What is jaz?!

[Ingratil]

Hey so i started playing jazz about 1 year ago and everybody keeps telling me i should listen and learn to some jazz. But the problem is im too ignorant and dont really know what jazz is, some friend told me that Jamiroquai was Jazz? But my problem is that I cant learn any jazz songs because 1; i dont know what it is. 2; I dont think i will ever find tabs for Jazz songs 3; I dont know the names of Jazz popular artists, which leads to me not knowing names of jazz songs :/

[MalcolmAmos]

No you probably will not find tabs on jazz songs. Standard notation, fake chord and lead sheet.

Here is a site that will give you the name and chord progression on hundreds of jazz standards. http://www.ralphpatt.com/Song.html
There is a backing track section in the tool bar, however, it looks like it is not working right now. so....

Find a song in the song index. Get the chords - http://www.ralphpatt.com/VB/a1.html - then do a google. {Video, "After your gone"} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiFH3XDeq4I
Using the chord progression that comes up see if you can play with the video. Not sure the chord progression and the video will be in the same key. But, that is closer than you were before.

If you have cable TV I bet you will have a jazz station. Internet Radio and look for jazz. Start listening.........

Good luck.

[bassinplace]

A good place to start learning about Jazz is here:

Amazon.com: Jazz : A Film By Ken Burns: Movies & TV

Read the biographies of the people you learn about. Find your local jazz radio station and go to your local library and just listen to as much as of it as you can and then listen some more. Immerse your ears in it. Enjoy the journey!

[bassinplace]

Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos

No you probably will not find tabs on jazz songs. Standard notation, fake chord and lead sheet.

Here is a site that will give you the name and chord progression on hundreds of jazz standards. Index
There is a backing track section in the tool bar, however, it looks like it is not working right now. so....

Find a song in the song index. Get the chords - After You've Gone - then do a google. {Video, "After your gone"} Fiona Apple - After You've Gone - YouTube
Using the chord progression that comes up see if you can play with the video. Not sure the chord progression and the video will be in the same key. But, that is closer than you were before.

If you have cable TV I bet you will have a jazz station. Internet Radio and look for jazz. Start listening.........

Good luck.

Cool site! Thanks!

[Roy Vogt]

This is pricy, but a good guide. Your local library may have it:
Amazon.com: Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Various Artists, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane: Music
Also, check out the Jazz at Lincoln Center Website:
Jazz at Lincoln Center
TAB is not generally used for Jazz tunes and instruction. I'd go to these places for books, and I'd also recommend finding a good bass teacher to help you with this:
Jamey Aebersold Jazz
Jazz & Latin Music Real Books and Method Books | Sher Music Co.
It's a great music that's nearly a century old and like Bluegrass a genuinely American art form in it's genesis and creation that's now shared and loved by a worldwide community of Jazz Musicians. Have fun learning!

[mcglyph]

Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue", Dave Brubeck's, "Times Up", Ramsey Lewis Trio, "Appasionata", John Coltrane's, "Giant Steps". This list would be a start. +1 to the Ken Burns rec.

[lfmn16]

Originally Posted by Ingratil

Hey so i started playing jazz about 1 year ago and everybody keeps telling me i should listen and learn to some jazz. But the problem is im too ignorant and dont really know what jazz is,

If you don't know what jazz is, how did you start playing is a year ago?

There are a lot of flavors of jazz. It's like saying you like rock music - that could cover a lot of territory.

I recommend that you narrow down the type of jazz you want to learn and go from there. Look up the Real Book on Amazon, which is a collection of jazz standards and then go to Youtube and listen to different artists perform them.

[FretlessMainly]

What is Jazz? There are several, if not many answers, but in a nutshell, it encompasses several styles:

1. Ragtime - in the teens and 1920s, ragtime began to evolve. In New Orleans, Dixieland jazz added larger orchestration and the basic elements of swing.

2. From the late 1920s through the 1950s, big band jazz was the predominant form - from Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra to Glen MIller and everything in between. This is when swing really began to develop.

3. In the late 1940s, Miles Davis et al made "cool jazz" popular (Birth of the Cool) - smaller bands became more common.

4. By the mid-1950s, a response to cool jazz - "Hard Bop" - came into being. More aggressive than cool jazz. Around this time, the "cool" side was generally associated with the West coast of the US and the harder side was associated with the East Coast - more to the point, LA vs NY.

5. By the 1960s, jazz became even more adventurous with Free Jazz (e.g., Ornette Coleman) and later, jazz fusion (e.g., Miles - Bitches Brew).

6. The 1970s brough a growth of fusion and a greater mixing of rock and roll and jazz (e.g., Zappa).

7. By the late 1970s and into the 1980s (go figure), smooth jazz began to appear.

8. These days, jazz is a varied mix of world beats, including Latin and African, straight-ahead swing and many other improvisational styles.

So, that's what jazz is to me, but a simpler answer would be: listen to Mingus.

Here: Charles Mingus - Groove!

[Ingratil]

Originally Posted by lfmn16

If you don't know what jazz is, how did you start playing is a year ago?

There are a lot of flavors of jazz. It's like saying you like rock music - that could cover a lot of territory.

I recommend that you narrow down the type of jazz you want to learn and go from there. Look up the Real Book on Amazon, which is a collection of jazz standards and then go to Youtube and listen to different artists perform them.

Hahaha, yeah sorry for that i meant i started playing bass*** Thanks for the correction

[squiresuzuki]

Jamiroquoi is pretty far from normal jazz. Jamiroquoi is pure pop music.

In normal jazz, you have the "head"...the main melody and the main chord changes. Usually, the head is played once, then people improvise (over the same chord changes as the head), then the head is played again at the end.

There are no tabs for jazz because the bass line is almost ALWAYS improvised on the spot for the entire song, along the chords. All you need for jazz is a fake book, such as the well-known book ironically called the Real Book. Buy it.

Listen to: Giant Steps by John Coltrane, and Freddie Freeloader by Miles Davis.

[fdeck]

I suggest getting out to some jazz performances in your locale if possible, and also some jam sessions. You don't have to bring an instrument right away, but just soak up what's going on.

[Jhengsman]

Originally Posted by bassinplace

A good place to start learning about Jazz is here:

Amazon.com: Jazz : A Film By Ken Burns: Movies & TV

Read the biographies of the people you learn about. Find your local jazz radio station and go to your local library and just listen to as much as of it as you can and then listen some more. Immerse your ears in it. Enjoy the journey!

That is what I would say. Although it does rush the last chapters when he reaches the 70s and the jazz fusion era. Or perhaps I see it that way because fusion was the jazz of my formative years.

[sammyp]

it's not that you're ignornat ....jazz is huge and many things ....it is older than rock n roll .....ask what is heavy metal and see all the stuff you'll come up with.

at it's core, jazz from the 30's to 50's had a swing. it was also widely excepted that jazz be performed with or without a singer ...if their was no singer the horns would crank out a soulful take on the melody.

check out duke ellington - take the A train or satin doll ....that's classic swing jazz.

charlie parker - now's the time - a classic swing blues.

jazz also has a heavy trend of improv solos from often all of the members ...as they solo, the listener might not understand but they y are soloing over the form/ chords that the melody was played with. This can be very challenging to hear when a jazz drummer takes a solo.

the form of a standard jazz tune is usually - melody by horn, piano etc - then all members solo - then restate melody and end!

when the 60's hit ....jazz started to not always swing ...free jazz etc ..ornette coleman - far more challenging to the listener.

70's - 90's - jazz is everything from old style swing to rock/ jazz fusion - chick corea electric band.

jamiroqua is not jazz - it's funky, jazzy, progressive disco ....the harmonic content is very jazz influenced ...but it is not jazz per se.

go back to the 30's and 40's - it's wonderful stuff!

[Roy Vogt]

If I were looking at it chronologically (I see from your Youtube channel that you're a young musician) I might go backwards as far as bassists. That way it may make more sense to you.
Try this: Do a Youtube search on the following players in this order:
Christian McBride
Mike Pope
John Pattitucci
Jaco Pastorius
Stanley Clarke
Rufus Reid
Ron Carter
Ray Brown
Charles Mingus
Paul Chambers
Oscar Pettiford
Jimmy Blanton
Pops Foster
I've left off some of my personal favorites on both Electric (Haslip, Wooten, Berlin, etc.) and upright (LaFaro, Gomez, Johnson, Bromberg, etc.) but this will give you a chronology for the development of your instrument and it's role. This is always a good thing when you're starting out.

[lfmn16]

Originally Posted by sammyp

it's not that you're ignornat ....jazz is huge and many things ....it is older than rock n roll .....ask what is heavy metal and see all the stuff you'll come up with.

Ignorant - lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact- we're all ignorant about some things, but it's become a dirty word.

[HaVIC5]

Originally Posted by FretlessMainly

What is Jazz? There are several, if not many answers, but in a nutshell, it encompasses several styles:

1. Ragtime - in the teens and 1920s, ragtime began to evolve. In New Orleans, Dixieland jazz added larger orchestration and the basic elements of swing.

2. From the late 1920s through the 1950s, big band jazz was the predominant form - from Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra to Glen MIller and everything in between. This is when swing really began to develop.

3. In the late 1940s, Miles Davis et al made "cool jazz" popular (Birth of the Cool) - smaller bands became more common.

4. By the mid-1950s, a response to cool jazz - "Hard Bop" - came into being. More aggressive than cool jazz. Around this time, the "cool" side was generally associated with the West coast of the US and the harder side was associated with the East Coast - more to the point, LA vs NY.

5. By the 1960s, jazz became even more adventurous with Free Jazz (e.g., Ornette Coleman) and later, jazz fusion (e.g., Miles - Bitches Brew).

6. The 1970s brough a growth of fusion and a greater mixing of rock and roll and jazz (e.g., Zappa).

7. By the late 1970s and into the 1980s (go figure), smooth jazz began to appear.

8. These days, jazz is a varied mix of world beats, including Latin and African, straight-ahead swing and many other improvisational styles.

So, that's what jazz is to me, but a simpler answer would be: listen to Mingus.

Here: Charles Mingus - Groove!

Just to get your history right...

Ragtime was a precursor to jazz that developed at the turn of the century, not the teens. Dixieland has roots going far back in the 19th century evolving from marching music and caribbean influence, and isn't just some "larger orchestration" of swing. Big band got its start in the 20's with guys like Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman (and even Duke Ellington in the late 20's)

It's rather funny, by the way, to whitewash the big band era in the 30's by saying "from Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra to Glen MIller and everything in between." It's like a music historian 50 years from now talking about the highlights of rap music from the 80's and 90's with artists like "Eminiem to Vanilla Ice and everything in between." Duke Ellington and Count Basie are guys you need to know, period.

The 1980's brought about a trend in jazz far more important than smooth jazz - it brought about the "Young Lions" or the neoclassicist movement spearheaded by the Marsalis clan as a reaction to the 60's and 70's. Marsalis' influence (at least here in the US) is still extremely strong today.

[FretlessMainly]

I wrote the post in about 5 minutes as a brief introduction to the broad history of jazz off of the top of my head. Anything but a broad whitewash would have been infeasible. OP didn't know what jazz is, so I gave some general history.

[cccy]

People refer to Jamiroquai's genre as Acid Jazz... maybe that's what your friend meant. But no, I wouldn't call Jamiroquai a jazz band.

[NoiseNinja]

This is jazz: 01 - Machine Gun (Machine Gun, 1968) - The Peter Brötzmann Octet - YouTube

[Jhengsman]

Originally Posted by cccy

People refer to Jamiroquai's genre as Acid Jazz... maybe that's what your friend meant. But no, I wouldn't call Jamiroquai a jazz band.

When I first saw the term in magazines I thought it was going to be something like Sun Ra playing over a techno beat. When I bought a sampler disc I came to find out they were talking about The Brand New Heavies. But then my "smooth jazz" radio station which once upon a time played New Age with jazz now plays mostly light R&B