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¡¡¡¡Defining Jazz

¡¡¡¡You may have heard of Kenny G, but what do you really know about jazz? Jazz is a genuinely American art form that has blossomedsintosa worldwide phenomenon. It is certainly much more than mere background music.

¡¡¡¡Jazz comes in a wide variety of styles, and has several defining features. The most important of these is improvisation.1 Jazz musicians do not follow a set piece of music note by note, but make up melodies and chord changes as they play. Such improvisation is based on a musician¡¯s creative impulses,2 and is often inspired by interactions with the other players or the audience. It is this energetic feedback and element of anticipation that gives jazz its incredible dynamism. A piece is never played the same way twice.

¡¡¡¡The originators of jazz were African-Americans in the early 20th century who fused3 African rhythms with European ideas of harmony and melody. Jazz¡¯s use of rhythm is unique in that it is¡°syncopated¡±; that is, the rhythm is irregular. Jazz is also polyrhythmic, which means many rhythms revolve around one basic one.

¡¡¡¡Another musical genre created by African-Americans, the blues, has heavily influenced jazz as well as rock and roll. About one third of jazz is in blues form with twelve measures4 in a song and uses ---blue notes,¡±the flatted third, fifth, and seventh notes of the musical scale.