That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

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Part I: All That Jazz: A Tour of the Basics
New Edition: Updating the Jazz Tradition
Beyond the basic elements I cover in the section “The Swingin’ Thing: Defining
Jazz” earlier in this chapter, what exactly constitutes jazz varies from one
critic, historian, or musicologist to another. For example, does saxophonist
Kenny G play jazz? Some radio stations say he does, but I don’t think so.
Kenny G is a technically proficient player, but his music has none of the swing
or compelling urgency that I associate with jazz. A more accurate label for his
music may be instrumental pop, and in fact, in various interviews Kenny G has
agreed his music isn’t truly jazz.
In the following sections I describe various branches of jazz and several
forms of music borrowed from traditional jazz.
Considering avant garde,
free, and acid jazz
Does that frantic noise known as free jazz, abstract jazz, or avant garde jazz
qualify as jazz? By the late 1960s, some musicians attempted to stretch jazz’s
boundaries by making music with minimal structure and no consistent sense
of swing. Ironically, many of these musicians trained in more traditional
forms of jazz, and the music of artists such as Anthony Braxton and the Art
Ensemble of Chicago obviously demonstrates improvisation, distinctive
voices, and polyrhythms in abundance. Clearly, it does qualify as jazz (and I
go into a bit more detail on these forms in Chapter 8).
What about the 1990s music known as acid jazz? Is it really jazz? Not by my
definition. Although some acid jazz uses traditional instruments, other examples
borrow sound electronically from other music, so the end result tends
to have a more layered, electronic sound that’s distinct from most of jazz’s
earthier, spontaneous aura. Acid jazz’s rhythms, usually simple and somewhat
repetitious, are danceable but lack the creative power of jazz’s
polyrhythms. I give you a bit more detail on the style in Chapter 10.
Linking to other relevant music forms
Besides blues, give-and-take exists between jazz and seemingly unrelated
genres including Western Swing. For instance, in the ’30s and ’40s, Bob Wills
and the Texas Playboys made some of the all-time coolest music. Their sound
may not be pure jazz, but jazz fans can love it because it contains essential
jazz ingredients.