Jazz is a genre of music that has been around for centuries, and it has evolved and changed over time. It is a genre that is known for its soul and feeling, and it has been a major influence on many other genres of music. There are many different styles of jazz, each with its own unique sound and characteristics. In this article, we will explore the six main jazz styles: Early Jazz, Bebop, Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Modal Jazz, Free Jazz, and Latin Jazz.
Early Jazz, also sometimes called Hot Jazz and Dixieland, originated in the bustling city of New Orleans in the early 20th century. Its sound was heavily influenced by ragtime and used trumpets, trombones, drums, saxophones, clarinets, banjos, double bass and, later, the tuba. Given the free nature of the time, the genre also focused on band improvisation rather than sheet music. Some of the artists who most defined primitive jazz were Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and Buddy Bolden.
Bebop was a style that emerged as a reaction against swing music. It was fiercely intellectual and intended for serious listening. It was heavily influenced by swing but had its own unique sound. Bebop was loud, fast and exciting to play and listen to.
The genre originated in the early 1940s with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker being considered young Turks. This further paved the way for artists like Miles Davis and Art Blakely. Cool jazz was a softer and more relaxed style of play that was promoted as an alternative to the “hot” and more frenetic bebop that dominated at the time. West Coast jazz is another subgenre that has some crosses with cool jazz.
It brings to mind images of sun-drenched Los Angeles from the 1950s and musicians such as Chet Baker, Art Pepper and Bud Shank. Hard Bop could be considered an extension of Bebop. While the latter consisted of fast tempo, Hard Bop had a slower rhythm and a more layer of blues and gospel. The genre of the '50s and '60s grew up on the East Coast of the U.S.
UU. The songs featured unusual and original compositions as artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Blakely felt that jazz was becoming too European. Modal jazz focused on a tonal center to create a more melodic piece than other jazz styles. Other modal jazz artists include Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Free jazz developed in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians sought to break and reject the conventions of bebop and hard bop that they considered restrictive including changes in harmony and chords regular rhythms and composition forms.
In reaction to this free jazz emerged with its own language repertoire much of which is composed by Reinhardt. Latin jazz can be divided into two categories: Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian. While Afro-Cuban was more based on dance Afro-Brazilian was subtle on samba and bossa nova. Influential names in Latin jazz include Candido Camero Joao Gilberto Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Corea. Post bop has always been considered a vague term for a genre that is an amalgamation of bebop hard bop cool jazz modal jazz free jazz Latin jazz funk fusion soul blues gospel R&B hip hop rock reggae country classical music world music etc.
