Often hailed as the best art form in the United States, jazz has been accepted as a living expression of the nation's history and culture, still young, difficult to define and impossible to contain, a music of beauty, sensitivity and brilliance that has produced (and has been produced by) progression of. In a jazz environment, everyone has the opportunity to do a solo. Everyone has the opportunity to play something, regardless of their experience or role in the band. There is often a bandleader, but usually the leader only facilitates and guides the musical process.
A jazz band is like a kind of democratic society in miniature. It's a collection of people who come together to create something like a unit.
Jazz music
is an incredibly important part of American culture. There is a rich history of jazz that has had a ripple effect on almost every aspect of American life, from style and social movements to the music that followed.Learning more about the importance of jazz music in the United States can give you even more appreciation for the genre. Jazz has always sought a popular audience with varying success, but, since its inception, it has been music that is often performed by musicians for musicians. This has made many listeners impatient with it, feeling that if one practically needs a degree in music theory to appreciate it, its practitioners should not expect the untrained or casual audience to be bothered by it. But, on the other hand, its technical pretensions have made jazz a kind of status music with some audiences.
Jazz, of course, has to do with race in the United States, not only because African-American musicians were so central to its creation and the African-American public was so important in their creative responses, but because whites played such a dominant role in its dissemination through records and performance venues and their ownership as intellectual and artistic property. Whites also played jazz from their earliest days and always constituted an important part of their audience. Whites, both in the United States and in Europe, were the main critical performers and writers on jazz as well. Jazz has generated an international and influential lifestyle, an attitude towards life — the hot, the modern and the cool — that is secular, obsessed with youth, obsessed with the marginalized and detached but passionately egocentric, and that has joined other forms of popular music, such as rock and hip hop. This attitude of cool and modern has influenced literature, including the production of the so-called jazz-novel and jazz-poetry, as well as art, speech, dress and anti-bourgeois habits of indulgence, such as the use of illegal drugs such as marijuana and heroin.
Even interracial sex, considered rebellious by some and deviant by others, was associated with the demi-monde of jazz. Each dimension of jazz described above is the subject of academic and critical study in a variety of fields, including English, history, American studies, musicology, African American studies, Americas studies, and cultural studies. In fact, jazz studies as an interdisciplinary field of research and pedagogy formally exist and have their own magazine: Jazz Perspectives. What's all this about anyway? And why should those who have no interest in jazz worry about all this? Regardless of how much jazz has lost today in terms of its audience size compared to popular music forms with higher market shares, it has gained in terms of high esteem in which it is held in business and art as a sophisticated artistic expression (it is often used as background music in business luxury establishments, museums and galleries). It is also used in commercials that promote exclusive products) and in terms of institutionalization that it has experienced as a formal course of study in many colleges and universities. In fact, if it weren't for colleges, universities and high school jazz bands — as well as institutions like Jazz at Lincoln Center and SF Jazz — it's quite possible that few young people in the United States would play or listen to jazz today.
As we move towards answering these questions about why jazz remains important — despite its many forms — Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington are some popular jazz leaders from the 20th century who come to mind. Today we have jazz artists such as saxophonist John Coltrane; Chick Corea; singers Billie Holiday; Ella Fitzgerald; Nina Simone; among many others. Jazz is one of those musical genres where everyone who listens to it experiences something different — regardless if they look alike or not. The genre has permeated musical culture to such an extent that it is almost impossible to find someone who isn't influenced by jazz at any given time. Jazz also has roots in American popular song (which constitutes a large part of its repertoire), blues; hokum; circus music; marching bands' music; popular dance music; among many others. Jazz also provided jobs for women in the music industry — allowing for social acceptance for female musicians. Regardless of how much jazz has lost today in terms of its audience size compared to popular music forms with higher market shares; it has gained in terms of high esteem in which it is held in business and art as a sophisticated artistic expression (it is often used as background music in business luxury establishments; museums; galleries).
It is also used in commercials that promote exclusive products) — as well as institutionalization that it has experienced as a formal course of study in many colleges and universities. Jazz emerged during the 20th century — The Age Of Music — when people not only listened to more music than ever before; but consumed it more voraciously than ever before in human history — attracted to a large extent by music for its emotional & psychological effects. Jazz rhythms & harmonies have been presented in styles of music that produce an unparalleled impact on American culture.
