The ‘two-page’ history of jazz
Jazz
The historical period
In every style in the historical period there is a different relation between the melody section and the rhythm section. Improvisation and swing and also the instrumentation in the melody section and the rhythm section were shaped differently from style to style.
Jazz evolved from simple to complex. In the New Orleans Style and Swing improvisation was restricted to melodic variation but in Bebop, Cool Jazz and Hard Bop, improvisation become more complex. In Free Jazz and Rock Jazz improvisation became extremely complex. Also swing, the rhythmical flow became more complex as the styles in jazz evolved. From the end of the historical period on, the influence of jazz musicians in Europe increased in developping and defining the styles.
The institutional period
The seven historical styles in jazz were simultaneously studied and rediscovered in non-for-profit institutions such as academies, conservatories, universities, and musics schools from all over the world.
Jazz was as well promoted and distributed by for-profit organizations such as festivals and record companies. Most attention commercial support went to jazz musicians from the USA. Jazz musicians in Europe, as well as elsewhere in the world, developed personal ways of playing, and often were weaving their musical background into jazz.
In the institutional period at first the emphasis was at Bebop and Hard Bop but at the end of the century all historical styles in jazz were re-discovered and re-invented. In the first decade of the 21st century a mixing of all style elements of jazz and non-jazz started to take place.
The digital period
The future of jazz
In the second decade of the 21st century, in the digital period of jazz with new technology causing a paradigm shift in the production-distribution-reception chain, musicians from all over the world, now play and will be playing key roles in the development of jazz.
Wouter Turkenburg