The "Modern-Era" of Jazz

Bop was just the first style of "modern" jazz that signaled a strong break away from the Swing-Era. Following the 1950's, jazz was already moving in many different directions. In fact, when I tried to target down at least one or two styles to focus on for this last "segment" of exploration, it wasn't quite possible. Due to an increase in the popularity of Jazz at college campuses, the economic boom after WWII, and the introduction of the long-play album (which allowed for recordings of longer than 4 minutes), the 1950's alone generated many new styles of jazz.

The first of these new styles was "Cool Jazz", pioneered by Miles Davis. As a response to Bebop, Davis strove to create music that kept the harmonic elements of bop, but was much more mellow and soft. In 1959, Davis released his hugely influential album, Kind of Blue.

So this is what I've been hearing every evening on WRTI...

Kind of Blue crafted the beginnings of modal jazz, where literally the music would stay on a single chord for multiple bars on end, and have a very static composition. Another type of Cool Jazz that I discovered was "Third Stream Music". I found Third Stream Music to be really cool, as it combined the control, range, and patterns of European Classical Music (which was the 1st stream) with elements of jazz (2nd stream) to make  a new style that was a combination of both styles. Get it... "Third" Stream?

Listening to a few pieces of Third Stream was both very enlightening and extremely exciting. For someone who clearly distinguished between the two genres of "jazz" and "classical", Third Stream Music was a great discovery of an actually viable and happy medium. The Modern Jazz Quartet, above, consists of both a string quartet and the standard jazz quintet. I seriously think I might want to look a lot more into Third Stream Music in the future.
Also on a side note: the significance of Third Stream Music doesn't just apply to me.... if you're reading this G$, THERE IS ACTUALLY AN ENSEMBLE WHERE SAXOPHONE AND CELLO BELONG TOGETHER YESSSSSSS.

Within the 1950's, Hard Bop, led by the John Coltrane Quartet, also evolved from Bebop. Hard Bop infused elements of blues and gospel-influenced music with the technicality and pace of bebop. From hard bop branched "Funky Bop", which I think today has developed a pretty cliched public image as that "Soul" jazz music.

I went past the 1950's and found "Bossa Nova", or "Latin Jazz". My brother knew a lot about Latin jazz; apparently he had a lot of experience with it in the past. It turned out that Bossa Nova was actually rooted in Brazillian Samba, something that I actually had experience with as well. My brother showed me "Blue Bossa" from the 1970's, which today is a piece from standard jazz repertoire that combines Hard Bop and Bossa Nova. I give it a shot here; some of you might recognize it:

Mmmmmmm... smooooth

With these last couple styles of jazz, I haven't taken as much time as I did with Swing and Bebop, but I think that some of them may have fascinated me more. What learning about the Modern-Era of jazz has taught me the most is just how diverse the entire genre of jazz is. Trying to even touch on multiple styles in about a week was not quite easy; it was a lot of information and a lot new sounds to become exposed to for so little time. When I have time (sigh) I definitely have to spend at least a little bit more time getting acclaimed with these styles.

From about the 1980's and onward, jazz was simply continuing, adjusting, and evolving from the lines of all the past styles. Guitar and electronic instruments are much more popular today. In fact, jazz today is still very innovative and changing. There are always those who continue the line of the past, but lots of dynamic and new artists arrive with every generation. Who know, maybe I might end up being one of those in the future.. ;).


Readings and Resources!
1. Great information from Jim Scully of California State University once again: http://www.csub.edu/~jscully/teaching/documents/105lectures/10substyles.pdf
2. Listening everywhere.
3. For anybody who wants it, this is a concise and nice summary of jazz history: - http://www.moodjazz.com/history.html
4. Once again, that person called a private teacher.