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What is Jazz?


As a self proclaimed expert and "aficionado", I should know the answer to that question; but I don't, because the answer is too complex.

As one example; Inna posted that he didn't like jazz, and in his next post he raved about a piece of music that I considered to be jazz. In Inna's case I understood the contradiction, he doesn't like "hard bop".

On the other hand, Rok2id's definition of jazz is so narrow that many of my jazz records and CD's, would be considered to be something other than "jazz".

What is "jazz" to you and can you define it?
orpheus10
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,685 posts
 
It's just a word used to describe several types of music.
nobrainer
8 posts
 
"It smells funny!"
spinaker01
491 posts
 
I don't have much to add other than this was a great question with some excellent and thoughtful responses. Gives me hope in the future of the forums and its contributors. A nice change from "what is the best..." or Thing X vs Thing y
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,587 posts
 
Everyone has their own definition of Jazz. There is probably some overlap in all definitions of Jazz but no two people's definitions are the same.

Jazz is a genre of music in which personalization and evolution are considered requirements of playing it, so we'll probably never be able to put an absolute definition on it.
duanegoosen
355 posts
 
Jazz is a word.
What people think it means varies so much that it's not hard to see why Duke Ellington and Miles Davis wouldn't touch it. One guy would say there's two kinds of music. The other thought the word jazz had become useless, (not worth using at all). There's a big difference between the process of developing musical awareness and the exercise of attempting to define a word like jazz.
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