If you had to pick one jazz style?

**princeplanet** · 02-23-2015, 09:28 PM

.... and yeah, we all knew there was gonna be the inevitable bitching about missing styles, or overlapping styles or even just the definitions themselves, but like the title says, if there was a gun pointed at you, and you had to pick just one of the broad choices above, surely most of us could do that? I mean, rather than be shot....

Now before anyone suggests that I should be shot for not providing enough options, consider that I was originally going to just ask whether you identify more with either: 1/Early 2/ Middle or 3/Late periods of Jazz! Just to get a broad sketch of our collective tastes. But I'm glad I ended up with a few more distinctions, for example, Swing vs Bebop. At this stage Swing is the clear leader, Bebop the clear "loser" ! Early days of course, but that's pretty interesting to me, given that much of the discourse on this forum relating to improv is definitely about building Bop vocab against changes (Standards). I guess Bebop is our Lingua Franca, we still study it as it informs many other styles. But from looking at the graph up top, you might think it's more like Latin - ie, a dead language....?

**gggomez** · 02-23-2015, 11:35 PM

How would you classify the current players Avishai Cohen (Trumpet), Rotem Sivan, Gilad Hekselman, Rafal Sarnecki, Petros Klampanis and my new discovery Assaf Kehati.

Old stuff is cool but if I had to pick one style is the current guys. The new stuff is exciting to me as I have not heard it yet but I can't hear it if you shoot me.

**princeplanet** · 02-24-2015, 12:11 AM

Originally Posted by gggomez

How would you classify the current players Avishai Cohen (Trumpet), Rotem Sivan, Gilad Hekselman, Rafal Sarnecki, Petros Klampanis and my new discovery Assaf Kehati.

Old stuff is cool but if I had to pick one style is the current guys. The new stuff is exciting to me as I have not heard it yet but I can't hear it if you shoot me.

So you couldn't just choose the last category, to at least separate you from the older styles? Just tryin' to get a ballpark here, if I had another category that said "Totally Unique and Unclassifiable", I bet too many of us would chose that, even if we, erm, weren't..... maybe.

**gggomez** · 02-24-2015, 01:07 AM

I initially thought postbop by I saw it had a cut off of 1968.

When I read fusion I think Crusaders, Weather Report don't know any modern fusion bands to throw a name and free I think Coleman.

Apologies if I have hijacked your thread, I just like to fly the flag for the new guys, amazing artists trying to make a living out of an art form and also guys that are very kind hearted and helping me on my journey. The amazing power of google even mentioning their names in a forum like this it can come up in a google search. That has to be good for business.

**princeplanet** · 02-24-2015, 08:40 AM

OK, so enough votes to see the trends. Anyone else surprised to see Swing right up there and Bebop way down? Most surprising for me is that no-one picked Modal, given that Modal Jazz is so popular with casual listeners, and fun to play.

Anyone have any ideas about why Modal is the only zero thus far? I thought that the crossover contingent from Rock and Blues world would have found Modal Jazz to be a comfortable platform for the Jazz novice more familiar with improvising in single keys.

Or is it just that Modal Jazz is often simply a part of Hard Bop, Cool and Post Bop (Even jazz/funk/rock fusion)?

**HighSpeedSpoon** · 02-24-2015, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by princeplanet

OK, so enough votes to see the trends. Anyone else surprised to see Swing right up there and Bebop way down? Most surprising for me is that no-one picked Modal, given that Modal Jazz is so popular with casual listeners, and fun to play.

Anyone have any ideas about why Modal is the only zero thus far? I thought that the crossover contingent from Rock and Blues world would have found Modal Jazz to be a comfortable platform for the Jazz novice more familiar with improvising in single keys.

Or is it just that Modal Jazz is often simply a part of Hard Bop, Cool and Post Bop (Even jazz/funk/rock fusion)?

I thing the setup "Hypothetically, if you were forced to pick one style to focus on forever" is why no one has picked modal (yet). Despite the freedom, there is just not enough compared to other styles for Modal to be the Mr or Mrs Right of "focus on forever" genres. I'm not sure what to say about Swing versus Bebop. I was surprised, although pleasantly for me, as I chose Swing.

**cosmic gumbo** · 02-24-2015, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by princeplanet

is it just that Modal Jazz is often simply a part of Hard Bop, Cool and Post Bop (Even jazz/funk/rock fusion)?

I would say modal is included strongly in post bop and fusion to such a degree that it can't be separated from it. I don't feel the post bop era ever ended.

**EOE** · 02-25-2015, 03:33 PM

the new stuff is the lighter version of fusion called smooth jazz. which I like to play..

**princeplanet** · 02-28-2015, 01:04 AM

.... just bumpin' the poll to get a few more votes before it disappears into the ether....

**Dexma** · 03-02-2015, 08:43 AM

Swing. Hot club.

Its cool.

But if I would have to choose what i would listen my whole life after this, it would be harder to choose. I could just listen modal jazz and drink wine, or I could take funky fusion and still keep myself funky. Also there just keeping it swing could be nice.

**eddy b.** · 03-02-2015, 08:58 AM

I said cool because that is how I would describe my favorites Bill Evans and Ed Bickert and Paul Desmond... sweet swinging beauty... I could play/ study these three for the rest of my life and not feel like I missing out on anything...

**HighSpeedSpoon** · 03-02-2015, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by eddy b.

I said cool because that is how I would describe my favorites Bill Evans and Ed Bickert and Paul Desmond... sweet swinging beauty... I could play/ study these three for the rest of my life and not feel like I missing out on anything...

A rose by any other name ...

Whatever you call it, that's not a bad short list. Ed Bickert is perhaps under-appreciated by the general public, although maybe not on this forum. And BTW, after reading your post I looked through my limited collection of only three albums in Bill Evans' name,

and I noticed that two of them were with Jim Hall (Intermodulation and Undercurrent). The third was the solo album Alone.

**Boston Joe** · 04-24-2015, 09:54 AM

Definitely Fusion. I'd get a little crazy if I couldn't crank up my amp and cut loose every once in a while.

**patskywriter** · 04-24-2015, 12:14 PM

Darn. I couldn't choose. I tend to categorize jazz as "melodic" and "not so melodic," LOL. And I also would have liked to have been able to consider "Latin Jazz" (I used to play in a salsa band, and have enjoyed playing with Brazilian musicians).

**md54** · 04-28-2015, 06:34 AM

George Benson said in his book that one of the reasons jazz died was because no one knew what to expect if they turned up for a gig. ie Free or Trad etc. So the general public just gave up and turned to Pop/Rock. Too many weird sub divisions. Perhaps that's true.

**vhollund** · 05-19-2015, 07:20 PM

"Fusion" covers everything there right ? ;-)

**Boston Joe** · 05-19-2015, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by vhollund

"Fusion" covers everything there right ? ;-)

Sort of, I guess.

I enjoy playing with an overdriven, saturated tone. If I were playing straight-up rock, I'd probably go for something a little brighter.

**Jazzpunk** · 05-20-2015, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by princeplanet

Hypothetically, if you were forced to pick one style to focus on forever, which would it be?

Oh, by "Post Bop" I mean Tyner, Hancock, Miles, Henderson etc from say '64 to 68.

I'm just curious to know the current prevailing tastes of the members of this forum, once and for all!

* Please be a sport, just pick one, OK?

I know it's almost impossible, but today I'm gonna say Post Bop. (Tomorrow it might be Modal or Hard Bop...)

And yeah, I know I missed Bossa, GJ and other styles, it's because I stupidly chosen only 7....

I made a similar poll. Seems pretty evenly split between people who only listen to old school jazz and those of us who enjoy both old school and the new:

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/playe...ou-living.html

**christianm77** · 06-08-2015, 08:25 PM

I wanna be like John Scofield and Bill Frisell and get away with playing one style in as many of those boxes as I can :-)

**christianm77** · 06-08-2015, 08:26 PM

Originally Posted by md54

George Benson said in his book that one of the reasons jazz died was because no one knew what to expect if they turned up for a gig. ie Free or Trad etc. So the general public just gave up and turned to Pop/Rock. Too many weird sub divisions. Perhaps that's true.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. The word 'jazz' confuses people now.

**pkirk** · 06-09-2015, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by KIRKP

If a musician wants his/her work to be popular, they must focus not only on the art, but also on being entertaining and adapting to the interests of the masses. Like it or not, people flock to those who do the best job of this. George Benson is a case in point.

Hey KIRKP, I wonder if people on this forum ever get the two of us mixed up. My views are very different from yours, despite the nearly identical usernames!

**KirkP** · 06-09-2015, 01:30 AM

Originally Posted by pkirk

Hey KIRKP, I wonder if people on this forum ever get the two of us mixed up. My views are very different from yours, despite the nearly identical usernames!

Ha! I was going to accuse you of causing the potential confusion, but looks like you created your username 6 months before me, so I won't. Glancing though your past posts I don't see anything you've said I'd disagree with. I haven't seen evidence of anyone confusing us, but someone does that should be easy to correct. Nothin wrong with having different viewpoints.

**christianm77** · 06-09-2015, 09:06 AM

It's a shame your usernames are not exact palindromes and you had completely diametrically opposing opinions, but it's getting there ;-)

Maybe I'll start create a username 77mnaitsirhc and start having arguments with myself.