Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans. Its roots lie in the fruitful collision between African and Western musical traditions; it was, and remains, highly open to influences from many different cultures and musical traditions (from Jelly Roll Morton's "Spanish tinge" to the Latin and African experiments of the 1950s and 1960s to current attempts to borrow from rock, hip-hop and pop), and has become an artform with a global reach, but it remains most closely identified with the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. Jazz became a music that bridged many worlds: never shaking off its whiff of an illicit subculture (beginning with its shady origins in turn-of-the-century saloons and bordellos) but also becoming for a time the sound of American pop music, and yet also inspiring the dawning recognition that it was (as one polemicist has put it) "America's Classical Music." Reaching its height of popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s with the big-band craze, it gradually lost its wider popularity as it was displaced by rock and other musics, a development that pained or perplexed many older musicians and fans and led to a variety of responses from younger ones (ranging from attempts to update and alter jazz into a new artform with wider appeal, to a self-conscious attempt to return to and recreate earlier styles of jazz). Yet even as it has (by and large) had to settle for a smaller audience of aficionados, jazz has remained surprisingly durable music, continuing to change, grow and assimilate new ideas from the contemporary music scene.

Jazz is notoriously hard to define, and few generalizations can account for all of its over-one-hundred-year history. Most jazz involves improvisation, both in the "solos" which are central to a jazz performance, and in the accompaniment, which is created spontaneously by the musicians over the bare framework of the tune (its melody and chords); the result is a complexly polyrhythmic music, which thrives on continuous (call and response) interaction between performers. A good jazz performance "swings" – a term that both refers to a specific rhythmic approach (emphasizing the offbeats 2 and 4 in the bar and turning smooth pairs of eighth notes into lightly assymetrical "swung eighths") and, more generally, to the ineffable rhythmic grace and power of the best jazz performances. Jazz adopts Western music's concept of tonality, but also bends it with devices like blue notes – notes (usually the third or fifth) that are deliberately played or sung flat in order to give added emotional power to a performance.

History

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Jazz has roots in the combination of Western and African music traditions, including spirituals, blues and ragtime, stemming ultimately from West Africa, western Sahel, and New England's religious hymns and hillbilly music, as well as in European military band music. After originating in African American communities near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz gained international popularity by the 1920s. Since then, jazz has had a pervasive influence on other musical styles worldwide. Even today, various jazz styles continue to evolve.

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NYT > Music

LeRoi Moore, 46, Saxophone Player, Dies
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:26:19 -0000
Mr. Moore’s fevered riffs embroidered the distinctive music of the Dave Matthews Band with florets of jazz and funk.
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Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:30:17 -0000
Known for his distinctive long white beard and deep voice, Mr. Drew also sang with the Pogues and other rock bands.
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The Walkmen showed perspective as well as purpose on Monday, in its first of two consecutive shows at the Bowery Ballroom.

NPR Topics: Music

Bernard Greenhouse: A Master And His Cello
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:34:00 -0400
Master cellist Bernard Greenhouse, 92, and his 300-year-old Stradivarius cello have been constant companions for the last half century. Greenhouse was a founding member of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, which plays its final U.S. concert at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts.
Mates Of State's Family Band Solution
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:24:00 -0400
Mates of State's music has only gotten richer and more rewarding since its members started a family: Their superb new album, Re-Arrange Us, finds it celebrating the tricky balancing act of marriage, parenthood and rock 'n' roll in a way that's undeniably uplifting and cheerful. Hear songs from that album in a session with World Cafe host David Dye.
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Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:39:00 -0400
Two years ago, things weren't going well for Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. So he holed up in a cabin in the snowy Wisconsin northwoods, only to emerge with an album celebrated across the indie music community. Here, Vernon shares his story and performs in the studio.

www.tennessean.com - Rss-News-Music Industry news

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Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:20:00 -0500
Music Row celebrated the successes of two Sony BMG Nashville artists this week: Montgomery Gentry earned two parties to honor No. 1 "Back When I Knew It All," and a massive gathering at Vanderbilt's Student Life Center feted Alan Jackson, who recently reached the milestone of 50 million records sold.
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Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:12:00 -0500
Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group was sued for allegedly cheating members of The Allman Brothers Band out of some $10 million in royalties on music recorded from 1969 to 1980. Band members Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanson alleged Universal is paying only a "small fraction" of the royalties due them for digital downloads of their songs and is refusing to negotiate royalty rates for newly released digital configurations, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Manhattan. UMG spokesman Peter Lofrumento declined to comment.
Hip-hop's bible, 'The Source,' relaunches
Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:19:00 -0500
NEW YORK — The Source, which was in bankruptcy last year, is relaunching with a 20th-anniversary issue and a new focus — a direction that its co-publisher says will restore the magazine, once known as hip-hop's bible, to prominence.

Rolling Stone: Features

How Bush Destroyed the Republican Party
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Ultimate-Guitar.Com [News]

Flobots Talk Solar Powered Gig
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Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:08:53 -0000
Suicide Silence will embark on a massive headlining tour this fall, dubbed the “Cleansing The Nation” tour.
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