and timbres.

The basis of jazz, especially in the early stages of development, was improvisation combined with a well-thought-out form (at the same time, the form of the composition was not necessarily fixed somewhere). And from African music, this new style took the following characteristic features:

• Understanding each instrument as a percussion.
• Popular colloquial intonations in the performance of compositions.
• A similar imitation of conversation when playing instruments.

In general, all areas of jazz are distinguished by their own local features, and therefore it is logical to consider them in the context of historical development.

The emergence of jazz, ragtime (1880-1910s)

It is believed that jazz originated among black slaves brought from Africa to the United States of America in the 18th century. Since the captured Africans were not represented by a single tribe, they had to look for mutual language with relatives in the New World. This consolidation led to the emergence of a unified African culture in America, which also included musical culture. It was not until the 1880s and 1890s that the first jazz music emerged as a result. This style was driven by worldwide demand for popular dance music. Since African musical art was replete with such rhythmic dances, it was on its basis that a new direction was born. Thousands of middle-class Americans who did not have the opportunity to master the aristocratic classical dances, began to dance to the piano in the style of ragtime. Ragtime brought several future jazz bases to music. So, the main representative of this style, Scott Joplin, is the author of the element "3 against 4" (cross-sounding of rhythmic patterns with 3 and 4 units, respectively).

New Orleans (1910-1920s)

Classical jazz appeared at the beginning of the 20th century in the southern states of America, and specifically in New Orleans (which is logical, because the slave trade was widespread in the south).

African and Creole orchestras played here, creating their music under the influence of ragtime, blues and songs of black workers. After the appearance in the city of many musical instruments from military bands, amateur groups also began to appear. The legendary New Orleans musician and founder of his own orchestra, King Oliver, was also self-taught. An important date in the history of jazz was February 26, 1917, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band released its first own gramophone record. The main features of the style were also laid in New Orleans: a beat of percussion instruments, a masterful solo, vocal improvisation with syllables - scat.

Chicago (1910-1920s)

In the 1920s, called the "roaring twenties" by the classics, jazz music gradually entered the popular culture, losing the titles "shameful" and "indecent". Orchestras begin to perform in restaurants, move from the southern states to other parts of the United States. Chicago is becoming the center of jazz in the north of the country, where free nightly performances by musicians are gaining popularity (during such shows there were frequent improvisations and third-party soloists). More complex arrangements appear in the style of music. The jazz icon of this time was Louis Armstrong, who moved to Chicago from New Orleans. Subsequently, the styles of the two cities began to be combined into one genre of jazz music - Dixieland. The main feature of this style was the collective mass improvisation, which elevated the main idea of ​​jazz to the absolute.

Swing and big bands (1930s-1940s)

The further rise in popularity of jazz created a demand for large orchestras to play danceable tunes. This is how swing appeared, representing characteristic deviations in both directions from the rhythm. Swing became the main stylistic direction of that time, manifesting itself in the work of orchestras. The execution of slender dance compositions required a more coordinated playing of the orchestra. Jazz musicians had to participate evenly, without much improvisation (except for the soloist), so Dixieland's collective improvisation is a thing of the past. In the 1930s there was a flourishing of such groups, which were called big bands. characteristic feature orchestras of that time is a competition of groups of instruments, sections. Traditionally, there were three of them: saxophones, trumpets, drums. The most famous jazz musicians and their orchestras are Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington. The latter musician is famous for his commitment to Negro folklore.

Bebop (1940s)

Swing's departure from the traditions of early jazz and, in particular, classical African melodies and styles, caused discontent among history buffs. Big bands and swing performers, who were increasingly working for the public, began to be opposed by the jazz music of small ensembles of black musicians. The experimenters introduced ultra-fast melodies, brought back long improvisation, complex rhythms, and mastery of the solo instrument. The new style, positioning itself as exclusive, began to be called bebop. Outrageous jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie became the icons of this period. The revolt of black Americans against the commercialization of jazz, the desire to return to this music intimacy and uniqueness became a key point. From this moment and from this style, the history of modern jazz begins. At the same time, leaders of big bands come to small orchestras, wishing to take a break from large halls. In ensembles called combos, such musicians adhered to the swing style, but were given freedom to improvise.

Cool jazz, hard bop, soul jazz and jazz funk (1940s-1960s)

In the 1950s, such a genre of music as jazz began to develop in two opposite directions. Supporters of classical music "cooled" bebop, bringing back into fashion academic music, polyphony, and arrangement. Cool jazz has become known for its restraint, dryness and melancholy. The main representatives of this trend of jazz were: Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck. But the second direction, on the contrary, began to develop the ideas of bebop. The hard bop style preached the idea of ​​returning to the origins of black music. Traditional folklore melodies, bright and aggressive rhythms, explosive soloing and improvisation returned to fashion. In the style of hard bop are known: Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane. This style developed organically along with soul jazz and jazz funk. These styles approached the blues, making rhythmic a key aspect of their performance. Jazz funk, in particular, was introduced by Richard Holmes and Shirley Scott.

Free music (1960s-present)

After the "jazz renaissance" in the mid-1950s, when this style caught up with other styles of music, there was a kind of liberation of jazz. Experiments were carried out to find new improvisations, new genres appeared (fusion - combination with rock music - jazz-rock and pop music - jazz-pop, free jazz - refusal to regulate tone and rhythm). The creators of the new music were Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Lee Reitnaur. Jazz also developed in the USSR, and later in the CIS, where the main representatives were Valentin Parnakh (creator of the first orchestra in the country), Alexander Varlamov, Oleg Lundstrem, Konstantin Orbelyan. AT modern world such experiments continue in jazz music, a completely new style is being created, interspersed with new cultures and mixed with other styles. Now such talents as Mats Gustafson, Evan Parker, Benny Green, Chick Corea, Elvin Jones are developing.

How did the genre of music develop at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries? as a result of the synthesis of elements of two musical cultures - European and African. Of the African elements, one can note polyrhythm, repeated repetition of the main motive, vocal expressiveness, improvisation, which penetrated into jazz along with common forms of Negro musical folklore - ritual dances, work songs, spirituals and blues.

Word jazz, originally "jazz-band", began to be used in the middle of the 1st decade of the 20th century. in the southern states to refer to music created by small New Orleans ensembles (comprising trumpet, clarinet, trombone, banjo, tuba or double bass, percussion and piano) in the process of collective improvisation on the themes of blues, ragtime and popular European songs and dances.

To get acquainted, you can listen and Cesaria Evora, and, , and many others.

So what is Acid Jazz? This is a funky musical style with built-in elements of jazz, 70s funk, hip-hop, soul and other styles. It can be sampled, it can be "live", and it can be a mixture of the last two.

Mostly, Acid Jazz focuses on music rather than text/words. This is club music that aims to get you moving.

First single in style Acid Jazz was "Frederick Lies Still", author Galliano. It was a cover version Curtis Mayfield Freddie's Dead from the movie "Super Fly".

Great contribution to the promotion and support of style Acid Jazz introduced Gilles Peterson, who was a DJ on KISS FM. He was one of the first to establish Acid Jazz label. In the late 80's - early 90's there were many performers Acid Jazz, which were like "live" commands - , Galliano, Jamiroquai, Don Cherry, and studio projects - PALm Skin Productions, Mondo GroSSO, Outside, and United Future Organization.

Of course, this is not a style of jazz, but a type of jazz instrumental ensemble, but still it was included in the table, because any jazz performed by a "big band" stands out very much against the background of individual jazz performers and small groups.
The number of musicians in big bands usually ranges from ten to seventeen people.
Formed in the late 1920s, consists of three orchestral groups: saxophones - clarinets(Reels) brass instruments(Brass, further groups of pipes and trombones stood out), rhythm section(Rhythm section - piano, double bass, guitar, percussion instruments). The heyday of music big bands, which began in the United States in the 1930s, is associated with a period of mass enthusiasm for swing.

Later, up to the present time, big bands performed and still perform the music of the most different styles. However, in essence, the era of big bands begins much earlier and dates back to the days of American minstrel theaters of the second half of the 19th century, which often increased the performing staff to several hundred actors and musicians. Listen The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, And His Orchestra and you will appreciate all the charm of jazz performed by big bands.

Jazz style that developed in the early - mid-40s of the 20th century and opened the era of modern jazz. It is characterized by a fast tempo and complex improvisations based on changes in harmony rather than melody.
The super-fast pace of performance was introduced by Parker and Gillespie in order to keep out non-professionals from their new improvisations. Among other things, hallmark all bebopovtsev became outrageous demeanor. Dizzy Gillespie's curved trumpet, Parker and Gillespie's behavior, Monk's ridiculous hats, etc.
Having arisen as a reaction to the ubiquity of swing, bebop continued to develop its principles in the use of expressive means, but at the same time discovered a number of opposite tendencies.

Unlike swing, which is mostly the music of large commercial dance bands, bebop is an experimental creative direction in jazz, mainly associated with the practice of small ensembles (combos) and anti-commercial in its direction.
The bebop phase was a significant shift in focus in jazz from popular dance music to more highly artistic, intellectual, but less mainstream "music for musicians". Bop musicians preferred complex improvisations based on chord strumming instead of melodies.
The main initiators of the birth were: saxophonist, trumpeter, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, drummer Max Roach. If you want Be bop, listen , Michel Legrand, Joshua Redman Elastic Band, Jan Garbarek, Modern Jazz Quartet.

One of the styles of modern jazz, formed at the turn of the 40s - 50s of the 20th century based on the development of the achievements of swing and bop. The origin of this style is primarily associated with the name of the negro swing saxophonist. L. Young, who developed the "cold" manner of sound extraction (the so-called Lester sound) opposite to the sound ideal of hot jazz; he also introduced the term "cool" for the first time. In addition, the prerequisites of cool jazz are found in the work of many bebop musicians, such as, for example, C. Parker, T. Monk, M. Davis, J. Lewis, M. Jackson and others.

However, cool jazz has significant differences from bop. This was manifested in the departure from those traditions of hot jazz that bop followed, in the rejection of excessive rhythmic expressiveness and intonational instability, from the deliberate emphasis on a specifically Negro color. Played in this style: , Stan Getz, Modern Jazz Quartet, Dave Brubeck, Zoot Sims, Paul Desmond.

With the gradual demise of rock music beginning in the early 70s, with the lessening of the flow of ideas from the world of rock, fusion music has become more straightforward. At the same time, many began to realize that electric jazz could become more commercial, producers and some musicians began to look for such combinations of styles in order to increase sales. They have really succeeded in creating a kind of jazz that is more accessible to the average listener. Many different combinations have emerged over the past two decades, for which promoters and publicists like to use the expression " Contemporary Jazz used to describe the "fusions" of jazz with elements of pop, rhythm and blues, and "world music".

However, the word "crossover" more accurately refers to the essence of the matter. Crossover and fusion achieved their goal and increased the audience for jazz, especially thanks to those who were fed up with other styles. In some cases, this music deserves attention, although in general the jazz content in it is reduced to zero. Crossover style examples range from (Al Jarreau) and vocal recordings (George Benson) to (Kenny G), "Spyro Gyra" and " " . There is a jazz influence in all this, but, nevertheless, this music fits into the field of pop art, which is represented by Gerald Albright, George Duke, saxophonist Bill Evans, Dave Grusin,.

Dixieland- the broadest designation of the musical style of the earliest New Orleans and Chicago jazz musicians who recorded records from 1917 to 1923. This concept also extends to the period of the subsequent development and revival of New Orleans jazz - New Orleans Revival continued after the 1930s. Some historians attribute Dixieland only to the music of white bands playing in the New Orleans jazz style.

Unlike other forms of jazz, the musicians' repertoire of pieces Dixieland remained quite limited, offering endless variations of themes within the same tunes composed throughout the first decade of the 20th century, and included ragtime, blues, one-steps, two-steps, marches, and popular tunes. For performance style Dixieland characteristic was the complex interweaving of individual voices into the collective improvisation of the entire ensemble. The soloist who opened the solo and other soloists who continued to play, as it were, opposed the "riffing" of the rest of the brass, up to the final phrases, usually performed by the drums in the form of four-beat refrains, which in turn were answered by the entire ensemble.

The main representatives of this era were The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Joe King Oliver, and his Famous Orchestra, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, Paul Mares, Nick LaRocca, Bix Beiderbecke and Jimmy McPartland. Dixieland musicians were essentially looking for a revival of the classic New Orleans jazz of yesteryear. These attempts were very successful and, thanks to subsequent generations, continue to this day. The first of the revivals of the Dixieland tradition took place in the 1940s.
Here are just some of the jazzmen who have played Dixieland: Kenny Ball, Lu Watters Yerna Buena Jazz Band, Turk Murphys Jazz Band.

A separate niche in the community of jazz styles from the beginning of the 70s was occupied by the German company ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music- Publishing House of Contemporary Music), which gradually became the center of an association of musicians who professed not so much an attachment to the African-American origin of jazz as the ability to solve a wide variety of artistic tasks, not limiting themselves to a certain style, but in line with the creative improvisational process.

Over time, however, a certain face of the company was developed, which led to the separation of the artists of this label into a large-scale and pronounced stylistic direction. The orientation of the label founder Manfred Eicher to combine various jazz idioms, world folklore and new academic music into a single impressionistic sound made it possible to claim depth and philosophical understanding using these means. life values.

The Oslo-based main recording studio of the firm is obviously correlated with the leading role in the catalog of Scandinavian musicians. First of all, the Norwegians Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen. However, the geography of ECM covers the entire world. Here are the Europeans Dave Holland, Tomasz Stanko, John Surman, Eberhard Weber, Rainer Bruninghaus, Mikhail Alperin and representatives of non-European cultures Egberto Gismonti, Flora Purim, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu, Nana Vasconcelos, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Anouar Brahem and many others. No less representative is the American Legion - Jack DeJohnette, Charles Lloyd, Ralph Towner, Redman Dewey, Bill Frisell, John Abercrombie, Leo Smith. The initial revolutionary impulse of the company's publications turned over time into a meditatively detached sound of open forms with carefully polished sound layers.

Some mainstream adherents deny the path chosen by the musicians of this direction; however, jazz, as a world culture, develops in spite of these objections, and gives very impressive results.

In contrast to the refinement and coolness of the cool style, the rationality of the progressive on the East Coast of the United States, young musicians in the early 50s continued to develop the seemingly already exhausted bebop style. The growth of self-awareness of African Americans, characteristic of the 50s, played a significant role in this trend. Attention was again drawn to maintaining fidelity to African American improvisational traditions. At the same time, all the achievements of bebop were preserved, but many cool achievements were added to them both in the field of harmony and in the field of rhythmic structures. Musicians of the new generation, as a rule, had a good musical education. This current is called "hardbop" turned out to be quite numerous. The trumpeters joined in Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, pianists Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, drummer Art Blake, saxophonists Sonny Rollins, Hank Mobley, Cannonball Adderley, double bassist Paul Chambers and many others.

For the development of a new style, another technical innovation was significant, which consisted in the appearance of long-playing records. Now you can record long solos. For musicians, this has become a temptation and a difficult test, since not everyone is able to fully and succinctly speak out for a long time. Trumpeters were the first to take advantage of these advantages, modifying Dizzy Gillespie's style to a more calm but deep playing. The most influential were Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown. These musicians focused not on virtuoso high-speed passages in the upper register, but on thoughtful and logical melodic lines.

Hot jazz is considered to be the music of the New Orleans pioneers of the second wave, whose highest creative activity coincided with the mass exodus of New Orleans jazz musicians to the North, mainly to Chicago. This process, which began shortly after the closure of Storyville due to the entry of the United States into the First world war and for this reason the declaration of New Orleans as a military port, marked the so-called Chicago era in the history of jazz. The main representative of this school was Louis Armstrong. While still performing in the King Oliver Ensemble, Armstrong made revolutionary changes to the concept of jazz improvisation, moving from traditional schemes of collective improvisation to the performance of individual solo parts.

The very name of this type of jazz is connected with the emotional intensity characteristic of the manner of performance of these solo parts. The term Hot was originally synonymous with jazz solo improvisation to highlight the differences in approach to soloing that occurred in the early 1920s. Later, with the disappearance of collective improvisation, this concept was associated with the way of performing jazz material, in particular with a special sound that determines the instrumental and vocal style of performance, the so-called hotting or hot intonation: special ways rhythmization and specific intonation features.

Perhaps the most controversial movement in the history of jazz emerged with the advent of "free jazz". Although the elements Free Jazz existed long before the appearance of the term itself, in "experiments" Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell and Lenny Tristano, but only by the end of the 1950s through the efforts of such pioneers as a saxophonist and pianist Cecil Taylor, this direction took shape as an independent style.

What these two musicians have done with others, including John Coltrane, Albert Euler and communities like Sun Ra Orchestra and a group called The Revolutionary Ensemble consisted of various changes in the structure and feel of the music.
Among the innovations introduced with imagination and great musicality was the abandonment of the chord progression, which allowed the music to move in any direction. Another fundamental change was found in the area of ​​rhythm, where "swing" was either redefined or ignored altogether. In other words, pulsation, meter and groove were no longer an essential element in this reading of jazz. Another key component was associated with atonality. Now the musical saying was no longer built on the usual tonal system.

Shrill, barking, convulsive notes completely filled this new sound world. Free jazz continues to exist today as a viable form of expression, and in fact is no longer as controversial a style as it was at the dawn of its inception.

Perhaps the most controversial movement in the history of jazz emerged with the advent of "free jazz".

A modern style direction that arose in the 1970s on the basis of jazz-rock, a synthesis of elements of European academic music and non-European folklore.
The most interesting compositions of jazz-rock are characterized by improvisation, combined with compositional solutions, the use of harmonic and rhythmic principles of rock music, the active embodiment of the melody and rhythm of the East, the introduction of electronic means of processing and synthesizing sound into music.

In this style, the range of application of modal principles has expanded, the set of various modes, including exotic ones, has expanded. In the 70s, jazz-rock became incredibly popular, the most active musical forces came into it. More developed in relation to the synthesis of various musical means, jazz-rock was called "fusion" (alloy, fusion). An additional impulse for "fusion" was another (not the first in the history of jazz) nod towards European academic music.

In many cases, fusion actually becomes a combination of jazz with regular pop and light rhythm and blues; crossover. Fusion music's ambitions of musical depth and empowerment remain unfulfilled, although the search continues on rare occasions, such as in bands like "Tribal Tech" and Chick Corea's ensembles. Listen: Weather Report, Brand X, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Spyro Gyra, Tom Coster, Frank Zappa, Urban Knights, Bill Evans, from New Niacin, Tunnels, CAB.

Modern funk refers to the popular styles of jazz of the 70s and 80s, in which accompanists play in the style of black pop soul, while solo improvisations are more creative and jazzy in nature. Most saxophonists of this style use their own set of simple phrases, which consist of blues shouts and moans. They build on a tradition adopted from saxophone solos in rhythm and blues vocal recordings, like King Curtis on "Coasters" Junior Walker with the vocal groups of the Motown label, David Sanborn with "Blues Band" by Paul Butterfield. Prominent figure in this genre - who often played solo in the style Hank Crawford with funky accompaniment. Much of the music , and their students uses this approach. , also work in the style of " modern funk".

The term has two meanings. First, it is an expressive means in jazz. A characteristic type of pulsation based on constant deviations of the rhythm from the reference shares. This creates the impression of a large internal energy in a state of unstable equilibrium. Secondly, the style of orchestral jazz that took shape at the turn of the 1920s and 30s as a result of the synthesis of Negro and European stylistic forms of jazz music.

original definition "jazz rock" was the clearest: a combination of jazz improvisation with the energy and rhythms of rock music. Until 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock existed almost separately. But by this time, rock becomes more creative and more complex, psychedelic rock, soul music appears. At the same time, some jazz musicians became bored with pure hardbop, but they also did not want to play avant-garde music that was difficult to perceive. As a result, the two different idioms began to exchange ideas and join forces.

Since 1967, guitarist Larry Coryell, vibraphonist Gary Burton, in 1969 drummer Billy Cobham with the group "Dreams", in which the Brecker brothers played, they began to explore new expanses of style.
By the end of the 60s, Miles Davis had the potential to transition to jazz-rock. He was one of the creators of modal jazz, on the basis of which, using 8/8 rhythms and electronic instruments, he makes new step, recording the albums "Bitches Brew", "In a Silent Way". Together with him at this time there is a brilliant galaxy of musicians, many of whom later become the fundamental figures of this direction - (John McLaughlin), Joe Zawinul(Joe Zawinul) Herbie Hancock. Asceticism, conciseness, and philosophical contemplation characteristic of Davis turned out to be most welcome in the new style.

By the early 1970s jazz rock had its own distinct identity as a creative jazz style, though derided by many jazz purists. The main groups of the new direction were "Return To Forever", "Weather Report", "The Mahavishnu Orchestra", various ensembles Miles Davis. They played high-quality jazz-rock, which combined a huge set of techniques from both jazz and rock. Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Ska - Jazz Foundation, John Scofield Uberjam, Gordian Knot, Miriodor, Trey Gunn, trio, Andy Summers, Erik Truffaz- you should definitely listen to understand how diverse progressive and jazz-rock music is.

Style jazz rap was an attempt to bring together African-American music of past decades with a new dominant form of the present, in order to pay homage and inspire new life into the first element of this - fusion - and also expand the horizons of the second. The rhythms of jazz-rap were completely borrowed from hip-hop, while the samples and sound textures mainly came from cool jazz, soul-jazz and hard bop.

This style was hip-hop's coolest and most famous, and many artists showed an Afro-centric political consciousness, adding historical authenticity to this style. Given the intellectual bent of this music, it's no surprise that jazz-rap never became a street party favorite; but then no one thought about it.

The representatives of jazz-rap themselves called themselves supporters of a more positive alternative to the hardcore / gangsta movement, which displaced rap from the leading positions in the early 90s. They sought to spread hip-hop to listeners who cannot accept or understand the growing aggression of urban music culture. Thus, jazz-rap found the bulk of its fans in student dormitories, and was also supported by a number of critics and white alternative rock fans.

Team Native Tongues (Afrika Bambaataa)- this New York collective of African-American rap groups - has become a powerful force representing the style jazz rap and includes such groups as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers. Started their work soon Digital Planets and gang starr also gained notoriety. In the mid-late 90s, alternative rap began to break into a large number of sub-styles, and jazz-rap became an element of the new sound infrequently.