Jazz Types

TYPES OF JAZZ

Ragtime

New Orleans style: New Orleans Style Jazz is one of, if not the first, real jazz style that was played by an actual jazz band. It came about in the late 1800's, early 1900's, first being played by African-Americans and creoles. Although it is sometimes confused with Dixieland, Dixieland is a term for white performers' revival of the style. The New Orleans Style bandsusually consisted of a cornet or trumpet, trombone, clarinet, banjo and/or guitar, tuba or bass, and drums. In this style, the lead trumpet is usually the band leader, and therefore gets to call most of the shots during rehearsals and gigs. This was one of the first musical experiences including a lot of improvisation, which caused performances to vary from one to the next. The style combines theidea of syncopation from ragtime with ideas from spirituals, the Blues, hymns, marches, and popular music.


Chicago Style Jazz: came about in the 1920's. It was modeled on the New Orleans Style, but the beat was modified to sound rushed. This style is characterized by harmonic, innovative arrangements that were very similar to what was being composed in New Orleans. It exhibited a hightechnical ability of the musicians and further developed the concept of improvisation.


Swing: Although many people think "swing" and "jazz" are interchangeable, swing is actually only a style of jazz. Swing started to emerge in the 1930's and became the most popular kind of jazz in the twentieth century. Swing is characterized by the swung eigth-note patterns, looser rhythmic feeling, and robustsound. It was dance music, so it was more popular to the general public.


Kansas City Style Jazz: was coming into existance around the same time that Swing was becoming so popular. The style is characterized by a lighter, more relaxed feel than New Orleans and Chicago Style, and it had an exceptional swing feeling. This style was based on short musical phrases, riffs, that repeated throughout thesong. Although some of these riffs were actually written out in the music, many of them were made up on the spot and just memorized from gig to gig. These spontaneously created riffs that were then learned by ear are called head arrangements. Kansas City Style is best known for these types of arrangements. The instrumentation of this style is the same as that of the Chicago Style.


Bebop: wasdeveloped in the early 1940's by a bunch of adventurous musicians. Bebop improvisers used chordal progressions and tended to veer from the melodic line entirely. Bebop established itself as an art form, rather than dance music. Because of this, however, it wasn't as popular as swing music and was considered "a stretch" and even radical. Instrumentation for Bebop (or Bop, as it is also called) isa small combo, rather than a big band. Less emphasis was put on arrangements, because the majority of the music was improvised, yet the melodies and harmonies were very complex. The average bop tempo was faster,


Cool Jazz evolved right out Bebop in the late 1940's and into the 1950's. It's a type of modern jazz that tends to be softer and easier to follow than bop. It uses soft, dry tonequalities, little or no vibrato, less volume, avoids outbursts and high notes, and is often more laid back and melodic than Bebop. Even though these seem like drastic changes from bop,


Hard Bop is an extension of Bebop that came about in the 1950's. The improvised lines are simpler than bop, the drum parts are more involved, tone colors are darker and rougher, and there is a hard driving feelingthat emphasizes swing. It has also been referred to as more "soulful" than Bebop, because it is more melodic and derived to some extent from Rhythm and Blues and Gospel.


Bossa Nova is a cross between Brazilian music and jazz, with a little Cool Jazz and European Classical ideas thrown in. This style reached the United States around 1962 with the popularization of the song "Desafinado" by...