I was bought up in a heavy Jazz background, and you learn to recognize when Jazz is being played - but it has escaped most people to be able to define exactly what Jazz is. Anyone care to try? Anyone care?
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boredrich
- 2008-06-05 @ 11:11:20
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DominicGee
- 2008-06-05 @ 12:08:24
it's bugged me for ages. Improvisational instrumental music? I think in a sense, Jazz is not a type of music, but an adjective - a way of describing intrumental music that has one or many of certain traits. But what are these traits? Goatee beards? Elbow patches? Previous heroin addiction?
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nultygoestopartick
- 2008-06-05 @ 12:07:50
There is a pub in Partick that has a jazz session every Sunday
i think it is The George McGowan Band anyway it is made up of sixty somethings but by god can they play.
The biggest surprise is the amount of people who go up and sing or play the instruments. Jazz is one very good Sunday afternoon.
It's a real ale pub too!-
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DominicGee
- 2008-06-05 @ 12:10:45
i think being excellent (and showing it) at the instrument you play comes into it. Jazz musicians have to be psychotically addicted to being good at their instrument. It can get very very good as you say, and the fact that all and sundry can join in shows its roots.
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jenray
Pro - http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 2008-06-05 @ 12:23:45
Jazz I think comes from the heart, and is the only music that allows for improvisation so each piece can be a unique experience for both the player and the listener...hubby is an ardent Jazz enthusiast and has been since a teenager, so I've learned to love it too...trouble is a lot of the first class musicians have died now and only a few are left...Hubby says Jazz is music your head, hands, heart and feet feel at the same time...if any of these are missing, it's not Jazz...as said he believes by Benny Green way back in 1958...great big hugs...
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DominicGee
- 2008-06-05 @ 17:26:37
I think you're right - it's difficult to define Jazz because it requires such an emotional response. It has spawned so many sub-genres and taken influence from so much around the world. When did Jazz start? Was it in CHicago in the 20s or was that just when the word was invented?
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jenray
Pro
- http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 2008-06-05 @ 19:03:53
Here's a good article on the origins of jazz
http://www.musiclessonsonline.co.uk/JazzMusic.html
Hope that helps..
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SeasideMan
Pro - 2008-06-05 @ 12:40:48
It's a type of music characterized by heavy use of improvised variations on a theme, syncopation, and the use of multiple rhythms in a single piece.
That's not going to catch every flavour, but I think it's close enough to get most.
Tom. -
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neonmeatdreams
- 2008-06-05 @ 12:46:51
Personally I find jazz is a type of music often enjoyed more by the musicians that are playing than the people who are listening to it.
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DominicGee
- 2008-06-05 @ 14:18:49
very true. haha. I used to live above my dad's Jazz club when I was younger, and the audience to the band was often incidental.
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joebangles
- 2008-06-05 @ 13:58:36
There are so many style of jazz that some you catch on to right away and some leave you cold.
Traditional jazz, the late Humphrey Lytttelton, Chris Barber, type has been my favourite for many years, but Modern jazz leaves me cold.
Piano players like Count Basie and Fats Waller make fantastic listening for me, Louis Armstrong was a great, but even some of their stuff I fast forward.
Jazz is a very personal taste and there is so much to choose from.-
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DominicGee
- 2008-06-05 @ 17:27:42
I think the modern Jazz you speak of is known as 'Arty-Farty' and can be very irritating.
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In reality jazz formed its background from slavery not just the African slavery but all slavery back to the roman times. Including the poor who have no choice but to work for the rich…music was the one thing that could never be taken from you but instruments were unavailable unless you made your own and people did but the quality was always poor and therefore the music had to compensate and come from the heart and soul this is the bases of jazz music that was created by the imagination of the heart and soul not necessarily dependant on talent!
Well you did ask! !
feelings music? hmm but then all music is feeling music isnt it?