Jimmy Smith - revolutionary jazz organist.

Jazz

At a Glance

A music created mainly by African Americans in the early 20th century through an amalgamation of elements drawn from European-American and tribal African musics. Among its distinctive characteristics are the use of improvisation, bent pitches or ‘blue notes’, swing and polyrhythms.

The earliest form, New Orleans jazz, evolved from the fusion of black folk forms such as ragtime and blues with various popular musics. It emerged in the 1910s and spread to other parts of the USA. Bop, cool, Dixieland and Mainstream jazz (a modified form of swing) co-existed through the 1950s. But by the early 1960s the decline of bop as an active force and the effects of a contraction of audiences brought about changes.

A new era of experiment was begun. The movements of modal jazz, in which Miles Davis was particularly influential, and the avant-garde free jazz sprang up; John Coltrane was an important exponent of both. Later in the decade, Davis again acted as a catalyst for jazz-rock or ‘fusion music’, which united jazz improvisation with the amplified instruments and rhythmic character of rock.

"jazz." The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press, Inc., 1994.
Answers.com 06 Dec. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/jazz

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