more hard-driving rhythms and featured the improvisations of stellar soloists, such as those led by Benny Goodman, and Get Jazzed! Count Basie, were dubbed “swing” or “hot” bands. A one-stop guide to all things While a conclusive definition of has proved elusive, it is generally agreed that from Da Capo swing is a rhythmic phenomenon in which a musician manipulates the pulse and beat of an up-tempo performance, creating musical patterns of tension and release that often invoke a sense of excitement in the listener. After World War II, new post-war economic realities and the rise of popular vocalists helped contribute to a significant decline in popularity. The genre continues to Jazz 101 this day, however, and has grown to embrace Learn the different styles and periods of bop, fusion, and many other post-swing jazz from Traditional to Fusion and everything developments in the history of jazz. in between. Traditional Bebop, often referred to simply as “bop,” The concept of traditional jazz first was the first modern, major post-swing style to emerged in the 1930s as jazz writers attempted emerge in jazz. to distinguish the New Orleans jazz, which Through considered revolutionary and starting dated back to the turn of the century from at its inception, it is now regarded as one of the the music of the swing era that followed on its fundamental, classic genres of jazz. heels. Bebop was developed in the early and mid- In the 1940s there was a major rival of New 1940s by such legendary musicians as Charlie Orleans jazz, and the music of Joe “King” Parker; Dizzy Gillespie; , and Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, as well as Max Roach. These boppers made harmonic surviving pioneers like Bunk Johnson, was elaborations on the contributions of important recorded and celebrated by more contemporary swing era figures like artists such as Lu Watters and Turk Murphy. and Lester Young, and embarked on a new The term “” was used to describe and more rapid style of improvisation that the many groups of white musicians revisiting compressed more ideas into less space, and traditional jazz, as well as the recording of some made far greater use of altered chords than Chicago-based traditionalists of the 1920s earlier jazz. and 1930s, such as Eddie Condon and Bud Through some big bands explored bop, smaller Freeman. Today, the phrase “traditional jazz” groups such as quintets were usually preferred. is also employed to describe such early and Bebop performances were highly syncopated influential styles as , boogie woogie, and explored polyrythmns to an unprecedented and Harlem stride piano, all of which made degree. Melodies were given erratic contours, important contributions to the evolution of resulting in somewhat agitated sounding jazz. performances that many found jarring. A huge debate erupted between those who felt the new music was a long-awaited Big Band & Swing breakthrough, and those who feared that During the big band era, which spanned bop injected elitism into jazz and alienate a roughly a decade from 1935 to 1945, jazz vast majority of its listening audience. Both music was at the very forefront of popular viewpoints have merit, but the profound and culture in the United States. Ensembles of at enduring impact of bebop on jazz history in least ten or more musicians, usually featuring a undeniable. saxophone section, a brass section consisting of trumpets and trombones, and a rhythm section comprise of piano, guitar, bass and drums, were Cool the most popular musical outfits in the country. The phrase “” is often used as an The big bands played in a variety of styles. umbrella term to describe various subdued and Dance bands that specialized in ballad understated styles of modern jazz that emerged arrangements with little emphasis on jazz in the 1950s. As a rule, these approaches or improvisations, such as those led by Guy forsook much of the frenetic approach widely Lombardo and Wayne King, were referred associated with bebop. to as “sweet bands.” Bands which embraced Cool saxophonists such as Stan Getz and Zoot Sims embraced the relaxed, melodic approach misconceptions. When first emerged to improvisation employed by Lester Young. in the 1960s, it was an avant-garde movement. Cool trumpeters such as Shorty Rogers and Musicians like Ornette Coleman, who felt Chet Baker were more concerned with spare constrained by the standard conventions of lyricism than their bop-influenced colleagues. bop, forged a new style of improvisation with a Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan were among the number of variable factors that were not based most influential cool jazz arrangers. on any predetermined, underlying harmonic The phrase “” was coined structure. to describe a significant subgenre of the Free jazz is best represented by the work of cool school, namely the modern jazz styles such musicians as Coleman, Albert Ayler, and emanating from California from the late 1940s John Coltrane. By contrast, the various avant- through the early 1960s, as exemplified by the garde jazz communities of the 1970s and 1980s work of Bud Shank, Jimmy Giuffre, Art Pepper disdained the label “free jazz,” because much and many others. Cool jazz is sometimes of their music emphasizes composition and is unfairly derided as devoid of emotion, It is highly organized. in fact technically daunting music that is Avante-garde jazz has many regional schools often quite beautiful, and as demanding of a that meld elements of free jazz with third- musician’s concentration and commitment as stream innovations and ethnic music. any modern genre of jazz. Prominent avant-garde musicians include Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Roscoe Mainstream Mitchell and Sun Ra. The term “mainstream” was coined by jazz authority in the 1950s in Fusion an effort to describe what was at that time Through elements of jazz combine the work of contemporary musicians who easily with a wide variety of musical styles, discovered the foundation for their inspiration the term “fusion” is generally used to refer and efforts in the music and approach of the to a combination of jazz with rock and swing era as it was developed in the 1930s and soul influences, a hybrid style that became 1940s. It was meant to differentiate their work enormously popular in the late 1960s and from the newly emerging schools of modern early 1970s, a period when avant-garde jazz, such as bebop. experimentation had alienated many jazz Labels like “big band music” and “swing” listeners. Also frequently referred to as “jazz- had already managed to attract a nostalgic rock,” this movement was given a huge boost glow about them, lessening their usefulness by several Miles Davis albums in the late in describing the relevance of more recent 1960s, notably “Witches Brew” (1969). recordings. The boundaries encompassed by Many of Davis’s sidemen from this period, the term “mainstream jazz” have gradually including Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, and broadened over the years (today some elements Chick Corea, went on to form popular fusion of bebop and post-bop, for example, are outfits of their own. widely considered mainstream) and today it is In most fusion or jazz-rock, the traditional employed more liberally, although such esoteric unamplified acoustic sounds of the instruments developments as the avant-garde and fusion are eschewed in favor of synthesizers, electric styles would still be considered to lie outside its keyboards and guitars, and heavily rock- scope. influenced drumming techniques. Improvisation tends to take a back seat to catchy rhythmic vamps and elementary chord Avant-Garde progressions, and though some purists may The term “avant-garde” and “free jazz” are cringe, the music helped open the door for the often used interchangeably, an unfortunate contemporary phenomenon of . circumstance that has led to a number of Source: www.jazzonline.com

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