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Independent Jazz Music

Jazz has been called America's classical music, with good reason. Along with the blues, it's one of the first truly indigenous musics to develop in America, yet its unpredictable, risky ventures into improvisation gave it critical cache with scholars that the blues lacked.

Jazz is a musical form that grew out of a cross-fertilization of folk blues, ragtime, and European music, particularly band music. In the beginning, jazz was dance music performed by swinging big bands. But as time went on the dance elements faded into the background and improvisation became the key element of the music. Most expert's agree that it is impossible to define exactly what jazz is, but nearly everyone would agree that a key element of jazz is improvisation.

As the genre evolved, the music split into a number of different styles, from the speedy, hard-hitting rhythms of be-bop (Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk) to the jittery, atonal forays of free jazz and the earthy grooves of soul jazz (Herbie Hancock, Grant Green and Sonny Clark, Richard "Groove" Holmes). What ties all these genres together is a foundation in the blues, a reliance on group interplay and unpredictable improvisation.

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