Jazz is one of the most enrapturing forms of composition and sound, and it testifies to the expansive nature of music like no other genre. The blatantly inaccurate description of jazz as “elevator music” portrays a static idea of a movement that’s been living and breathing since the late 1800’s. Entering the cultural mainstream around the 1920’s, jazz has urged the common musician to explore beyond what’s written on the page.
A key component of jazz is improvisation, in which a performer will improvise a solo entirely on the spot and off the dome, though typically dictated by melody, harmony and rhythm. The most impactful artists in jazz all tactfully mastered improvisation on a microscopic level, performing nuanced solos that displayed an utter understanding of the ins and outs of the genre. On a broader scale, improvisation implores musicians to dissect the metres of their music and apply creative liberties to make each composition their own. In addition to the uniqueness of improvisation, jazz also has multitudes of sub-genres within the genre itself, which opens a world of possibilities to each individual to pursue their own style. Jazz has around 40 subgenres, with three broad categories of subgenres- early jazz, modern jazz and jazz related. As stated by The Economic Times, each subgenre has subgenres of its own, including bebop, swing, vocal jazz, fusion, Latin jazz, funk and bossa nova. The versatility of style and rhythms in jazz allows for each musician to find their own sound, while still maintaining the typical composition of a jazz chart. Additionally, the distinctive use of rhythm and syncopation found in jazz transfers to rock and roll, blues, R&B and in general, all American music, highlighting the present influence of jazz in every popular song today.
Combining the distinctiveness of improvisation with the vast number of subgenres leads to one of the most particularly defining aspects of jazz- the standards. Jazz standards are widely revered compositions that serve as a foundation for jazz arrangements and improvisations. When a composition is played regularly and most musicians know it, it becomes a standard. The jazz standard concept rose to popularity when, after the 40s, the first compilations of standards came into being (ie “Fake Books” and “Real Books,” compilations designed to aid musicians in understanding the standards and chord progressions). The most impressive aspect of standards in jazz is how one tune can be played thousands of times, and be different every single time. Take a more popular standard, like “Autumn Leaves”: it can be played with a big band arranged in an upbeat swing, a combo band of four or five musicians played in the style of a waltz and truly anything in between. Alongside the seemingly infinite nature of playing standards, improvisation only furthers the uniqueness of each performance. Standards will typically feature multiple solo sections, and the individualized improv of every solo leads to fresh new perspectives in songs so well-esteemed.
While the various styles of jazz have been thoroughly appreciated over the century, recent years have brought to light more contemporary subgenres, like nu jazz and jazz house. Nu jazz and jazz house subgenres deviate more from the big band and bebop traditions of classic jazz, focusing on stable grooves performed beneath jazz harmonies. Artists such as Berlioz, Koop, dublon and Chaos in the CBD exemplify the exciting combination of house beats with the sultriness of jazz, fusing uptempo electronics with saxophone-heavy melodies. The arrival and popularization of these contemporary works have garnered the attention of multitudes of jazz elitists; those who think that jazz is a fixed and unchanging entity. This ideology rivals the very nature of the genre, which is that of ever-changing fluidity. The standards will always remain the standards, and incorporating the technologies of today to create new forms of expression is exactly why jazz exists.
