JAZZ

musical form, often improvisational, developed by African Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms. It was developed partially from ragtime and blues and is often characterized by syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, often deliberate deviations of pitch, and the use of original timbres. Any attempt to arrive at a precise, all-encompassing definition of jazz is probably futile. Jazz has been, from its very beginnings at the turn of the 20th century, a constantly evolving, expanding, changing music, passing through several distinctive phases of development; a definition that might apply to one phasefor instance, to New Orleans style or swingbecomes inappropriate when applied to another segment of its history, say, to free jazz. Early attempts to define jazz as a music whose chief characteristic was improvisation, for example, turned out to be too restrictive and largely untrue, since composition, arrangement, and ensemble have also been essential components of jazz for most of its history. Similarly, syncopation and swing, often considered essential and unique to jazz, are in fact lacking in much authentic jazz, whether of the 1920s or of later decades. Again, the long-held notion that swing could not occur without syncopation was roundly disproved when trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan (among others) frequently generated enormous swing while playing repeated, unsyncopated quarter notes. Jazz, in fact, is notand never has beenan entirely composed, predetermined music, nor is it an entirely extemporized one. For almost all of its history it has employed both creative approaches in varying degrees and endless permutations. And yet, despite these diverse terminological confusions, jazz seems to be instantly recognized and distinguished as something separate from all other forms of musical expression. To repeat Armstrong's famous reply when asked what swing meant: If you have to ask, you'll never know. To add to the confusion, there often have been seemingly unbridgeable perceptual differences between the producers of jazz (performers, composers, and arrangers) and its audiences. For example, with the arrival of free jazz and other latter-day, avant-garde manifestations, many senior musicians maintained that music that didn't swing was not jazz. Most early classical composers (such as Aaron Copland, John Alden Carpenterand even Igor Stravinsky, who became smitten with jazz) were drawn to its instrumental sounds and timbres, the unusual effects and inflections of jazz playing (brass mutes, glissandos, scoops, bends, and stringless ensembles), and its syncopations, completely ignoring, or at least underappreciating, the extemporized aspects of jazz. Indeed, the sounds that jazz musicians make on their instrumentsthe way they attack, inflect, release, embellish, and colour notescharacterize jazz playing to such an extent that if a classical piece were played by jazz musicians in their idiomatic phrasings, it would in all likelihood be called jazz. Nonetheless, one important aspect of jazz clearly does distinguish it from other traditional musical areas, especially from classical music: the jazz performer is primarily or wholly a creative, improvising composerhis own composer, as it werewhereas in classical music the performer typically expresses and interprets someone else's composition. Gunther Schuller Additional reading General histories of jazz Marshall Winslow Stearns, The Story of Jazz (1956, reissued 1976), is ideal for the newcomer to the music; Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff (eds.), Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955, reissued 1992), is a colourful history of jazz in musicians' own words; Joachim E. Berendt, The Jazz Book, 6th ed., rev. by Gnther Huesmann (1992; originally published in German, 1954), is comprehensive. Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, They All Played Ragtime, 4th ed. (1971); Samuel Barclay Charters, Jazz: New Orleans, 18851963, rev. ed. (1963, reprinted 1983); and Samuel Barclay Charters and Leonard Kunstadt, Jazz: A History of the New York Scene (1962, reprinted 1984), are all highly recommended for information about the musical precursors of jazz and jazz's early years. Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues (1946, reissued 1993), is a fascinating personal history of the halcyon early decades of jazz. Specific topics Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (1968, reissued 1986), and The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 19301945 (1989, reissued 1991), offer comprehensive, detailed technical analyses of the music. George T. Simon, The Big Bands, 4th ed. (1981), is a largely anecdotal history; and Albert McCarthy, Big Band Jazz (1974, reissued 1983), is the most thoroughly researched book on the subject. Barry Ulanov, Duke Ellington (1946, reprinted 1975); Stanley Dance, The World of Duke Ellington (1970, reprinted 1981); and Mark Tucker (ed.), The Duke Ellington Reader (1993), examine jazz's greatest composer. Lawrence O. Koch, Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker, rev. ed. (1999), is a brilliant and detailed exploration of Parker's art. Leonard Feather, Inside Jazz (1997; originally published as Inside Bebop, 1949), was the first knowledgeable book about the bebop revolution. Eric Hobsbawm (Francis Newton), The Jazz Scene, rev. ed. (1993), presents a highly intelligent, objective view of postwar jazz. Winthrop Sargeant, Jazz: Hot and Hybrid, 3rd ed. enlarged (1975), and Frederic Ramsey, Jr., and Charles Edward Smith (eds.), Jazzmen (1939, reprinted 1985), were pioneering efforts in developing critical views of jazz and its performers. Andr Hodeir, Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence, rev. ed. (1980; originally published in French, 1954), was the first serious analysis of the music. S. Frederick Starr, Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union 19171991, updated ed. (1994), is a fascinating study. Collections of essays Whitney Balliett, The Sound of Surprise (1959); Martin T. Williams (ed.), The Art of Jazz (1959, reprinted 1981); Max Harrison, A Jazz Retrospect, 2nd ed. (1991); and Gary Giddins, Riding on a Blue Note (1981), are superb, stimulating, wide-ranging collections of essays. Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Act (1964, reissued 1995), includes moving and insightful personal essays on jazz. Reference works Barry Kernfeld (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2 vol. (1988, reissued 2 vol. in 1, 1994); Leonard Feather, The Encyclopedia of Jazz (1955, rev. 1960, and reprinted 1984), The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties (1966, reprinted 1986); Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler, The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies (1976, reprinted 1987), The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999); and John Chilton, Who's Who of Jazz, 5th ed. (1989), are indispensable reference works. Discographies Len Lyons, The 101 Best Jazz Albums (1980), offers balanced recommendations for a basic record library. Brian Rust (compiler), Jazz Records: 18971942, 5th rev. and enlarged ed., 2 vol. (1982); Jrgen Grunnet Jepsen (ed.), Jazz Records: 19421969, 8 vol. in 11 (196370); and Jan Leder (compiler), Women in Jazz: A Discography of Instrumentalists, 19131968 (1985), are valuable discographies. Gunther Schuller