The Evolution of Jazz
https://www.apassion4jazz.net/timeline.html
Above is a great timeline that outlines all the different styles of Jazz from the beginning of Jazz, up until the last decade.
The beginning
Jazz is a genre of music that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime.
Jazz comes from the mixture of blues, ragtime, brass-band and syncopated dance music that could be heard in the streets of the Storyville red-light district of New Orleans at the turn of the last century. The first music known as jazz was the New Orleans style, (later called Dixieland) in which each player in a small group would collectively improvise, or improvise in such a way that the parts combined into a balanced, integrated whole.
Jelly Roll Morton is considered the first true jazz composer – he was the first to write down his jazz arrangements in musical notation — “Jelly Roll Blues,” in 1915, was the first published jazz arrangement in history — and Jelly Roll wrote many of the songs that would become staples in the jazz repertory. In the Twenties virtuosos like trumpeter Louis Armstrong began to fly high on solo lines separate from the accompanying instruments, which became the formative idea of jazz for the next few decades.
One of the main reasons I included Summertime in my set was because of this version. Louis Armstrong alongside Ella Fitzgerald is a wonderful duo and one we are very lucky to be able to listen to. Louis Armstrong was so talented being able to play brilliant trumpet solos and having a very unique and incredible voice. He changed the face of Jazz and pushed it forward which is a very tough thing to be able to do.
Swing
Swing as a jazz style first appeared during the Great Depression. The optimistic feeling of swing lifted the spirits of everyone in America. By the mid-1930s, a period known as the “swing” era, swing dancing had become our national dance and big bands were playing this style of music. Orchestra leaders such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman, and Benny Goodman led some of the greatest bands of the era.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Benny Goodman
Bebop
Be-bop was pioneered in the late Forties by artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, and is considered the first kind of modern jazz. Named by the onomatopoeic mimicking of the staccato two-tone phrase distinctive in the form, when it emerged, be-bop was rejected by not only the general public, but by many musicians as being unmusical and unlistenable. “Cutting contests” were first seen between rival brass bands on the streets of New Orleans in the 1870s, and were popular among bop musicians. Late into the night at after hours joints, musicians would try to play each other off the stage by creating a louder, faster, more brilliant or innovative sound. Bebop was considered jazz for intellectuals. Although there were still big bands,smaller groups emerged that did not play for dancing audiences but for listening audiences. Bop spawned “cool”, hard bop and modal playing in the Fifties, first explored by Miles Davis.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker was born on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas. From 1935 to 1939, he played the Missouri nightclub scene with local jazz and blues bands. In 1945 he led his own group while performing with Dizzy Gillespie on the side. Together they invented bebop. In 1949, Parker made his European debut, giving his last performance several years later. He died a week later on March 12, 1955, in New York City.
Dizzie Gillespie
Thelonious Monk
Cool
The term cool jazz refers to a particular style of jazz music that became popular in the late 1940s. This style grew out of the bebop movement, which was an exciting jazz genre featuring virtuosic playing techniques, fast tempos, and intense use of syncopation. In contrast, cool jazz is often seen as a reaction against bebop, featuring more relaxed melodies and softer sounds.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Miles Davis
Chet Baker
Bill Evans
Modal
The term “modal jazz” refers to improvisational music that is organised in a scalar (“horizontal”) way rather than in a chordal (“vertical”) manner. By de-emphasising the role of chords, a modal approach forces the improviser to create interest by other means: melody, rhythm, timbre, and emotion. A modal piece will generally use chords, but the chords will be more or less derived from the prevailing mode.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Art Blakey
What is a mode?
In musical parlance, the word “mode” simply means “scale”; it is often used to describe a scale other than major or minor. Our present-day major and minor scales derive from the “modes” of medieval music, which in turn derive from the music of ancient Greece. Modes were used as a resource by some relatively modern classical composers like Debussy and Bartok, who felt the need to go beyond traditional major/minor tonality. In the 1950s, jazz musicians also began to work with modal approaches.
Free Jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 60s as musicians attempted to alter, extend, or break down jazz convention, often by discarding fixed chord changes or tempos. Though the music of free jazz composers varied widely, a common feature was dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had developed in the 1940s and 50s. Often described as avant-garde, free jazz has also been described as an attempt to return jazz to its primitive, often religious, roots and emphasis on collective improvisation.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Ornette Coleman
John Coltrane
Latin
In the decades leading to 1940, Latin American melodies and dance rhythms made their way farther northward into the United States, while the sounds of American jazz spread through the Caribbean and Central and South America. Musicians and dancers across the entire region became familiar with both musical languages, and the large bands of the swing era expanded their repertory to include rumbas and congas, two types of Afro-Cuban dance music. Those developments laid the foundation for the fusion of jazz and Cuban music.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Eddie Palmieri
Dizzie Gillespie
Tito Puente
Bossa Nova
Bossa Nova began on the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s, when a small group of mainly middle-class students, artists and musicians came together to create a new sound. Bossa Nova was a soft samba based on traditional Brazilian music and rhythms, American jazz, and a new style of Portuguese lyrics.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Stan Getz + Joao Gilberto
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Fusion
Jazz rock (also known as fusion) is a musical genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined aspects of jazz harmony and improvisation with styles such as funk, rock, rhythm and blues, and Latin Jazz. During this time many jazz musicians began experimenting with electric instruments and amplified sound for the first time, as well as electronic effects and synthesisers. Many of the developments during the late 1960s and early 1970s have since become established elements of jazz fusion musical practice.
Noticeable artists and recordings –
Miles Davis
Herbie Hancock
Chick Corea
Jazz artists today
Below are some incredible recordings of Jazz artists that have emerged on the Jazz scene over the past decade. Jazz, although not the leader in music at the moment, is still a very prominent genre on the international stage. There are many exciting new Jazz talents emerging all the time, unfortunately there have been no major new jazz revolutions recently, however there have been many interesting takes on different ideas and sub genres of Jazz from the past.
Kamasi Washington
Kamasi Washington is an absolute power house on the tenor Sax and has bought a very interesting new outlook on how big bands work to main stage. He has come up with some incredible work over the past few years and continues to release brilliant tracks. He has some very talented musicians in his band including Thundercat a well know bassist.
Cory Henry
I absolutely love Cory Henry’s individual work. He comes across as an incredibly nice guy as well as being a very talented musician. Below is Cory Henry playing in a huge Jazz band called Snarky Puppy, his Organ solo is quite a way into the song but is definitely worth watching as it is ridiculously fast and sounds brilliant.
Gregory Porter
Gregory Porter is the man who really got me into Jazz. The first Jazz record I heard, like so many other people, was Kind of blue by Miles Davis, however although it is such a brilliant album, for a new comer it can be quite hard to fully get into. Gregory Porter’s incredibly cool and laid back style helped me ease my way into the Jazz scene. His band is an incredibly well oiled machine who play with perfect balance. There are huge amounts of space in the midst of their sound which makes it even more pleasant and the occasional beautiful sax solo creates a great contrast to Gregory’s sublime voice. Although many of his songs are based vocally around cliches such as heartbreak and love, it is impossible not to like him as a person and as a musical artist. Well worth a listen to.
Mammal Hands
I was lucky enough to see Mammal Hands live at a festival a couple of years ago. They’re such an interesting trio textually with the mix of piano, Drums and Sax being quite an unusual choice of instruments for a trio. They have such an individual sound which is incredibly relaxing to listen to. It has got a bit of spiritual feel to it as well and it is easy to sit back and get lost in their sound.
Postmodern Jukebox
This band is a constant mixture of different people and is unearthing new talent all the time. They have become hugely popular from doing classy Jazz covers of pop and rock songs. An avenue I would very much like to explore at some point in my career.