6 Components of Great Jazz

Everyone seems to love jazz music but often times the styles of jazz are confused and blurred. To further complicate matters, listeners (and dancers) often ask "What is great jazz?" or "How do I know if what I'm listening to is 'great jazz'"?

It's difficult to put in words, but let's give it a try. Remember jazz legend Louis Armstrong says: "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." While jazz can be broken into elements and much has been written on jazz theory, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the spirit that characterizes truly great music can't be dissected. The first rule of thumb of identifying great jazz music is that if you like it, if it touches your soul, then it's great.

Think of it this way, it's like walking into a museum or art gallery and asking to see great paintings or sculptures. Or worse, ask an artist to explain his or her painting to you. If the artist despises you, he/she may offer you some words by way of explanation, but great art is not meant to be explained. It either hits you, or it doesn't. It bypasses the part of the brain that analyzes and seeks to categorize or logically explain things and goes straight from the eyes to the "Ah Ha!" of your heart and soul. Music speaks to you in the same way.

Let's talk about what you're hearing. That's different. Here are 6 elements of "great" jazz music. Jazz can be divided into many different styles: traditional jazz, contemporary jazz, dixieland jazz, progressive jazz, modern jazz. Nevertheless, there are generally 6 elements that are key to all good jazz music: Improvisation, Syncopation, Blue Notes, Freedom, Interaction, and Feeling.

IMPROVISATION is truly the heart of all jazz music. When a performer forgets what is written on the page by the composer and begins to speak with his instrument from his head and heart, you know that you are now seeing a real conversation on stage. The musicians are conversing within a set structure, the language of music. And when you see musicians who play together regularly or are good enough to find that connection instantaneously, you can see that they are truly speaking to each other, listening and receiving, through a musical dialogue.

SYNCOPATION: deals with the idea of rhythm. In our universe of space and time, everything vibrates. Vibration consist of two things: on and off. It is the constant interaction of the on and off (crests and troughs) that cause us to experience the universe. Those on and offs are expressed over time. So here's the jazz music. When you fool around with those vibrations from a very rigid form (strict rhythm) to either slower or faster but with variety you'll get "Syncopation". It's fun. It's what you like in music. It's what you're relating to when you dance. It's what MOVES you in jazz music.

BLUE NOTES are an important part of a jazz musician's vocabulary in the musical conversation. Within scales and keys can be certain altered notes, some of which are called "Blue Notes." Blue notes are key to creating dissonance and harmony, tension and resolution.

The next three elements are less of a function of music but more of a function of the musicians spirit. It is how the following three functions affect the first three that should interest you.