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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
Jazz is the use of theory to improvise upon existing melodies, using modulation, tempo, timbre, volume, etc ALL AT THE SAME TIME, essentially composing on the fly, which is it's innovation and basis for existence. Until you can instinctively improvise on electronic instruments and do all these things in real time, then you will not be playing Jazz music.
the main dixieland jazz community hated the swing era of jazz, and saw it as pop watered down crap. the swing jazz fans, once that was evolved into more artistic forms, hated the bebop era that did away with the swing/big band arrangements and stripped it all down to a small band. the bebop jazz mainstream hated the Hard Bop which took bebop and amped the shit up to 11, creating new forms. Once those were exhausted, the hard bop people hated on MIles "cool" modal jazz, based not on scales but on modal forms of music. When that became the mainstream, jazz fans started hating on Gillespie's explorations into latin samba and bahia music, combining jazz with polyphonic latin rhythms. Once that became mainstream, the Jazz fans hated the Free Jazz of cecil taylor and Ornette Coleman.
it goes on and on. the thing is, that until Miles Davis started making jazz albums with electric instruments, which, at the time, could not be modulated in as many ways as an acoustic instrument could (and still can't really, without three hundred effects pedals), jazz purists felt that what was being created was a new music, not Jazz.
ever since then the "jazz" is formalized and old-fashioned, even though there have been amazing jazz albums by people like Marcus Roberts and the Marsalis bros.
the rock and funk musicians that Miles played with were in no respect the equals musically of a seasoned Jazz musician. This drove people away from Fusion.
Oh, and Kenny G is not Jazz.
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Yeah, pretty much.
I only disagree with your assertion that Jazz requires both improvisation and the real-time live reinterpretation of already existing melodies.
Many forms of jazz rely heavily on improvisation, and many of the most improvisational styles of jazz also use established melodies taken from either Broadway, swing, folk or chamber music standards, but there are plenty of other jazz subgenres that require little or no improvisation.
True, improv is one of the main characteristics of jazz as a whole, but the way you describe it, jazz can't exist without improvisation and an established melody. Polyrhythm and syncopation, swing notes are all equally important parts of the musical profile of jazz. I feel like what you're really talking about is cool jazz, which definitely relies heavily on improvisation over a traditional melody.
Also, I actually think that techno and beat and electronic hip-hop
have evolved to the point where real time improvisation, and live manipulation of styles and sounds can be achieved. It's been like this for some time. It's not as modal as it is in jazz, but maybe that's because it's not an evolution of jazz itself, but the influence of jazz touching other former of music entirely.
But I really don't know. Hah.