Distinctive features of a jazz band. All of me

What is jazz, the history of jazz

What is Jazz? These exciting rhythms, pleasant live music which is constantly evolving and moving. With this direction, perhaps, no other can be compared, and it is impossible to confuse it with any other genre, even for a beginner. Moreover, here is a paradox, it is easy to hear and recognize it, but it is not so easy to describe it in words, because jazz is constantly evolving and the concepts and characteristics used today become obsolete in a year or two.

Jazz - what is it

Jazz is a direction in music that arose at the beginning of the 20th century. It closely intertwines African rhythms, ritual chants, work and secular songs, American music of past centuries. In other words, it is a semi-improvisational genre that resulted from the mixing of Western European and West African music.

Where did jazz come from

It is generally accepted that he appeared from Africa, this is evidenced by complex rhythms. Add to this also dancing, all kinds of trampling, clapping and here it is ragtime. The clear rhythms of this genre, combined with blues melodies, gave rise to a new direction that we call jazz. If you wonder where this new music came from, any source will give you the answer that it was from the chants of black slaves who were brought to America at the beginning of the 17th century. Only in music did they find solace.

At first, these were purely African motifs, but after a few decades they began to be more improvisational in nature and overgrown with new American melodies, mostly religious melodies - spirituals. Later, songs-complaints were added to this - blues and small brass bands. And so a new direction arose - jazz.

What are the features jazz music

The first and most important feature is improvisation. Musicians must be able to improvise both in an orchestra and solo. Another no less significant feature is polyrhythm. Rhythmic freedom is perhaps the most important feature of jazz music. It is this freedom that makes musicians feel light and constantly moving forward. Remember any jazz composition? It seems that the performers easily play some wonderful and pleasant to the ear melody, there are no strict frames, as in classical music, only amazing lightness and relaxation. Of course, in jazz works, as well as in classical ones, there is a rhythm, time signature, etc., but, thanks to a special rhythm called swing (from the English swing), there is such a feeling of freedom. What else is important for this direction? Certainly a bit or otherwise a regular ripple.

Development of jazz

Originating in New Orleans, jazz is rapidly spreading, becoming more and more popular. Amateur groups, consisting mainly of Africans and Creoles, begin to perform not only in restaurants, but also tour other cities. So, in the north of the country, another jazz center is emerging - Chicago, where nightly performances of musical groups are in special demand. Performed compositions are complicated by arrangements. Among the performers of that period stands out Louis Armstrong who moved to Chicago from the city where jazz originated. Later, the styles of these cities were combined into Dixieland, which was characterized by collective improvisation.

The massive jazz craze in the 1930s and 1940s led to a demand for larger orchestras that could play a variety of dance tunes. Thanks to this, swing appeared, which is some deviation from the rhythmic pattern. It became the mainstream of this time and pushed collective improvisation into the background. Swing bands became known as big bands.

Of course, such a departure of swing from the features inherent in early jazz, from national melodies, caused discontent among true connoisseurs music. That is why big bands and swing performers are beginning to be opposed by the play of small ensembles, which included black musicians. Thus, in the 1940s, a new bebop style emerged that stood out clearly from other areas of music. He was characterized by incredibly fast melodies, long improvisation, and the most complex rhythmic patterns. Among the performers of this time, figures stand out Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Since 1950, jazz has developed in two different directions. On the one hand, adherents of the classics returned to academic music, pushing bebop aside. The resulting cool jazz became more restrained and dry. On the other hand, the second line continued to develop bebop. Against this background, hard bop arose, returning traditional folk intonations, a clear rhythmic pattern and improvisation. This style developed in conjunction with such areas as soul jazz and jazz funk. They brought the music closer to the blues most of all.

free music

In the 1960s, various experiments and the search for new forms were carried out. As a result, jazz-rock and jazz-pop appear, combining two different directions, as well as free jazz, in which performers completely abandon the regulation of rhythmic pattern and tone. Among the musicians of this time, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny became famous.

Soviet jazz

Initially, Soviet jazz orchestras mainly performed fashion dances such as foxtrot, charleston. In the 1930s, a new direction begins to gain more and more popularity. Despite the fact that the attitude of the Soviet authorities to jazz music was ambiguous, it was not banned, but at the same time it was harshly criticized as belonging to Western culture. In the late 40s, jazz bands were completely persecuted. In the 1950s and 60s, the activities of the orchestras of Oleg Lundstrem and Eddie Rosner resumed, and more and more musicians became interested in the new direction.

Even today, jazz is constantly and dynamically developing, there are many directions and styles. This music continues to absorb sounds and melodies from all corners of our planet, saturating it with more and more new colors, rhythms and melodies.

Jazz is a musical direction that began in the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States. Its emergence is the result of the interweaving of two cultures: African and European. This trend will combine the spirituals (church chants) of American blacks, African folk rhythms and European harmonious melody. Its characteristic features are: flexible rhythm based on the principle of syncopation, use of percussion instruments, improvisation, expressive manner of performance, distinguished by sound and dynamic tension, sometimes reaching ecstatic. Initially, jazz was a combination of ragtime with elements of the blues. In fact, it resulted from these two directions. A feature of the jazz style is, first of all, the individual and unique play of the virtuoso jazzman, and improvisation endows this movement with constant relevance.

After jazz itself was formed, a continuous process of its development and modification began, which led to the emergence of various directions. There are currently about thirty of them.

New Orleans (traditional) jazz.

This style usually means exactly the jazz that was performed between 1900 and 1917. It can be said that its origin coincided with the opening of Storyville (New Orleans red light district), which gained its popularity through bars and similar establishments, where musicians playing syncopated music could always find work. The street bands that had been common earlier began to be supplanted by the so-called "storyville ensembles", whose playing became more and more individual in comparison with their predecessors. These ensembles later became the founders of classical New Orleans jazz. Vivid examples of performers of this style are: Jelly Roll Morton (“His Red hot peppers”), Buddy Bolden (“Funky Butt”), Kid Ory. It was they who made the transition of African folk music into the first jazz forms.

Chicago jazz.

In 1917 the next milestone development of jazz music, marked by the appearance in Chicago of immigrants from New Orleans. There is a formation of new jazz orchestras, the game of which introduces new elements into early traditional jazz. This is how an independent style of the Chicago school of performance appears, which is divided into two directions: hot jazz of black musicians and dixieland of whites. The main features of this style are: individualized solo parts, change in hot inspiration (the original free ecstatic performance became more nervous, full of tension), synth (music included not only traditional elements, but also ragtime, as well as famous American hits) and changes in instrumental game (the role of instruments and performing techniques has changed). The fundamental figures of this direction ("What Wonderful World", "Moon Rivers") and ("Someday Sweetheart", "Ded Man Blues").

Swing is an orchestral style of jazz in the 1920s and 30s that arose directly from the Chicago school and was performed by big bands (, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band). It is characterized by the predominance of Western music. Separate sections of saxophones, trumpets and trombones appeared in the orchestras; the banjo is replaced by a guitar, tuba and sazophone - double bass. Music moves away from collective improvisation, the musicians play strictly adhering to pre-scheduled scores. A characteristic technique was the interaction of the rhythm section with melodic instruments. Representatives of this direction:, (“Creole Love Call”, “The Mooche”), Fletcher Henderson (“When Buddha Smiles”), Benny Goodman And His Orchestra,.

Bebop is a modern jazz that got its start in the 40s and was an experimental, anti-commercial direction. Unlike swing, it is a more intellectual style that emphasizes complex improvisation and emphasizes harmony rather than melody. The music of this style is also distinguished by a very fast pace. The brightest representatives are: Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Charlie Parker (“Night In Tunisia”, “Manteca”) and Bud Powell.

Mainstream. Includes three currents: Stride (Northeast Jazz), Kansas City Style and West Coast Jazz. Hot stride reigned in Chicago, led by such masters as Louis Armstrong, Andy Condon, Jimmy Mac Partland. Kansas City is characterized by lyrical pieces in a blues style. West Coast jazz developed in Los Angeles under the direction of, and subsequently resulted in cool jazz.

Cool Jazz (cool jazz) originated in Los Angeles in the 50s as a contrast to the dynamic and impulsive swing and bebop. The founder of this style is considered to be Lester Young. It was he who introduced a manner of sound production unusual for jazz. This style is characterized by the use of symphonic instruments and emotional restraint. In this vein, such masters as Miles Davis (“Blue In Green”), Gerry Mulligan (“Walking Shoes”), Dave Brubeck (“Pick Up Sticks”), Paul Desmond left their mark.

Avante-Garde began to develop in the 60s. This avant-garde style is based on a break from the original traditional elements and is characterized by the use of new techniques and expressive means. For the musicians of this trend, self-expression, which they carried out through music, was in the first place. The performers of this trend include: Sun Ra (“Kosmos in Blue”, “Moon Dance”), Alice Coltrane (“Ptah The El Daoud”), Archie Shepp.

Progressive jazz arose in parallel with bebop in the 40s, but was distinguished by its staccato saxophone technique, the complex interweaving of polytonality with rhythmic pulsation and symphojazz elements. Stan Kenton can be called the founder of this trend. Outstanding representatives: Gil Evans and Boyd Ryburn.

Hard bop is a type of jazz that has its roots in bebop. Detroit, New York, Philadelphia - in these cities this style was born. In terms of its aggressiveness, it is very reminiscent of bebop, but blues elements still prevail in it. Featured performers are Zachary Breaux (“Uptown Groove”), Art Blakey and The Jass Messengers.

Soul jazz. This term is used to refer to all Negro music. It is based on traditional blues and African American folklore. This music is characterized by ostinato bass figures and rhythmically repeated samples, due to which it has gained wide popularity among different masses of the population. Among the hits of this direction are the compositions of Ramsey Lewis “The In Crowd” and Harris-McCain “Compared To What”.

Groove (aka funk) is an offshoot of soul, only its rhythmic focus distinguishes it. Basically, the music of this direction has a major color, and in terms of structure it is clearly defined parts of each instrument. Solo performances harmoniously fit into the overall sound and are not too individualized. The performers of this style are Shirley Scott, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Gene Emmons, Leo Wright.

Free Jazz got its start in the late 50s thanks to the efforts of such innovative masters as Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. His characteristic features are atonality, violation of the sequence of chords. This style is often called "free jazz", and its derivatives are loft jazz, modern creative and free funk. Musicians of this style include: Joe Harriott, Bongwater, Henri Texier (“Varech”), AMM (“Sedimantari”).

Creativity appeared due to the widespread avant-garde and experimentalism of jazz forms. It is difficult to characterize such music in certain terms, since it is too multifaceted and combines many elements of previous movements. Early adopters of this style include Lenny Tristano (“Line Up”), Gunther Schuller, Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyril (“The Big Time Stuff”).

Fusion combined elements of almost all existing musical movements at that time. Its most active development began in the 1970s. Fusion is a systematized instrumental style characterized by complex time signatures, rhythm, lengthened compositions, and lack of vocals. This style is designed for less broad masses than soul and is its complete opposite. Larry Corell and Eleventh, Tony Williams and Lifetime ("Bobby Truck Tricks") are at the head of this movement.

Acid jazz (groove jazz or club jazz) originated in the UK in the late 80s (heyday 1990 - 1995) and combined the funk of the 70s, hip-hop and dance music of the 90s. The appearance of this style was dictated by the widespread use of jazz-funk samples. The founder is DJ Giles Peterson. Among the performers of this direction are Melvin Sparks (“Dig Dis”), RAD, Smoke City (“Flying Away”), Incognito and Brand New Heavies.

Post bop began to develop in the 50s and 60s and is similar in structure to hard bop. It is distinguished by the presence of elements of soul, funk and groove. Often, characterizing this direction, they draw a parallel with blues-rock. Hank Moblin, Horace Silver, Art Blakey (“Like Someone In Love”) and Lee Morgan (“Yesterday”), Wayne Shorter worked in this style.

Smooth jazz is a modern jazz style that originated from the fusion movement, but differs from it in its deliberately polished sound. A feature of this direction is the widespread use of power tools. Notable Artists: Michael Franks, Chris Botti, Dee Dee Bridgewater (“All Of Me”, “God Bless The Child”), Larry Carlton (“Dont Give It Up”).

Jazz manush (gypsy jazz) is a jazz direction specializing in guitar performance. It combines the guitar technique of the gypsy tribes of the manush group and swing. The founders of this direction are the brothers Ferre and. Most famous performers: Andreas Oberg, Barthalo, Angelo Debarre, Bireli Largen (“Stella By Starlight”, “Fiso Place”, “Autumn Leaves”).

Jazz as a form of musical art appeared in the United States at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, incorporating the musical traditions of European settlers and African folklore melodic patterns.

Characteristic improvisation, melodic polyrhythm and expressiveness of performance became the hallmark of the first New Orleans jazz ensembles (jazz-band) in the first decades of the last century.

Over time, jazz has gone through periods of its development and formation, changing the rhythmic pattern and stylistic orientation: from the improvisational style of ragtime (ragtime), to dance orchestral swing (swing) and unhurried soft blues (blues).

The period from the early 20s to the 1940s is associated with the heyday of jazz orchestras (big bands), which consisted of several orchestral sections of saxophones, trombones, trumpets and a rhythm section. The peak of the popularity of big bands came in the mid-30s of the last century. Music performed by the jazz bands of Duke Ellington (Duke Ellington), Count Basie (Count Basie), Benny Goodman (Benny Goodman) sounded on dance floors and on the radio.

The rich orchestral sound, bright intonations and improvisation of the great soloists Coleman Hawkins, Teddy Wilson, Benny Carter and others created the recognizable and unique the big band sound, which is a classic of jazz music.

In 40-50 years. of the last century, the time of modern jazz has come; such jazz styles like furious bebop, lyrical cool jazz, soft west coast jazz, rhythmic hard bop, heartfelt soul jazz captured the hearts of jazz music lovers.

In the mid-1960s, a new jazz direction appeared - jazz-rock (jazz-rock), a peculiar combination of the energy inherent in rock music and jazz improvisation. founders jazz style- Rock are Miles Davis, Larry Coryell, Billy Cobham. In the 70s, jazz-rock became extremely popular. The use of rhythmic pattern and harmony of rock music, shades of traditional oriental melody, and blues harmony, the use of electric instruments and synthesizers, over time, led to the emergence of the term jazz fusion (jazz fusion), emphasizing with its name the combination of several musical traditions and influences.

In the 70s and 80s, jazz music, while maintaining an emphasis on melody and improvisation, acquired the features of pop music, funk (funk), rhythm and blues (R&B) and crossover jazz, significantly expanding the audience of listeners and becoming commercially successful.

Modern jazz music that emphasizes clarity, melody and beauty of sound is usually characterized as smooth jazz or contemporary jazz. Rhythmic and melodic lines of guitar and bass guitar, saxophone and trumpet, keyboard instruments, in the sound frame of synthesizers and samplers create a luxurious, easily recognizable colorful sound of smooth jazz.

Despite the fact that smooth jazz and contemporary jazz both have a similar musical style, they are still different. jazz styles. It is generally argued that smooth jazz is "background" music, while contemporary jazz is more individual. jazz style and requires close attention listener. Further development smooth jazz led to the emergence of lyrical trends of modern jazz- adult contemporary and more rhythmic urban jazz with hints of R&B, funk, hip-hop.

In addition, the emerging trend towards the combination of smooth jazz and electronic sound has led to the emergence of such popular areas of modern music as nu jazz, as well as lounge, chill and lo-fi.

Subsequently, ragtime rhythms combined with blues elements gave rise to a new musical direction - jazz.

The origins of jazz are connected with the blues. It arose at the end of the 19th century as a fusion of African rhythms and European harmony, but its origins should be sought from the moment slaves were brought from Africa to the territory of the New World. The brought slaves did not come from the same clan and usually did not even understand each other. The need for consolidation led to the unification of many cultures and, as a result, to the creation of a single culture (including music) of African Americans. The processes of mixing African musical culture and European (which also underwent serious changes in the New World) took place starting from the 18th century, and in the 19th century led to the emergence of "proto-jazz", and then jazz in the generally accepted sense.

new orleans jazz

The term New Orleans, or traditional, jazz is commonly used to refer to the style of musicians who played jazz in New Orleans between 1900 and 1917, as well as New Orleans musicians who played in Chicago and recorded records from about 1917 through the 1920s. . This period of jazz history is also known as the Jazz Age. And this concept is also used to describe music played in various historical periods representatives of the New Orleans revival, who sought to perform jazz in the same style as the musicians of the New Orleans school.

The development of jazz in the United States in the first quarter of the 20th century

After the closure of Storyville, jazz began to transform from a regional folk genre into a nationwide musical trend, spreading to the northern and northeastern provinces of the United States. But its wide distribution, of course, could not be facilitated only by the closure of one entertainment quarter. Along with New Orleans, in the development of jazz great importance St. Louis, Kansas City, and Memphis played from the start. Ragtime was born in Memphis in the 19th century, from where it then spread throughout the North American continent in the period -1903. On the other hand, minstrel performances, with their colorful mosaic of African-American folklore of all kinds, from jig to ragtime, quickly spread everywhere and set the stage for the advent of jazz. Many future jazz celebrities began their journey in the minstrel show. Long before Storyville closed, New Orleans musicians were touring with so-called "vaudeville" troupes. Jelly Roll Morton regularly toured Alabama, Florida, Texas from 1904. From 1914 he had a contract to perform in Chicago. In 1915 he moved to Chicago and Tom Brown's White Dixieland Orchestra. Major vaudeville tours in Chicago were also made by the famous Creole Band, led by New Orleans cornet player Freddie Keppard. Having separated at one time from the Olympia Band, the artists of Freddie Keppard already in 1914 successfully performed in the very the best theater Chicago and received an offer to make a sound recording of their performances even before the "Original Dixieland Jazz Band", which, however, Freddie Keppard short-sightedly rejected.

Significantly expanded the territory covered by the influence of jazz, orchestras playing on pleasure steamers that sailed up the Mississippi. Since the end of the 19th century, river trips from New Orleans to St. Paul have become popular, first for the weekend, and later for the whole week. Since 1900, New Orleans orchestras have been performing on these riverboats, the music of which has become the most attractive entertainment for passengers during river tours. In one of these orchestras, Suger Johnny, Louis Armstrong's future wife, the first jazz pianist Lil Hardin, began.

In the riverboat orchestra of another pianist, Faiths Marable, many future New Orleans musicians performed. jazz stars. Steamboats that traveled along the river often stopped at passing stations, where orchestras arranged concerts for the local public. It was these concerts that became creative debuts for Bix Beiderbeck, Jess Stacy and many others. Another famous route ran along the Missouri to Kansas City. In this city, where, thanks to the strong roots of African-American folklore, the blues developed and finally took shape, the virtuoso playing of New Orleans jazzmen found an exceptionally fertile environment. The main center for the development of jazz music by the beginning of the 19th was Chicago, in which, through the efforts of many musicians who gathered from different parts of the United States, a style was created that received the nickname Chicago jazz.

Swing

The term has two meanings. First, it is an expressive means in jazz. characteristic type pulsation based on constant deviations of the rhythm from the reference shares. This creates the impression of a large internal energy in a state of unstable equilibrium. Secondly, the style of orchestral jazz that took shape at the turn of the 1920s and 30s as a result of the synthesis of Negro and European stylistic forms of jazz music.

Artists: Joe Pass Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Norah Jones, Michel Legrand, Oscar Peterson, Ike Quebec, Paulinho Da Costa, Wynton Marsalis Septet, Mills Brothers, Stephane Grappelli.

Bop

Jazz style that developed in the early - mid-40s of the XX century and opened the era of modern jazz. It is characterized by a fast tempo and complex improvisations based on changes in harmony rather than melody. The super-fast pace of performance was introduced by Parker and Gillespie in order to keep non-professionals out of their new improvisations. Among other things, the hallmark of all bebopers has become a shocking demeanor and appearance: the curved pipe "Dizzy" Gillespie, the behavior of Parker and Gillespie, the ridiculous hats of Monk, etc. Having arisen as a reaction to the ubiquity of swing, bebop continued to develop its principles in use of expressive means, but at the same time found a number of opposite tendencies.

Unlike swing, for the most part which is the music of large commercial dance bands, bebop is an experimental creative direction in jazz, associated mainly with the practice of small ensembles (combos) and anti-commercial in its direction. The bebop stage was a significant shift in emphasis in jazz from popular dance music to more highly artistic, intellectual, but less mass "music for musicians". Bop musicians preferred complex improvisations based on chord strumming instead of melodies.

The main instigators of the birth were: saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, drummer Max Roach. Also listen to Chick Corea, Michel Legrand, Joshua Redman Elastic Band, Jan Garbarek, Charles Mingus, Modern Jazz Quartet.

Big bands

The classic, established form of big bands has been known in jazz since the early 1990s. This form retained its relevance until the end of the 1990s. The musicians who entered most big bands, as a rule, almost in their teens, played quite certain parts, either learned in rehearsals or from notes. Careful orchestrations, along with massive brass and woodwind sections, produced rich jazz harmonies and produced the sensationally loud sound that became known as "the big band sound".

The big band became the popular music of its time, reaching its height of fame in the mid-s. This music became the source of the swing dance craze. The leaders of the famous jazz orchestras Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Lunsford, Charlie Barnet composed or arranged and recorded on records a genuine hit parade of tunes that sounded not only on the radio but also everywhere in dance halls. Many big bands showed their solo improvisers, who brought the audience to a state close to hysteria during well-hyped "battles of the orchestras".

Although the popularity of big bands declined significantly after World War II, orchestras led by Basie, Ellington, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Harry James, and many others toured and recorded frequently over the next few decades. Their music was gradually transformed under the influence of new trends. Groups such as ensembles led by Boyd Ryburn, Sun Ra, Oliver Nelson, Charles Mingus, Thad Jones-Mal Lewis explored new concepts in harmony, instrumentation and improvisational freedom. Today, big bands are the standard in jazz education. Repertory orchestras such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterpiece Orchestra, and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble regularly play original arrangements of big band compositions.

In 2008, George Simon's canonical book Big Orchestras of the Swing Age was published in Russian, which in its essence is almost complete encyclopedia all the big bands of the golden age from the early 20s to the 60s of the XX century.

Mainstream

Pianist Duke Ellington

After the end of the mainstream fashion of big bands in the big band era, when the music of big bands began to be crowded out on stage by small jazz ensembles, swing music continued to sound. Many famous swing soloists, after playing ball rooms in concert, liked to play for fun at spontaneous jams in small clubs on 52nd Street in New York. And these were not only those who worked as "sidemen" in large orchestras, such as Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Hodges, Buck Clayton and others. The leaders of the big bands themselves - Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Harry James, Gene Krupa, being initially soloists, and not just conductors, also looked for opportunities to play separately from their large team, in a small composition. Not accepting the innovative techniques of the upcoming bebop, these musicians adhered to the traditional swing manner, while demonstrating inexhaustible imagination when performing improvisational parts. The main stars of swing constantly performed and recorded in small compositions, called "combos", within which there was much more room for improvisation. The style of this direction of club jazz of the late 1920s received the name mainstream, or the main current, with the beginning of the rise of bebop. Some of the finest performers of this era could be heard in fine form at jams, when chord improvisation was already taking precedence over the melodic coloring of the swing era. Re-emerging as a freestyle style in the late 's and 's, the mainstream absorbed elements of cool jazz, bebop, and hard bop. The term "contemporary mainstream" or post-bop is used today for almost any style that does not have a close connection to historical styles jazz music.

Northeast Jazz. Stride

Louis Armstrong, trumpeter and singer

Although the history of jazz began in New Orleans with the advent of the 20th century, this music experienced a real take-off in the early 1990s, when trumpeter Louis Armstrong left New Orleans to create new revolutionary music in Chicago. The migration of New Orleans jazz masters to New York that began shortly thereafter marked a trend of continuous movement of jazz musicians from the South to the North. Chicago embraced New Orleans music and made it hot, raising its heat not only through the efforts of Armstrong's famed Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, but others as well, including such masters as Eddie Condon and Jimmy McPartland, whose Austin High School crew helped revive the New Orleans schools. Other notable Chicagoans who have pushed the boundaries of classic New Orleans jazz style include pianist Art Hodes, drummer Barrett Deems, and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Armstrong and Goodman, who eventually moved to New York, created a kind of critical mass there that helped this city turn into a real jazz capital of the world. And while Chicago remained primarily the center of sound recording in the first quarter of the 20th century, New York also became the main concert venue jazz, with legendary clubs such as the Minton Playhouse, Cotton Club, Savoy and Village Vanguard, as well as arenas such as Carnegie Hall.

Kansas City Style

During the era of the Great Depression and Prohibition, the Kansas City jazz scene became a kind of Mecca for the newfangled sounds of the late 's and 's. The style that flourished in Kansas City is characterized by soulful blues-tinged pieces, performed by both big bands and small swing ensembles, demonstrating very energetic solos, performed for patrons of taverns with illegally sold liquor. It was in these pubs that the style of the great Count Basie crystallized, starting in Kansas City with Walter Page's orchestra and later with Benny Moten. Both of these orchestras were typical representatives of the Kansas City style, which was based on a peculiar form of blues, called "city blues" and formed in the playing of the above orchestras. The jazz scene of Kansas City was also distinguished by a whole galaxy of outstanding masters vocal blues, recognized as the "king" among which was the long-term soloist of the Count Basie Orchestra, the famous blues singer Jimmy Rushing. The famous alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, who was born in Kansas City, upon his arrival in New York, widely used the characteristic blues techniques he had learned in the Kansas City orchestras and later formed one of the starting points in the experiments of boppers in -e.

West Coast Jazz

Artists captured by the cool jazz movement in the 50s worked extensively in the Los Angeles recording studios. Largely influenced by nonet Miles Davis, these Los Angeles-based performers developed what is now known as "West Coast Jazz", or west coast jazz. As recording studios, clubs such as The Lighthouse on Hermosa Beach and The Haig in Los Angeles often featured his top artists, including trumpeter Shorty Rogers, saxophonists Art Pepper and Bud Shenk, drummer Shelley Mann, and clarinetist Jimmy Giuffrey. .

Cool (cool jazz)

The high heat and pressure of bebop began to wane with the development of cool jazz. Beginning in the late 1900s and early 1900s, musicians began to develop a less violent, smoother approach to improvisation, modeled after tenor saxophonist Lester Young's light, dry playing back in his swing period. The result is a detached and uniformly flat sound based on emotional "coolness". Trumpeter Miles Davis, one of the first bebop players to cool it down, became the genre's biggest innovator. His nonet, which recorded the album "Birth of the Cool" in the -1950s, was the epitome of the lyricism and restraint of cool jazz. Other notable musicians of the cool jazz school are trumpeter Chet Baker, pianists George Shearing, John Lewis, Dave Brubeck and Lenny Tristano, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and saxophonists Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims and Paul Desmond. Arrangers also made significant contributions to the cool jazz movement, notably Thad Dameron, Claude Thornhill, Bill Evans, and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. Their compositions focused on instrumental coloring and slowness of movement, on a frozen harmony that created the illusion of space. Dissonance also played a role in their music, but with a softer, muted character. The cool jazz format left room for somewhat larger ensembles such as nonets and tentets, which became more common during this period than during the early bebop period. Some arrangers experimented with modified instrumentation, including cone-shaped brass instruments such as horn and tuba.

progressive jazz

In parallel with the emergence of bebop, jazz is developing new genre- progressive jazz, or simply progressive. The main difference of this genre is the desire to move away from the frozen cliche of big bands and outdated, worn out techniques of the so-called. symphojazz, introduced in -e by Paul Whiteman. Unlike the boppers, the creators of progressive did not seek to radically abandon the jazz traditions that had developed at that time. Rather, they sought to update and improve swing phrase-models, introducing into the practice of composition the latest achievements of European symphonism in the field of tonality and harmony.

The greatest contribution to the development of the concepts of "progressive" was made by the pianist and conductor Stan Kenton. Progressive jazz of the early 1990s actually originates from his first works. In terms of sound, the music performed by his first orchestra was close to Rachmaninoff, and the compositions bore the features of late romanticism. However, in terms of genre, it was closest to symphojazz. Later, during the creation famous series his albums "Artistry", elements of jazz have already ceased to play the role of creating color, but have already been organically woven into the musical material. Along with Kenton, credit for this went to his best arranger, Pete Rugolo, a student of Darius Milhaud. Modern (for those years) symphonic sound, specific staccato technique in playing saxophones, bold harmonies, frequent seconds and blocks, along with polytonality and jazzy rhythmic pulsation - that's distinctive features this music, with which Stan Kenton entered jazz history for many years, as one of its innovators, who found a common platform for European symphonic culture and bebop elements, especially noticeable in pieces where solo instrumentalists seemed to oppose the sounds of the rest of the orchestra. It should also be noted that Kenton paid great attention to the improvisational parts of soloists in his compositions, including the world-famous drummer Shelley Maine, double bassist Ed Safransky, trombonist Kay Winding, June Christie, one of the best jazz vocalists of those years. Stan Kenton has maintained his fidelity to the chosen genre throughout his career.

In addition to Stan Kenton, also contributed to the development of the genre interesting arrangers and instrumentalists Boyd Ryburn and Gil Evans. A kind of apotheosis of progressive development, along with the already mentioned "Artistry" series, one can also consider a series of albums recorded by the Gil Evans big band together with the Miles Davis ensemble in the - s, for example, "Miles Ahead", "Porgy and Bess" and "Spanish drawings". Shortly before his death, Miles Davis turned to the genre again, recording old Gil Evans arrangements with the Quincy Jones Big Band.

hard bop

Hard bop (English - hard, hard bop) is a kind of jazz that arose in the 50s. 20th century from bop. Differs in expressive, cruel rhythmics, reliance on the blues. Refers to the styles of modern jazz. Around the same time that cool jazz was taking root on the West Coast, jazz musicians from Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York began to develop harder, heavier variations on the old bebop formula, dubbed Hard bop or hard bebop. Closely resembling traditional bebop in its aggressiveness and technical demands, hard bop of the 1950s and 1960s relied less on standard song forms and began to place more emphasis on blues elements and rhythmic drive. Incendiary soloing or mastery of improvisation along with strong feeling Harmonies were a feature of paramount importance to brass players, drums and piano became more prominent in the rhythm section, and the bass took on a more fluid, funky feel. Musical literature» Kolomiets Maria)

Modal (modal) jazz

soul jazz

Groove

An offshoot of soul jazz, the groove style draws melodies with bluesy notes and is distinguished by exceptional rhythmic focus. Sometimes also called "funk", the groove focuses on maintaining a continuous characteristic rhythmic pattern, flavoring it with light instrumental and sometimes lyrical embellishments.

The pieces performed in the groove style are full of joyful emotions, inviting the listeners to dance, both in a slow, bluesy version, and at a fast pace. Solo improvisations retain strict subordination to the beat and collective sound. The most famous exponents of this style are organists Richard "Groove" Holmes and Shirley Scott, tenorsaxophonist Jean Emmons, and flautist/altosaxophonist Leo Wright.

free jazz

Saxophonist Ornette Coleman

Perhaps the most controversial movement in the history of jazz emerged with the advent of free jazz, or the "New Thing" as it was later called. Although elements of free jazz existed within the musical structure of jazz long before the term itself was coined, most original in the "experiments" of such innovators as Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell and Lenny Tristano, but only towards the end of the 1990s through the efforts of such pioneers as saxophonist Ornette Coleman and pianist Cecil Taylor, this direction took shape as an independent style.

What these two musicians, along with others including John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and communities like the Sun Ra Arkestra and the group called The Revolutionary Ensemble, did was a variety of structural changes. and feel for the music. Among the innovations that were introduced with imagination and great musicality was the abandonment of the chord progression, which allowed the music to move in any direction. Another fundamental change was found in the area of ​​rhythm, where "swing" was either redefined or ignored altogether. In other words, pulsation, meter and groove were no longer an essential element in this reading of jazz. Another key component has been associated with atonality. Now musical saying no longer built on the conventional tonal system. Shrill, barking, convulsive notes completely filled this new sound world.

Free jazz continues to exist today as a viable form of expression, and in fact is no longer as controversial a style as it was at the dawn of its inception.

creative

The appearance of the "Creative" direction was marked by the penetration of elements of experimentalism and avant-garde into jazz. The beginning of this process partially coincided with the rise of free jazz. The elements of avant-garde jazz, understood as changes and innovations introduced into music, have always been "experimental". So the new forms of experimentalism offered by jazz in the 50s, 60s and 70s were the most radical departure from tradition, introducing new elements of rhythms, tonality and structure into practice. In fact, avant-garde music became synonymous with open forms, more difficult to characterize than even free jazz.The pre-planned structure of sayings was mixed with freer solo phrases, partly reminiscent of free jazz.Compositional elements so merged with improvisation that it was already difficult to determine where the first ended and the second began.In fact, musical structure pieces were designed so that the solo was the product of the arrangement, logically bringing the musical process to what would normally be seen as a form of abstraction or even chaos. Swing rhythms and even melodies could be included in musical theme, but it was not necessary at all. Pianist Lenny Tristano, saxophonist Jimmy Joffrey and composer/arranger/conductor Günther Schuller are among the early pioneers of this movement. More recent masters include pianists Paul Blay and Andrew Hill, saxophonists Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers, drummers Sunny Murray and Andrew Cyrill, and members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) community such as the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Fusion

Starting not only from the fusion of jazz with pop and rock, but also with music stemming from areas such as soul, funk and rhythm and blues, fusion (or literally fusion), as a musical genre, appeared at the end - x, originally called jazz-rock. Individuals and bands such as guitarist Larry Coryell's Eleventh House, drummer Tony Williams' Lifetime, and Miles Davis have followed at the forefront of this trend, introducing elements such as electronica, rock rhythms and extended tracks, nullifying much of what jazz has stood for since its inception, namely the swing beat, and based primarily on blues music, the repertoire of which included both blues material and popular standards. The term fusion came into use shortly after various orchestras emerged, such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, and Chick Corea's Return To Forever Ensemble. Throughout the music of these ensembles there was a constant emphasis on improvisation and melody, which firmly linked their practice with the history of jazz, despite detractors who claimed that they "sold out" to music merchants. In fact, when one listens to these early experiments today, they hardly seem commercial, offering the listener to participate in what was music with a highly developed conversational nature. During the mid-s, fusion evolved into a variant of easy listening and/or rhythm and blues music. Compositionally or from the point of view of performance, he has lost a significant part of his sharpness, if not completely lost. In -e, jazz musicians turned the musical form of fusion into a truly expressive medium. Artists such as drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, guitarists Pat Metheny, John Scofield, John Abercrombie and James "Blood" Ulmer, also like veteran saxophonist/trumpeter Ornette Coleman creatively mastered this music in different dimensions.

Postbop

Drummer Art Blakey

The post-bop period encompasses music played by jazz musicians who continued to work in the bebop field, eschewing the free jazz experiments that developed during the same period of the 1960s. Also like the aforementioned hard bop, this form was based on the rhythms, ensemble structure and energy of bebop, on the same brass combinations and on the same musical repertoire, including the use of Latin elements. What distinguished post-bop music was the use of elements of funk, groove or soul, reshaped in the spirit of the new age, marked by the dominance of pop music. Often this subspecies experiments with blues rock. Masters such as saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Horace Silver, drummer Art Blakey, and trumpeter Lee Morgan actually started this music in the mid-1900s and presaged what has now become the predominant form of jazz. Along with simpler melodies and more heartfelt beats, the listener could also hear traces of gospel and rhythm and blues mixed together. This style, which met with some changes during the 's, was used to a certain extent to create new structures as a compositional element. Saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist McCoy Tyner, and even such a prominent bopper as Dizzy Gillespie, created music in this genre that was both human and harmonically interesting. One of the most significant composers to emerge during this period was the saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Shorter, having gone through school in the Art Blakey Ensemble, recorded a number of strong albums during his own name. Together with keyboardist Herbie Hancock, Shorter helped Miles Davis form a quintet (the most experimental and highly influential post-bop group was the Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane) that became one of the most significant groups in jazz history.

acid jazz

Jazz manush

The Spread of Jazz

Jazz has always aroused interest among musicians and listeners around the world, regardless of their nationality. It suffices to trace the early work of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and his synthesis of jazz traditions with the music of black Cubans in or later combination of jazz with Japanese, Eurasian and Middle Eastern music, known in the work of pianist Dave Brubeck, as well as in the brilliant composer and leader of jazz Duke Ellington Orchestra , which combined the musical heritage of Africa , Latin America and the Far East . Jazz constantly absorbed and not only Western musical traditions. For example, when different artists began to try to work with the musical elements of India. An example of this effort can be heard in the recordings of flautist Paul Horn at the Taj Mahal, or in the stream of "world music" represented, for example, by the Oregon band or John McLaughlin's Shakti project. McLaughlin's music, previously based mainly on jazz, began to use new instruments during his work with Shakti. Indian origin, like khatam or tabla, intricate rhythms sounded and a form of Indian raga was widely used. The Art Ensemble of Chicago was an early pioneer in the fusion of African and jazz forms. The world later came to know saxophonist/composer John Zorn and his exploration of Jewish musical culture, both within and outside the Masada Orchestra. These works have inspired entire groups of other jazz musicians, such as keyboardist John Medeski, who has recorded with African musician Salif Keita, guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Anthony Coleman. Trumpeter Dave Douglas brings inspiration from the Balkans to his music, while the Asian-American Jazz Orchestra has emerged as a leading proponent of the convergence of jazz and Asian musical forms. As the globalization of the world continues, jazz is constantly being influenced by other musical traditions, providing mature food for future research and proving that jazz is truly world music.

Jazz in the USSR and Russia

First in the RSFSR
eccentric orchestra
jazz band Valentina Parnakh

In the mass consciousness, jazz began to gain wide popularity in the 30s, largely due to the Leningrad ensemble led by actor and singer Leonid Utyosov and trumpeter Ya. B. Skomorovsky. The popular film comedy with his participation "Merry Fellows" (1934, originally titled "Jazz Comedy") was dedicated to the history of a jazz musician and had an appropriate soundtrack (written by Isaak Dunaevsky). Utyosov and Skomorovsky formed original style"tea-jazz" (theatrical jazz), based on a mixture of music with theater, operetta, vocal numbers and an element of performance played a large role in it.

Significant contribution to the development Soviet jazz Contributed by Eddie Rosner, composer, musician and bandleader. Having started his career in Germany, Poland and other European countries, Rozner moved to the USSR and became one of the pioneers of swing in the USSR and the initiator of Belarusian jazz. An important role in the popularization and development of the swing style was also played by Moscow bands of the 30s and 40s, led by Alexander Tsfasman and Alexander Varlamov. The Jazz Orchestra of the All-Union Radio conducted by A. Varlamov took part in the first Soviet TV show. The only composition that has survived from that time turned out to be Oleg Lundstrem's orchestra. This now widely known big band belonged to the few and best jazz ensembles of the Russian diaspora, performing in 1935-1947. in China.

The attitude of the Soviet authorities to jazz was ambiguous: domestic jazz performers, as a rule, were not banned, but harsh criticism of jazz as such was widespread in the context of countering Western culture in general. In the late 1940s, during the struggle against cosmopolitanism, jazz in the USSR experienced a particularly difficult period when groups performing "Western" music were persecuted. With the onset of the "thaw", the persecution of the musicians was stopped, but the criticism continued.

According to research by professor of history and American culture Penny Van Eschen, the US State Department tried to use jazz as an ideological weapon against the USSR and against the expansion of Soviet influence in the Third World.

The first book about jazz in the USSR was published by the Leningrad publishing house Academia in 1926. It was compiled by musicologist Semyon Ginzburg from translations of articles by Western composers and music critics, as well as his own materials, and was called " Jazz band and contemporary music» .
Next book about jazz came out in the USSR only in the early 1960s. It was written by Valery Mysovsky and Vladimir Feyertag, called " Jazz” and was essentially a compilation of information that could be obtained from various sources at that time. Since that time, work began on the first encyclopedia of jazz in Russian, which was published only in 2001 by the St. Petersburg publishing house "Skifia". Encyclopedia " Jazz. XX century. Encyclopedic reference” was prepared by one of the most authoritative jazz critics Vladimir Feiertag, numbered more than a thousand names of jazz personalities and was unanimously recognized as the main Russian-language book on jazz. In 2008, the second edition of the encyclopedia " Jazz. Encyclopedic reference”, where jazz history has been held until the 21st century, hundreds of the rarest photographs have been added, and the list of jazz names has been increased by almost a quarter.

Latin American Jazz

The combination of Latin rhythmic elements has been present in jazz almost from the beginning of the cultural fusion that originated in New Orleans. Jelly Roll Morton spoke of "Spanish undertones" in his recordings of the mid to late 1990s. Duke Ellington and other jazz bandleaders also used Latin forms. The main (albeit not widely recognized) progenitor of Latin jazz, trumpeter/arranger Mario Bausa brought a Cuban leaning from his native Havana to Chick Webb's orchestra in the 1990s, and a decade later he brought it into the sound of the Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson and Cab Calloway orchestras. Working with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in the Calloway Orchestra since the late 1900s, Bausa introduced a direction from which there was already a direct link to Gillespie's big bands of the mid-1900s. This "love affair" of Gillespie with Latin musical forms continued until the end of his long career. In th Bausa continued his career, becoming the musical director of the Afro-Cuban Machito Orchestra, fronted by his brother-in-law, percussionist Frank Grillo, nicknamed Machito. The 1950s and 1960s were marked by a long flirtation of jazz with Latin rhythms, mainly in the bossa nova direction, enriching this synthesis with Brazilian elements of samba. Combining the style of cool jazz developed by West Coast musicians, European classical proportions and seductive Brazilian rhythms, bossa nova, or more correctly "Brazilian jazz", gained wide popularity in the United States around . Subtle but hypnotic acoustic guitar rhythms punctuated simple melodies sung in both Portuguese and English. Introduced by Brazilians Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobin, the style became a dance alternative to hard bop and free jazz in the 1950s, greatly expanding its popularity through recordings and performances by musicians from the west coast, in particular guitarist Charlie Byrd and saxophonist Stan Getz. The musical mixture of Latin influences spread in jazz and beyond, in the 1920s and 1900s, including not only orchestras and groups with top-notch Latino improvisers, but also combining local and Latin performers to produce some of the most exciting stage music. This new Latin jazz renaissance was fueled by a constant influx of foreign performers from among the Cuban defectors, such as trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, saxophonist and clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, and others who fled the Fidel Castro regime in search of greater opportunities that they expected to find in New York. York and Florida. There is also an opinion that the more intense, more danceable qualities of the polyrhythmic music of Latin jazz greatly expanded the jazz audience. True, while retaining only a minimum of intuitiveness, for intellectual perception.

Jazz in the modern world

Understanding who is who in jazz is not so easy. The direction is commercially successful, and therefore often about the "only concert of the legendary Vasya Pupkin" they shout from all the cracks, and really important figures go into the shadows. Under the pressure of Grammy winners and advertising from Jazz radio, it is easy to lose focus and remain indifferent to style. If you want to learn to understand this kind of music, and maybe even love it, learn the most important rule: do not trust anyone.

It is necessary to make judgments about new phenomena with caution, or like Hugues Panasier - the famous musicologist who drew a line and branded all jazz after the 50s, calling it "fake". In the end, he turned out to be wrong, but this did not affect the popularity of his book The History of Genuine Jazz.

It is better to treat the new phenomenon with silent suspicion, so you will definitely pass for your own: snobbery and adherence to the old is one of the brightest characteristics of the subculture.

In conversations about jazz, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald are often mentioned - it would seem that you can't go wrong here. But such remarks betray the neophyte. These are emblematic figures, and if you can still talk about Fitzgerald in a suitable context, then Armstrong is the Charlie Chaplin of jazz. You won't talk to an arthouse movie buff about Charlie Chaplin, will you? And if you do, then at least not in the first place. Mentioning both famous names is possible in certain cases, but if you have nothing in your pocket besides these two aces, hold them and wait for the right situation.

In many directions there are fashionable and not very fashionable phenomena, but to the greatest extent this is characteristic of jazz. A mature hipster, used to looking for rare and strange things, will not understand why Czech jazz of the 40s is not interesting. It will not be possible to find something conditionally “unusual” and trump with your “deep erudition” here. In order to imagine the style in general terms, one should list its main directions since the end of the 19th century.

Ragtime and blues are sometimes called proto-jazz, and if the former, being not quite a complete form from a modern point of view, is interesting simply as a fact of music history, then the blues is still relevant.

Ragtime by Scott Joplin

And although researchers call the psychological state of Russians and a total sense of hopelessness the reason for such a surge of love for the blues in the 90s, in reality everything can be much simpler.

A selection of 100 popular blues songs

Classic boogie woogie

As in European culture, among African Americans, music was divided into secular and spiritual, and if the blues belonged to the first group, then spiritual and gospel - to the second.

Spirituals are more austere than gospels and are performed by a choir of the faithful, often accompanied by even-numbered clapping—an important feature of all jazz styles and a problem for many European listeners who clap out of place. The music of the Old World most often makes us nod to odd beats. In jazz, it's the other way around. Therefore, if you are not sure that you feel these second and fourth beats, which are unusual for a European, it is better to refrain from clapping. Or watch the performers themselves do it, and then try again.

Scene from the film "12 Years a Slave" with the performance of the classic spiritual

Contemporary spiritual by Take 6

Gospel songs were more often performed by one singer, they have more freedom than spirituals, so they became popular as a concert genre.

Classical gospel music performed by Mahalia Jackson

Modern gospel music from the film Joyful Noise

In the 1910s, traditional or New Orleans jazz took shape. The music from which it arose was performed by street orchestras, which were then very popular. The importance of instruments is increasing sharply, an important event era - the emergence of jazz bands, small orchestras of 9-15 people. The success of the Negro bands motivated white Americans who created the so-called Dixielands.

Traditional jazz is associated with films about American gangsters. This is due to the fact that its heyday fell on the days of Prohibition and the Great Depression. One of the brightest representatives of the style is the already mentioned Louis Armstrong.

Distinctive features of the traditional jazz band are the steady position of the banjo, the leading position of the trumpet and the full participation of the clarinet. The last two instruments over time will replace the saxophone, which will become the permanent leader of such an orchestra. By the nature of the music, traditional jazz is more static.

Jelly Roll Morton Jazz Band

Modern Dixieland Marshall's Dixieland Jazz Band

What is wrong with jazz and why is it customary to say that no one can play this music?

It's all about her African origin. Despite the fact that by the middle of the 20th century whites had defended their right to this style, it is still widely believed that African Americans have a special sense of rhythm that allows them to create a feeling of swinging, which is called “swing” (from English to swing - “to swing "). It is risky to argue with this: most of the great white pianists from the 1950s to our times have become famous thanks to their direction or intellectual improvisations that betray deep musical erudition.

Therefore, if in a conversation you mentioned a white jazz player, you should not say something like “how great he swings” - after all, he swings either normally or not at all, such is reverse racism.

And the word "swing" itself is too worn out, it is better to pronounce it at the very last turn when it is certainly appropriate.

Each jazz player must be able to perform "jazz standards" (main melodies, or, in other words, evergreen), which, however, are divided into orchestral and ensemble. For example, In the Mood is rather among the first.

In the Mood. Performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra

Then they appear famous works George Gershwin, which are considered both jazz and academic at the same time. These are Blues Rhapsody (or Blue Rhapsody), written in 1924, and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), famous for its Summertime aria. Prior to Gershwin, jazz harmonies were used by such composers as Charles Ives and Antonin Dvorak (symphony "From the New World").

George Gershwin. Porgy and Bess. Aria Summertime. Academically performed by Maria Callas

George Gershwin. Porgy and Bess. Aria Summertime. Jazzed by Frank Sinatra

George Gershwin. Porgy and Bess. Aria Summertime. Rock version. Performed by Janis Joplin

George Gershwin. Blues Rhapsody. Performed by Leonard Bernstein and his orchestra

One of the most famous Russian composers, like Gershwin, writing in the jazz style is Nikolai Kapustin. .

Both camps look askance at such experiments: jazz musicians are convinced that a written work without improvisation is no longer jazz “by definition”, and academic composers consider jazz expressive means too trivial to work with them seriously.

However, classical performers play Kapustin with pleasure and even try to improvise, while their counterparts act wiser, not encroaching on someone else's territory. Academic pianists who put their improvisations on public display have long been a meme in jazz circles.

Since the 1920s, the number of cult and iconic figures in the history of the direction has been growing, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to put these numerous names in your head. However, some can be recognized by their characteristic timbre or manner of performance. One of these memorable singers was Billie Holiday.

All of Me. Performed by Billie Holiday

In the 50s, a new era begins, called "modern jazz". The musicologist Yug Panasier, mentioned above, denied it from her. This direction opens with the bebop style: its characteristic feature is high speed and frequent changes in harmony, and therefore it requires exceptional performing skills, which such outstanding personalities as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane possessed.

Bebop was created as an elite genre. Any musician from the street could always come to a jam session - an evening of improvisations, so the pioneers of bebop introduced fast tempos to get rid of amateurs and weak professionals. This snobbery is partly inherent in fans of such music, who consider their favorite direction the pinnacle of jazz development. It is customary to treat bebop with respect, even if you don’t understand anything about it.

Giant Steps. Performed by John Coltrane

A special chic is to admire the outrageous, deliberately rude manner of Thelonious Monk's performance, who, according to gossip, perfectly played complex academic works, but carefully concealed it.

Round Midnight. Performed by Thelonious Monk

By the way, the discussion of gossip about jazz performers is not considered shameful - rather, on the contrary, it indicates a deep involvement and hints at a great listening experience. Therefore, you should know that Miles Davis's drug addiction affected his stage behavior, Frank Sinatra had connections with the mafia, and there is a church named after John Coltrane in San Francisco.

Mural "Dancing Saints" from a church in San Francisco.

Along with bebop, another style was born within the framework of the same direction - cool jazz(cool jazz), which is distinguished by a "cold" sound, moderate character and unhurried pace. One of its founders was Lester Young, but there are also many white musicians in this niche: Dave Brubeck , Bill Evans(not to be confused with Gil Evans), Stan Getz and etc.

take five. Performed by the Dave Brubeck Ensemble

If the 50s, despite the reproaches of conservatives, opened the way for experiments, then in the 60s they become the norm. At this time, Bill Evans is recording two albums of arrangements of classical works with a symphony orchestra, Stan Kenton, representative progressive jazz, creates rich orchestrations, the harmony in which is compared with Rachmaninov's, and in Brazil there is its own version of jazz, completely different from other styles - bossanova .

Granados. Jazz arrangement of the work "Maja and the Nightingale" by the Spanish composer Granados. Performed by Bill Evans with symphony orchestra

Malaguena. Performed by the Stan Kenton Orchestra

Girl from Ipanema. Performed by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz

Loving bossanova is as easy as loving minimalism in modern academic music.

Thanks to its unobtrusive and "neutral" sound, Brazilian jazz has found its way into elevators and hotel lobbies as background music, although this does not detract from the significance of the style as such. Claiming that you love bossa nova is worth it only if you really know its representatives quite well.

An important turn was outlined in the popular orchestral style - symphojazz. In the 1940s, jazz, powdered with academic symphonic sound, became a fashionable phenomenon and a standard of the golden mean between two styles with a completely different background.

Luck Be a Lady. Performed by Frank Sinatra with Jazz Symphony Orchestra

In the 1960s, the sound of the sympho-jazz orchestra lost its novelty, which led to Stan Kenton's experimentation with harmony, Bill Evans' arrangements, and Gil Evans' themed albums such as Sketches of Spain and Miles Ahead.

Sketches of Spain. Performed by Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra

Experiments in the field of symphonic jazz are still relevant, the most interesting projects in recent years in this niche are the Metropole Orkest, The Сinematic Orchestra and Snarky Puppy.

Breathe. Performed by The Cinematic Orchestra

Gretel. Performed by Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest (Grammy Award, 2014)

The bebop and cool jazz traditions have merged into hard bop, an improved version of bebop, although it can be difficult to tell one from the other by ear. Prominent performers in this style are The Jazz Messengers, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey and some other musicians who originally played bebop.

hard bop. Performed by The Jazz Messengers Orchestra

Moanin'. Performed by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers

Rich improvisations at a fast pace required ingenuity, which led to searches in the field fret. So born modal jazz. It is often singled out as an independent style, although similar improvisations are also found in other genres. The most popular modal piece was "So What?" Miles Davis.

So What? Performed by Miles Davis

While brilliant jazz players were figuring out how to further complicate the already complex music, blind authors and performers Ray Charles and walked the path of the heart, combining jazz, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in their work.

Fingertips. Performed by Stevie Wonder

What'd I say. Performed by Ray Charles

At the same time, jazz organists are loudly declaring themselves, playing music on the Hammond electric organ.

Jimmy Smith

In the mid-60s, soul jazz appeared, which combined the democratism of soul with the intellectualism of bebop, but historically it is usually associated with the latter, silent about the significance of the former. The most popular soul jazz figure was Ramsey Lewis.

The 'In' Crowd. Performed by the Ramsey Lewis Trio

If from the beginning of the 50s the division of jazz into two branches was only felt, then in the 70s it was already possible to speak of this as an irrefutable fact. The pinnacle of the elite direction was