| Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New | | | | Jazz as a genre is often difficult to define, but |
| Orleans, Louisiana, United States at around the start | | | | improvisation is a key element of the form. |
| of the 20th century. Born out of a blend of African | | | | Improvisation has been an essential element in |
| American musical styles with Western music | | | | African and African-American music since early forms |
| technique and theory, jazz uses blue notes, | | | | of the music developed, and is closely related to the |
| syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, | | | | use of call and response in West African and |
| and improvisation among its many stylistic markers. | | | | African-American cultural expression. |
| Jazz has roots in the combination of West African | | | | The form of improvisation has changed over time. |
| and Western music traditions, including spirituals, blues | | | | Early folk blues music often was based around a call |
| and ragtime, stemming from West Africa, western | | | | and response pattern, and improvisation would factor |
| Sahel, and New England's religious hymns, hillbilly music, | | | | in the lyrics, the melody, or both. In Dixieland jazz, |
| and European military band music. After originating in | | | | musicians take turns playing the melody while the |
| African American communities near the beginning of | | | | others improvise countermelodies. In contrast to the |
| the 20th century, jazz styles spread in the 1920s, | | | | classical form, where performers try to play the |
| influencing other musical styles. The origins of the | | | | piece exactly as the author envisioned it, the goal in |
| word jazz are uncertain. The word is rooted in | | | | jazz is often to create a new interpretation, changing |
| American slang, and various derivations have been | | | | the melody, harmonies, even the time signature. If |
| suggested. For the origin and history of the word | | | | classical music is the composer's medium, jazz is able |
| jazz, see Origin of the word jazz. | | | | to stand up for the rights of the performer too, to |
| Jazz is rooted in the blues, the folk music of former | | | | 'adroitly weigh the respective claims of the composer |
| enslaved Africans in the U.S. South and their | | | | and the improviser' . |
| descendants, which is influenced by West African | | | | By the Swing era, big bands played using arranged |
| cultural and musical traditions that evolved as black | | | | sheet music, but individual soloists would perform |
| musicians migrated to the cities. Jazz musician | | | | improvised solos within these compositions. In bebop, |
| Wynton Marsalis states that "Jazz is something | | | | however, the focus shifted from arranging to |
| Negroes invented...the nobility of the race put into | | | | improvisation over the form; musicians paid less |
| sound ... jazz has all the elements, from the spare and | | | | attention to the composed melody, or "head," which |
| penetrating to the complex and enveloping. | | | | was played at the beginning and the end of the |
| The instruments used in marching bands and dance | | | | tune's performance with improvised sections in |
| band music at the turn of century became the basic | | | | between. |
| instruments of jazz: brass, reeds, and drums, using | | | | As previously noted, later styles of jazz, such as |
| the Western 12-tone scale. A "...black musical spirit | | | | modal jazz, abandoned the strict notion of a chord |
| (involving rhythm and melody) was bursting out of | | | | progression, allowing the individual musicians to |
| the confines of European musical tradition [of the | | | | improvise more freely within the context of a given |
| marching bands], even though the performers were | | | | scale or mode (e.g., the Miles Davis album Kind of |
| using European styled instruments." | | | | Blue). The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, |
| Small bands of black musicians, mostly self taught, | | | | even call for, rhythmic variety as well. |
| who led funeral processions in New Orleans played a | | | | When a pianist, guitarist or other chord-playing |
| seminal role in the articulation and dissemination of | | | | instrumentalist improvises an accompaniment while a |
| early jazz, traveling throughout black communities in | | | | soloist is playing, it is called comping (a contraction of |
| the Deep South and to northern cities. | | | | the word "accompanying"). "Vamping" is a mode of |
| The postbellum network of black-established schools, | | | | comping that is usually restricted to a few repeating |
| as well as civic societies and widening mainstream | | | | chords or bars, as opposed to comping on the chord |
| opportunities for education, produced more formally | | | | structure of the entire composition. Most often, |
| trained African-American musicians. Lorenzo Tio and | | | | vamping is used as a simple way to extend the very |
| Scott Joplin were schooled in classical European | | | | beginning or end of a piece, or to set up a segue. |
| musical forms. Joplin, the son of a former slave and a | | | | In some modern jazz compositions where the |
| free-born woman of color, was largely self-taught | | | | underlying chords of the composition are particularly |
| until age 11, when he received lessons in the | | | | complex or fast moving, the composer or performer |
| fundamentals of music theory. Black musicians with | | | | may create a set of "blowing changes," which is a |
| formal music skills helped to preserve and disseminate | | | | simplified set of chords better suited for comping and |
| the essentially improvisational musical styles of jazz. | | | | solo improvisation. |