Jazz History
Miles Davis once said that “Music is always changing. It changes because of the times and the technology that's available”(Miles davis). Jazz throughout the years has come a long way since its early beginnings at the start at the twentieth century. Jazz has been called by many as America’s classical music. It has gone from blues all the way up to fusion jazz today.
Swing music of the 1930’s was the beating heart of the people on the dance floors. Swing uses emphasis on rhythm instruments such as the double bass and the drums. Although it does contain the rest of the normal jazz band, woodwinds and brass, there was also some string instruments such as guitar and violin. To ‘swing’ was to indicate that there was a strong groove that was felt when listening to the music. This groove could come from the fast tempo and lifting feeling that would generate from the band. Some of the most of the most notable musicians in swing jazz include Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Between the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, began the peak of swing as it sparked young blood to venture out on the dance floor or inspire people to join the band to perform on an improvised solo. Unfortunately with World War II there was a decline in numbers of band members therefore leading to smaller bands and less amount of performances. Although there was this decline, in recent years, swing has seen it largest comeback in a long time. More people are interested in dancing to swing and playing the style.
The 1940’s saw a new style of Jazz that developed in New York City called Bebop. Bebop was in essence the exact counter to swing. Unlike Swing, Bebop was music that was supposed to take Jazz out of the main stream of music. Bebop was music that was not supposed to be danced to but rather be listened to and was considered by many to be music that was meant for musicians instead of common people. Pioneers of Bebop include Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. Another thing that made bebop different from Swing was the instrumentation. Bebop groups usually consisted of a small horn section that and a rhythm section which is normally drums, bass and piano. Also in Bebop there is a larger emphasis on improvisation instead of melody. Here is an example of bebop .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09BB1pci8_o
The early 60’s to the 70’s Jazz underwent another huge change with Fusion Jazz/Jazz Rock. Fusion Jazz is combination of rock style sounds with the complicated chords and chord patterns of Jazz. Similarly to Bebop, Fusion Jazz would have a mainly instrumental melody that would normally be accompanied by a long improvised section from the instrumentalist. Some famous Jazz Fusion musicians include Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Mike Stern and Wayne Shorter. Miles Davis had a significant part in the influence of fusion jazz with an album that he released in 1968 titled Miles in the Sky. This album was the first album to include electric instruments such as the keyboard and bass guitar.
Jazz today has evolved so much from the days from the Swing tunes of the 40’s. Today jazz has been inspired by other genres such as rock,funk and R&B. One of the major changes that has happened to jazz is the introduction of electric instruments which give musicians a lot more sounds than they have ever had before. One group that utilizes these new sounds is the New York based group Snarky Puppy. Snarky puppy combines synthesizers with traditional instruments and draws from all different genres ranging from pop to rap.
Jazz has been around for about a century and it is shocking how much the genre has changed in such a short period of time. From the groove of swing to the calm nature of Bebop, to Fusion Jazz and now Modern Jazz, evolution is strong in Jazz history. Miles Davis was very accurate in what he said about music changing. Jazz, adapted and evolved through the times.
Bibliography:
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