The Ten Main Classic Jazz Styles (from ~1917 to ~1967)
@JimLecinski | #JazzForNewcomers
To the Newcomer, jazz can be inscrutable. Maybe you’ve said, “It sounds like a bunch of musicians playing anything they want, all at the same time — I don’t get it.” Yet from time to time you’ve heard some jazz that really hits you, maybe in a movie soundtrack, during Charlie Brown, “Boardwalk Empire, in Grand Theft Auto or playing in your favorite coffee shop…and you’d love some of that kind of jazz in your playlists.
I’ve often been asked by Newcomers for a basic “jazz decoder” to help them start to unlock what’s going on and first begin to navigate the world of jazz.
While there is no one single “right way” to decode or understand classic jazz, I prefer to start explaining jazz as a collection of 10 regional “dishes” or styles that first emerged between around 1917 to around 1967.
Think about barbecue. To explain barbeque to Newcomers you might say there are four basic regional styles to understand: Memphis, Kansas City, Texas and Carolina. Knowing each of these styles, you can then navigate your way around any barbeque menu — wet versus dry rubs; pork versus beef; vinegary versus spicy etc…and importantly know which style you like best (and like least) and what to order (or not) next time.
Likewise, jazz got started as a “musical dish” in one region and subsequently migrated over a 50 year period to other locales, each making its own new “flavor”of jazz. If you know these ten main styles, then you are well on your way to decoding and enjoying classic jazz! Now let’s look at those ten specific styles of jazz:
1. The Beginning: New Orleans
Jazz came together as uniquely New Orleans blend of ragtime (Scott Joplin, The Entertainer), light opera, hymns, spirituals, tin pan alley and brass bands together with african influenced poly-rhythms. A precursor to what we recognize as jazz is the WWI military band of James Reese Europe. Listen to their version of Memphis Blues 1919. The Storyville area of New Orleans (Mahogany Hall) employed many musicians (it was closed by the Navy in 1917).
In terms of musical style, Early New Orleans style typically has a “flat four” beat (chug chug chug chug, repeated), and features syncopation and polyphony — trumpet leads with trombone & clarinet in front line. Tunes took form of Rags, Stomps, Rambles, Blues.
New Orleans style jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917 Livery Stable Blues) the first jazz recording; Original Memphis 5 Shimmy Like Kate 1922; Kid Ory (first recorded in 1922) Do What Ory Say Eh Le-Bas; New Orleans Rhythm Kings Bugle Call 1923. >Later: Bunk Johnson Go Crazy 1944; Louis Armstrong Basin St Blues 1956; Mugsy Spanier Jazzband Ball 1960.
>Today: Tuba Skinny; Shotgun Jazz Band Dinah; Preservation Hall Tailgate Ramble
2. North to Chicago
As work in New Orleans slowed, musicians migrate up Mississippi. It was the Roaring 20s. Compared to the New Orleans style, now for the first time a piano is added; string bass+guitar (=concert) replace tuba+banjo (=marching). Soloist & improvisation emerge. “Two beat” feel, 1–3. Earl Hines Orch. at Sunset Cafe (Grand Terrace).
Chicago style jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
King Oliver at Lincoln Gardens DIppermouth Blues 1923; Jelly Roll Morton Black Bottom Stomp 1926; Merritt Brunies Sugarfoot Stomp at Friar’s Inn 1925; Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five w Earl Hines West End Blues, Weatherbird 1928; Wild Man Blues 1927 (Hot Seven); Bix Beiderbecke Swinging the Blues 1927
>Related style often called “Dixieland.” Examples include Bob Crosby Coquette 1928, That Dada Strain 1942 (orig 1922), “Austin High Gang” Bud Freeman & Eddie Condon Nobody’s Sweetheart 1939, That’s a Plenty.
3. Off to NYC
As the 1930’s began the jazz scene moved from Chicago, east to glitz & high style of Art Deco era New York City. At this same the Empire State Building just opened in 1931, followed by the Chrysler Building in 1933. Like NYC itself the jazz at this time was fancier, more polished, and slick than Chicago.
NYC style Jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Paul Whiteman was known as the “King of Jazz” his Lonely Melody 1928 (with the famous cornetist Bix Beiderbecke 1927); Fletcher Henderson Wrap it Up 1934, Christopher Columbus 1936. Duke Ellington was “in residence” at the famous Cotton Club perfecting his group that would tour for the next 50 years (recall Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule) Mood Indigo 1930, Cotton Tail 1941. Other big NYC halls include the Apollo, the Savoy, the Roseland.
>Today: Wynton Marsalis plays Ellington’s C Jam Blues 2012 at Lincoln Center.
>Also at this time: the Harlem stride pianists: James P Johnson Honeysuckle Rose 1930; Fats Waller Sit Right Down 1935 (hit #5 on charts); Willie the Lion Smith and Eubie Blake (played with James Reese Europe in the Teens) establishes long tradition of jazz solo pianists (Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson) that continues thru Keith Jarrett & today the astonishing master stride pianist Stephanie Trick.
4. Swing! The National Dish
By the late 1930’s jazz had become THE popular music, what the kids screamed for before Elvis and the Beatles. This is the jazz your grandma listened to on the radio. What the GI’s listened to during WWII. Jazz continues to be popular dance music, and spread via radio broadcasts.
Chicagoan Benny Goodman became “King of Swing” influenced by New Orleans jazz clarinetists in Chicago (Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo, Jimmie Noone). Weekly NBC radio show “Let’s Dance.” Landmark concert @Carnegie Hall Dont Be That Way 1938;
Big Band Swing style listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Bunny Berigan Hi Ho 1937; Jimmy Dorsey Parade of the Milk Bottle Caps 1936; Glenn Miller’s PA6–5000 and 7–0–5; Glenn Gray Orch plays Miller’s famous “In the Mood.” Charlie Barnet Skyliner; Kay Kyser had eleven #1 hits (but he’s a little “hokey” for my taste honestly).
>Today: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis plays Roll’Em 2009, tune Mary Lou Williams originally wrote for the Goodman band.
5. Some Kansas City Heat
Meanwhile in the midwest, centered in Kansas City a town then run by Mayor Tom Pendergast and his gang, “territory bands” were touring with hotter, driving style. These bands played looser “head arrangements” — riffs often not written down vs polished written parts like the NYC bands played. The most famous territory band was led by Bennie & Buster Moten (Moten Swing 1933). That band merged with Walter Page’s Blue Devils from Oklahoma City to become the famous Count Basie Orchestra, which still tours today. The Basie band famously was in-residence at the Reno Club 1935–36 and gained fame via nationwide nightly radio broadcasts (again as with Ellington the 10,000 hour rule applies).
Kansas City style jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Listen to Basie playing Jumpin at the Woodside 1938; Blow Top (1940); One OClock Jump at Newport 1957. My favorite Basie: “Atomic” album Flight of the Foo Birds 1957. Also famous to come out of KC was the Jay McShann band Swingmatism 1941 (with Charlie Parker — we’ll talk more about him later!).
>Related is the Lindy hop style (popular dance): Jimmy Lunceford Taint what you do 1939; Lionel Hampton Flyin Home 1942.
>Today: KC riff style jazz is still in use. Listen to the soundtrack behind this Acura car ad
(And now for a brief Vocal Interlude)
We’ve been listening to instrumentals (all instruments, no singers). Jazz singers are present across all styles & periods. Most all jazz bands had a singer (sometimes one male and one female) who performed with them.
In the 1920s Louis Armstrong created the idea of using his voice as another instrument, making it sound like a horn often signing sounds not words. He established “scat jazz singing.” Sounds like “shooba dooba doo dot dot.”
Jazz Singers listening recommendations for Newcomers:
The first early great jazz vocalist was Bessie Smith Wild About that Thing 1929; Billie Holiday (w Teddy Wilson) Moonlight 1935; Ella Fitzgerald at Apollo Ballroom Chick Webb St Louis Blues 1939. Ella “Scat” singing 1974. You must buy the fantastic Ella & Louis album.
Other greats incl. Sarah Vaughan, Anita O’Day Takin’ Chance on Love 1957; Johnny Hartman (w Coltrane) My One & Only Love 1963; Jimmy Rushing Gee Baby 1965; Sinatra live At The Sands w Basie 1966
>Today: Diana Krall Deed I Do; Natalie Cole Almost Like Being in Love; Cecile McLorin Salvant Shimmy Like Kate; Rachel Price Ol Black Magic. I especially like the singing of Catherine Russell, her dad Luis was in King Oliver’s band then was Armstrong’s longtime musical director, she was backup singer for Cyndi Lauper!
6. Late Night NYC Bites: Bebop
Now we pick up our story about the evolution of jazz styles back in NYC towards the end of WWII as things there begin to radically change and move away from “Big Band” style jazz. Several factors drove major change in jazz style away from the large band Swing format:
- WWII fuel & rubber shortages made Big Band bus touring hard to sustain.
- There was a tax imposed on dance halls which hurt the revenue stream for jazz — it was after primarily dance music — forcing many dance halls close, and bands to lose work.
- There was a musicians union strike and recording ban that took place between 1942–44, hurting the other big source of income.
In 1941 late late at night during “after hours” when the crowds went home and the NYC musicians gathered at Minton’s to play among them selves and try new things, guitarist Charlie Christian begin experimenting with a new free-flowing style that went beyond stiffer simple Swing style.
Soon small groups vs big bands began taking up this new style. It featured radically faster tempos, a nervous virtuosity, unison playing, advanced harmonies, frenetic sound and jagged lines. The cymbal keeps the beat. This jazz now intentionally not for dancing for first time. It became known as Bebop. With the advent of Bebop, jazz starts its shift out of mainstream where it was for your grandma to a niche style it is today.
Bebop jazz style listening recommendations for Newcomers:
>Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell. Cherokee 1943; Dizzy Atmosphere & Salt Peanuts, 1945; Koko at Carnegie Hall 1947; Miles Davis +Parker Night in Tunisia 1947; Fats Navarro Boperation 1948.
7. Detroit & Philly: “Hard Bop” or “East Coast” style
The 1950s are considered the apex of jazz as an art form (not in popularity), these are the peak of the “Blue Note” years. This is what most think of as “jazz.” Some call this style “Mainstream.” During the mid-1950s jazz musicians refined and polished off the harsh edges of the Bebop style Diz and Bird launched in the late 1940s. In this mainstream 1950’s hard bop style (played in small groups generally) musicians start by all playing the melody, then give each player a long solo chorus to improvise — to spontaneously invent a new melody using the same underlying chord changes as the original melody — then the tune ends with all players reprising the original melody. Many of the most famous hard bop players hail from Detroit and Philly.
Hard Bop style jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Transition — Dizzy Big Band Hey Pete 1956. (When you listen to this remind yourself that in this same year Elvis was recording “Hound Dog” — what a difference in musical sophistication, yet Elvis was hugely more popular with his musically more simple unsophisticated approach.
Great examples of hard bop: Miles Davis + John Coltrane Tune Up 1957; Coltrane + Freddie Hubbard I’m a Dreamer 1958; Clifford Brown + Max Roach Joy Spring 1954, Sandu 1955; Flossie Lou 1956; JJ Johnson Groovin 1954; Cliff Jordan Blue Lights 1957; John Coltrane Blue Train 1957. Sonny Clark Cool Struttin 1958. Art Blakey + Horace Silver & the Jazz Messengers Sister Sadie 1959.; Wes Montgomery Incredible Guitar 1960; Dexter Gordon Cheesecake 1962; Lee Morgan The Sidewinder 1963; Donald Byrd Beale Street 1967.
> Later in this period (or is it, as some might argue, another new period altogether?) emerges a strong Soul Jazz (church, preacher) flavor. Listen to Jimmy Smith’s HammondB3 jazz organ Back at the Chicken Shack; David Fathead Newman Hard Times 1958; LaVern Baker Revival Day 1958; Bobby Timmons This Here 1960; Grant Green Sunday Morning 1961. Cannonball Adderley Mercy Mercy Mercy 1966.
>Today: Jared Gold Preachin.
8. The West Coast Scene: “Cool Jazz”
At same time in the 1950s, musicians in Los Angeles “cool things off.” From their central base, Lighthouse Cafe’ in Hermosa Beach, they play a quieter jazz, chamber music volume, with a laid back easy sound. West coast jazz musicians experiment with piano-less ensemble. West Coast jazz traces it’s roots to Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool nonet in 1948–1950
West Coast style jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Lee Konitz + Lenny Tristano Subconscious Lee 1949; Shorty Rogers Popo 1951; Howard Rumsey Out of Somewhere 1952; Modern Jazz Quartet Softly Morning Sunrise 1955; Chico Hamilton+Jim Hall Sleepy 1956 Art Pepper Star Eyes 1957; Gerry Mulligan DJ Jump 1957; Walking Shoes orig 1952; Jazz Casual 1958; Bill Holman If You Were No One 1959
>Today: Joe LaBarbera, Bill Cunliffe and Lee Konitz still playing at 87!
>>Related to Cool West Coast Jazz style: a cerebral, relaxed mellow piano-forward style emerges here. The format is typically a trio of piano, bass+drums. Ahmad Jamal LIve at the Pershing 1958; Dave Brubeck w alto sax Paul Desmond Time Out 1959; Bill Evans Sunday at Village Vanguard Waltz for Debby 1961; Vince Guaraldi (wrote Charlie Brown music) Cast Your Fate the the Wind 1962
>Today: George Shearing The Masquerade is Over 1992; Cedar Walton In Paris 1992; Mulgrew Miller What a Difference 2003; Ben Paterson Lucky Southern 2013.
9. Ongoing Cuban/Brazilian Influence
Jazz has long had Latin influence as early as the 1930s when Juan Tizol, the trombone player from Puerto Rico who was with early Ellington band, wrote the famous latin-tinged standards Caravan and Perdido (which was performed at the legendary Diz-Bird Massey Hall concert in Toronto in 1953).
Latin-style jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Chano Pozo (Manteca). Charlie Parker Suede Shoes 1951; Howard Rumsey Mambo Los Feliz 1953. Sonny Rollins St Thomas 1956. Tito Puente Dance Mania 1958. 60s bring Bossa Nova craze: Stan Getz Jazz Samba 1962; Coleman Hawkins Four Leaf Clover 1962; Black Orpheus 1963. Cal Tjader Soul Sauce 1964; Getz/Gilberto massive hit (unfortunately now sometimes mis-categorized as cliche “muzak”) Girl from Ipanema 1964.
> Today: Eddie Palmieri, Danilo Perez, Arturo Sandoval, Michel Camilo, Joe Henderson Double Rainbow 1995; Maria Schneider Choro Dancado 2004; Eliane Elias’ Made in Brazil 2015
10a & 10b. FreeJazz & JazzRock
By the mid/late 1960s in the post-JFK/MLK Vietnam era, rock had invaded (the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan in 1964), and jazz had hard time deciding where to go next. Jazz forked to two extremes: the totally non-commercial — no one’s listening anyway so let’s play some “way out there stuff” (10a); and the overtly-commercial (10b) — we better figure out something people really want to listen to…and drifted to edges of music world, while rock permanently took over as America’s popular music, a place it still holds today.
(10a) Free Jazz. Unlike in previous styles where jazz musicians hewed to strict musical rules, now Free Jazz players threw out the rule book. You might hear this style referred to as “Avant-garde.” You see references to Ascension. Mysticism. Epiphany.
Free Jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
The first to be called “Free Jazz” is Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz Double Quartet 1960. Epic: John Coltrane Love Supreme 1965. Other notable names include Eric Dolphy, SunRa, Albert Ayler, Henry Threadgill, Archie Schepp, Muhal Richard Abrams, AACM group in Chicago, Pharoah Sanders Creator Has Master Plan 1969.
CAUTION: Free Jazz is some amazing (“out there”) stuff, but it’s probably not best starting point for Newcomers. In fact it’s really hard to follow for Newcomers. You will find this very hard to listen to if it’s your first taste of jazz!
(10b) Jazz Rock and then Smooth Jazz. (Overly?) commercial. This is jazz created and fully intended to sell! It’s catchy, finger-snapping and fun.
Jazz Rock / Smooth Jazz listening recommendations for Newcomers:
Jazz Crusaders Freedom Sound 1961; Herbie Hancock Watermelon Man 1962 & Chameleon 1973; Ramsey Lewis The In Crowd 1965; Hugh Masekela Grazing in the Grass 1968; Charles Earland More Today than Yesterday 1969; Miles Davis Bitches Brew 1969 (some say Miles “sells out” with this album, crossing over to the commercial side); Joe Henderson Black Miracle 1975; Return to Forever w Chick Corea Romantic Warrior 1976; Weather Report Birdland 1977; Maynard Ferguson Gonna Fly Now 1977 & Birdland 1978; Chuck Mangione Feels So Good 1977; Spyro Gyra Morning Dance 1979. Joe Sample and the Jazz Crusaders continue into the 80s.
Other names: George Benson, Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Grover Washington Jr., Bob James, and yes (arrrrrgh!) Kenny G. → this flavor of jazz became the “smooth jazz” on FM radio, elevators and your dentist’s office. @Newcomers please don’t start or focus your jazz listening here!
Epilogue:
Ok now an important note for all you Jazz Pro’s reading this post: Jazz did not “end” in 1965 or 1970! Yes, much great jazz comes after this and is being played today in clubs and at festivals. My point for Newcomers is simply, “When you know these ten classic styles from ~1917–1967, most jazz thereafter will make sense to you.”
Whatever contemporary jazz you are hearing today is likely rooted in one of these 10 styles. Look at this line-up for the 1979–2008 Chicago JazzFests. You can roughly match each group to one of the ten styles above (even though musicians do not like to be “classified.”)
So find one or two you styles you like and explore! Go to a club or concert — nothing beats listening to live jazz. As the great drummer and leader of The Jazz Messengers Art Blakey once said, “Jazz shakes off the dust of every-day life.”
Post-script: My Ten Tips & Resources for Newcomers to Decode Jazz
- Listen to the great KC pianist Mary Lou Williams narrate and play the History of Jazz and here.
- Read Ben Ratliff’s excellent Essential Library of Jazz book about 100 most essential jazz recordings
- Watch the movie about 1957 Newport Jazz Fest (famous event in jazz) Jazz on a Summer’s Day; and also watch the Oscar nominated documentary short: A Great Day in Harlem (1995) about the special day in 1957 when all jazz greats came together in Harlem for Esquire cover photograph.
- Read great short online text/elearning “Jazz” by UCLA profs Tanner et al. See esp. chapters 5–10
- Listen to Kinda Blue the #1 jazz record ever. Quadruple Platinum. Still sells 5,000 copies per week
- Then listen to some Thelonius Monk, Lester Young (“Prez”) & Charles Mingus, contrarians (some might say iconoclasts or geniuses) who are hard to categorize but essential to jazz history & listening for sure. Then listen to 1,000 hours of classic jazz streamed free from the Niven Collection
- If you’ve got a 19 hour flight to Australia, watch Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns. Long but well done.
- Do not buy the Tony Bennett + Lady Gaga album. IMO feels like it could be an old Saturday Night Live skit by the late Phil Hartman & Jan Hooks — this album is a parody of jazz vs the real thing. I warned you!
- Buy the big Jazz Tree poster that shows all the key artists and strains of jazz in detail beyond the ten reviewed here; or instead keep handy and refer to the Map of Jazz Styles (shown below) adapted by @JoeGermuska from Joachim-Ernst Berendt’s excellent reference tome, “The Jazz Book”
- Use the “beat cheat sheet” (shown below) also from J. Berendt to help identify the style of a jazz song. Listen to the drums and bass who keep the pulse!