Jazz is a distinctly American style of music that developed in the early decades of the 20th century. Its roots are deeply embedded in many traditions of African-American folk music, such as spirituals, work songs and blues. Jazz also borrowed from 19th century band music and the ragtime style of playing the piano. In the 20th century, jazz was further developed in African-American communities in the southern United States.
Due to its popularity and energy, jazz has been absorbed into other genres, such as pop, rock and hip-hop. Freestyle rap, which involves improvisation of lyrics, is similar to the improvisation of jazz musicians. Pop singers have also collaborated with jazz musicians, such as Beyonce. The influence of jazz on modern popular music is often overlooked.
During the 1920s, jazz was infused into almost every aspect of American culture. Fashion, poetry and even the civil rights movement were all affected by its influence. The style of clothing changed to make it easier to dance to the rhythm of jazz tunes. Poetry evolved as a result of jazz, creating a new genre known as jazz-poetry.
These poems expressed the same depth of emotion and sense of improvisation as jazz music. Jazz is a musical form, often improvisational, developed by African-Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms. It has been constantly evolving since its inception at the beginning of the 20th century. Pianist Brad Mehldau and The Bad Plus have explored contemporary rock music in the context of a traditional jazz acoustic piano trio, recording instrumental jazz versions of songs by rock musicians. Since the 1960s, creative jazz centers have been developed in Europe, such as Amsterdam's creative jazz scene. A more precise term could be Afro-Latin jazz, since this subgenre usually employs rhythms that have a direct analogue in Africa or exhibit an African rhythmic influence beyond what is normally heard in other types of jazz.
Jazz implies spontaneity and vitality in musical production where improvisation plays a role and contains a sonority and phrasing that reflect the individuality of the jazz musician performing. I challenge the prevailing marginalization and malignancy of soft jazz in the standard jazz narrative. To truly experience the legacy that jazz music has left behind, visit Birdland, one of New York's oldest jazz clubs. Since only a limited number of American jazz albums were released in Europe, European jazz has many of its roots in American artists such as James Reese Europe, Paul Whiteman and Lonnie Johnson who visited Europe during and after World War I.But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that his terms of reference and definition should be broader, defining jazz as a form of artistic music that originated in the United States through the confrontation of blacks with European music and arguing that it differs from European music in that it has a special relationship with time defined as “swing”.Pianist W. C Handy's musical career began in the pre-jazz era and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the earliest jazz scores.
In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called soft jazz succeeded and gained significant radio broadcasting. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and other major cultural institutions have established important and influential jazz-related programs. The National Endowment for the Arts has honored more than one hundred musicians with the title NEA Jazzmaster and a monetary award. Jazz fusion ranges from combining live instrumentation with rhythms from house music (as exemplified by St Germain, Jazzanova and Fila Brazillia) to improvised bands with electronic elements (such as The Cinematic Orchestra, Kobol and future Norwegian jazz initiated by Bugge Wesseltoft, Jazzista de Jaga and Nils Petter Molvaer).Pianist Keith Jarrett's bands from the 1970s played only original compositions with outstanding free jazz-like elements. In 1983 he established his so-called 'Standards Trio', which although it occasionally explored collective improvisation mainly performed and recorded jazzy standards. Following drummer Han Bennink's work and pianist Misha Mengelberg's work, musicians began to explore improvising collectively until they found a form (melody, rhythm or famous song). The free jazz scene in Amsterdam was documented by critic Kevin Whitehead who wrote about some its main exponents such as ICP (Instant Composers Pool) orchestra in his book New Dutch Swing.