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Sonny Rollins

      (1930)

      
History

      
 

      
Jazz was the only new art form to be
      developed in the 20th century and it is the music of afro-Americans. Every type of jazz that exists
      today has its roots in afro-American culture and of course the
      saxophone. The saxophone was invented by Adolph Sax (1814 -1894)
      he was a Belgian working in Paris in the early 1840's. Sax was
      from a well established family of instrument makers and an excellent
      flautist. By the age of 20 he had invented the bass clarinet.
      Sax went on to develop the saxophone and he obtained the patent
      for his new instrument on June 28, 1846. Sax wanted a reed instrument
      that had as much power as a trumpet, the clarinet was far too
      quiet for marching bands so in he invented the saxophone. The
      blacks of America quickly adopted the sax as their instrument
      and this in turn helped create this new genre jazz.

      
For many decades it was always said that
      whites could not play jazz as well as a black person. This of
      course is not true. There are now many white musicians who play
      jazz with great integrity and virtuosity. Stan Tracey who is
      now named the Grandfather of British jazz is a fantastic jazz
      pianist and a good example of a white man playing jazz with a
      great authentic feel.

      
Jazz is still in its infancy compared
      with the history of western classical music but it has developed
      very quickly over the past 100 years. Mainstream jazz superimposed
      itself on well known tunes and today all decent jazz players
      at some time in their life play from the song book. Some never
      leave it finding enough inspiration from the melodies and harmonies
      of a bygone era to keep themselves and their audience interested.
      Others have moved on and have felt the need to write their own
      material to find their own voice and so push the boundaries of
      what is jazz.

      
The word jazz is now an umbrella term
      because within that there are many styles e.g. trad or Dixie
      the earliest form of jazz from New Orleans, mainstream using
      will known tunes, Porter, Gershwin etc. Bossa-nova developed
      by Stan Getz interpreting the music of Tom Jobim from Brazil,
      bebop - developed by Charlie Parker. Salsa - rhythms from Cuba
      mixed with jazz i.e. Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo
      Sandoval. Modern and modal jazz John Coltrane and Miles Davis
      - Avant-Garde and Free Jazz. British jazz, from the 50's was
      mainly played by white musicians, now includes many black British
      players with Caribbean backgrounds, they like to include references
      to reggae and rap in their music e.g. Courtney Pine, Soweto Kinch,
      Byron Wallen, Dennis Rollins, Tony Kofi, Jazz Jamaica etc.

      
As with the fragmenting of styles in
      classical music during early part of the 20th century, jazz is
      now doing this. In contemporary jazz the line between classical
      music and jazz is becoming very blurred they even collide quite
      happily together i.e. Joanna MacGregor with Jason Yarde and the
      Britten Sinfonia.

      
Many jazz musicians call on world music
      to help define what it is they want to say John Mclaughlin, Andy
      Sheppard. Christine Tobin, David Murray etc. and of course there
      is jazz funk and jazz rock "but hey - I am not writing a
      book so I will stop here".