Growth of Jazz - Research Paper Example

matter of fact, jazz is a mixture of the long-term West African tradition based on a call-and-response model and distinct melody line, which neglected the European concept of harmony that was a characteristic feature of European musical tradition (McIntosh 26). In next to no time jazz grew into something more than just a regional African-American folk music of the Southern states and became a critically acclaimed and extremely popular music genre in its own right well across the United States.

By the beginning of the 20th century jazz became a synonym of novelty in music. Improvisation, clashing time signatures based on syncopated rhythms and a unique style of performance of the rhythmic texture, such as swing, were typical of the music language of jazz in the first half of the 20th century (Carvalho 286). Further development of jazz was accounted for new rhythmic and harmonic patterns brought in by jazz musicians and composers, which in turn gave fresh impetus to the growth of various new subgenres of jazz, such as bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, free jazz, soul jazz and a lot more.

Once one of the brightest legends of the traditional jazz, Louis Armstrong, first came on stage, the boundaries of jazz were pushed even further and solo performance gained widespread popularity. Armstrongs innovative performance encompassed solo improvisation with trumpet. His multifaceted experimental creative work stirred others into seeking for new musical art forms involving a number of instruments that were not typical for jazz before, which made this music genre even more popular in the United States of America.

By the end of 1920s jazz broke into mainstream and became one of the most popular musical genres both in the United States and overseas. With the advent of sound-recording technology and rise of major record labels that searched for talented musician all across the United States such jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong or Fletcher Henderson became more recognized than any