| Jazz is a musical art form that originated in | | | | jazz. |
| New Orleans, Louisiana, United States at | | | | |
| around the start of the 20th century. Born | | | | Jazz as a genre is often difficult to define, |
| out of a blend of African American musical | | | | but improvisation is a key element of the |
| styles with Western music technique and | | | | form. Improvisation has been an essential |
| theory, jazz uses blue notes, syncopation, | | | | element in African and African-American music |
| swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and | | | | since early forms of the music developed, and |
| improvisation among its many stylistic | | | | is closely related to the use of call and |
| markers. | | | | response in West African and African-American |
| | | | cultural expression. |
| Jazz has roots in the combination of West | | | | |
| African and Western music traditions, | | | | The form of improvisation has changed over |
| including spirituals, blues and ragtime, | | | | time. Early folk blues music often was based |
| stemming from West Africa, western Sahel, and | | | | around a call and response pattern, and |
| New England's religious hymns, hillbilly | | | | improvisation would factor in the lyrics, the |
| music, and European military band music. | | | | melody, or both. In Dixieland jazz, musicians |
| After originating in African American | | | | take turns playing the melody while the |
| communities near the beginning of the 20th | | | | others improvise countermelodies. In contrast |
| century, jazz styles spread in the 1920s, | | | | to the classical form, where performers try |
| influencing other musical styles. The origins | | | | to play the piece exactly as the author |
| of the word jazz are uncertain. The word is | | | | envisioned it, the goal in jazz is often to |
| rooted in American slang, and various | | | | create a new interpretation, changing the |
| derivations have been suggested. For the | | | | melody, harmonies, even the time signature. |
| origin and history of the word jazz, see | | | | If classical music is the composer's medium, |
| Origin of the word jazz. | | | | jazz is able to stand up for the rights of |
| | | | the performer too, to 'adroitly weigh the |
| Jazz is rooted in the blues, the folk music | | | | respective claims of the composer and the |
| of former enslaved Africans in the U.S. South | | | | improviser' . |
| and their descendants, which is influenced by | | | | |
| West African cultural and musical traditions | | | | By the Swing era, big bands played using |
| that evolved as black musicians migrated to | | | | arranged sheet music, but individual soloists |
| the cities. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis | | | | would perform improvised solos within these |
| states that "Jazz is something Negroes | | | | compositions. In bebop, however, the focus |
| invented...the nobility of the race put into | | | | shifted from arranging to improvisation over |
| sound ... jazz has all the elements, from the | | | | the form; musicians paid less attention to |
| spare and penetrating to the complex and | | | | the composed melody, or "head," which was |
| enveloping. | | | | played at the beginning and the end of the |
| | | | tune's performance with improvised sections |
| The instruments used in marching bands and | | | | in between. |
| dance band music at the turn of century | | | | |
| became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, | | | | As previously noted, later styles of jazz, |
| reeds, and drums, using the Western 12-tone | | | | such as modal jazz, abandoned the strict |
| scale. A "...black musical spirit (involving | | | | notion of a chord progression, allowing the |
| rhythm and melody) was bursting out of the | | | | individual musicians to improvise more freely |
| confines of European musical tradition [of | | | | within the context of a given scale or mode |
| the marching bands], even though the | | | | (e.g., the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue). |
| performers were using European styled | | | | The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, |
| instruments." | | | | even call for, rhythmic variety as well. |
| | | | |
| Small bands of black musicians, mostly self | | | | When a pianist, guitarist or other |
| taught, who led funeral processions in New | | | | chord-playing instrumentalist improvises an |
| Orleans played a seminal role in the | | | | accompaniment while a soloist is playing, it |
| articulation and dissemination of early jazz, | | | | is called comping (a contraction of the word |
| traveling throughout black communities in the | | | | "accompanying"). "Vamping" is a mode of |
| Deep South and to northern cities. | | | | comping that is usually restricted to a few |
| | | | repeating chords or bars, as opposed to |
| The postbellum network of black-established | | | | comping on the chord structure of the entire |
| schools, as well as civic societies and | | | | composition. Most often, vamping is used as a |
| widening mainstream opportunities for | | | | simple way to extend the very beginning or |
| education, produced more formally trained | | | | end of a piece, or to set up a segue. |
| African-American musicians. Lorenzo Tio and | | | | |
| Scott Joplin were schooled in classical | | | | In some modern jazz compositions where the |
| European musical forms. Joplin, the son of a | | | | underlying chords of the composition are |
| former slave and a free-born woman of color, | | | | particularly complex or fast moving, the |
| was largely self-taught until age 11, when he | | | | composer or performer may create a set of |
| received lessons in the fundamentals of music | | | | "blowing changes," which is a simplified set |
| theory. Black musicians with formal music | | | | of chords better suited for comping and solo |
| skills helped to preserve and disseminate the | | | | improvisation. |
| essentially improvisational musical styles of | | | | |