About Jazz Music - Research Paper Example

In fact, Jazz is all set to win the hearts and minds of the music lovers located anywhere and everywhere in the world and is no more the exclusive legacy of American masses.It is really tough to trace a chronologically systematic history of Jazz music. However, it will be quiet realistic to say that Jazz evolved from a budding musical diversion to a blooming tradition at some time around the beginning of the 20th century. The dilemma of the historians and archives of Jazz music is that today there exist very few recordings of Jazz from its formative years.

Even the recordings that exist fail to extend a true sound of the Jazz music of those days because of the limitations of the recording technology of that time (Ratliff 56). Considering the fact that extempore performances, which are not merely encouraged in Jazz, but in fact constitute a vital and indispensable part of this genre, were not accurately captured by the then existing recording facilities.Jazz in its early days authentically had a black heart that eventually won the interest and dedication of connoisseurs hailing from all cultures and colors.

Actually, Jazz was the first native American musical form that had an impact that was not merely panned American but Global in its scope (Roots of American Music 82). The port city of New Orleans is considered to be the home of Jazz music. It is easier for the Jazz fans to understand that the development of such musical tradition undeniably needed a cosmopolitan breeding ground. Jazz was the result of the mingling of the Western classical music with the African spirituals and blues to which was added a generous smattering of the Caribbean and Latin culture.

Thus it amply reveals a sophistication of the classical influences thickly loaded with the spice, verve, and energy that is conclusively African and Latin in its origins. It has the finesse of an orchestra combined to the earthiness of a brass band, which gives it its typical flavor. Such an enticing art form surely could not be kept confined to New Orleans for long. Shortly Jazz began its journey towards the north and reached Chicago, where it soon captured the loyalty of the masses and became a regular feature at the local nightclubs (Roots of American Music 82).

Yet, it is the New York City that rendered Jazz with an immense mass appeal and commercial possibilities, courtesy of its booming music publishing business (Roots of American Music 82). Presently Jazz started becoming more organized and the splinter Jazz groups started sticking together to give way to big Jazz bands led by celebrated performers like Count Basic and Jellyroll Morton. This was the time when Jazz finally achieved the fame and success that was long its due. Surely the American dream is not merely confined to people and groups but has cultural and artistic ramifications.

Jazz has finally arrived by the late 40s. One fact that deserves prompt attention is that Jazz was not merely urban in its scope.