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Hot Cool Free Bebop Fusion Hard Acid Latin Dixieland Jazz

A Peek at America’s Finest Art Form

Story by David Brewer

Note: I’m not a jazz expert nor do I pretend to be. Ken Burns dedicated an entire mini-series to covering only part of the genre. In the space of this article, I do my best to hit several of the most crucial eras and figures in jazz, but in no way claim to have addressed them all. Ella Fitzgerald

Perhaps no other subject in America is more complex than the history of jazz. Stylistically, the genre has morphed like a culturally tied sonic chameleon, often reflecting the times in which its popularity waxed and waned with America’s musical tastes. From the dancehalls of the 1930s and ‘40s and clubs of the 1950s to festivals of the 1960s and ‘70s and up to the present, jazz has stood as an international status symbol of distinctly American artistry.

In a metaphorical sense, examining the complicated history of jazz is much like comparing various renditions of some of its most famous compositions: there is a definite starting point, but after the beginning, the only constant is change. Tagged by some as the only true American art form, the music has scaled the heights of commercial appeal only to be dragged underground and away from the masses by some of its most lauded performers.

With its popular roots typically recognized as emanating from the ragtime era popularized by piano players and composers such as Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton, jazz began as an undeniably upbeat music that fit right in with the Vaudeville shows that help to spread it past the New Orleans city limits. And while its Southern progenitors had an undeniable in shaping the earliest forms of jazz, the sounds soon reached many western and northern cities, where musical innovators gave the music their own stamp.

The fast and catchy melodies of ragtime would soon mesh with the brass and woodwind instruments, and, with the addition of percussion, give way to the hot jazz combos. Along with Dixieland, the hot jazz combos ushered in the Jazz Age of the 1920s and ‘30s. In spite of (and perhaps because of) prohibition, jazz became the soundtrack for the roaring ‘20s, filling speakeasies with dancers who soaked up the new, irresistible music.

Although the majority of jazz stars and standouts have been African American, the genre has had its share of white performers and bandleaders. Institutionalized racial equality was decades off, but the 1930s and ‘40s began seeing some integration of the bandstand, especially with the rise of the large swing bands of the era.

As with all popular music, jazz stars rose and fell according to the tastes of the day. Some innovators such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong outlasted their contemporaries by decades, remaining popular figures in their art form long after their initial success on the bandstand. Rising to acclaim with the swing bands of the 1940s, female vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday proved to be talents for the ages. And although the latter two died premature deaths, their music has endured.

While undoubtedly hard to imagine in today’s pop marketplace, jazz ruled the airwaves and charts, connecting not only with Americans, but also with people all over the world—largely a side effect of two world wars and American Armed Forces Radio.

Many jazz musicians and historians have identified Armstrong as the most important figure of all time in the genre. The great Satchmo did indeed impact the music and carry it to all corners of the world, but innovation by no means stopped with his indelible contributions. Coming of age in the swing era, it was the horns of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie that would redefine jazz for generations to come.

In a style that appealed more to the players and not the dancers, the pioneers of the highly improvisational bebop elevated jazz artistry to new and exciting technical and cerebral levels. While some jazz fans and historians argue that the bebop era permanently destroyed jazz as a commercial art form, others touted it as the music at its raw and introspective best.

In the hands of some of America’s most breathtaking instrumentalists including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Cannonball Adderly, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and many others, jazz improvisation and composition grew by leaps and bounds, eventually spawning cool jazz and hard bop as distinct and important outgrowths in the genre.

The bebop era also represented an important shift in how jazz was released by artists. Landmark albums such as Davis’ sparse opus Kind of Blue, Coltrane’s bold Giant Steps, Gillespie’s Latin-infused Afro and Brubeck’s odd tempo-fueled Time Out are just a handful of classic sides that remain popular with listeners today.

As jazz moved through the 1960s and into the ‘70s, the rate of innovation slowed a bit as avant garde free jazz pushed dissonance, improvisation and deconstruction of song structure to the outer limits. Angering purists more than ever was the introduction of electric instruments through the advent of the fusion era. Mixing elements of rock, jazz and funk, fusion opened up new creative avenues and brought fans to the genre that otherwise might not have otherwise sat up and paid attention.

From vocalese, Latin jazz, smooth jazz, acid jazz, gypsy jazz, soul jazz and plenty of other smaller movements in the style, an incredible number of composers, arrangers, instrumentalists and vocalists have contributed to jazz. People all over the world obsess over the works of its greatest figures while students in combos and orchestras far and wide continue to perform the music in its many forms.

Whether or not another Jazz Age ever develops, the influence and importance of jazz as an American art form are well established. With luck, it will continue to serve as a cornerstone of the country’s artistic identity for decades and centuries to come.