What is Jazz

[tea for two]

Jazz, for me, up to and including Civil Rights era was on the whole to uplift those that were struggling, help them for a little while fly away from their struggles, help people dance and laugh have whale of a time, to find affinity within the music of their struggles :
goodness knows the struggles a particular large section of audience went through in those times.

Nina Simone said after the Civil Rights movement ended, She lost her purpose to make music to sing even.

Jazz after Civil Rights movement ended, from 70s onwards to now doesn't have that connection to those struggles.
Even though some of the Jazz luminaries lived on until recently such as Pharoah Sanders (left earth 2022, September 24).

Jazz from 70s to now branched out into lots of styles : Acid Jazz, Ambient Jazz, Drum n Bass Jazz, Electronica Jazz, Fusion Jazz, HipHop Jazz, Lounge Jazz, Nordic Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Spiritual Jazz, so forth.

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Perhaps this thread will include posts about certain technicalities of certain types of Jazz, appropriate as this is a Theory forum.
Every such is welcome.

Perhaps links to some of our favourite Jazz pieces, albums.

I'm fairly sure there will be quips also welcome because without mirth where would we be.

I'm sure there will be posts of too many notes, too much technicality too much free form lol.

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Were I to make a Jazz album, I never have,
I would have to in my mind link it to struggles people are facing :
some persons on this forum, some person I see in town, some person in my life, some group of people struggling on earth, some struggles untold people on earth go through including us on this forum.

[RichardT]

Trying to define a musical genre is a difficult thing. People who know jazz generally recognise it when they hear it - but it's not done through an intellectual decision process so I think it's impossible to articulate how.

[shufflebeat]

It's a dialect.

My Jazz collection is mostly sourced second hand where I can take a chance on something I know nothing about and also pick up "the Greats" from the donated collections of deceased others.

I tend to go through phases, then incorporate the experiences into my internal reference bank, sometimes never returning to the material.

Past phases:

Ella
Django
Hugh Masekela
Satchmo
Oscar P
Basie
Various unknown sidemen

I've observed that, like anything slightly non-white is often considered Black, anything with a "hint of the exotic" is rendered "Jazz" by dint of it's deviation rather than any intrinsic qualities, partly because Jazz in it's original form(s) was so disruptive of the Natural Order of Things that anything subsequently perceived as disruptive can be described as Jazz.

[MOF]

I'm fairly sure there will be quips also welcome because without mirth where would we be.

Well I couldn’t resist, below are two links to the Fast Show, the first is just one of the sketches in the compilation that the second link refers to, it neatly sums up my definition of Jazz.
The best definition of Jazz I’ve come across is ‘A race to the finish in any key you fancy’.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MsQYzpOHpik

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TebUMhJAKSM

[shufflebeat]

The best definition of Jazz I’ve come across is ‘A race to the finish in any key you fancy’.

Are we including Stan Getz in that def?

[RichardT]

The best definition of Jazz I’ve come across is ‘A race to the finish in any key you fancy’.

Are we including Stan Getz in that def?

And many thousands of jazz ballads too!

One thing that is quite distinctive about a lot of modern jazz is the use of certain chords that are rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives. But that’s no more watertight than any other definition. Pink Floyd use a 7#9 chord in Breathe - Rick Wright admitted he nicked it from Miles Davis.

[OneWorld]

The best definition of Jazz I’ve come across is ‘A race to the finish in any key you fancy’.

Are we including Stan Getz in that def?

And many thousands of jazz ballads too!

One thing that is quite distinctive about a lot of modern jazz is the use of certain chords that are rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives. But that’s no more watertight than any other definition. Pink Floyd use a 7#9 chord in Breathe - Rick Wright admitted he nicked it from Miles Davis.

".....rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives........" Not really, from Debussy (and others) to Stock Aitken and Waterman litter their music with said chords.

[OneWorld]

Surely the question itself is ignis fatuus. If you need to ask you're not meant to know, but start finding out by finding your mojo

[Kwackman]

What is Jazz? A great little Honda.

[merlyn]

".....rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives........" Not really, from Debussy (and others) to Stock Aitken and Waterman litter their music with said chords.

'Litter' seems an exaggeration. Clair De Lune, does that have a 7#9? Bringing it to mind, I don't think so. Thinking of a Stock, Aitken, Waterman track, I Should Be So Lucky -- that's triads all the way.

A 7#9 is often used as a V chord in a minor key. It sounds more modern than a 7b9, which is also used as a V chord in a minor key, but sounds more old time. Jazzy pop songs have 7#9s and it's the distinctive chord in Purple Haze.

[RichardT]

The best definition of Jazz I’ve come across is ‘A race to the finish in any key you fancy’.

Are we including Stan Getz in that def?

And many thousands of jazz ballads too!

One thing that is quite distinctive about a lot of modern jazz is the use of certain chords that are rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives. But that’s no more watertight than any other definition. Pink Floyd use a 7#9 chord in Breathe - Rick Wright admitted he nicked it from Miles Davis.

".....rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives........" Not really, from Debussy (and others) to Stock Aitken and Waterman litter their music with said chords.

No, I disagree, they really aren't that common in pop and classical music. Debussy and Ravel are the most likely candidates, I agree.

Do you have any examples from Stock Aitken and Waterman?

[OneWorld]

".....rarely heard in other types of music - particularly 7#9 chords and their derivatives........" Not really, from Debussy (and others) to Stock Aitken and Waterman litter their music with said chords.

'Litter' seems an exaggeration. Clair De Lune, does that have a 7#9? Bringing it to mind, I don't think so. Thinking of a Stock, Aitken, Waterman track, I Should Be So Lucky -- that's triads all the way.

A 7#9 is often used as a V chord in a minor key. It sounds more modern than a 7b9, which is also used as a V chord in a minor key, but sounds more old time. Jazzy pop songs have 7#9s and it's the distinctive chord in Purple Haze.

Ok the use of the word littered was artistic licence on my part, but music is art anyway, in a song someone might sing “I would die for you” that doesn’t mean they are going to book a slot at Dignitas. My point was of course a general one, that being that music and all that jazz is ambiguous not prescriptive, except say Bach for example might have done a fugue or two, as part of an exercise, but to sort of labour under the illusion that music is cat in stone and one would never happen across 7#9 in anything but jazz, well, not the music I listen to, there again I am musically promiscuous and have come across all sorts of anomalies and that’s what makes music so enjoyable, the surprises