Jazz is an all-encompassing title, given to a wide-reaching range of musical styles, which often seem to have more differences than shared elements. However, each of the branches of jazz started from the same point, from the early ragtime tunes, to the nu-jazz of the 21st century.
Below are some examples of jazz-related genres.
Ragtime
With the abolition of slavery in America, came further opportunities for liberated African-Americans in terms of education. However, prejudice and heavy enforced segregation meant that employment was often hard to come by. Black musicians were permitted to provide entertainment in venues regarded as ‘lower class’ and were often seen performing in vaudeville or minstrel shows, or as accompanying musicians in bars and brothels.
It was at this time (the late 1800s) that ragtime music developed, with syncopated rhythms and banjo compositions. It was originally a form of dance music and was sold as sheet music for entertainers to play on the piano. It soon grew in popularity; so much so that classical composers including Claude Debussy began incorporated the ragtime sound into their own work.
The most famous ragtime tune of the time that is still well known today is ‘The Entertainer’, by Scott Joplin. Although now seen as a precursor to the jazz movement, many jazz artists include a lively ragtime number in their set.
Swing
Swing and big band music became immensely popular in the 1930s, as some of the respected soloists of the time, such as Cab Calloway or Glenn Miller, became big band leaders. Swing has been described as the perfect form of dance music. Indeed, it is certainly a very lively and up-tempo form of music, which gained momentum as radio broadcasts grew in popularity. Relying on the classic blues sound and chord progressions, as well as a strong rhythm section, swing quickly became a very popular genre of music.
One of the key stylistic markers of swing music is that although it is certainly a collectively performed genre, there is usually the chance for individual musicians to perform a solo, showcasing their individual musicianship during a set.
As boundaries regarding racial segregation were gradually broken down, it became more commonplace to see white and black musicians sharing the same stageand performing in the same band. This coincided with the emergence of swing as a genre.
Bebop
As swing became the commercial arm of jazz in the 1930s, the bebop performers of the 1940s wanted to create something more challenging that would reclaim something of jazz culture away from the mainstream and return it back to the musicians. Bebop was faster and meant to be listened, not danced, to and was regarded as something of an art form, rather than simply a genre of music to be enjoyed for pleasure’s sake alone. Inevitably this made it less commercially viable, especially with the introduction of a more dissonant sound. The swing musicians of the time did not warm to this new direction, but nevertheless the bebop scene spawned several influential musicians including Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie.
Free jazz
Somewhat inspired by the bebop scene of the 1940s, free jazz is an avant-garde interpretation of the genre, in which all previous rules regarding meter, beat and style were disregarded, in favour of free expression and experimentalism. This was originally regarded as a highly controversial method of playing, especially by the jazz traditionalists. Some of the best known proponents of the genre include Sun Ra and John Coltrane. Essentially, the exploration of free jazz caused a rift in the jazz community, with some preferring the more traditional styling and others preferring the new, more experimental form of the genre and the freedom that went along with this.