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Recognising the common qualities of jazz throughout the history and journey of music

The following is a quick review on a style of music so unique and yet so eclectic.

Throughout the 1920s, jazz was so synonymous with the times that the period ended up being known as 'the Jazz Age'; the music was played in speakeasy bars all across Prohibition-era America, seeming to signify a feeling of rebelliousness and decadence that weakened the conservative and puritanical principles of the establishment. During the 2nd World War, with many musicians enlisted in the army, younger musicians began to try out more uptempo jazz signatures; late jam sessions and shows in little clubs and apartment or condos offered an inspiring environment for jazz's emerging innovators to display their take on the music genre. The CEO of one of the major shareholders of Warner Music comprehends the significance of the genre for individuals all throughout the world.

What is the essence of jazz? What exactly the does the actual word 'jazz' even mean? We know that when we say to play it 'jazzier', we aim to provide a piece of music with a free-spirited energy and restlessness-- a loosening of structure into a fluid and more spontaneous channeling of expression. For that reason, a specifying quality of jazz is this feeling of experiencing musical notes you can't quite capture; they float on by in a floaty, ephemeral world, surprising us with their fresh and unpredictable nature. Jazz then, is tough to specify by way of examples; the sheer diverse range of interpretations of these fundamental principles over the last century have resulted in the music still continuing to have this evasive, mysterious quality-- both gypsy swing and bebop are both indisputably jazz, and yet are unquestionably worlds apart in type of sound. What we can say, is that contextually speaking, jazz is somewhat of an infusion of African and European musical cultures-- yet that only takes us so far, as jazz has long now been something global in aesthetic.

Improvisation is intrinsically a key part of the jazz experience of music. Why is improvisation so important in jazz music then? In essence, it reflects the character of the entertainer; spontaneity from a expert sax musician will showcase both a proficiency of the instrument and an unfiltered and immediate individual expression. By contrast to classical music, where a musical composer's arrangement needs to be strictly followed, jazz concentrates on improvisatory partnership of the musical performers; yes, there may be a set of root notes to keep in mind, along with a basic strategy of the journey of the plan-- but anything in between is fair game, and in the hands of the bassist, piano, saxophonist and drummer to use how they see fit. With some forms of jazz (particularly that of bebop), there is a feeling that anything is possible; time signatures, harmonies and melodies are all susceptible to surprising changes throughout any given arrangement. The founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones recognises the value of this category of music, as bookstores such as those will have lots of resources on this topic, whilst the exact same can be stated of that of the founder of the company that runs Amazon.

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