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What is Jazz?


As a self proclaimed expert and "aficionado", I should know the answer to that question; but I don't, because the answer is too complex.

As one example; Inna posted that he didn't like jazz, and in his next post he raved about a piece of music that I considered to be jazz. In Inna's case I understood the contradiction, he doesn't like "hard bop".

On the other hand, Rok2id's definition of jazz is so narrow that many of my jazz records and CD's, would be considered to be something other than "jazz".

What is "jazz" to you and can you define it?
orpheus10

Showing 2 responses by djohnson54

djohnson54
396 posts
 
"We don't need no stinkin Wikipedia", they're going all the way back to slaves dancing in Congo square in New Orleans; our jazz doesn't go back that far.

The only reason "our" jazz doesn't go back that far is because there was nothing to record it on back then. If there had been, someone would still be listening to it and calling it jazz.
djohnson54
396 posts
 
I don't normally think of Wikipedia as the definitive source for info but they do have a pretty good description that echoes many of the thoughts already expressed. It also has a darn good timeline showing the evolution of Jazz over the last century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz
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