Jazz: Difference between revisions

'''Jazz''' (sometimes called '''jass''') is a musical genre and subculture that is an important part of the American Black musical tradition.  

The culture of Jazz, which rose to prominence in New Orleans during the early twentieth century, is based upon syncopation, swing, musical interplay, and improvisation, with roots in Blues and Ragtime music. The initial Jazz groups had many horn players that harmonized melodies together creating a charictaristic "fat" sound. Songs from this era usually have intricate progressions which frequently use extended chords. These groups were called "big bands", and this early history of Jazz is often called the big band era. This Music became faster and more complex over time, and by the 1940s, artists like Charlie Parker had expanded beyond traditional big bands into a new BeBop style. This music had even more complex chords changes and modulations. It was during this era that the head-solos-head format, in which the band plays the main melody, then each member takes a solo over the same chords, and then the band plays the main melody or "head" again, became popular.  The [[1959]] release of Miles Davis' Kind of blue signaled a further advancement in jazz where the groups were smaller and the arrangements stayed on indicvidual chords for longer, allowing improvisers to have more time to explore the nature of one particular chord. These smaller jazz groups were often called "combos", and with electric guitar, double bass, and drum set, the instrumentation roughly resembled modern rock bands such as [[Weezer]].  

 

 

 

[[Frank Cuomo]] played percussion on a {{wiki2|Wayne_Shorter|Wayne Shorter}} album: {{wiki2|Odyssey_of_Iska|Odyssey of Iska}}. Frank was also involved with {{wiki2|Weather_Report|Weather Report}} an amazing band that kickstarted the Jazz Fusion movement but did not necessarily publicly associate with it.<ref>{{wiki2|Weather_Report#Musical_style|Weather Report#Musical Style}}</ref> This bears striking similarity to Weezer's relationship with [[emo]].<ref>[[Emo#Weezer's response to emo]]</ref>

[[The_Haden_Triplets_(album)|The Haden Triplets]], who have participated in Weezer recordings, are daughters of jazz great {{wiki2|Charlie_Haden|Charlie Haden}}.

In "[[Heart Songs]]", [[Weezer]] bandleader [[Rivers Cuomo]] regrettably stated that he does not care to take too much time to appreciate one of America's finest genres of music: {{Rivers Cuomo quote|"I never listened to too much Jazz"|[[Heart Songs#Lyrics|"Heart Songs"]]<ref> [[Heart Songs#Lyrics]]</ref>}}