Jazz

American jazz composer, lyricist, and pianist Eubie Blake made an early contribution to the genre's etymology
Albert Gleizes, 1915, Composition for "Jazz" from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Ethel Waters sang "Stormy Weather" at the Cotton Club.
Al Jolson in 1929
Dance in Congo Square in the late 1700s, artist's conception by E. W. Kemble from a century later
In the late 18th-century painting The Old Plantation, African-Americans dance to banjo and percussion.
The blackface Virginia Minstrels in 1843, featuring tambourine, fiddle, banjo and bones
Scott Joplin in 1903
W. C. Handy at 19, 1892
The Bolden Band around 1905
Jelly Roll Morton, in Los Angeles, California, c. 1917 or 1918
The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas, January 1921
Louis Armstrong began his career in New Orleans and became one of jazz's most recognizable performers.
Benny Goodman (1943)
Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club (1943)
The "classic quintet": Charlie Parker, Tommy Potter, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Max Roach performing at Three Deuces in New York City. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb (August 1947), Library of Congress.
Machito (maracas) and his sister Graciella Grillo (claves)
Dizzy Gillespie, 1955
Mongo Santamaria (1969)
Art Blakey (1973)
John Coltrane, 1963
Peter Brötzmann is a key figure in European free jazz.
Naná Vasconcelos playing the Afro-Brazilian Berimbau
Randy Weston
C pentatonic scale beginning on the I (C pentatonic), IV (F pentatonic), and V (G pentatonic) steps of the scale.
V pentatonic scale over II–V–I chord progression
Fusion trumpeter Miles Davis in 1989
Wynton Marsalis
David Sanborn, 2008
John Zorn performing in 2006
Steve Coleman in Paris, July 2004

Music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime.

- Jazz
American jazz composer, lyricist, and pianist Eubie Blake made an early contribution to the genre's etymology

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Jennifer Lopez performing at a pop music festival

Music genre

Conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.

Conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.

Jennifer Lopez performing at a pop music festival
Two DJs practicing turntablism
Piano accordion: Italian instrument used in several cultures
Metallica performing at the O2 Arena, March 28, 2009
John Scofield at the stage of Energimølla. The concert was part of Kongsberg Jazzfestival and took place on 6 July 2017

Examples of fusion genres include jazz fusion, which is a fusion of jazz and rock music, and country rock which is a fusion of country music and rock music.

Benny Goodman, one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame

Swing music

Benny Goodman, one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame
Frank Sinatra

Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1921

Big band

Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1921
The United States Navy Band Northwest (NBNW) Big Band plays at a concert held in Oak Harbor High School.
Typical seating arrangement for a 17-piece big band
Ockbrook Big Band at Pride Park Stadium
Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee
Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, led a 50-piece military band that specialized in swing music
The Grand Central Big Band.

A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section.

Blue notes (in blue): 3, (4)/5, 7

Blue note

Blue notes (in blue): 3, (4)/5, 7

In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard.

Alto sax player Charlie Parker was a leading performer and composer of the bebop era. He is pictured here with Tommy Potter, Max Roach and Miles Davis at the Three Deuces club in New York City.

Bebop

Alto sax player Charlie Parker was a leading performer and composer of the bebop era. He is pictured here with Tommy Potter, Max Roach and Miles Davis at the Three Deuces club in New York City.
"In spite of the explanations of the origins of these words, players actually did sing the words "bebop" and "rebop" to an early bop phrase as shown in the following example."
Several bebop musicians headlining on 52nd Street, May 1948
Dizzy Gillespie, at the Downbeat Club, NYC, ca 1947

Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States.

Guitarist performing a C chord with G bass

Chord (music)

Any harmonic set of pitches/frequencies consisting of multiple notes that are heard as if sounding simultaneously.

Any harmonic set of pitches/frequencies consisting of multiple notes that are heard as if sounding simultaneously.

Guitarist performing a C chord with G bass

Chords with more than three notes include added tone chords, extended chords and tone clusters, which are used in contemporary classical music, jazz and almost any other genre.

The Horace Silver Quintet performing in Amsterdam around 1960.

Hard bop

The Horace Silver Quintet performing in Amsterdam around 1960.
The Jazz Messengers, including Lee Morgan (left), Jymie Merritt (center), and Art Blakey (right)
Horace Silver

Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music.

Scherzo in A flat by the Russian Romantic era composer Alexander Borodin (1833–1887)

Musical improvisation

Creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians.

Creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians.

Scherzo in A flat by the Russian Romantic era composer Alexander Borodin (1833–1887)

Improvisation is a major part of some types of 20th-century music, such as blues, rock music, jazz, and jazz fusion, in which instrumental performers improvise solos, melody lines and accompaniment parts.

An image of Django Reinhardt, "originator" of gypsy jazz, presides over the Hot Club de Norvège at Djangofestivalen 2018

Gypsy jazz

An image of Django Reinhardt, "originator" of gypsy jazz, presides over the Hot Club de Norvège at Djangofestivalen 2018
Original 78 release by the Quintette du Hot Club de France.
Selmer Maccaferri type guitars. Distinctive sound holes and "floating" wooden bridges
Belgian virtuoso violinist Yves Teicher and the Chorda Trio at la Ferme de la Madelonne in Gouvy (Belgium) during the 2007 Djangofolllies.
La Pompe.
Fapy Lafertin, guitarist on stage in London, 1983.
Nova Scotia band Gypsophilia in 2010.
Stochelo Rosenberg performing with the Rosenberg Trio in the Netherlands in 2002
US band Pearl Django performs in Seattle. Note the accordion player on the left.

Gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy swing, jazz manouche or hot club-style jazz) is a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–53), in conjunction with the French swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–97), as expressed in their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France.

Louis Jordan in New York City, c. undefined July 1946

Rhythm and blues

Genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s.

Genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s.

Louis Jordan in New York City, c. undefined July 1946
The habanera rhythm shown as tresillo (lower notes) with the backbeat (upper note)
Fats Domino in 1956
Piano excerpt from the rumba boogie "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" (1949) by Professor Longhair. 2–3 claves are written above for rhythmic reference.
3–2 clave written in two measures in cut-time
Tresillo answered by the backbeat, the essence of clave in African American music
Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley beat" is a clave-based motif.
Ray Charles in 1971
Ruth Brown was known as the "Queen of R&B"
Della Reese
Sam Cooke
Eric Burdon & the Animals (1964)

The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.