What is Jazz?

Out of all the jazz encyclopedia's I've read, I have never seen such "honest" and accurate descriptions of the word "jazz".

When I combine all of your post's, I have a better definition of jazz, than the musicians who make the music have given me. Someone a long time ago made it "hip" not to attempt to define "jazz", and succeeding musicians have followed in his footsteps.

Whether we realize it or not, this music is a very important part of our lives; and we are also an important part of one another's lives. When I say "we", I mean those of us who attempt honest and positive communications in all forums; especially this one.

Since we are "talking" about "music", why not let the music speak for us through the use of "Youtube". Express your concept of good jazz by selecting the best "youtube" that illustrate's what jazz is to you.

You'll get some interesting opinions in a forum regarding what Jazz is but I would look elsewhere to more traditional sources for more definitive answers.

Or as alluded to above, given the diversity of form and looseness of "Jazz" music in general, I suppose if the record company calls it Jazz, then technically it is Jazz.

Or, consider that there is no rule that says all music must classify to a single genre, nor does it often in practice. Music can have elements that might be considered Jazz mixed with other styles as well.

I find the trend towards more mixing of diverse musical elements in music these days, many of which are increasingly various forms of indigenous "roots" music to be a positive trend that makes for a lot of interesting listens. I've practically given up on even caring about musical genre, although of course there will always be music that cleanly fits into a single one without much problem.

In terms of the "purer" forms of Jazz, these days I much prefer older Jazz from teh 1950s and earlier to the newer forms.

A lot of interesting things happened with Jazz starting in the early 60's with Coltrane, Davis, and others, but unfortunately I think a lasting effect of this was that Jazz largely lost its identity as a genre, although its influences as a whole has been essentially off the charts since its beginnings many years ago.

"Unfortunately, the reality is Jazz is percieved as an 'old' music that's best days happened decades ago. Not only here, I've even found this mindset on jazzsites!"

You mean just like classical music? Show me the 'new' mozart, bach... the 'new' Mingus, cannonball, armstrong et al

It could be that Jazz, the REAL stuff, has just about run it's course. Just like classical. There are some modern composers out there, but the repertoire is still almost totally pre 2oth century, with damn few exceptions. The same can be said of the Blues, R&B, rock & roll, country and gospel. Their most creative era is behind them. If this were not true, today's opera would not be just the tried and true in modern wardrobes. There would not be 302 different recordings of Beethoven's syms. We would all be listening to the 21st century beethoven, the new howlin'wolf, the latest elvis, where is the modern motown? ... you get the drift. The golden age in pop and jazz and classical and gospel and r&b and country IS OVER!! The only thing we have left are reissues that hopefully have improved sound quality. The new music is not saying anything. Metal and rap were never music to start with. BTW, rock & roll and Rock, are not the same thing, so, the stones and several other social security aged rockers are still active because there are no replacements. Same holds true for Jazz. Sadly.

I don't normally think of Wikipedia as the definitive source for info but they do have a pretty good description that echoes many of the thoughts already expressed. It also has a darn good timeline showing the evolution of Jazz over the last century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz