jazz 101

[Bright Moments]

is there a concise way to define the following types of jazz other the say that "i know it when i hear it"?

1 - Avant Garde

2 - Improvised/Improvisational

3 - Creative

4 - Progressive

5 - Free

[Nate Dorward]

Why do you ask?

[Bright Moments]

  Nate Dorward said:

Why do you ask?

because IF there is an answer i sure would like to know it so that i can sound at least a little like i know what i am talking about when i am talking about music that i enjoy.

[Bright Moments]

Free Jazz - from Wikipedia:

Free jazz is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, it was pioneered by artists such as Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Joe Harriott, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon and Paul Bley. Some of the best known examples are the later works of John Coltrane.

While free jazz is most often associated with the era of its birth, many musicians — including Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, William Parker, John Zorn, George Lewis (trombonist) and the late Derek Bailey — have kept the style alive to the present day, continuing its development as jazz idiom.

History

Ornette Coleman is often regarded as having crystallized the free jazz form in the late 1950s, and many consider his first explorative albums such as Something Else and The Shape of Jazz to Come to be the beginning of the movement.

Indeed, the style owes its name to Coleman's 1960 recording Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. He intended it only as an album title, but the term quickly became synonymous with the current adventurous innovations in jazz, and eventually became the name of a movement and style.

In the 1960s, the loosely-defined movement was sometimes called "Energy Music" or "The New Thing".

There were earlier precedents, however. Two songs by pianist Lennie Tristano are sometimes cited as the earliest free jazz. "Digression" and "Intuition" were both recorded in 1949; neither had prearranged melody, harmony or rhythm. Both songs maintained a sense of harmonic consonance, however, which is undermined in most free jazz.

Most of Sun Ra's music could be classified as free jazz, although Sun Ra said repeatedly that his music was written and boasted that what he wrote sounded more free than what "the freedom boys" played.

Some of Charles Mingus's work was also important in establishing free jazz. Of particular note are his early Atlantic albums, such as Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown, and Tijuana Moods, in which he employed a compositional technique of humming tunes to his players and allowing them to feel their own melodies.

Since the mid-1950s, saxophonist Jackie McLean had been exploring a concept he called "The Big Room", where the often strict rules of bebop could be loosened or abandoned at will. Similarly, Cecil Taylor, the most prominent free jazz pianist, began stretching the bop boundaries as early as 1956.

The trio led by Jimmy Giuffre with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow between 1960 and 1962 received little attention during their original incarnation, but afterwards were regarded as one of the most innovative free jazz ensembles.

Eric Dolphy's work with Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and Chico Hamilton, along with his solo work, helped to set the stage for free jazz in the music community.

In Europe, free jazz first flowered through the experiments of expatriate Jamaican alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Beginning in the late 1950s, he worked on his own distinctive concept of what he termed free form rather than free jazz, which generally involved a more fluid ensemble interaction than the American models.

Definition

There is no universally accepted definition of free jazz, and any proposed definition is complicated by many musicians in other styles drawing on free jazz, or free jazz sometimes blending with other genres. Many musicians also tend to reject efforts at classification, regarding them as useless or unduly limiting.

Free jazz uses jazz idioms but generally considerably less compositional material than in most earlier styles — improvisation is essential, and whereas in earlier styles of jazz the improvised solos were always built according to a template provided by composed material (chord changes and melody), in free jazz the performers often range much more widely. Free jazz as a style has grown considerably since its inception, and the ability to improvise freely is a common skill. But, as guitarist Marc Ribot has remarked, free jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, "although they were freeing up certain strictures of bebop, were in fact each developing new structures of composition."[1]

Typically this kind of music is played by small groups of musicians. In popular perception, free jazz is loud, aggressive, dissonant and in general full of sound and fury. Many critics, particularly at the music's inception, suspected that the abandonment of familiar elements of jazz pointed to a lack of technique on the part of the musicians. Most free jazz musicians use overblowing techniques or otherwise elicit unconventional sounds from their instruments. Today such views are more marginal, and the music has built up a tradition and a body of accompanying critical writing. It remains less commercially popular than most other forms of jazz.

Beyond this, free jazz is most easily characterised in contrast with what we refer to here as "other forms of jazz", an umbrella which covers ragtime, dixieland, swing, bebop, cool jazz, jazz fusion and other styles.

"Other forms of jazz" use clear regular meters and strongly-pulsed rhythms, usually in 4/4 or (less often) 3/4. Free jazz normally retains a general pulsation and often swings but without regular metre, and often with frequent accelerando and ritardando, giving an impression of the rhythm moving in waves. Often players in an ensemble adopt different tempi. Despite all of this, it is still very often possible to tap one's foot to a free jazz performance; rhythm is more freely variable but has not disappeared entirely.

Other forms used harmonic structures (usually cycles of diatonic chords). Improvisors played solos using notes based on the notes in the chords. Free jazz almost by definition dispenses with such structures, but also by definition (it is, after all, "jazz" as much as it is "free") it retains much of the language of earlier jazz playing. It is therefore very common to hear diatonic, altered dominant and blues phrases in this music. It is also fairly common for a drone or single chord to underpin a performance (see modal jazz), but the absence of such rudimentary devices is typical as well.

Finally, other forms use composed melodies as the basis for group performance and improvisation. Free jazz practitioners sometimes use such material, and sometimes do not. In some music which is called "free jazz", other compositional structures are employed, some of them very detailed and complex; the music of Anthony Braxton furnishes many examples. It would perhaps be best to call this modern or avant-garde jazz, reserving the term "free jazz" for music with few or no pre-composed elements.

________________________________

(not at all concise)

Edited June 15, 2006 by Bright Moments

[Bright Moments]

Progressive Jazz - from factmonster.com

Progressive Jazz

After beginning in New York City, progressive, or cool, jazz developed primarily on the West Coast in the late 1940s and early 50s. Intense yet ironically relaxed tonal sonorities are the major characteristic of this jazz form, while the melodic line is less convoluted than in bop. Lester Young's style was fundamental to the music of the cool saxophonists Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, and Stan Getz. Miles Davis played an important part in the early stages, and the influence of virtuoso pianist Lennie Tristano was all-pervasive. The music was accepted more gracefully by the public and critics than bop, and the pianist Dave Brubeck became its most widely known performer.

[Bright Moments]

Avant Garde Jazz - from vervemusicgroup.com

Jazz History - Avant Garde

The 1960s in America were filled with social unrest, with protests against oppression and racial discrimination. The "avant garde," (translation: "advance group") as with other musical styles, reflected the social and political climate of the time. Avant garde, a term used synonymously in the 1960s with "free" jazz, first gained recognition in 1958 through saxophonist Ornette Coleman, as well as other pioneers including pianists Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. The avant garde challenged the listener by allowing the musician to choose his own musical path rather than follow the traditional approaches to which jazz musicians had previously adhered. All aspects of the music were at the discretion of the improviser. The music often transcended recognizable pitches and musical shapes, allowing moans, shrieks, and cries to convey the energy and emotional discourse of the individual musician. In 1960 Ornette Coleman made his revolutionary "Free Jazz" recording featuring collective improvisation between double quartets. Although collective improvisation became a major component within the avant garde movement with recordings including Coltrane's "Ascension," and "Om," the concept of group improvisation dates back to early New Orleans jazz at the turn of the 20th Century. As early as the mid-1950s, jazz musicians including Charles Mingus with his recording "Pithecanthropus Erectus," began re-introducing collective improvisation into modern jazz. In 1959, Miles Davis introduced modal jazz into the mainstream with his composition "So What," allowing the soloist more freedom to explore new ideas by simplifying the chord changes. Saxophonist John Coltrane took on the role of "father figure" in the '60s, bringing exposure to younger avant garde musicians including saxophonists Eric Dolphy, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, and Albert Ayler. Coltrane would spend the rest of his short life expressing himself musically through the avant garde, also labeled the "new thing" movement. In the 1960s and '70s, Chicago developed an avant garde scene led by pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams. In 1965 he founded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, whose members eventually included saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Chico Freeman, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Avant garde styles practiced today can be found in the work of musicians including saxophonists Steve Coleman and David S. Ware. New York City's "downtown" scene headquartered at the Knitting Factory is also a breeding ground for new and experimental music. The musicians in that sphere, such as saxophonists John Zorn and Tim Berne, trumpeter Dave Douglas, drummer Joey Baron, and violinist Mark Feldman, have helped to reshape new directions for the avant garde.

[Bright Moments]

Improvisational Jazz from - http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/wf/jazzman.html

Doug Little is a jazz musician and a member of The Motion Poets, an improvisational jazz band. Doug described improvisational jazz:

The song form provides the rules for improvisation, otherwise the music would be random. If everything is free, it is not going to be focused. You have to have some rules. Improvisation comes only after long practice makes the song form second nature to the musician. Then I am comfortable improvising over the song form. The better you get the simpler the rules seem. At the highest level the musician does not think about the form but just performs.

The improvisation over a song form is never duplicated. The whole idea of jazz is that once you have played it, it is gone. What I play will inspire the drummer to play something. The drummer might inspire me to play something. The musicians listen to one another and make spontaneous decisions. The possibilities are endless. It is always within the form and it is always interconnected with each person but it is never the same.

The joy of performing is the group sound. I can't play whatever I want whenever I want. Jazz is democratic music and everybody gets to solo but only within the context of the whole. The group is what is the most important thing. Sometimes the best thing for me to do is not to play. And to respect another's musical space.

(more at above link)

[Bright Moments]

Creative Jazz - http://www.scaruffi.com/history/jazz16a.html

(also not concise)

[Bright Moments]

  Bright Moments said:

is there a concise way to define the following types of jazz other the say that "i know it when i hear it"?

1 - Avant Garde

2 - Improvised/Improvisational

3 - Creative

4 - Progressive

5 - Free

so is there an answer to this question or is it just too hard to explain in a concise way?

Edited June 22, 2006 by Bright Moments

[BruceH]

  Bright Moments said:

is there a concise way to define the following types of jazz other the say that "i know it when i hear it"?

1 - Avant Garde

2 - Improvised/Improvisational

3 - Creative

4 - Progressive

5 - Free

Well, as for #2----isn't all jazz supposed to be improvised/improvisational to some extent?

"Creative"? Wha? Isn't all ART supposed to be that to some extent?

"Progressive" always struck me as a rather dated term.

Free: The jazz records/CDs that your roomate gives you when he's moving out because he doesn't want them anymore.

[7/4]

I'll toss in free improv = Derek Bailey, Evan Parker

[Bright Moments]

http://www.ictusrecords.com/

[Bright Moments]

  Bright Moments said:

is there a concise way to define the following types of jazz other the say that "i know it when i hear it"?

1 - Avant Garde

2 - Improvised/Improvisational

3 - Creative

4 - Progressive

5 - Free

up for scott yanow to see and hopefully respond.

[Tom Storer]

  Bright Moments said:

is there a concise way to define the following types of jazz other the say that "i know it when i hear it"?

1 - Avant Garde

2 - Improvised/Improvisational

3 - Creative

4 - Progressive

5 - Free

In my humblest of humble opinions, the answer to your question is no, there is no concise way to define those types of jazz. You could probably define 1, 2 and 5 in a non-concise way with plenty of footnotes, qualifications and open questions. 3 and 4, forget it. They're not types of jazz, they're just adjectives that each listener will apply with utter subjectivity.

[Scott Yanow]

Well let's see. Those five terms do overlap with each other and what they represent has been open to change through the years.

1 - Avant Garde - In some ways this phrase means "ahead of its time" so one could call Louis Armstrong's 1928 recordings with Earl Hines avant garde for the period. In a more general sense, it usually means that the music is beyond chordal improvisation, often dropping the use of chords altogether or using them just for contrast. Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra (some of the time), John Coltrane (particularly after 1964), Albert Ayler and others were called avant garde although now their 1960s music is over 40 years old. It often utilizes free expression without conventional rules although some rules imposed by the composer/improviser are often applied.

2 - Improvised/Improvisational - This isn't a style but an approach that helps make music jazz. To simplify it, if you improvise, that means you are making up what you are playing as you go along, even if you are closely following chordal patterns or improvising off of the melody. A good way to know if something is improvised is to hear it being played two straight times or a band performing two straight nights. If it is different, it is improvised.

3 - Creative - Also not a style but a description. All high-quality jazz is creative in that the improviser or composer comes up with fresh ideas, and is not merely repeating the same arrangement year after year.

4 - Progressive - It just means looking ahead. Progressive Jazz is a phrase that Stan Kenton used to describe some of his bands but in reality it's not a specific style. It's just being open minded and open to change, like being a liberal.

5 - Free - Free Jazz and Avant Garde jazz overlap. Much of the music of the 1960s and beyond can be called that. Free can just mean being free to improvise whatever one likes and feels. Ornette Coleman's early music was called Free Jazz but it wasn't completely free in that it usually used a steady pulse.

The music can be avant garde and utilize a tight arrangment. In that case the harmonies and chords (or lack of) along with the solos are avant garde. Free jazz tends to use very little written-out music except a quick theme, focusing mostly on the improvising. But they do overlap and most of the best jazz is really beyond a simple categorization. Progressive and creative are just adjectives (like saying that the music is great) while improvisational is a term that fits just all worthwhile jazz.

Hope that helps.

[Bright Moments]

  Scott Yanow said:

Well let's see. Those five terms do overlap with each other and what they represent has been open to change through the years.

1 - Avant Garde - In some ways this phrase means "ahead of its time" so one could call Louis Armstrong's 1928 recordings with Earl Hines avant garde for the period. In a more general sense, it usually means that the music is beyond chordal improvisation, often dropping the use of chords altogether or using them just for contrast. Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra (some of the time), John Coltrane (particularly after 1964), Albert Ayler and others were called avant garde although now their 1960s music is over 40 years old. It often utilizes free expression without conventional rules although some rules imposed by the composer/improviser are often applied.

2 - Improvised/Improvisational - This isn't a style but an approach that helps make music jazz. To simplify it, if you improvise, that means you are making up what you are playing as you go along, even if you are closely following chordal patterns or improvising off of the melody. A good way to know if something is improvised is to hear it being played two straight times or a band performing two straight nights. If it is different, it is improvised.

3 - Creative - Also not a style but a description. All high-quality jazz is creative in that the improviser or composer comes up with fresh ideas, and is not merely repeating the same arrangement year after year.

4 - Progressive - It just means looking ahead. Progressive Jazz is a phrase that Stan Kenton used to describe some of his bands but in reality it's not a specific style. It's just being open minded and open to change, like being a liberal.

5 - Free - Free Jazz and Avant Garde jazz overlap. Much of the music of the 1960s and beyond can be called that. Free can just mean being free to improvise whatever one likes and feels. Ornette Coleman's early music was called Free Jazz but it wasn't completely free in that it usually used a steady pulse.

The music can be avant garde and utilize a tight arrangment. In that case the harmonies and chords (or lack of) along with the solos are avant garde. Free jazz tends to use very little written-out music except a quick theme, focusing mostly on the improvising. But they do overlap and most of the best jazz is really beyond a simple categorization. Progressive and creative are just adjectives (like saying that the music is great) while improvisational is a term that fits just all worthwhile jazz.

Hope that helps.

excellent! thanks!

[JSngry]

  Bright Moments said:

  Nate Dorward said:

Why do you ask?

because IF there is an answer i sure would like to know it so that i can sound at least a little like i know what i am talking about when i am talking about music that i enjoy.

You'll sound more like you know what you're talking about if you talk more about the actual music than the labels!