Jazz Music
Do you prefer your music to be a little off-the-cuff? Perhaps jazz would fit the bill. Jazz music, which was developed by African Americans and was influenced by both African rhythms and European harmonic structure, first appeared at the turn of the 20th century and has since undergone several distinctive phases of development. Although any attempt to formulate an all-encompassing definition of jazz may be hopeless, jazz music is often identified with the use of syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, deliberate deviations of pitch, and original timbres. Renowned jazz musicians and composers such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, as well as celebrated jazz singers such as Billie Holiday, made an indelible mark in jazz's constantly evolving history and continue to serve as a major influence and inspiration for countless musicians.
Jazz Music Encyclopedia Articles
Featured Articles
Betty Carter
Betty Carter, American jazz singer who is best remembered for the scat and other complex musical interpretations that showcased her remarkable vocal flexibility and musical imagination. Carter studied...
Nina Simone
Nina Simone, American singer who created urgent emotional intensity by singing songs of love, protest, and Black empowerment in a dramatic style, with a rough-edged voice. A precocious child, Simone played...
John Coltrane
John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, an iconic figure of 20th-century jazz. Coltrane’s first musical influence was his father, a tailor and part-time musician. John studied...
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker, American alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, a lyric artist generally considered the greatest jazz saxophonist. Parker was the principal stimulus of the modern jazz idiom known...
Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae, American jazz vocalist and pianist who from an early emulation of vocalist Billie Holiday grew to become a distinctive stylist, known for her smoky voice and her melodic variations on jazz...
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa, American jazz drummer who was perhaps the most popular percussionist of the swing era. After the death of his father, Krupa went to work at age 11 as an errand boy for a music company. He soon...
Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson, American musician whose recordings combined such musical genres as jazz, rap, and hip-hop. She performed jazz standards, folk songs, Delta blues, and pop classics as well as many original...
Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck, popular American jazz pianist who brought elements of classical music into jazz and whose style epitomized that of the “West Coast movement.” Brubeck was taught piano by his mother from the...
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington, American pianist who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands...
Diana Krall
Diana Krall, Canadian jazz musician who achieved crossover success with her sultry, unforced contralto voice and her elegant piano playing. As a child, Krall played classical piano, sang in a church choir,...
Latin jazz
Latin jazz, a style of music that blends rhythms and percussion instruments of Cuba and the Spanish Caribbean with jazz and its fusion of European and African musical elements. Latin jazz was the result...
Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller, American big band leader, arranger, composer, and trombonist, considered the premier musical symbol of the World War II generation. Miller began studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder,...
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong, the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. Although Armstrong claimed to be born in 1900, various documents, notably a baptismal record, indicate that...
Chet Baker
Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter and vocalist noted for the plaintive, fragile tone of both his playing and singing. He was a cult figure whose well-publicized struggles with drug addiction curtailed...
Marsalis family
Marsalis family, American family, considered the “first family of jazz,” who (particularly brothers Wynton and Branford) had a major impact on jazz in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The family...
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday, American jazz singer, one of the greatest from the 1930s to the ’50s. Eleanora (her preferred spelling) Harris was the daughter of Clarence Holiday, a professional musician who for a time...
Manu Dibango
Manu Dibango, Cameroonian saxophonist, pianist, vibraphonist, and composer whose innovative jazz fusions and wide-ranging collaborative work played a significant role in introducing European and North...
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan, American jazz vocalist and pianist known for her rich voice, with an unusually wide range, and for the inventiveness and virtuosity of her improvisations. Vaughan was the daughter of amateur...
jazz
Jazz, musical form, often improvisational, developed by African Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms. It was developed partially from ragtime and blues and is...
Count Basie
Count Basie, American jazz musician noted for his spare, economical piano style and for his leadership of influential and widely heralded big bands. Basie studied music with his mother and was later influenced...
Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole, American musician hailed as one of the best and most influential pianists and small-group leaders of the swing era. Cole attained his greatest commercial success, however, as a vocalist...
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, Canadian experimental singer-songwriter whose greatest popularity was in the 1970s. Once described as the “Yang to Bob Dylan’s Yin, equaling him in richness and profusion of imagery,” Mitchell,...
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton, American jazz musician and bandleader, known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and his showmanship as a performer. Best known for his work on the vibraphone, Hampton was also a skilled...
Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman, American jazz musician and bandleader and a renowned 20th-century clarinet virtuoso. Dubbed the “King of Swing,” Goodman was also a complex personality whose relentless pursuit of perfection...
Miles Davis
Miles Davis, American jazz musician, a great trumpeter who as a bandleader and composer was one of the major influences on the art from the late 1940s. Davis grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, where...
Dixieland
Dixieland, in music, a style of jazz, often ascribed to jazz pioneers in New Orleans, but also descriptive of styles honed by slightly later Chicago-area musicians. The term also refers to the traditional...
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald, American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range and rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades. As a...