Jazz is a musical movement and tradition that emerged among African American musicians in New Orleans around the turn of the twentieth century, drawing together the blues, ragtime, and brass band and church music traditions into a new idiom built on collective and individual improvisation, syncopated rhythm and a distinctive vocal-inflected approach to instrumental tone. Its instrumentation centers on the horn and rhythm sections of American popular music, cornet or trumpet, clarinet, trombone, piano, banjo or guitar, bass and drums, deployed in ensembles ranging from small improvising combos to large touring dance orchestras. From its origins in New Orleans, jazz spread north along touring and migration routes to Chicago, New York and beyond over the 1910s and 1920s, carried in part by musicians performing on Mississippi riverboats and in the era new recording studios, and it became, over the course of the twentieth century, one of the most widely influential musical exports of American culture.
Facts
Disputed
Start YearHistorians place jazz emergence across a range from the 1890s through the 1910s in New Orleans, with no single agreed date. 1900 is used here as a round marker within that range; the first jazz recording, by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, was not made until 1917. Founded In PlaceNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States 1 Key PrincipleImprovisation, both collective and by individual soloists, over a steady, syncopated rhythmic pulse 1 Jazz
Filter Results6 entries
Connections
Expressed In
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Influenced By
Blues, Art Forms Blues, the African American vernacular tradition rooted in the Mississippi Delta and the rural South, directly shaped the harmonic language and improvisatory practice of early Jazz.
Movement Members
Foundational jazz vocalist.
Foundational jazz bandleader and composer.
Foundational jazz vocalist.
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Open Questions
Sources
1. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Stanley Sadie, editor (successive editions), Oxford University Press- entry: Jazz
- Movement Members: Louis Armstrong, entry: Armstrong, Louis
Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMovement Members: Miles Davis, Miles Davis, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Movement Members: John Coltrane, John Coltrane, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Movement Members: Kind of Blue, Kind of Blue, Wikipedia infobox, Genre field
Modal jazz
Movement Members: A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme, Wikipedia infobox, Genres field
Modal jazz, post-bop, spiritual jazz
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
Does Jazz, as a living genre still actively performed and evolving, have any defensible end year, or does core-key end-year not apply to it at all?
Jazz is not a closed historical style the way most sibling movements in this section are; Wikipedia's own treatment states plainly that "Other styles and genres abound in the 21st century, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz," describing continuing development rather than a closing event. No scholarly source consulted names a year or event at which Jazz as a genre ended, because none has happened.
What would resolve this A conductor or taxonomy decision on whether a living, still-practiced genre like Jazz should carry an end-year core key at all, or whether the key should be understood as not-applicable for genres with no closing event, distinct from a movement whose end is merely debated among several candidate years.
Music History / TaxonomyWikipedia
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did jazz originate?
Jazz emerged among African American musicians in New Orleans around the turn of the twentieth century, drawing together the blues, ragtime, and brass band and church music traditions into a new idiom built on collective and individual improvisation and syncopated rhythm. It spread north over the 1910s and 1920s along touring and migration routes to Chicago, New York and beyond, carried in part by musicians performing on Mississippi riverboats and by the era's new recording studios.
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