Jazz Has Been A Part Of American Culture Throughout History

There are different types of music. Pop, Contemporary, HipHop, Classical and Jazz, just to name a few. This comparative essay will focus on Jazz and its subtypes.

The jazz is a musical expression that was created it in Africa America and also it is Americas classical music, but first it started 20th century in Africa America. When the Jazz started in the United States, it started first New Orleans, so the Jazz in that time started to become American’s popular music. According to the article Jazz, “The 1950s saw the emergence of free jazz, which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures”, so the free jazz was changing during that time because it was played different (Jazz). In the jazz has faster tempos and it is playing without formal and beat. The elements of the jazz have a steady beat, fast tempo, and polyphonic texture. In addition, the part of rhythm of the jazz is that

     The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the

Ragtime and Blues are two different styles of music that came together to make what is known as jazz music. Ragtime was more about freedom, fun, and giving the listener an elated feeling while Blue’s intent was to appeal to the listeners emotions and make them feel better about the troubles in their life. The way Jazz came about was the collaboration of these 2 very different styles of music. Due to very influential people in the music world like Jelly Role Morton, Joe Oliver, Louis armstrong, just to name a few, Jazz has flourished into the music known all over the world. Although Jazz and Ragtime have many differences, they also had many similarities and each style is significant to the amercement of jazz.

Jazz has always been a part of the American tradition. Some may say they like Jazz for its rhythmic twist and turns. Others may love the soothing melodies from an improved Trumpet solo. All in all, Jazz has been an American staple and has molded today’s popular music, into what it is today. It’s very different from classical music, which is written out and strict. Jazz is much more. It’s made up of spontaneity and improvisation, which makes up an idea on the spot. There are many wide varieties in Jazz. There is Bebop Jazz, Avante Garde Jazz, Acid Jazz, Free Funk Jazz, Soul Jazz, Swing Jazz, and many, many more! These forms of Jazz can be seen and heard in some of your favorite music of Today. It’s been widely used by the world. There is an important reason as to why this genre contributes to the growing of music. We first take a look into the root of all Jazz. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the country of Africa was the first known country to use rhythm primarily for the element of musical expression, and ensembles composed entirely of percussion instruments created extended polyrhythmic works. These polyrhythms, which means the “layering of multiple rhythms.”, were record in Western music. African music did not use paper, or sheet music. Instead, they relied on Aural rituals, learned by ear and also used” spontaneity, which is later said to be known as improvisation”. In Africa, most of the music that was expressed was for religious

Jazz music was a huge change in America. The music brought together many different people and opened up clubs mainly in the city. Jazz music allowed many new artists to emerge and become well known all throughout the country.

Jazz music is a blend of white middle class thoughts and African American traditions. Jazz originated in New Orleans in the beginning of the 1920’s. The Jazz Age was from 1920 through 1929. During the 1920’s, the First World War had just ended in 1918 and the Great Depression was affecting the citizens of the United States. Jazz music and dancing helped people forget about the terrible Great Depression. It gave the citizens a reason to be happy and love life during the 1920’s. The new form of music allowed people to express themselves in new ways. Jazz music was influenced by African American musicians, changed the music industry all over the world, and affected the society.

To begin with, jazz is an all American dance that has some African rhythmic influences. The first group that portrayed jazz to the American society were a group called the flappers in the 1920’s. This group was young western women who wore short skirts and bobbed hair and were considered wild based on the image

During the early 1900’s, a new style of music began to take shape in the colorful city of New Orleans. People from all over the world came to exchange stories, conversation, and music. Although it is a very hard genre of music to define, it is said that Jazz is the combination of European and African music that was brought in via the ports. With mostly an African American population, the musicians shared their music in Storyville - a cultural melting pot, and began to spread the “New Orleans Sound”. They contributed to what would soon be known as Jazz in 1917. The spontaneous nature of Jazz’s syncopation and sound makes it a very humanistic style of music and makes every performance original. Every day we improvise, whether it is in conversation or spur of the moment decisions. These truly unique elements caused Jazz to become a symbol of America, and changed music forever.

Jazz is among one of the most interesting genres. It has encompassed all cultures since it arose in the late 18th century. Cool jazz, hot jazz, gypsy jazz, and many other sub-genres of Jazz have emerged throughout the years; however, it is seen through history that many of those sub-genres emerged during the Harlem Renaissance. This was a time period in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Harlem, a neighborhood within the northern section of New York that celebrated black intellect, black voice, and black ways of life. Jazz music was widely popular among that movement. Traditionally, Jazz is an improvisation and syncopation that showcases brass instruments, piano, and woodwind instruments. This genre will also generally have a forceful rhythm.

Jazz is an American music genre, founded by African-American musicians. It emerged in the early 1900s as its creators merged aspects from West African musical traditions with aspects from religious music and from many other types of popular music based on European traditions. While some elements of jazz were borrowed from other musical genres, the music that came forth was one of a kind, an art form of its own. A significant element of jazz is improvisation, the adjustment of a melody or countermelody as a song is being performed. Therefore, a song may be different every time it is played.

Knowledge of jazz has fallen far behind its development. Most people do not know the facts on jazz, only some generalities and stereotypes. Often being called America’s only original art form, jazz began as an ethnic music, but there is much more to jazz than music. It is difficult to think of jazz without thinking of African-American

Thus the similarity between ragtime and blues is significant but there are numerous differences between the two music styles. First, their origin was different. Even though they both had African influence as mentioned, ragtime was more strongly influenced by European music style, and blues was heavily African music style. According to Durk Sutro in his book Jazz for Dummies, “Ragtime was European-influenced, in the sense that it was composed, not improvised, and featured carefully crafted melodies and harmonies…ragtime could sound concisely European” (ch.5). Although European-influenced, there is some African influence such as rhythm and African banjo music as mentioned during the lecture. Ragtime rhythm was “the rhythms of the black dancers who used their heels to make drum sounds, or to that of the black church singers who could vary the rhythms of a Christian hymn so much that a white Christian could not even recognize it”(Tirro, pp.37).

     Jazz is a style of music that began and has been revolutionized within the United States. Jazz music first appeared in the city of New Orleans and eventually moved onto Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and New York City. Jazz unites different elements of African, African- American, religious, brass brand, and blues style of music. The music of Jazz, and its changes through the years, is now a form of music that is known and respected throughout this nation and the world.

Jazz was inspired by African-American folk music, Blues and Ragtime in the early 20th century and introduced in New Orleans. According to the text book “Discovering Humanities”, “Jazz was “the” American music, and was almost as popular in Paris and Berlin as it was in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans” (468). The first feature of Jazz is improvisation, when a song was played there is no specific arrangement, it is spontaneously elaborated around a specific song (Listen, 386). A second feature is that there is a rhythmic style that involves highly developed syncopation. Syncopation occurs when accents in