Interesting facts. Directions and styles Types of jazz

Subsequently, ragtime rhythms combined with blues elements gave rise to a new musical direction - jazz.

The origins of jazz are connected with the blues. It arose at the end of the 19th century as a fusion of African rhythms and European harmony, but its origins should be sought from the moment of the importation of slaves from Africa to the territory of the New World. The brought slaves did not come from the same family and usually did not even understand each other. The need for consolidation led to the unification of many cultures and, as a result, to the creation of a single culture (including musical) of African Americans. The processes of mixing African musical culture and European (which also underwent serious changes in the New World) occurred starting from the 18th century, and in the 19th century led to the emergence of “proto-jazz”, and then jazz in the generally accepted sense.

New Orleans jazz

The term New Orleans, or traditional, jazz usually refers to the style of musicians who performed jazz in New Orleans between 1900 and 1917, as well as New Orleans musicians who played and recorded in Chicago from about 1917 through the 1920s. . This period of jazz history is also known as the Jazz Age. And this concept is also used to describe the music performed at various historical periods by representatives of the New Orleans revival, who sought to perform jazz in the same style as the musicians of the New Orleans school.

The development of jazz in the USA in the first quarter of the 20th century

After Storyville closed, jazz from the regional folklore genre begins to develop into a nationwide musical trend, spreading to the northern and northeastern provinces of the United States. But his widespread, of course, the closure of one entertainment district alone could not contribute. Along with New Orleans, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Memphis were important in the development of jazz from the very beginning. Ragtime originated in Memphis in the 19th century, from where it then spread throughout the North American continent in the period -1903. On the other hand, minstrel shows, with their motley mosaic of all kinds of musical movements of African-American folklore from jigs to ragtime, quickly spread everywhere and prepared the way for the arrival of jazz. Many future jazz celebrities began their careers in minstrel shows. Long before Storyville closed, New Orleans musicians went on tour with so-called “vaudeville” troupes. Jelly Roll Morton toured regularly in Alabama, Florida, and Texas since 1904. Since 1914 he had a contract to perform in Chicago. In 1915, Thom Browne's white Dixieland orchestra also moved to Chicago. The famous “Creole Band,” led by New Orleans cornetist Freddie Keppard, also made major vaudeville tours in Chicago. Having separated from the Olympia Band at one time, Freddie Keppard's artists already in 1914 successfully performed in the very the best theater Chicago and received an offer to make a sound recording of their performances even before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which, however, Freddie Keppard short-sightedly rejected.

The area covered by the influence of jazz was significantly expanded by orchestras that played on pleasure steamers sailing up the Mississippi. Since the end of the 19th century, river trips from New Orleans to St. Paul have become popular, first for a weekend, and later for a whole week. Since 1900, New Orleans orchestras have been performing on these riverboats, and their music has become the most attractive entertainment for passengers during river tours. The future wife of Louis Armstrong, the first jazz pianist Lil Hardin, started in one of these “Suger Johnny” orchestras.

Many future New Orleans jazz stars performed in the riverboat orchestra of another pianist, Faiths Marable. Steamships traveling along the river often stopped at passing stations, where orchestras staged concerts for the local public. It was these concerts that became the creative debuts for Bix Beiderbeck, Jess Stacy and many others. Another famous route ran through Missouri to Kansas City. In this city, where, thanks to the strong roots of African-American folklore, the blues developed and finally took shape, the virtuoso playing of New Orleans jazzmen found an exceptionally fertile environment. By the beginning of the 2010s, the main center for the development of jazz music was Chicago, where, through the efforts of many musicians gathered from different parts of the United States, a style was created that received the nickname Chicago jazz.

Swing

The term has two meanings. Firstly, this means of expression in jazz. A characteristic type of pulsation based on constant deviations of the rhythm from the supporting beats. Thanks to this, the impression of great internal energy is created, which is in a state of unstable equilibrium. Secondly, the style of orchestral jazz, which emerged at the turn of the 1920s and 30s as a result of the synthesis of Negro and European stylistic forms of jazz music.

Performers: Joe Pass, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Norah Jones, Michel Legrand, Oscar Peterson, Ike Quebec, Paulinho Da Costa, Wynton Marsalis Septet, Mills Brothers, Stephane Grappelli.

Bop

Jazz style that developed in the early to mid-40s of the 20th century and ushered in the era of modern jazz. Characterized by fast tempo and complex improvisations based on changes in harmony rather than melody. The super-fast tempo of performance was introduced by Parker and Gillespie in order to keep non-professionals away from their new improvisations. Besides everything else, distinctive feature all bebopers had a shocking manner of behavior and appearance: the curved trumpet of “Dizzy” Gillespie, the behavior of Parker and Gillespie, Monk’s ridiculous hats, etc. Having emerged as a reaction to the widespread spread of swing, bebop continued to develop its principles in the use of expressive means, but together However, he discovered a number of opposing trends.

Unlike swing, which is mostly the music of large commercial dance orchestras, bebop is an experimental creative movement in jazz, associated mainly with the practice of small ensembles (combos) and anti-commercial in its orientation. The bebop phase marked a significant shift in the emphasis in jazz from popular dance music to a more highly artistic, intellectual, but less mass-produced “music for musicians.” Bop musicians preferred complex improvisations based on strumming chords instead of melodies.

The main instigators of the birth were: saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, drummer Max Roach. Also listen to Chick Corea, Michel Legrand, Joshua Redman Elastic Band, Jan Garbarek, Charles Mingus, Modern Jazz Quartet.

Big bands

The classic, established form of big bands has been known in jazz since the early years. This form retained its relevance until the end of the 1920s. The musicians who joined most big bands, as a rule, almost in adolescence, played very specific parts, either memorized at rehearsals, or from notes. Careful orchestrations coupled with large brass and woodwind sections brought out rich jazz harmonies and created a sensationally loud sound that became known as “the big band sound.”

Big band became the popular music of its time, reaching its peak of fame in the mid-'s. This music became the source of the swing dancing craze. The leaders of the famous jazz orchestras Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Lunsford, Charlie Barnett composed or arranged and recorded a veritable hit parade of tunes that were heard not only on the radio , but also everywhere in dance halls. Many big bands showcased their improvising soloists, who whipped audiences into a state of near hysteria during well-promoted “battles of the bands.”

Although the popularity of big bands declined significantly after World War II, orchestras led by Basie, Ellington, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Harry James and many others toured and recorded frequently over the next few decades. Their music gradually transformed under the influence of new trends. Groups such as ensembles led by Boyd Rayburn, Sun Ra, Oliver Nelson, Charles Mingus, Tad Jones-Mal Lewis explored new concepts in harmony, instrumentation, and improvisational freedom. Today big bands are a standard in jazz education. Repertory orchestras such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterpiece Orchestra, and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble regularly play original arrangements of big band compositions.

In 2008, George Simon’s canonical book “Big Bands of the Swing Era” was published in Russian, which is essentially an almost complete encyclopedia of all big bands of the golden age from the early 20s to the 60s of the 20th century.

Mainstream

Pianist Duke Ellington

After the end of the prevailing fashion of large orchestras in the era of big bands, when the music of large orchestras began to be crowded out on stage by small jazz ensembles, swing music continued to be heard. Many famous swing soloists, after concert performances in ball rooms, liked to play for fun at spontaneous jams in small clubs on 52nd Street in New York. And these were not only those who worked as “sidemen” in large orchestras, such as Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Hodges, Buck Clayton and others. The leaders of the big bands themselves - Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Harry James, Gene Krupa, being initially soloists, and not just conductors, also looked for opportunities to play separately from their large group, in a small composition. Not accepting the innovative techniques of the upcoming bebop, these musicians adhered to the traditional swing manner, while demonstrating inexhaustible imagination when performing improvisational parts. The main stars of swing constantly performed and recorded in small lineups, called “combos,” within which there was much more room for improvisation. With the beginning of the rise of bebop, the style of this direction of club jazz of the late 1920s received the name mainstream, or main movement. Some of the era's finest performers could be heard in fine form at the jams, when chord improvisation had already taken precedence over the melody-coloring method of the swing era. Re-emerging as a free style in the late 's and 's, the mainstream absorbed elements of cool jazz, bebop, and hard bop. The term "contemporary mainstream" or post-bebop is used today for almost any style that does not have a close connection to historical styles of jazz music.

Northeastern jazz. Stride

Louis Armstrong, trumpeter and singer

Although the history of jazz began in New Orleans with the advent of the 20th century, the music really took off in the early 1980s when trumpeter Louis Armstrong left New Orleans to create revolutionary new music in Chicago. The migration of New Orleans jazz masters to New York, which began shortly thereafter, marked a trend of constant movement of jazz musicians from the South to the North. Chicago took the music of New Orleans and made it hot, raising its intensity not only with the efforts of Armstrong's famous Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, but also others, including such masters as Eddie Condon and Jimmy McPartland, whose crew at Austin High School helped revive the New Orleans schools. Other notable Chicagoans who pushed the boundaries of the classic New Orleans jazz style include pianist Art Hodes, drummer Barrett Deems, and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Armstrong and Goodman, who eventually moved to New York, created a kind of critical mass there that helped this city turn into a real jazz capital of the world. And while Chicago remained primarily a recording center in the first quarter of the 20th century, New York also became a major jazz venue, with such legendary clubs as the Minton Playhouse, the Cotton Club, the Savoy and the Village Vanguard, and also such arenas as Carnegie Hall.

Kansas City style

During the era of the Great Depression and Prohibition, the Kansas City jazz scene became a mecca for the newfangled sounds of the late 1900s and 1900s. The style that flourished in Kansas City was characterized by soulful, blues-tinged pieces performed by both big bands and small swing ensembles that demonstrated highly energetic solos, performed for patrons of speakeasies selling illegal alcohol. It was in these zucchini that the style of the great Count Basie, who began in Kansas City in Walter Page's orchestra and subsequently with Benny Mouthen, crystallized. Both of these orchestras were typical representatives of the Kansas City style, the basis of which was a peculiar form of blues, called “urban blues” and formed in the playing of the above-mentioned orchestras. The Kansas City jazz scene was also distinguished by a whole galaxy of outstanding masters of vocal blues, the recognized “king” among whom was the long-time soloist of the Count Basie orchestra, the famous blues singer Jimmy Rushing. The famous alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, born in Kansas City, upon his arrival in New York, widely used the characteristic blues techniques that he had learned in the Kansas City orchestras and which later formed one of the starting points in the bopper experiments in 2010.

West Coast Jazz

Artists caught up in the cool jazz movement of the 1950s worked extensively in Los Angeles recording studios. Largely influenced by Miles Davis' nonet, these Los Angeles-based performers developed what is now known as "West Coast Jazz", or West Coast jazz. As recording studios, clubs such as the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach and the Haig in Los Angeles often featured his top masters, including trumpeter Shorty Rogers, saxophonists Art Pepper and Bud Schenk, drummer Shelley Mann and clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre. .

Cool (cool jazz)

The high intensity and pressure of bebop began to weaken with the development of cool jazz. Beginning in the late and early years, musicians began to develop a less violent, smoother approach to improvisation, modeled after the light, dry playing of tenor saxophonist Lester Young, which he had employed during the swing era. The result was a detached and uniformly flat sound, based on emotional “coolness”. Trumpeter Miles Davis, an early pioneer of bebop who cooled it down, became the genre's greatest innovator. His nonet, who recorded the album “The Birth of a Cool” in the 1950s, was the embodiment of the lyricism and restraint of cool jazz. Others famous musicians The cool-jazz school includes trumpeter Chet Baker, pianists George Shearing, John Lewis, Dave Brubeck and Lenny Tristano, vibraphonist Milt Jackson and saxophonists Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims and Paul Desmond. Arrangers also made significant contributions to the cool jazz movement, notably Ted Dameron, Claude Thornhill, Bill Evans and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. Their compositions focused on instrumental coloration and slow motion, on frozen harmonies that created the illusion of space. Dissonance also played some role in their music, but with a softened, subdued character. The cool jazz format left room for somewhat larger ensembles such as nonets and tentets, which became more common during this period than in the early bebop period. Some arrangers experimented with modified instrumentation, including cone-shaped brass instruments such as horn and tuba.

Progressive jazz

In parallel with the emergence of bebop, jazz is developing new genre- progressive jazz, or simply progressive. The main difference of this genre is the desire to move away from the frozen cliché of big bands and outdated, worn-out techniques of the so-called. symphojazz introduced in 2000 by Paul Whiteman. Unlike boppers, progressive creators did not strive for a radical rejection of the jazz traditions that had developed at that time. They rather sought to update and improve swing phrase models, introducing into the practice of composition the latest achievements of European symphonism in the field of tonality and harmony.

The greatest contribution to the development of the concept of “progressive” was made by pianist and conductor Stan Kenton. The progressive jazz of the early 1920s actually began with his first works. The sound of the music performed by his first orchestra was close to Rachmaninov, and the compositions bore the features of late romanticism. However, in terms of genre it was closest to symphonic jazz. Later, during the years of creating the famous series of his “Artistry” albums, jazz elements no longer played the role of creating color, but were already organically woven into the musical material. Along with Kenton, the credit for this also belonged to his best arranger, Pete Rugolo, a student of Darius Milhaud. Modern (for those years) symphonic sound, a specific staccato technique in the playing of saxophones, bold harmonies, frequent seconds and blocks, along with polytonality and jazz rhythmic pulsation - these are the distinctive features of this music, with which Stan Kenton entered the history of jazz for many years, as one of its innovators who found a common platform for European symphonic culture and elements of bebop, especially noticeable in pieces where solo instrumentalists seemed to oppose the sounds of the rest of the orchestra. It is also worth noting the great attention that Kenton paid in his compositions to the improvisational parts of soloists, including the world famous drummer Shelley Maine, double bassist Ed Safransky, trombonist Kay Winding, June Christie, one of the best jazz vocalists those years. Stan Kenton remained faithful to his chosen genre throughout his career.

In addition to Stan Kenton, interesting arrangers and instrumentalists Boyd Rayburn and Gil Evans also contributed to the development of the genre. A kind of apotheosis of the development of progressive, along with the already mentioned “Artistry” series, can also be considered a series of albums recorded by the Gil Evans big band together with the Miles Davis ensemble in the years, for example, “Miles Ahead,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Spanish drawings." Shortly before his death, Miles Davis again turned to this genre, recording old Gil Evans arrangements with the Quincy Jones Big Band.

Hard bop

Hard bop (English - hard, hard bop) is a type of jazz that arose in the 50s. XX century from bop. It is distinguished by expressive, brutal rhythms, based on blues. Refers to the styles of modern jazz. Around the same time that cool jazz was taking root on the West Coast, jazz musicians from Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York began developing harder, heavier variations of the old bebop formula, called Hard Bop or Hard Bebop. Closely resembling traditional bebop in its aggressiveness and technical demands, hard bop of the 1950s and 1960s relied less on standard song forms and began to place more emphasis on blues elements and rhythmic drive. Incendiary soloing or mastery of improvisation along with a strong sense of harmony were qualities of paramount importance for wind players, drums and piano became more prominent in the rhythm section, and the bass took on a more fluid, funky feel. (taken from the source " Musical literature» Kolomiets Maria)

Modal jazz

Soul jazz

Groove

An offshoot of soul jazz, the groove style features bluesy melodies and exceptional rhythmic focus. Sometimes also called "funk", the groove concentrates on maintaining a continuous characteristic rhythmic pattern, flavoring it with light instrumental and sometimes lyrical embellishments.

Works performed in the groove style are full of joyful emotions, inviting listeners to dance, both in a slow, bluesy version, and at a fast tempo. Solo improvisations remain strictly subordinate to the beat and collective sound. The most famous exponents of this style are organists Richard "Groove" Holmes and Shirley Scott, tenorsaxophonist Gene Emmons, and flautist/alto saxophonist Leo Wright.

Free jazz

Saxophonist Ornette Coleman

Perhaps the most controversial movement in jazz history arose with the advent of free jazz, or "New Thing" as it was later called. Although elements of free jazz existed within the musical structure of jazz long before the term itself was coined, it was most original in the "experiments" of such innovators as Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell and Lenny Tristano, but only towards the end by the efforts of such pioneers as saxophonist Ornette Coleman and pianist Cecil Taylor, this direction took shape as an independent style.

What these two musicians, along with others including John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and groups like the Sun Ra Arkestra and a group called The Revolutionary Ensemble, accomplished was a variety of changes in structure and the feeling of music. Among the innovations, which were introduced with imagination and great musicality, was the abandonment of the chord progression, which allowed the music to move in any direction. Another fundamental change was found in the area of rhythm, where "swing" was either revised or ignored altogether. In other words, pulse, meter and groove were no longer essential elements in this reading of jazz. Another key component was related to atonality. Now musical utterance was no longer based on the conventional tonal system. Piercing, barking, convulsive notes completely filled this new sound world.

Free jazz continues to exist today as a viable form of expression, and is in fact no longer as controversial a style as it was in its early days.

Creative

The emergence of the “Creative” direction was marked by the penetration of elements of experimentalism and avant-garde into jazz. The beginning of this process partially coincided with the emergence of free jazz. Elements of the jazz avant-garde, understood as changes and innovations introduced into music, have always been “experimental.” So the new forms of experimentalism offered by jazz in the 50s, 60s and 70s were the most radical departure from tradition, introducing new elements of rhythms, tonality and structure. In fact, avant-garde music became synonymous with open forms, which were more difficult to characterize than even free jazz. The pre-planned structure of sayings was mixed with freer solo phrases, partly reminiscent of free jazz. The compositional elements merged so much with improvisation that it was already difficult to determine where the first ended and the second began. In fact, the musical structure of the works was designed so that the solo was a product of the arrangement, logically leading musical process to what would normally be seen as a form of abstraction or even chaos. Swing rhythms and even melodies could be included in the theme music, but this was not necessary. Early pioneers of this movement include pianist Lenny Tristano, saxophonist Jimmy Joffrey and composer/arranger/conductor Gunther Schuller. More recent masters include pianists Paul Bley and Andrew Hill, saxophonists Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers, drummers Sunny Murray and Andrew Cyrille, and members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) community such as the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Fusion

Starting not only from the fusion of jazz with pop and rock's, but also with music stemming from areas such as soul, funk and rhythm and blues, fusion (or literally fusion) such as musical genre, appeared in the late 's, initially under the name jazz-rock. Individual musicians and groups such as guitarist Larry Coryell's Eleventh House, drummer Tony Williams' Lifetime, and Miles Davis led the way, introducing elements such as electronica, rock rhythms, and extended tracks, eliminating much of the what jazz “stood on” from its beginning, namely, swing beat, and based primarily on blues music, the repertoire of which included both blues material and popular standards. The term fusion came into use soon after various orchestras emerged, such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report and Chick Corea's Return To Forever ensemble. Throughout the music of these ensembles there remained a constant emphasis on improvisation and melodicity, which firmly linked their practice to the history of jazz, despite detractors who claimed that they had “sold out” to the music merchants. In fact, when listening to these early experiments today, they hardly seem commercial, inviting the listener to participate in what was music with a highly developed conversational nature. During the mid-'s, fusion evolved into a variant of easy listening and/or rhythm and blues music. Compositionally or from the point of view of performance, he lost a significant part of his sharpness, or even completely lost it. In this era, jazz musicians turned the musical form of fusion into a truly expressive medium. Artists such as drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, guitarists Pat Metheny, John Scofield, John Abercrombie and James "Blood" Ulmer, as well as well as veteran saxophonist/trumpetist Ornette Coleman have creatively mastered this music in different dimensions.

Postbop

Drummer Art Blakey

The post-bop period encompasses music performed by jazz musicians who continued to create in the field of bebop, shying away from the free jazz experiments that developed during the same period in the 1960s. Also like the aforementioned hard bop, this form relied on the rhythms, ensemble structure and energy of bebop, the same horn combinations, and the same musical repertoire, including the use of Latin elements. What distinguished post-bop music was the use of elements of funk, groove or soul, reshaped in the spirit of the new time, marked by the dominance of pop music. Often this subtype experiments with blues rock. Masters such as saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Horace Silver, drummer Art Blakey, and trumpeter Lee Morgan actually began this music in the mid-'s and anticipated what has now become the dominant form of jazz. Along with simpler melodies and a more soulful beat, the listener could hear traces of gospel and rhythm and blues mixed together here. This style, which saw some changes during the 1970s, was used to a certain extent to create new structures as a compositional element. Saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist McCoy Tyner, and even a prominent bopper like Dizzy Gillespie created music in the genre that was both humane and harmonically interesting. One of the most significant composers to emerge during this period was saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Shorter, having gone through school in Art Blakey's ensemble, recorded a number of strong albums under his own name during the course of his career. Along with keyboardist Herbie Hancock, Shorter helped Miles Davis create a quintet (the most experimental and highly influential post-bop group was the Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane) that became one of the most significant groups in jazz history.

Acid jazz

Jazz Manush

Spread of jazz

Jazz has always aroused interest among musicians and listeners around the world, regardless of their nationality. It is enough to trace the early work of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and his synthesis of jazz traditions with the music of black Cubans in the 1960s or the later combination of jazz with Japanese, Eurasian and Middle Eastern music, famous in the work of pianist Dave Brubeck, as well as that of the brilliant composer and leader of jazz. Duke Ellington Orchestra, which combined the musical heritage of Africa, Latin America and the Far East. Jazz constantly absorbed not only Western musical traditions. For example, when various artists began to try working with musical elements from India. An example of these efforts can be heard in the recordings of flautist Paul Horne at the Taj Mahal, or in the stream of "world music" represented, for example, in the work of the Oregon group or John McLaughlin's Shakti project. McLaughlin's music, previously largely jazz-based, began to use new instruments of Indian origin, such as the khatam or tabla, while working with Shakti, introduced intricate rhythms, and made widespread use of the Indian raga form. The Art Ensemble of Chicago was an early pioneer in the fusion of African and jazz forms. The world later came to know saxophonist/composer John Zorn and his explorations of Jewish musical culture, both within and outside of the Masada Orchestra. These works inspired entire groups of other jazz musicians, such as keyboardist John Medeski, who recorded with African musician Salif Keita, guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Anthony Coleman. Trumpeter Dave Douglas enthusiastically incorporates Balkan influences into his music, while the Asian-American Jazz Orchestra has emerged as a leading proponent of the convergence of jazz and Asian musical forms. As the globalization of the world continues, jazz continues to be influenced by other musical traditions, providing ripe fodder for future research and proving that jazz is truly a world music.

Jazz in the USSR and Russia

First in the RSFSR
eccentric orchestra
jazz band of Valentin Parnakh

In the mass consciousness, jazz began to gain wide popularity in the 30s, largely thanks to the Leningrad ensemble led by actor and singer Leonid Utesov and trumpeter Ya. B. Skomorovsky. Popular comedy film with his participation “Jolly Guys” (1934, original title"Jazz Comedy") was dedicated to history jazz musician and had a corresponding soundtrack (written by Isaac Dunaevsky). Utyosov and Skomorovsky formed the original style of “thea-jazz” (theater jazz), based on a mixture of music with theater, operetta, vocal numbers and the element of performance played a large role in it.

A notable contribution to the development of Soviet jazz was made by Eddie Rosner, a composer, musician and orchestra leader. Having started his career in Germany, Poland and other European countries, Rosner moved to the USSR and became one of the pioneers of swing in the USSR and the founder of Belarusian jazz. Moscow groups of the 30s and 40s, led by Alexander Tsfasman and Alexander Varlamov, also played an important role in the popularization and development of the swing style. The All-Union Radio Jazz Orchestra conducted by A. Varlamov took part in the first Soviet television program. The only composition that has survived from that time was Oleg Lundstrem's orchestra. This now widely known big band was one of the few and best jazz ensembles of the Russian diaspora, performing in 1935-1947. in China.

The attitude of the Soviet authorities towards jazz was ambiguous: domestic jazz performers, as a rule, were not banned, but harsh criticism of jazz as such was widespread in the context of opposition to Western culture in general. In the late 40s, during the fight against cosmopolitanism, jazz in the USSR was going through a particularly difficult period, when groups performing “Western” music were persecuted. With the beginning of the “thaw”, persecution of musicians stopped, but criticism continued.

According to research by a history professor and American culture Penny Van Eschen, The US State Department tried to use jazz as an ideological weapon against the USSR and against the expansion of Soviet influence in the Third World.

The first book about jazz in the USSR was published by the Leningrad publishing house Academia in 1926. It was compiled by musicologist Semyon Ginzburg from translations of articles by Western composers and music critics, as well as his own materials, and was called “ Jazz band and modern music» .
The next book about jazz was published in the USSR only in the early 1960s. It was written by Valery Mysovsky and Vladimir Feiertag, called “ Jazz” and was essentially a compilation of information that could be obtained from various sources at that time. From that time on, work began on the first encyclopedia of jazz in Russian, which was published only in 2001 by the St. Petersburg publishing house “Skifia”. Encyclopedia " Jazz. XX century Encyclopedic reference book"was prepared by one of the most authoritative jazz critics, Vladimir Feyertag, contained more than a thousand names of jazz personalities and was unanimously recognized as the main Russian-language book about jazz. In 2008, the second edition of the encyclopedia “ Jazz. Encyclopedic reference book", where jazz history has already been carried out until the 21st century, hundreds have been added rare photographs, and the list of jazz names has been increased by almost a quarter.

Latin American jazz

The fusion of Latin rhythmic elements has been present in jazz almost since the beginning of the cultural melting pot that began in New Orleans. Jelly Roll Morton spoke of "Spanish flavors" in his mid- to late-'s recordings. Duke Ellington and other jazz bandleaders also used Latin forms. A major (though not widely recognized) progenitor of Latin jazz, trumpeter/arranger Mario Bausa brought a Cuban orientation from his native Havana to Chick Webb's orchestra in the 's, and a decade later he carried it into the sound of the orchestras of Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson, and Cab Calloway. Working with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in the Calloway Orchestra from the late 's, Bausa introduced a direction that already had a direct connection with Gillespie's big bands of the mid-'s. Gillespie's "love affair" with Latin musical forms continued for the rest of his long career. In 2010, Bausa continued his career by becoming the musical director of the Afro-Cuban Machito Orchestra, fronted by his brother-in-law, percussionist Frank “Machito” Grillo. The 1950s-1960s were marked by a long flirtation between jazz and Latin rhythms, mainly in the bossa nova direction, enriching this synthesis with Brazilian elements of samba. Combining the cool jazz style developed by West Coast musicians, European classical proportions and seductive Brazilian rhythms, bossa nova, or more correctly "Brazilian jazz", became widely known in the United States around 1995. Subtle but hypnotic acoustic guitar rhythms punctuate the simple melodies sung in both Portuguese and English. Discovered by Brazilians João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobin, the style became a dance alternative to hard bop and free jazz in the 1980s, greatly expanding its popularity through recordings and performances by West Coast musicians such as guitarist Charlie Byrd and saxophonist Stan Getz. The musical amalgamation of Latin influences spread through jazz and beyond into the 's and 's, including not only orchestras and bands with top-notch Latino improvisers, but also a combination of native and Latin performers, creating some of the most exciting stage music. This new Latin jazz renaissance was fueled by a constant influx of foreign performers from among Cuban defectors, such as trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, saxophonist and clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, and others who fled Fidel Castro's regime in search of greater opportunities, which they expected to find in New Zealand. York and Florida. It is also believed that the more intense, more danceable qualities of the polyrhythmic music of Latin jazz greatly expanded the jazz audience. True, while maintaining only a minimum of intuitiveness for intellectual perception.

Jazz in the modern world

This section may contain original research.

Jazz as a form musical art appeared in the USA at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, incorporating the musical traditions of European settlers and African folklore melodic designs.

Characteristic improvisation, melodic polyrhythm and expressive performance became the hallmark of the first New Orleans jazz ensembles (jazz-bands) in the first decades of the last century.

Over time, jazz went through periods of development and formation, changing its rhythmic pattern and stylistic direction: from the improvisational style of ragtime, to the danceable orchestral swing and leisurely soft blues.

The period from the early 1920s to the 1940s saw the rise of jazz orchestras (big bands), which consisted of several orchestral sections of saxophones, trombones, trumpets and a rhythm section. The peak of big band popularity occurred in the mid-1930s. Music performed by the jazz orchestras of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman was heard on dance floors and on the radio.

Rich orchestral sound, bright intonations and improvisation of great soloists Coleman Hawkins, Teddy Wilson, Benny Carter and others - created a recognizable and unique big band sound, which is a classic of jazz music.

In the 40-50s. of the last century, the time has come for modern jazz; such jazz styles, like furious bebop, lyrical cool jazz, soft west coast jazz, rhythmic hard bop, soulful soul jazz captured the hearts of jazz music lovers.

In the mid-1960s, a new jazz direction appeared - jazz-rock, a peculiar combination of the energy inherent in rock music and jazz improvisation. Founders jazz style- Miles Davis, Larry Coryell, Billy Cobham are considered rock. In the 70s, jazz-rock became extremely popular. The use of the rhythmic pattern and harmony of rock music, shades of traditional oriental melodic and blues harmony, the use of electric instruments and synthesizers - over time led to the emergence of the term jazz fusion, emphasizing by its name the combination of several musical traditions and influences.

In the 70-80s, jazz music, while maintaining an emphasis on melody and improvisation, acquired features of pop music, funk, rhythm and blues (R&B) and crossover jazz, significantly expanding the audience of listeners and becoming commercially successful.

Modern jazz music, emphasizing clarity, melody and beauty of sound, is usually characterized as smooth jazz or contemporary jazz. The rhythmic and melodic lines of guitar and bass guitar, saxophone and trumpet, keyboard instruments, in the sound frame of synthesizers and samplers create a luxurious, easily recognizable colorful smooth jazz sound.

Despite the fact that smooth jazz and contemporary jazz both have a similar musical style, they are still different jazz styles. As a rule, it is stated that smooth jazz is “background” music, while contemporary jazz is more individual jazz style and requires the listener's close attention. Further development of smooth jazz led to the emergence of lyrical directions of modern jazz– adult contemporary and more rhythmic urban jazz with shades of R&B, funk, hip-hop.

In addition, the emerging trend towards combining smooth jazz and electronic sound has led to the emergence of such popular trends modern music, like nu jazz, as well as lounge, chill and lo-fi.

What is jazz, history of jazz

What is jazz? These exciting rhythms, pleasant live music that continuously develops and moves. This direction, perhaps, cannot be compared with any other, and it is impossible even for a beginner to confuse it with any other genre. Moreover, here’s a paradox: it’s easy to hear and recognize it, but it’s not so easy to describe it in words, because jazz is constantly evolving and the concepts and characteristics used today will become outdated in a year or two.

Jazz - what is it?

Jazz is a direction in music that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. It closely intertwines African rhythms, ritual chants, work and secular songs, and American music of past centuries. In other words, it is a semi-improvisational genre that emerged from the mixing of Western European and West African music.

Where did jazz come from?

It is generally accepted that it originated from Africa, as evidenced by its complex rhythms. Add to this dancing, all kinds of stamping, clapping, and here it is ragtime. The clear rhythms of this genre, combined with blues melodies, gave rise to a new direction, which we call jazz. Having asked the question where this new music came from, any source will give you the answer that from the chants of black slaves who were brought to America at the beginning of the 17th century. They found solace only in music.

At first these were purely African motives, but after several decades they began to be more improvisational in nature and overgrown with new American melodies, mainly religious melodies - spirituals. Later, lament songs were added to this - blues and small brass bands. And so a new direction arose - jazz.

What are the features of jazz music

The first and most important feature is improvisation. Musicians must be able to improvise both in an orchestra and solo. Another equally significant feature is polyrhythm. Rhythmic freedom is perhaps the most important feature of jazz music. It is this freedom that gives musicians a feeling of lightness and continuous movement forward. Remember any jazz composition? It seems that the performers are easily playing some wonderful and pleasant to the ear melody, there are no strict boundaries, as in classical music, only amazing lightness and relaxation. Of course, jazz works, like classical ones, have their own rhythm, meter, etc., but thanks to a special rhythm called swing (from the English swing) such a feeling of freedom arises. What else is important for this direction? Of course, a beat or otherwise a regular pulsation.

Development of jazz

Having originated in New Orleans, jazz is rapidly spreading, becoming more and more popular. Amateur groups, consisting mainly of Africans and Creoles, begin to perform not only in restaurants, but also tour other cities. Thus, in the north of the country, another center of jazz is emerging - Chicago, where night performances by musical groups are in particular demand. The compositions performed are complicated by arrangements. Among the performers of that period, the most notable Louis Armstrong , who moved to Chicago from the city where jazz was born. Later, the styles of these cities were combined into Dixieland, which was characterized by collective improvisation.

The massive passion for jazz in the 1930s and 1940s led to a demand for larger orchestras that could perform a variety of dance tunes. Thanks to this, swing appeared, which represents some deviations from the rhythmic pattern. It became the main direction of this time and pushed collective improvisation into the background. Groups performing swing began to be called big bands.

Of course, such a departure of swing from the features inherent in early jazz, from national melodies, caused discontent among true music connoisseurs. That is why big bands and swing performers are beginning to be opposed to the playing of small ensembles, which included black musicians. Thus, in the 1940s there arises new style bebop, which stands out clearly among other types of music. He was characterized by incredibly fast melodies, long improvisation, and complex rhythmic patterns. Among the performers of this time, figures stand out Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Since 1950, jazz has developed in two different directions. On the one hand, adherents of the classics returned to academic music, pushing bebop aside. The resulting cool jazz became more restrained and dry. On the other hand, the second line continued to develop bebop. Against this background, hard bop arose, returning traditional folk intonations, a clear rhythmic pattern and improvisation. This style developed together with such trends as soul-jazz and jazz-funk. They brought the music closest to the blues.

Free music

In the 1960s, various experiments and searches for new forms were carried out. As a result, jazz-rock and jazz-pop appear, combining two different directions, as well as free jazz, in which performers completely abandon the regulation of rhythmic pattern and tone. Among the musicians of this time, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, and Pat Metheny became famous.

Soviet jazz

Initially, Soviet jazz orchestras mainly performed fashionable dances such as the foxtrot and Charleston. In the 1930s, a new direction began to gain increasing popularity. Despite the fact that the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards jazz music was ambiguous, it was not banned, but at the same time it was harshly criticized as belonging to Western culture. In the late 40s, jazz groups were completely persecuted. In the 1950s and 60s, the activities of the orchestras of Oleg Lundstrem and Eddie Rosner resumed and more and more musicians became interested in the new direction.

Even today, jazz is constantly and dynamically developing, many directions and styles are emerging. This music continues to absorb sounds and melodies from all corners of our planet, saturating it with more and more new colors, rhythms and melodies.

Jazz - a form of musical art that arose at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century in the USA, in New Orleans, as a result of the synthesis of African and European cultures and subsequently became widespread. The origins of jazz were the blues and other African-American folk music. Characteristics The musical language of jazz initially became improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms, and a unique set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture - swing. The further development of jazz occurred due to the development of new rhythmic and harmonic models by jazz musicians and composers. The genres of jazz are: avant-garde jazz, bebop, classic jazz, cool, modal jazz, swing, smooth jazz, soul jazz, free jazz, fusion, hard bop and a number of others.

History of jazz development

Vilex College Jazz Band, Texas

Jazz arose as a combination of several musical cultures and national traditions. It originally came from Africa. Any African music is characterized by a very complex rhythm; the music is always accompanied by dancing, which consists of rapid stamping and clapping. On this basis, at the end of the 19th century, another musical genre emerged - ragtime. Subsequently, ragtime rhythms combined with blues elements gave rise to a new musical direction - jazz.

The blues arose at the end of the 19th century as a fusion of African rhythms and European harmony, but its origins should be sought from the moment of the importation of slaves from Africa to the territory of the New World. The brought slaves did not come from the same family and usually did not even understand each other. The need for consolidation led to the unification of many cultures and, as a result, to the creation of a single culture (including musical) of African Americans. The processes of mixing African musical culture and European (which also underwent serious changes in the New World) occurred starting from the 18th century and in the 19th century led to the emergence of “proto-jazz”, and then jazz in the generally accepted sense. The cradle of jazz was the American South, and especially New Orleans.
The key to eternal youth in jazz is improvisation
The peculiarity of the style is the unique individual performance of a virtuoso jazzman. The key to eternal youth in jazz is improvisation. After the emergence of a brilliant performer who lived his entire life in the rhythm of jazz and still remains a legend - Louis Armstrong, the art of jazz performance saw new and unusual horizons: vocal or instrumental solo performance becomes the center of the entire performance, completely changing the idea of jazz. Jazz is not only a certain type of musical performance, but also a unique, cheerful era.

New Orleans jazz

The term New Orleans usually refers to the style of jazz musicians who played jazz in New Orleans between 1900 and 1917, as well as New Orleans musicians who played and recorded in Chicago from about 1917 through the 1920s. This period of jazz history is also known as the Jazz Age. And this concept is also used to describe the music performed at various historical periods by representatives of the New Orleans revival, who sought to perform jazz in the same style as the musicians of the New Orleans school.

African-American folk and jazz have diverged paths since the opening of Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, famous for its entertainment venues. Those who wanted to have fun and have fun were offered a lot of tempting opportunities, which were offered by dance floors, cabarets, variety shows, a circus, bars and snack bars. And everywhere in these establishments music sounded and musicians who mastered the new syncopated music could find work. Gradually, with the increase in the number of musicians working professionally in the entertainment establishments of Storyville, the number of marching and street brass bands decreased, and in their place the so-called Storyville ensembles emerged, the musical manifestation of which becomes more individual, in comparison with the playing of brass bands. These compositions, often called “combo orchestras,” became the founders of the style of classic New Orleans jazz. From 1910 to 1917, Storyville nightclubs became an ideal environment for jazz.
From 1910 to 1917, Storyville's nightclubs provided an ideal environment for jazz.
The development of jazz in the USA in the first quarter of the 20th century

After the closure of Storyville, jazz from a regional folk genre begins to transform into a national musical trend, spreading to the northern and northeastern provinces of the United States. But its wide spread, of course, could not have been facilitated only by the closure of one entertainment district. Along with New Orleans, St. Louis, Kansas City and Memphis played a major role in the development of jazz from the very beginning. Ragtime originated in Memphis in the 19th century, from where it later spread throughout the North American continent in the period 1890-1903.

On the other hand, minstrel shows, with their colorful mosaic of all kinds of musical movements of African-American folklore from jigs to ragtime, quickly spread everywhere and prepared the way for the arrival of jazz. Many future jazz celebrities began their careers in minstrel shows. Long before Storyville closed, New Orleans musicians went on tour with so-called “vaudeville” troupes. Jelly Roll Morton toured regularly in Alabama, Florida, and Texas since 1904. Since 1914 he had a contract to perform in Chicago. In 1915, Thom Browne's white Dixieland orchestra also moved to Chicago. The famous “Creole Band,” led by New Orleans cornetist Freddie Keppard, also made major vaudeville tours in Chicago. Having separated at one time from the Olympia Band, Freddie Keppard's artists already in 1914 successfully performed in the best theater in Chicago and received an offer to make a sound recording of their performances even before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which, however, Freddie Keppard short-sightedly rejected. The area covered by the influence of jazz was significantly expanded by orchestras that played on pleasure steamers sailing up the Mississippi.

Since the end of the 19th century, river trips from New Orleans to St. Paul have become popular, first for a weekend, and later for a whole week. Since 1900, New Orleans orchestras have been performing on these riverboats, and their music has become the most attractive entertainment for passengers during river tours. The future wife of Louis Armstrong, the first jazz pianist Lil Hardin, started in one of these “Suger Johnny” orchestras. Another pianist, Fates Marable's riverboat orchestra, featured many future New Orleans jazz stars.

Steamships traveling along the river often stopped at passing stations, where orchestras staged concerts for the local public. It was these concerts that became the creative debuts for Bix Beiderbeck, Jess Stacy and many others. Another famous route ran through Missouri to Kansas City. In this city, where, thanks to the strong roots of African-American folklore, the blues developed and finally took shape, the virtuoso playing of New Orleans jazzmen found an exceptionally fertile environment. By the early 1920s, Chicago became the main center for the development of jazz music, where, through the efforts of many musicians gathered from different parts of the United States, a style was created that was nicknamed Chicago jazz.

Big bands

The classic, established form of big bands has been known in jazz since the early 1920s. This form remained relevant until the end of the 1940s. The musicians who joined most big bands, as a rule, almost in adolescence, played very specific parts, either memorized at rehearsals, or from notes. Careful orchestrations coupled with large brass and woodwind sections brought out rich jazz harmonies and created a sensationally loud sound that became known as “the big band sound.”

The big band became the popular music of its time, reaching its peak of fame in the mid-1930s. This music became the source of the swing dancing craze. The leaders of the famous jazz orchestras Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Lunsford, Charlie Barnett composed or arranged and recorded a veritable hit parade of tunes that were heard not only on the radio , but also everywhere in dance halls. Many big bands showcased their improvising soloists, who whipped audiences into a state of near hysteria during well-promoted “battles of the bands.”
Many big bands demonstrated their improvising soloists, who brought the audience to a state close to hysteria
Although the popularity of big bands declined significantly after World War II, orchestras led by Basie, Ellington, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Harry James and many others toured and recorded frequently over the next few decades. Their music gradually transformed under the influence of new trends. Groups such as ensembles led by Boyd Rayburn, Sun Ra, Oliver Nelson, Charles Mingus, and Tad Jones-Mal Lewis explored new concepts in harmony, instrumentation, and improvisational freedom. Today, big bands are the standard in jazz education. Repertory orchestras such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterpiece Orchestra, and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble regularly play original arrangements of big band compositions.

Northeast jazz

Although the history of jazz began in New Orleans with the advent of the 20th century, the music really took off in the early 1920s when trumpeter Louis Armstrong left New Orleans to create revolutionary new music in Chicago. The migration of New Orleans jazz masters to New York, which began shortly thereafter, marked a trend of constant movement of jazz musicians from the South to the North.

Louis Armstrong

Chicago took the music of New Orleans and made it hot, raising its intensity not only with the efforts of Armstrong's famous Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, but also others, including such masters as Eddie Condon and Jimmy McPartland, whose crew at Austin High School helped revive the New Orleans schools. Other notable Chicagoans who pushed the boundaries of classic New Orleans jazz include pianist Art Hodes, drummer Barrett Deems, and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Armstrong and Goodman, who eventually moved to New York, created a kind of critical mass there that helped the city turn into a true jazz capital of the world. And while Chicago remained primarily a recording center in the first quarter of the 20th century, New York also became a major jazz venue, with such legendary clubs as the Minton Playhouse, the Cotton Club, the Savoy and the Village Vanguard, and also such arenas as Carnegie Hall.

Kansas City style

During the era of the Great Depression and Prohibition, the Kansas City jazz scene became a mecca for the newfangled sounds of the late 1920s and 1930s. The style that flourished in Kansas City was characterized by heartfelt, blues-tinged pieces performed by both big bands and small swing ensembles that featured high-energy solos performed for the patrons of speakeasies selling liquor. It was in these zucchini that the style of the great Count Basie, who began in Kansas City in Walter Page's orchestra and subsequently with Benny Mouthen, crystallized. Both of these orchestras were typical representatives of the Kansas City style, the basis of which was a unique form of blues, called “urban blues” and formed in the playing of the above-mentioned orchestras. The Kansas City jazz scene was also distinguished by a whole galaxy of outstanding masters of vocal blues, the recognized “king” of which was the long-time soloist of the Count Basie orchestra, the famous blues singer Jimmy Rushing. The famous alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, born in Kansas City, upon his arrival in New York, widely used the characteristic blues “tricks” that he had learned in the Kansas City orchestras and which later formed one of the starting points in the bopper experiments in the 1940s.

West Coast Jazz

Artists caught up in the cool jazz movement of the 1950s worked extensively in Los Angeles recording studios. Largely influenced by Miles Davis' nonet, these Los Angeles-based performers developed what is now known as "West Coast Jazz." West Coast jazz was much softer than the furious bebop that preceded it. Most West Coast jazz was written out in large detail. The counterpoint lines often used in these compositions seemed to be part of the European influence that had permeated jazz. However, this music left a lot of space for long linear solo improvisations. Although West Coast Jazz was performed primarily in recording studios, clubs such as the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach and the Haig in Los Angeles often featured its major masters, including trumpeter Shorty Rogers, saxophonists Art Pepper and Bud Schenk, drummer Shelley Mann and clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre.

Spread of jazz

Dave Brubeck

Jazz constantly absorbed not only Western musical traditions. For example, when different artists began to try working with musical elements of India. An example of these efforts can be heard in the recordings of flautist Paul Horne at the Taj Mahal, or in the stream of "world music" represented, for example, in the work of the Oregon group or John McLaughlin's Shakti project. McLaughlin's music, previously largely jazz-based, during his time with Shakti began to introduce new instruments of Indian origin, such as the khatam or tabla, introduced intricate rhythms, and made extensive use of the Indian raga form.
As the globalization of the world continues, jazz continues to be influenced by other musical traditions
The Art Ensemble of Chicago was an early pioneer in the fusion of African and jazz forms. The world later came to know saxophonist/composer John Zorn and his explorations of Jewish musical culture, both within and outside of the Masada Orchestra. These works inspired entire groups of other jazz musicians, such as keyboardist John Medeski, who recorded with African musician Salif Keita, guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Anthony Coleman. Trumpeter Dave Douglas enthusiastically incorporates Balkan influences into his music, while the Asian-American Jazz Orchestra has emerged as a leading proponent of the convergence of jazz and Asian musical forms. As the globalization of the world continues, jazz continues to be influenced by other musical traditions, providing ripe fodder for future research and demonstrating that jazz is truly a world music.

Jazz in the USSR and Russia

Valentin Parnakh's first jazz band in the RSFSR

The jazz scene emerged in the USSR in the 1920s, simultaneously with its heyday in the USA. The first jazz orchestra in Soviet Russia was created in Moscow in 1922 by a poet, translator, dancer, theatrical figure Valentin Parnakh and was called “The first eccentric orchestra of jazz bands of Valentin Parnakh in the RSFSR.” The birthday of Russian jazz is traditionally considered to be October 1, 1922, when the first concert of this group took place. The first professional jazz ensemble to perform on the radio and record a record is considered to be the orchestra of pianist and composer Alexander Tsfasman (Moscow).

Early Soviet jazz bands specialized in performing fashionable dances (foxtrot, Charleston). In the mass consciousness, jazz began to gain wide popularity in the 30s, largely thanks to the Leningrad ensemble led by actor and singer Leonid Utesov and trumpeter Ya. B. Skomorovsky. The popular comedy film with his participation “Jolly Guys” (1934) was dedicated to the history of the jazz musician and had a corresponding soundtrack (written by Isaac Dunaevsky). Utesov and Skomorovsky formed the original style of “thea-jazz” (theater jazz), based on a mixture of music with theater, operetta, vocal numbers and the element of performance played a large role in it. A notable contribution to the development of Soviet jazz was made by Eddie Rosner, a composer, musician and orchestra leader. Having started his career in Germany, Poland and other European countries, Rosner moved to the USSR and became one of the pioneers of swing in the USSR and the founder of Belarusian jazz.
In the mass consciousness, jazz began to gain wide popularity in the USSR in the 1930s.
The attitude of the Soviet authorities towards jazz was ambiguous: domestic jazz performers, as a rule, were not banned, but harsh criticism of jazz as such was widespread, in the context of criticism Western culture generally. At the end of the 40s, during the fight against cosmopolitanism, jazz in the USSR was going through a particularly difficult period, when groups performing “Western” music were persecuted. With the onset of the Thaw, repressions against musicians ceased, but criticism continued. According to the research of history and American culture professor Penny Van Eschen, the US State Department tried to use jazz as an ideological weapon against the USSR and against the expansion of Soviet influence into third world countries. In the 50s and 60s. In Moscow, the orchestras of Eddie Rosner and Oleg Lundstrem resumed their activities, new compositions appeared, among which the orchestras of Joseph Weinstein (Leningrad) and Vadim Ludvikovsky (Moscow), as well as the Riga Variety Orchestra (REO), stood out.

Big bands brought up a galaxy of talented arrangers and soloists-improvisers, whose work brought Soviet jazz to a qualitatively new level and brought it closer to world standards. Among them are Georgy Garanyan, Boris Frumkin, Alexey Zubov, Vitaly Dolgov, Igor Kantyukov, Nikolay Kapustin, Boris Matveev, Konstantin Nosov, Boris Rychkov, Konstantin Bakholdin. The development of chamber and club jazz begins in all the diversity of its stylistics (Vyacheslav Ganelin, David Goloshchekin, Gennady Golshtein, Nikolay Gromin, Vladimir Danilin, Alexey Kozlov, Roman Kunsman, Nikolay Levinovsky, German Lukyanov, Alexander Pishchikov, Alexey Kuznetsov, Victor Fridman, Andrey Tovmasyan , Igor Bril, Leonid Chizhik, etc.)

Jazz club "Blue Bird"

Many of the above-mentioned masters of Soviet jazz began their creative path on the stage of the legendary Moscow jazz club "Blue Bird", which existed from 1964 to 2009, discovering new names of representatives of the modern generation of Russian jazz stars (brothers Alexander and Dmitry Bril, Anna Buturlina, Yakov Okun, Roman Miroshnichenko and others). In the 70s, the jazz trio “Ganelin-Tarasov-Chekasin” (GTC) consisting of pianist Vyacheslav Ganelin, drummer Vladimir Tarasov and saxophonist Vladimir Chekasin, which existed until 1986, became widely known. In the 70s and 80s, the jazz quartet from Azerbaijan “Gaya” and the Georgian vocal and instrumental ensembles “Orera” and “Jazz Chorale” were also famous.

After a decline in interest in jazz in the 90s, it began to gain popularity again in youth culture. Jazz music festivals such as “Usadba Jazz” and “Jazz in the Hermitage Garden” are held annually in Moscow. The most popular jazz club venue in Moscow is the jazz club "Union of Composers", inviting world famous jazz and blues performers.

Jazz in the modern world

The modern world of music is as diverse as the climate and geography we experience through travel. And yet, today we are witnessing the mixing of an increasing number of world cultures, constantly bringing us closer to what, in essence, is already becoming “world music” (world music). Today's jazz can no longer help but be influenced by sounds penetrating into it from almost every corner of the globe. European experimentalism with classical overtones continues to influence the music of young pioneers such as Ken Vandermark, a free jazz avant-garde saxophonist known for his work with such notable contemporaries as saxophonists Mats Gustafsson, Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann. Other young, more traditional musicians who continue to search for their own identity include pianists Jackie Terrasson, Benny Green and Braid Meldoa, saxophonists Joshua Redman and David Sanchez and drummers Jeff Watts and Billy Stewart.

The old tradition of sound is being carried forward rapidly by artists such as trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who works with a team of assistants, both in his own small groups and in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, which he leads. Under his patronage, pianists Marcus Roberts and Eric Reed, saxophonist Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson, trumpeter Marcus Printup and vibraphonist Stefan Harris grew into great musicians. Bassist Dave Holland is also a great discoverer of young talent. His many discoveries include artists such as saxophonist/M-bassist Steve Coleman, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Steve Nelson and drummer Billy Kilson. Other great mentors to young talent include pianist Chick Corea and the late drummer Elvin Jones and singer Betty Carter. Potential Opportunities further development jazz is currently quite large, since the ways of developing talent and the means of its expression are unpredictable, multiplying by the combined efforts of various jazz genres encouraged today.

The term "jazz" was first used in the mid-1910s. Back then, this word was used to designate small orchestras and the music they performed.

The main features of jazz are: unconventional techniques sound production and intonation, the improvisational nature of the transmission of the melody, as well as its development, constant rhythmic pulsation, intense emotionality.

Jazz has several styles, the first of which was formed between 1900 and 1920. This style, called New Orleans, is characterized by collective improvisation of the melodic group of the orchestra (cornet, clarinet, trombone) against the background of a four-beat accompaniment of the rhythm group (drums, winds or strings, bass, banjo, and in some cases piano).

New Orleans style is called classic or traditional. This is also Dixieland - a style variety that arose on the basis of imitation of black New Orleans music, which was hotter and more energetic. Gradually, this difference between Dixieland and New Orleans style was practically lost.

The New Orleans style is characterized by collective improvisation with a clear emphasis on the leading voice. For improvisational choruses, a melodic-harmonic blues structure was used.

Among the many orchestras that have turned to this style, one can highlight J. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. In addition to Oliver (cornetist), it included the talented clarinetist Johnny Dodds and the incomparable Louis Armstrong, who later became the founder of his own orchestras - “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven”, where instead of the clarinet he took the trumpet.

The New Orleans style brought to the world a number of real stars who had a great influence on the musicians of subsequent generations. Mention should be made of pianist J. Roll Morton and clarinetist Jimmy Noone. But jazz went beyond the borders of New Orleans mainly thanks to Louis Armstrong and clarinetist Sidney Bechet. It was they who were able to prove to the world that jazz is primarily the art of soloists.

Louis Armstrong Orchestra

In the 1920s, the Chicago style emerged with its characteristic features of performing dance pieces. The main thing here was solo improvisation, following the collective presentation of the main theme. White musicians, many of whom had professional musical education, made a significant contribution to the development of this style. Thanks to them, jazz music was enriched with elements of European harmony and performing technique. In contrast to the hot New Orleans style that developed in the American South, the more northern Chicago style became much cooler.

Among the outstanding white performers, it is necessary to note the musicians who, in the late 1920s, were not inferior in skill to their black colleagues. These are clarinetists Pee Wee Russell, Frank Teschemacher and Benny Goodman, trombonist Jack Teagarden and, of course, the brightest star of American jazz - cornetist Bix Beiderbeck.