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Explore: Jazz | AllMusic
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Jazz

Jazz has been called America's classical music, and for good reason. Along with the blues, its forefather, it is one of the first truly indigenous musics to develop in America, yet its unpredictable, risky ventures into improvisation gave it critical cache with scholars that the blues lacked. At the outset, jazz was dance music, performed by swinging big bands. Soon, the dance elements faded into the background and improvisation became the key element of the music. As the genre evolved, the music split into a number of different styles, from the speedy, hard-hitting rhythms of be-bop and the laid-back, mellow harmonies of cool jazz to the jittery, atonal forays of free jazz and the earthy grooves of soul jazz. What tied it all together was a foundation in the blues, a reliance on group interplay and unpredictable improvisation. Throughout the years, and in all the different styles, those are the qualities that defined jazz.

Jazz Styles

African Jazz

Afro-Cuban Jazz

Avant-Garde Jazz

Big Band

Big Band/Swing

Bop

Bop

Contemporary Jazz

Cool

Cuban Jazz

Dixieland

Early Jazz

Free Jazz

Free Jazz

Fusion

Fusion

Hard Bop

Hard Bop

Latin Jazz/World Fusion

Modal Music

Modern Creative

New Orleans/Classic Jazz

Ragtime

Soul Jazz/Groove

Trad Jazz

Vocal Jazz

World Fusion

Jazz Album Highlights

  • 50 by Bobby Short
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  • The Complete Decca Recordings
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  • The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol. 2 (1936)
    Listen Now!
  • The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol. 3 (1936-1937)
    Listen Now!
  • The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol. 5 (1937-1938)
    Listen Now!
  • The Voice
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  • Anita Sings the Most
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  • The Complete Dinah Washington on Mercury, Vol. 1 (1946-1949)
    Listen Now!

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