jazz

Important type of popular music featuring solo virtuosic improvisation. It developed in the southern USA at the turn of the 20th century. Initially music for dancing, often with a vocalist, it had its roots in African-American and other popular music, especially ragtime. Developing from blues and spirituals (religious folk songs) in the southern states, it first came to prominence in the early 20th century in New Orleans, St Louis, and Chicago, with a distinctive flavour in each city.

Typical features found in all types of jazz are the modified rhythms of West Africa; the emphasis on improvisation; western European harmony emphasizing the dominant seventh and the ambiguity between the major and minor third (the so-called ‘blue note’); characteristic textures and timbres, first illustrated by a singer and rhythm section (consisting of a piano, bass, drums, and guitar, or a combination of these instruments), and later by the addition of the saxophone and various brass instruments, and later still by the adoption of electrically amplified instruments.

Major figures in the development of jazz include Louis Armstrong and Count Basie in swing music, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman in big-band jazz, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie in bebop, Miles Davis in cool jazz, and John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman in free jazz.