Archives for November 2017

Jazz is one of those music genres that you either love or hate. Some have categorized it into “elevator music”, which doesn’t do justice to the lively jazz on the other side of the spectrum.   And indeed, there is a subgenre of jazz called freestyle that is most famous for its improvisational nature. Regardless of whether you are a traditional jazz fan, this uniquely American style of music has impacted popular music that we play even today.

The genre finds its roots in southern blues and the songs slaves sang while working.  Since the 1920’s jazz has come a long way both in quality and complexity. At first, in the so-called ragtime era, the go-to instrument for jazz musicians was a piano. However, that didn’t last for too long and musicians started to incorporate other orchestral instruments like trumpets, guitars, contrabasses, etc. Jazz even made its way into other music genres like hip-hop and rap.

The evolution of different subgenres of jazz has brought about the musical depth American musicians produce today.