|
|
 |
Jazz is an attitude, not a style of music.
You can play jazz on saxophones and trumpets, guitars and drums or
decks and samplers—you just need good ears and an adventurous mind.
Jazz musicians draw on a rich history, but are also open to the sounds they
hear around them. In the last twenty years jazz has borrowed from hip hop,
drum and bass, Asian sounds, R&B and electronica—and in turn that
music has picked up some of the spirit and inventiveness of jazz.
What is jazz then? It’s not easy to say. Jazz is music with its roots
in black America, in the blues, ragtime and gospel, and before that in the
complex rhythms of Africa. From those ancestors it inherits soul and swing,
rhythm and—most importantly—improvisation, the ability to spin
great music out of thin air.
Yet each generation takes the music forward. Over more than 100 years jazz
has developed harmonies as advanced as you’ll find in any concert hall,
and inspired players whose skill is breathtaking. And it is still evolving.
It’s been described as the one true American art form, or as black
classical music, but jazz is a generous art and an international language.
You can hear great jazz played in Tokyo or Toronto, in Louisiana, London—or
Leicester.
What is Jazz? | History of Jazz
|
|
|
|
