Overview Of Various Styles Of Jazz
Jazz music is very interesting. It is, without a doubt, one of the most intricate styles of music on the planet. Jazz consists of a lot of improvisation. Improvisation in the real world is basically telling a story on the spot. In jazz, it is the same thing, but instead of using words, you do it with music. Improvisation is in every style of jazz song ever. In jazz, there are many different styles of music. But the three that are most often talked about can be classified into swing, Latin, and ballad, which will display the bands ability to play varied styles and add elements of interest for listeners. First, swing tunes are probably the most common in jazz.
When someone thinks of jazz music, a swing tune is likely what pops into their head. In swing tunes, you can imagine that the feel is swung. Band’s must understand what a swing feel or rhythm is. Most people will tell you that swing cannot be accurately notated, only felt. My best explanation is swing is based on triplet subdivisions of the beat rather than splitting the beat perfectly in half. Beats two and four are often the emphasized beats in swing. Some of the most notable composers that have written swing tunes are: Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Most people have heard tunes from these people even if they didn’t know it. Jazz bands play tunes by these people all the time! In fact, in Kansas, one of the statewide audition pieces for jazz band is Milestones by Miles Davis. In short, swing is a defining element of jazz. Second, we have latin tunes. Latin tunes are very different from swing tunes! Instead of a swung feel, it’s straight eighth note feel. Latin tunes are usually taken at a pretty fast tempo as well. Beats two and four aren’t normally emphasized in Latin. In a Latin feel, there is lots of syncopation. Syncopation is basically a temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent in music. In other words, it’s weird rhythm with accents in weird places. In the percussion part of the rhythm section there is often auxiliary percussion instruments used such as claves or bongos.
Like a swing feel, bands must understand a Latin feel to truly get the full experience of jazz. Last but not least, we have ballad tunes. Ballad tunes are the slow tunes of the bunch. Ballads have a romantic feel and sound. They often have a minor sound and some cool sounding chords. Trumpets sometimes double on flugels to have a warmer sound through some of the piece. Like swing, beats two and four are often emphasized. The thing about ballads is some are swung and some aren’t.
On drum set, the player will occasionally use brushes to make it sound softer and more romantic. Funny enough, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald are some of the more notable ballad composers as well. Like swing and latin, ballads are a very important part of jazz. Overall, jazz has many more styles than what I have written here. Swing is probably the most notable style with the swing rhythm. Latin is also very notable with the fast tempo and straight eighth notes, and ballads with their slow tempo and smooth, warm sound. The cool thing about jazz is styles often get mixed and matched with each other. In short, what that means is songs can have a Latin section, then switch to a swing section, and back to a Latin section or vice-versa. As you can see, bands must have an understanding of the styles of jazz so that listeners can have a pleasant, groovy experience.
