Jazz Died Too

Previously, I posted about the historical progression of rock `n’ roll and that no new rock genera have arisen since the 1990s. My analysis used Oswald Spengler’s framework that ideas, as well as organisms, follow a predictable pattern of birth, growth, maturity and death. Now, I will apply this analysis to jazz, which has gone through a similar cycle. I’m not saying that there isn’t great jazz that is being made today. However, the jazz that is being performed today is in a style and genera that dates back to a period ranging from the 1920s to the early-to-mid 1970s.

A note, that we will not be analyzing the development of Latin jazz, which went through its own parallel evolution from the 1920s through the 1960s. Bueno Vista Social Club, which formed in the 1990s, is a revival of Cuban jazz performed in the 1940s.

Ragtime, which flourished from the 1890s to the 1910s, was a precursor to jazz, as was the New Orleans style march. The first true jazz genera was Dixieland, which originated in New Orleans in the 1910s. By the 1920s, Dixieland had spread gaining national popularity. Like rock `n’ roll, the early genera of jazz was synonymous with the popular music of the day.

In the late 1920s, Dixieland began to evolve into the swing jazz style and by the mid-1930s, this genera was fully developed. Swing was even more dance oriented than Dixieland and spawned dance styles such as the jitterbug and the Lindy hop. Swing coincided with the pervasiveness of radio as a conveyor of entertainment and was, perhaps, a genera even more permeating popular culture than Dixieland. Beginning in the late 1930s and culminating by the late 1940s, swing gradually lost its hard edge. Performed primarily by big band ensembles, the smoother more mellow sound of bands performers such as the Artie Shaw Orchestra was a very different swing than the more rhythmically driven swing of an early Benny Goodman big band. The swing of the later 1940s and 1950s, while retaining its place in popular culture, could be seen as no longer truly being a jazz genera, except perhaps as an historical artifact when it reverted to its earlier style.

Instead, jazz took another direction, becoming more abstract, more intellectual, and less accessible to general audiences. Charlie Parker pioneered the development of bebop in the very late 1930s and early 1940s. Bebop was performed by smaller ensembles, with extensive improvisation, and a faster beat. Bebop, in various forms, continued as a primary jazz genera through the 1960s, and included such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and Cannonball Adderley. Subgenera of bebop developed throughout this period, including hard bop, post bop, straight-ahead and modal jazz, to name a few.

By the late 1940s. bebop began reaching its technical limitations. Miles Davis, who played with several bebop greats, was not as technically proficient as artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and began improvising in slower, more melodious forms. Woody Herman, who led a big band continuing the hard swing tradition, also began experimenting with “cooler” improvisations. What developed from this was the cool jazz genera, exemplified by Davis’ 1957 album, The Birth of the Cool. The genera developed further throughout the 1960s and included artists such as Modern Jazz Quartet, Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan. A subgenera of cool jazz emerged on the West coast, aptly termed West Coast jazz. Dave Brubeck was perhaps the most famous of the West Coast artists and the closest to breaking into the popular consciousness. Other West Coast jazz greats included Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Shorty Rogers and Gerry Mulligan. Despite cool jazz’s more accessible sound, it did not attract a general population audience. The complexities of bebop had permanently severed jazz’s connection with popular culture.

The strain of jazz that began with bebop reached its ultimate progression with the free jazz genera that developed in the very late 1950s and continued into the 1960s. This genera was characterized by intellectually demanding improvisation that was untethered to chord progression. The genera is exemplified by Ornette Coleman and included artists such as Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane in his later career.

We could say that Coleman’s evolution into free jazz marked the end of the developmental period of jazz genera, as Downbeat magazine had declared in 1967 that “Jazz as we know it is dead.” However, I think we would be remiss if we did not include jazz fusion as the last authentic jazz genera to develop. Jazz fusion arose in the early 1970s – or late 1960s if we count the incorporation of jazz influences into rock `n’ roll by such bands as Blood Sweat and Tears, Spirit, and The Mothers of Invention.

Jazz fusion incorporated elements of rock, funk, and R&B. It was exemplified by artists such as Gary Burton and Weather Report. It continued to develop into the mid-1970s. Smooth jazz, exemplified by Kenny G, is considered by some to be a variant of jazz fusion, but I don’t consider this jazz at all.

Post-mid-1970s, we come to the end of the evolution of jazz. While great improvisation continues to occur, and there is no dearth of creative jazz performers, there are no longer innovations in jazz style or genera. Everyone currently is performing in a genera that had developed decades ago.

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