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AboutÌýJazz All musical genres – folk, rock or even classical – have included elements of improvisation. But in jazz, improvisation provides the entire foundation.
Jazz first appeared the turn of the 20th century in New Orleans, emerging out of the blues and folk styles of the former black slaves. Ragtime was one of the first jazz styles, a blend of those older folk styles with modern song harmonies and jaunty rhythms. Ragtime musicians didn't have to adhere to the square beat of the European music traditions, but gloried in syncopation, specifically introducing the concept of swing.
Putting the emphasis on the offbeats (twoÌýand four of the bar) the next generation of jazzers came together in small ensembles known as Dixieland or trad jazz groups, and just played. Many of these musicians were not good at reading music, and they would improvise to keep the texture of the music even and harmonious – using their ears instead of their heads.
Big band jazz arrived in the 1920s as jazz picked up widespread popularity. Designed for the dance halls, it featured larger ensembles, such as a 16-strong brass and rhythm section, playing previously notated music but with room for an improvising soloist here and there.
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There's a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don't know what it is. But I've got it. |
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Ronnie Wood
A basic form of jazz etiquette began to emerge. A number would begin with the "head", a straightforward statement of the original written tune on a lead instrument, with accompaniment. Then several improvised solos would follow over the harmony of the original, before returning to the final statement of the head. The improvisations typically played with the melody of the head in various ways, often running away with small fragments of melody.
Jazz singers followed a similar process, with pioneers such as Billie Holiday or Louis Armstrong bringing the same spirit of improvisation to bear on their vocals, by playing fast and loose with beats and melodies. This process even sometimes spread to the words, through the technique of scat-singing – improvisation using meaningless syllables.
Be-bop came about as an underground reaction against the "safe" styles of the big band era. The musicians gathered in small groups consisting of bass, drums, piano and horns – trumpet and/or saxophone. The saxophonist Charlie Parker quickly emerged as the living legend of be-bop. So great was his virtuosity and influence that for years after his death subsequent generations had difficulty breaking away from his musical style to find their own voice.
Parker's style was fast and complex, transforming popular songs of the day by the addition of unusual "changes" – or harmony – and extra notes outside of the regular scales. In order to cope with this new frenetic speed of bebop, the rhythm section had to come up with a different approach to the plodding bass-snare of the older trad jazz.
Parker's drummer Kenny Clarke achieved this by keeping time simply on his cymbal and hi-hat. The bass and snare were used as occasional syncopated stabs, setting a pattern for subsequent jazz drummers. The bass player would "walk" – although sprint would be a better description – he would play a smooth connecting line of four notes to a bar, rather than just two.
Miles Davis broke with the be-bop tradition on a series of recordings he made with a nine-piece wind-section called Birth Of The Cool. But in the most definitive jazz album of its day (or perhaps ever), Kind Of Blue, Davis stripped back jazz even further. Tempos were medium to slow, harmonic movement was minimal and the heads themselves were sparse and simple.
By the 1960s musicians like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were extending the boundaries of jazz even further. Free Jazz took its cue from the avant-garde movements of the decade – less importance was attached to form, harmony and tonality, the idea was to blow and bare your soul!
The 70s saw jazz fusing with rock and calling itself jazz fusion. With bands such as Weather Report or Return to Forever, jazz became overtly electrified and included synthesizers. A stronger beat was provided by the drum kit and bass player. The harmony became richer as the chords stacked up and the rhythm and metre became more complex. And by the 80s funk had crept into jazz, bringing to it an even more solid beat and a wider audience.
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