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Jazz Musicians

Jazz Music and jazz musicians have its roots in Western African and Western musical tradition. The African slaves who were brought to America are credited with the origin of this unique style of music. These jazz musicians developed blues and spirituals to help them communicate to one another feelings of joy, misery, happiness, and desires. In its earliest stage, this music developed in the form of response and call and did not rely on any musical instruments.

Improvisation in Jazz: Variations in jazz in late 1890s created ragtime music. Jazz music has undergone a lot of improvisation leading to the formation of different styles of jazz. Jazz musicians in the early years did not know how to read music, but they created excitement among their listeners by adding the unexpected and sudden ups and lows in their music. Each generation experimented with jazz music and several different forms of jazz, such as Dixieland, Bebop, swing, cool and Latin Jazz were invented.

Jazz Musicians: While early jazz musicians were self-taught, trained musicians, such as Lorenzo Tio and Scott Joplin joined in to preserve and disseminate the musical tradition of jazz music. Avante- garde jazz musicians further experimented with jazz music as they called for an improvisation free from chords, scales, and rhythmic meters.

The Jazz Age: The period in history after World War I and before the Great Depression is called the jazz age. Paul Whiteman or the “king of jazz” combined jazz with elaborate orchestrations to produce more funky sounds. Different names are associated with different forms of jazz. The Swinging 30s belonged to big bands like Benny Goodman, while the cool jazz of 1940s and 50s was largely a contribution of east coast Jazz musicians and composers. Latin jazz can be subdivided into Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz. Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor started Afro-Cuban music.

Jazz fusion came to the fore during the 1960s and 1970s. Jazz musicians of this genre include Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock. Kenny G is said to be the propagator of smooth jazz. New jazz musicians, such as Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse have blended urban music with jazz.

Jazz musicians all across the globe have worked towards preserving the rich musical tradition of jazz music.