Jazz

            Year 10 elective music - Assessment task No.
            
            
             When I first got this assignment, there are many types of music that I could have chosen to do. Church music, brass bands, Australian music, baroque, pop music and all the other ones out there. But I wanted to do something that would be more interesting to define. When asked what the real meaning of jazz was, Louis Armstrong's famous reply was "if you had to ask, you"ll never know". Whatever else he meant, he was at least saying that jazz is knowable, but not necessarily explainable in words, and true enough, jazz resists definition like no other music.
             Beginnings of Jazz.
             Consider the usual definitions: jazz is said to be an African American music, originated by black people for black people; an improvised music; a music characterized by arrhythmic feel called swing; and a music influenced by the blues. But race and ethnicity are not as clear as what the American myths would say. Throughout the history of jazz, there have been people of other races and religions - whites of several nationalities, Cubans, Mexicans, native Americans, Haitians and overseas Europeans of all sorts involved in its creation. The first problem with doing a history of a music that has its roots entangled among so many different cultures is how to go about determining sources and origins. That's why jazz is so interesting to so many.
             Forms Of Jazz.
             There are many forms of Jazz, and to list them all would take me well over triple my word limit. So I have decided just to list 2 different forms.
             Swing: .
             This jazz style appeared in the thirties. It is qualify by elaborated orchestration, nice rhythm, and great melody. This music is really energetic and makes this type of jazz accessible to a larger public. With swing, jazz quit his origin to be really popular in Europe. The most famous artists in this style are Duke Ellington, Count Bosie, Fats Waller, Gene Krupuk and Benny Goodman.