Jazz Instrumental Music
Jazz instrumental music got its beginning at the beginning of the 20th century. African American communities developed this unique, swing, band-style music. They combined the tradition of African and European music.
In its early years, instrumental jazz music spawned a variety of sub genres. In the 1910s it was known in New Orleans as Dixieland dating. In the 1930s and 1940s it was known as big band style swing. In the 1940s it was known by bebop. On into the 1950s and 1960s instrumental jazz spawned Latin jazz fusions. These were known as Afro-Cuban and Brazilian Jazz. Later in the 1970s jazz instrumental fused with rock to form jazz-rock fusion. In the 1980s jazz instrumentals developed into acid jazz which became the influence for funk and hip hop.
Jazz instrumental music is the rebel of all music. It has no rules. It is the artists improvision of sound, his way of telling his story. It is a mixture of the blues, polyrhythms, syncopation, and swung note. You can’t define it. You can feel it, mold it, shape it. But you can’t explain it. You have to feel it.
Jazz musician, Art Blakey, says, “No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.”
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