Jazz Styles

What do we think of when we talk about jazz? how many styles of jazz are there? Swing, Dixieland, Bebop, Fusion, Acid jazz, Avant Garde etc etc.. The following is taken from this website - http://www.geocities.com/sax411/jazz/styles.html

Ragtime

While ragtime is not considered jazz by most, rather its predecessor, I feel that its influence on jazz makes it a great place to start. Ragtime is played almost exclusively on the piano. Its most notable players include the pianists Jelly Roll Morton and Scott Joplin ("The Entertainer", Maple Leaf Rag"). Ragtime is a very lively dance music that has a very vertical feel and steady stream of eight notes. Like most forms of piano jazz, the left hand is used percussively and the right supplies a fast moving melody.

Harlem Stride

This is another typical form of what is considered piano jazz. In this style, the left hand strikes the bassnote, then the chord, then the bassnote, then the chord - you get the idea. Notables to this style are Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and Willie "The Lion" Smith.

Boogie Woogie

The boogie woogie shares much in style to the previously named piano styles. However, it is noted for a faster moving left hand. Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis helped make the boogie woogie popular.

New Orleans & Dixieland

A direct descendant of brass marching bands, New Orleans jazz and dixieland jazz (often used interchangeably) receive their names from their place of origin. This style was most popular between the years of 1920 and 1930. Unlike the later style of big band, everyone in a small combo improvises the melody and harmony simultaneously. Perhaps the most well known dixieland jazz musician is Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong who played trumpet, sang, and is credited by some as the inventor of scatting. Sidney Bechet is a well known dixieland soprano saxophonist.

Big Band Swing

In contrast to New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, big band music emphasizes the individual soloist, playing the melody, keeping a swinging horizontal feel, and the sound of the individual. Bands are larger and there is very little if any collective improvising. Big band is often associated with World War II as it was pop music back in the mid 1930's, though it emerged in the 1920's. Names like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw are all still remembered as prominent band leaders. Ella Fitzgerald is a much loved swing vocalist who drew on scatting to improvise solos. A large collection of well know saxophonists played big band such as Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, Paul Gonsalves, Ben Webster, and Coleman Hawkins. And, like in many forms of jazz, blues was a very important element.

Bebop

This styles's birth 1940's is considered by some as the beginning of modern jazz. It grew out of small swing groups with big band swing players like Lester Young (sax) and Coleman Hawkins (sax) helping to pave the way. The most noted pioneers of bebop are perhaps the famous saxophonists Charlie "Bird" Parker and his partner and trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie. Bebop compositions feature fast tempos, technical eighth note runs, and complex harmonies. In contrast to swing the effect is that songs are rarely singable let alone danceable making it hard for it to gain wide spread popularity. Many standards are based on the chord progressions of popular songs of swing and other genres such as "Cherokee" and "How High the Moon". Improvisation is based on scales derived from those chords often adding a flatted fifth. Accompaniment styles also are different than that of big band swing. Bassists keep the pulse with a walking bass line of almost exclusive quarter notes allowing drummers to rely more on the hi-hat and ride cymbal than the bass drum and allowing pianists to free up their left hand no longer needed to define chords and apply a lighter touch. It is through bebop that the modern jazz standard form becomes universal with performers playing the head (melody), often in unison, then taking turns soloing using chord progressions of the piece as a basis, and the finishing out by replaying the head. Trading fours (trading four measure solos) is also a commonplace practice developed in bebop. The standard quartet and or quintet format has changed little since its beginning and consists of a pianist, bassist, drummer, and a saxophonists and or trumpet player.

Cool Jazz & West Coast Jazz

In response to bebop's fast and complex melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, cool jazz is a very relaxed, laid back form of jazz. Light, funk rhythms are employed and the focus is on the overall sound and blend instead of soloists. This style caught on fast on the west coast where it receives its nickname as west coast jazz. There the emphasis is on the piano and many groups have been pianest led such as that of Dave Brubeck (with Paul Desmond on sax). Elsewhere, groups relied on harmonization between the hornlines to outline chord progressions and did not use pianos. Saxophonists Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan are famous cool players. In addition, Miles Davis (trumpet) is well known in this genre for his album Birth of the Cool.

Latin Jazz

Stan Getz is credited with the popularization of Brazilian styles such as the bossa nova and samba in jazz. These and other Latin American styles are often labeled collectively as Latin jazz. A mixture of bop-like jazz and hypnotic Latin rhythms, the effect is not only quite danceable, but hard to resist dancing to. Background rhythms consist mostly of a constant stream of eight notes that incorporates accents on unpredictable beats, thereby giving it its kick. Latin jazz percussionists are not restricted to just a trap set but find use for a wide variety of instruments such as conga drums, bongo drums, claves, cowbells, timbales, and maracas. Tito Puente is a highly respected Latin percussionist and well worth listening to. The typical Latin jazz combo consists of eight players: up to three percusionists, a pianist, a bass player, and three horns such as a trumpet player, trombonist, and saxophonist.

Hard Bop

Characterized as an extension of bebop or a backlash against cool jazz, hard bop originated in the 1950's. While retaining the rythmic drive and intensity of bebop, hard bop focuses less on technically demanding melodies and throws in a bit of blues and gospel.

Post Bop

In contrast to bebop, post bop relies on tunes written around simple scales or modes lasting for many measures each, not quickly changing more complex harmonies. Miles Davis (trumpet) and John Coltrane (sax) both played around in post bop. Coltrane's Giant Steps album is a good example.

Free Jazz & Avant Garde

While hard for many to understand or grasp, free jazz allows infinite freedom to the players to express themselves as they choose. Traditional forms, melody, harmony, and rhythms are extended considerably or even done away with. The music can be very percussive or not at all. Disonant note clusters are quite acceptable as well as fast technical phrases and passages that seem to have no rhythmic pulse or be based on any particular harmonies whatsoever. John Coltrane (sax) and Ornette Coleman (sax) both delved into avant garde, the latter being called a pioneer. A form of free jazz known as free bop still retains the basic feel of traditional small group post bop jazz. Soloists alternate over a swinging drum beat and walking bass link.

Fusion

The fusion of jazz and rock (or rather the refusion of it) was headed by trumpeter Miles Davis in the mid to late 1960's. Throughout the 70's he continued to explore new directions in his music by experimenting with the incorporation of electronics and elements of funk and rock.

Neo Classicism

Wynton Marsalis (trumpet) and his brother Branford Marsalis (sax) are notables in this return to the bebop and post bop roots of modern jazz. While based on styles of the 1950's and 1960's, they do not merely imitate the past. Instead they extend these past styles through new approaches to melodism, harmony, form, and rythm.

m-BASE

Short for "Macro-Basic Array of Structured Extemporization", even many of this movement's members are unsure about what it means. Started in the mid-1980's, this style is characterized by its unpredictable and complex funk rythms and angular melodic lines. Saxophonists Steve Coleman, Grey Osby, and Gary Thomas as well as trumpet player Graham Haynes, trombonist Robin Eubanks, bass player Anthony Cox and drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith are all a part of this jazz movement.

Acid Jazz

Incorporating a wide array of musical elements, such as jazz, 70's funk, soul, hip-hop, and more,is acid jazz. Known for its funky style, the focus of acid jazz is the music as opposed to the words and lyrics of a songs, thus differentiating it from rap with samples of jazz worked in.

And they didnt have a definition for smooth jazz, so i'm gonna define smooth jazz in my own words.

Smooth Jazz

This style of jazz employs a very modern touch, quite similar to dat of West Coast jazz. It is more often than not a relaxed form of jazz. Smooth jazz can also be remakes of contemporary pop songs done in a more jazzy sorta style. Laura Fygi and Diana Krall etc are good examples of what smooth jazz is about. Smooth is not pop, the difference being improvisation. Pop does not contain any sort of improvisation whereas smooth jazz can incorporate improvisation or not. Smooth also takes a variety of forms from the funk, groove or slow swing styles. It is also easy listening and therefore is commercially viable. Smooth jazz is often a topic of controversy among many traditional jazz and modern jazz musicians.