Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans. Its roots lie in the fruitful collision between African and Western musical traditions; it was, and remains, highly open to influences from many different cultures and musical traditions (from Jelly Roll Morton's "Spanish tinge" to the Latin and African experiments of the 1950s and 1960s to current attempts to borrow from rock, hip-hop and pop), and has become an artform with a global reach, but it remains most closely identified with the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. Jazz became a music that bridged many worlds: never shaking off its whiff of an illicit subculture (beginning with its shady origins in turn-of-the-century saloons and bordellos) but also becoming for a time the sound of American pop music, and yet also inspiring the dawning recognition that it was (as one polemicist has put it) "America's Classical Music." Reaching its height of popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s with the big-band craze, it gradually lost its wider popularity as it was displaced by rock and other musics, a development that pained or perplexed many older musicians and fans and led to a variety of responses from younger ones (ranging from attempts to update and alter jazz into a new artform with wider appeal, to a self-conscious attempt to return to and recreate earlier styles of jazz). Yet even as it has (by and large) had to settle for a smaller audience of aficionados, jazz has remained surprisingly durable music, continuing to change, grow and assimilate new ideas from the contemporary music scene.

Jazz is notoriously hard to define, and few generalizations can account for all of its over-one-hundred-year history. Most jazz involves improvisation, both in the "solos" which are central to a jazz performance, and in the accompaniment, which is created spontaneously by the musicians over the bare framework of the tune (its melody and chords); the result is a complexly polyrhythmic music, which thrives on continuous (call and response) interaction between performers. A good jazz performance "swings" – a term that both refers to a specific rhythmic approach (emphasizing the offbeats 2 and 4 in the bar and turning smooth pairs of eighth notes into lightly assymetrical "swung eighths") and, more generally, to the ineffable rhythmic grace and power of the best jazz performances. Jazz adopts Western music's concept of tonality, but also bends it with devices like blue notes – notes (usually the third or fifth) that are deliberately played or sung flat in order to give added emotional power to a performance.

History

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Jazz has roots in the combination of Western and African music traditions, including spirituals, blues and ragtime, stemming ultimately from West Africa, western Sahel, and New England's religious hymns and hillbilly music, as well as in European military band music. After originating in African American communities near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz gained international popularity by the 1920s. Since then, jazz has had a pervasive influence on other musical styles worldwide. Even today, various jazz styles continue to evolve.

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NYT > Music

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MTV to air Britney Spears special
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:00:00 -0500
Music News: Documentary will premiere November 30 -- MTV will bow the 90-minute Britney Spears docu "Britney: For the Record" Sunday, Nov. 30.
Tim Robbins honored with Hollywood Walk of Fame star
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:32:48 -0500
Music News: Actor keeps fires burning in arts and politics -- If the Hollywood Walk of Fame awarded stars for effort, Tim Robbins would have left his mark on that storied boulevard years ago.
Musical roots run in Robbins' family
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:29:55 -0500
Music News: Singing parents inspire collaborating brothers -- Tim Robbins' appreciation for music began when he was a small child. His father, Gil, was a member of folk's Highwaymen, and his mother, Mary, an actress, sang in the New York Choral Society.
Too many music venues in L.A.?
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:00:00 -0500
Music News: Industry execs skeptical about glut of seats -- Within the next two months, three music venues capable of holding 8,000 concertgoers will open in Los Angeles. Even with the economy faltering, venue operators and promoters believe the simple law of supply and demand will keep the concert halls full, provided the ticket price is appropriate.
EMI to launch new consumer site
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:31:39 -0500
Music News: Website will be available in December -- EMI will launch a website in December that will have a retail component but will not be positioned as a competitor to e-commerce sites that offer downloads.
T.I. follows 'Trail' to top spot
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Music News: Jennifer Hudson disc debuts in second spot -- T.I.'s sixth album "Paper Trail" (Grand Hustle/Atlantic) came in at No. 1, selling 568,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen Soundscan data, as six rookies made it into the top 10.

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