What is jazz???

[socialleper]

A lot of genres span a broader range than most people realize. Metal is very similar. When does hard rock become metal? When does funk become jazz? Or when does blues become jazz?

Some people would say instrumentation is part of it. A lot of jazz includes orchestral instruments, but that isn't a requirement. A lot of it is just instrumental, but again it isn't required. Some times it's three pieces, sometimes it is nearly an orchestra.

Music is hard to categorize with hard fast rules. You know it when you hear it.

 

[bass12]

Appreciate the long comment. I said before that I've always thought Jazz is way over may level of comprehension and i kind of see why now. From what i gather, maybe everything is or can be jazz, depending on how I think about. To be honest even the music i usually listen to i dont have enough time to study it as deep as I want to. So trying to figure out Jazz or what is Jazz, maybe is a something that I don't need to do and just appreciate the music. I guess my curious mind had me wonder.

If you're curious about jazz theory then I would encourage you to pick up Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book". It's easy to be intimidated by jazz but a little knowledge will take you a long way.

 

[carlosjrf]

Ronny Jordan was very influenced by Wes Montgomery. A lot of his stuff (maybe all of it) involved mixing his Montgomery influence with what is often called "smooth jazz" and the hip-hop/trip-hop/downtempo flavour of the '90s. Whether or not what Ronny Jordan was doing could legitimately be called jazz is probably dependent on who you ask. There's a strong tendency among many to limit the stylistic parameters of "jazz" in a way that rejects pretty much any developments that occurred post 1960s. In some cases even before that. As was previously mentioned, jazz has a history that spans over a hundred years and, just like any other genre that has existed for multiple decades, it has changed with the times and been fused with other genres to produce hybrids. If you follow the development of Miles Davis you'll get an idea of just how elastic jazz can be (of course there are "purist" types who will claim that what Miles did post mid-to-late 1960s wasn't jazz).

Well, maybe I should stop listening to silly podcasts and listen to more music. There's been some recommendations in here that i need to put in my playlist. Thanks for the detail on Ronny Jordan. Miles is on my playlist for the commute this week.

 

[N4860]

This is so gypsy! Thanks.

Here's another of my favourites as someone that doesn't really listen to jazz too often:

 

[Matthew_84]

Appreciate the long comment. I said before that I've always thought Jazz is way over may level of comprehension and i kind of see why now. From what i gather, maybe everything is or can be jazz, depending on how I think about. To be honest even the music i usually listen to i dont have enough time to study it as deep as I want to. So trying to figure out Jazz or what is Jazz, maybe is a something that I don't need to do and just appreciate the music. I guess my curious mind had me wonder.

One thing I'd like to point out, is that I don't know if you need to understand it to appreciate it. I don't.

I initially started listening to jazz because I was curious. I liked the improvisational aspect, and thought it'd be cool to learn, so I just started listening to a lot of jazz from the 50s and 60s, and TBH, at first, I didn't really love it. I couldn't seem to understand the chord changes or what was happening. It just, honestly, sounded like musicians playing a bunch of notes, and every song sounded the same (except for some notable exceptions of course).

I finally stumbled onto some songs that really spoke to me. I didn't love them because I understood what was happening, I loved them because they sounded great. This was the album "The Oscar Peterson Trio Plays the Cole Porter Songbook" with Ray Brown on bass. You may not like it of course, but for whatever reason, it really resonated with me, so I would still listen to other songs as well but I'd come back to that album often.

Eventually, a lot of the songs from that era (and earlier) started appealing to me, then the songs started sounding different from each other, and then the floodgates opened.

I am still working on ear training, theory knowledge, and all kinds of stuff that will take a life time, but again, I don't love jazz because I understand it, I love it because I think it sounds great.

Also, there are songs I've listened to a hundred times and have no idea what's happening on a theoretical level. I'm not sitting there going "oh, the way they resolved that dissonant note was so smart", or "wow, that Dm7 Alt chord was such a nice choice" - I literally have no idea what I'm listening to, I just know it sounds good.

My advice is if you're curious, or like what you're hearing, then just keep listening.

 

[bass12]

Well, maybe I should stop listening to silly podcasts and listen to more music. There's been some recommendations in here that i need to put in my playlist. Thanks for the detail on Ronny Jordan. Miles is on my playlist for the commute this week.

Cool, and if you like Ronny Jordan do check out Wes Montgomery. You might also like a lot of the stuff on the CTI jazz label (including some '70s George Benson).

 

[Michedelic]

Well, maybe I should stop listening to silly podcasts and listen to more music. There's been some recommendations in here that i need to put in my playlist. Thanks for the detail on Ronny Jordan. Miles is on my playlist for the commute this week.

Cool, and if you like Ronny Jordan do check out Wes Montgomery. You might also like a lot of the stuff on the CTI jazz label (including some '70s George Benson).

Not only Montgomery, who is an icon(and his brother Monk was the first electric bass player in Jazz), but the path will lead back to Charlie Christian, who established the electric guitar in the genre, and was a bebop pioneer.

 

[Root 5]

Jazz is three plus musicians playing three different songs at the same time in different keys.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

 

[5StringBlues]

Jazz is like Kodak film, no, jazz is like jello pudding pops, no jazz is like the new coke. It will always be around.

 

[Krisfield]

I didn't know what Jazz was until I studied the history.

 

[misterCRUSH]

 

[carlosjrf]

I didn't know what Jazz was until I studied the history.

What is jazz to you?

 

[swink]

There are no pros in this music scene, they are all "In-to-Jazz-ts". (enthusiasts).

 

[saltydude]

Hitting whatever notes you feel like and somehow making them all work.

 

[ElectroVibe]

It's music for people who think.