[Dana in Philly]

What do you mean when you say "Jazz"?

What does the term mean to you, now, when you use it here (if you do), in what is nearly the third decade of the 21st Century?

 

[click]

Unless I specify with a modifier, I mean stuff that resembles what Dexter Gordon played.

When his "Homecoming" album came out, it established a paradigm that settled that category in my own mind for my own use.

 

[rzzzzz]

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it..." Potter Stewart

 

[datsaxman]

Stewart is making reference to more than just jazz there ...

 

[1saxman]

Music based on the Afro/blues model as it has existed through many incarnations from 'the blues' to Modern Jazz and beyond, where soloists are expected to improvise. Even playing previously recorded music note-for-note still qualifies because it is instantly recognized as jazz.

 

[carvingcode]

Music making use of improvisation as a central feature. Jazz doesn’t necessarily require an idiom or mode or cultural heritage. Jazz is freedom of expression.

 

[PorkpieHat]

Honestly I think Jazz as a genre of music has been become far too broadly exemplified. Heck you go to a Jazz festival these days and you're lucky if half the music is actually Jazz. Well...Here in Canada anyways. I can pretty much center what Jazz means to me with the albums: Jazz Messengers At the Cafe Bohemia Vol. 1 & 2.

 

[chilehed]

Music making use of improvisation as a central feature. Jazz doesn't necessarily require an idiom or mode or cultural heritage. Jazz is freedom of expression.

That definition seems a bit broad. By it, that stuff Eminem was doing in Nine Mile could be called jazz. Which it certainly ain't.

This isn't jazz:

 

[datsaxman]

Jazz is, like, a verb. Dig??

Not a thing, but a way of being.

 

[Keith Ridenhour]

1+++++

Music making use of improvisation as a central feature. Jazz doesn't necessarily require an idiom or mode or cultural heritage. Jazz is freedom of expression.

 

[Keith Ridenhour]

I think the way Jazz fused with other music forms in the 60 and 70s really broadened the bandwidth. Funk/jazz, fusion jazz, soul jazz, smooth jazz, free jazz, I think you safely say jazz has morphed into many things these days. You could make a strong case that it wasn't even tonally bassed at times but just sound tension/release. For most people jazz means horns in the band, no vocals and not a rock beat. At least all the "average" people i run into. Some understand its roots but they are usually my demo or a few years younger, say 55 and up. Younger have less of an idea of the gendre. K (your non musician average )

 

[warp x]

What do you mean when you say "Jazz"?

What does the term mean to you, now, when you use it here (if you do), in what is nearly the third decade of the 21st Century?

A certain interpretation of the musical material at hand.

 

[blue boy]

The music of Charles Mingus has always exemplified the true spirit of jazz for me. Just the right mix of organized chaos to keep me on the edge of my seat. Knowing that the music could take me anywhere in a split second is exhilarating.

 

[Dana in Philly]

Interesting responses. A lot of nuance in how folks here understand the term.

 

[PoorButSaxy]

The music of Charles Mingus has always exemplified the true spirit of jazz for me. Just the right mix of organized chaos to keep me on the edge of my seat. Knowing that the music could take me anywhere in a split second is exhilarating.

That's funny because Mingus hated beeing called a Jazz Musician. So did Miles and a lot of others.

 

[Grumps]

Music freely embellished for either joyful or solemn expression.

 

[BH9]

That's funny because Mingus hated beeing called a Jazz Musician. So did Miles and a lot of others.

They didn't want to be sold only out of the jazz section.

For me, jazz's central feature is improvisation, and it refers at least to some degree, maybe subtly, to its African American heritage.

 

[JL]

Music based on the Afro/blues model as it has existed through many incarnations from 'the blues' to Modern Jazz and beyond, where soloists are expected to improvise.

+1. This comes close to what I'd call "jazz." For me, I have to hear the blues in there somewhere. Of course that begs the definition of "blues," which to me covers a much broader stylistic range than most people would think. There's also a rhythmic element to it, including "swing", syncopation, & a hard-to-define "feel."

Bottom line: I know it when I hear it.

 

[Reet McVouty]

Someone once asked me what tune I would pick that would best represent the genre of jazz. My reply was, anything by Louis Armstrong. To me no matter how progressive the music get's, as long as the root goes back to Louis, it's still jazz. cut off that root, and it ain't jazz no more ...

 

[pontius]

Jazz is music for people who are smarter and better looking than most other people. Oh yeah, and modest.