A short history and aesthetics of Jazz

The jazz is created by the Negroes in New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) who mix elements from the surrounding music: from their own African-American traditions, the spirits and the music of the White, of European dance and military orchestras. With the example of the white brass bands in the nineteenth century there are Negro marching bands that perform on funerals, festivals, weddings - dances, spirits, marches, songs, blues, hobbles, etc. Around 1890, the first jazz bands appeared, including the typical solo composition: cornet (trumpet), clarinet, batstow (or double bass), banjo (guitar or piano). They perceive functional harmony and 2/4 marching rhythm. Later, the saxophone, the trombone, and the hammer are included in the characteristic instruments. Jazz is a musical style that combines American popular music from the 19th and 20th centuries. Its characteristic features include ragtime, swing, polyrithym and improvisation. The lack of fixed rules makes it one of the most vibrant and varied music genres in the world. Although they often consider it a devilish music. For the first time, the word jazz is being used on the west coast of the United States and refers to music in Chicago in 1915. Since its inception, the jazz has a variety of sub-events: New Orleans Dixieland, Big Band, Swing, Bibop, Latin Jazz, jazz fusion, Cuban jazz, Brazilian jazz, asid jazz, New Jazz. After its spread around the world, local national cultural and musical traditions flow into it, giving even more variety to the jazz genres. The term "jazz" in the sense of musical style is used for the first time on March 6, 1913 in the San Francisco Bulletin in an article that describes the music of an orchestra with elements of jazz and ragtime. In these years (at the dawn of jazz), the word is written in several different ways: jaz, jas, jass, jasz or jascz. It is sometimes called the word of the twentieth century because its origin and etymology have not been established.

Dizzy Gillespie

Some believe that the word is of African origin, and others that it is Arabic. Another theory of the origin of the word according to the Historical Dictionary of American Slang is that it comes from jism or gism, meaning high spirit, energy. Another supposed origin is from the French words jaser (chat) or chasser (gong). Andrew Gilbert argues that jazz has the strange ability to "absorb and transform" the influence of various other musical styles.
More than half a million slaves from Africa are forcibly settled in the United States to work in the plantations there in the 17th-18th centuries. With them they bring their traditional tribal dances and instruments. The abolition of slavery in the second half of the 18th century in the United States opens new opportunities for education of the black population. But racism and segregation do not give much hope for work. The entertainment industry is one of the places where they are sought because of their natural and inborn musicality and strong emotionality. Though considered to be a lower class, they are preferred to take part in miners and vaiders from which the marching bands are formed. Black musicians play in bars and clubs and at the end of the 18th century the ragtime was born. The pianist Scott Joplin creates some of the most original and popular ragtime pieces - world hits that are even used by classics Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. In New Orleans, New York and New England, music festivals have been organized to initially perform African music, and then black musicians gradually learn to play European instruments and mix the different musical traditions. Later, both American and European artists began to include elements of African music in their music.

John Coltrane

True development and popularity jazz gains in the 20s and 30s of the twentieth century, even giving the name of time - Jazz Era. The most popular formations at the time are the big bands of Duke Ellington, County Bassey and Benny Goodman - now considered jazz-classics. Ellington is also considered one of the most significant composers in jazz history. Every self-respecting musician has in his repertoire evergreens of that time. In the 30s of the twentieth century the swing, which is a dance music, was born. In these years, radio has already played a decisive role in popularization and distribution. For many years, radio broadcasts are an opportunity to get acquainted with new trends in jazz music. Jazz then appears in Europe - in France and Belgium. In the 40's and 50's jazz has a new form - be-bop. Jazz separates from dance music and becomes the art of the musicians themselves, including the emotion of improvisation and even abstractionism. In the late 1940's, the so-called " with the most prominent Miles Davis. Other main styles of the 50's are hard-boot, which combines be-bop with blues and gospel, and Third Stream, which combines jazz and contemporary classical music. In the late 1950's, the so-called " free jazz", whose founder is saxophonist Ornette Coleman. In the 1960's prominent musicians such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis began using some of Coleman's techniques. The 60's are one of the most significant periods not only in jazz but in the twentieth century music at all. The influence of free forms (avant-garde) and modal music is growing. In the 1970's, Miles Davis started the jazz rock (called fusion). In the 1980's and 1990's, a new trend began to return to the acoustic roots of jazz and a new reading of styles such as be-bop and dixieland.

Kenny Dorham: Be-Bop royalty from East Austin

As a combination of European classical music and the North American blues, jazz combines the most important and intriguing features of both styles - the experimental spirit and the improvisation of the blues and the intricate structures and compositions of western classics.
Jazz music is an expression of freedom and discovery, which is based not on pre-conceived structures but mostly on real-time composition. That's why this style is one of the most difficult to accomplish. Jazz musicians must be much more creative and flexible, and they should be able to communicate very well with the sound to represent it in its various forms. While listening to a jazz performance, the listener notices a natural, silent dialogue between performers, which goes with ease. The jazz does't fit into norms and limitations, it is not a strictly defined thing, but rather an abstract picture in which we discover the messages themselves and interpret them through our worldview. This makes this music style so interesting, the ability to create even when the creation of the particular product is over.

Miles Davis

The basic technique used by jazz performers is improvisation or the ability to compose in real time, to be able to find quickly new ways to sort the notes and surprise the listener. The improvisation method is a puzzle that you must skillfully arrange on the stage. Another method is the false improvisation, or in other words, when the composition is made in such a way that the audience will have the impression of a fresh improvised structure, whereas in fact the elements are conceived in advance. Despite its technical features, which we do not always manage to recognize so brightly, jazz music remains a deeply soulful experience, a story about human emotions. Each jazz musician is endowed with a sixth sense, through which the sounds create a new world of music. What distinguishes this genre is the intensity of emotions that we can only sense. Because there are things that can't be heard, seen or touched, but they can be felt and that's why they are the best things.