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Jazz is an American musical art form which originated around the
beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the
Southern United States from a confluence of African and European
music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in
its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and
the swung note.[1]
From its early development until the present, jazz has also
incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular
music.[2] The word jazz began as a West Coast slang term of
uncertain derivation and was first used to refer to music in Chicago
in about 1915; for the origin and history, see Jazz (word).
Jazz has, from its early 20th century inception, spawned a variety
of subgenres, from New Orleans Dixieland dating from the early
1910s, big band-style swing from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the
mid-1940s, a variety of Latin-jazz fusions such as Afro-Cuban and
Brazilian jazz from the 1950s and 1960s, jazz-rock fusion from the
1970s and later developments such as acid jazz.
By 1808 the Atlantic slave trade had brought almost half a
million Africans to the United States. The slaves largely came from
West Africa and brought strong tribal musical traditions with
them.[3] Lavish festivals featuring African dances to drums were
organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans
until 1843, as were similar gatherings in New England and New York.
African music was largely functional, for work or ritual, and
included work songs and field hollers. In the African tradition,
they had a single-line melody and a call-and-response pattern, but
without the European concept of harmony. Rhythms reflected African
speech patterns, and the African use of pentatonic scales led to
blue notes in blues and jazz.[4]
The blackface Virginia Minstrels in 1843, featuring tambourine,
fiddle, banjo and bones.In the early 19th century an increasing
number of black musicians learned to play European instruments,
particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance
music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European-American
minstrel show performers in blackface popularized such music
internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic
accompaniment. Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted African-American
cakewalk music, South American, Caribbean and other slave melodies
as piano salon music. Another influence came from black slaves who
had learned the harmonic style of hymns and incorporated it into
their own music as spirituals.[5] The origins of the blues are
undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of
the spirituals. Paul Oliver has drawn attention to similarities in
instruments, music and social function to the griots of the West
African savannah.[6]
What is
Jazz
The Real Mingus
Web
All About Jazz
Jazz Online
Jazziz
CJazz
Contemporary Jazz
America's Jazz Heritage
Billy Strayhorn
Ralph Sutton
Red Hot Jazz Bands 1925-1935
Paul
Whiteman
Red Nichols
Satchmo
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Bands
40 Legendary Jazz Musicans
Jazz Roots
Early Jazz
Billie Holiday
Traditional Jazz
(Dixieland)
78 Records
Link
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