Foghat

The essence of Jazz music is the ethereal atmosphere of the dimensional harmony created by kaleidoscope of chromatic tones. It is the pulsating back beat of syncopating African rhythms through the rumble of the drums, or soft sound of the brush to the snare.

The music is an expression of melody from the depth of the soul conveyed as a gospel in many unique ways. These elements combined with the free impressionistic ambiance of instrumental tones in orchestration as a foundational juxtaposition of 7th, 9th,13th chordal harmony makes this style truly unique. The essence of Jazz music is music that is upbeat, full of pizzazz ,yet laid back with style. One would never guess that this free style of music has a foundation that began with Baroque elements found in Classical music.

Classical music comes from the basic structure of homophony when two or more musical lines are played vertically in the same direction as sacred music. In fact, Jazz music is created with homophony in terms of the movement of chords to support the melodic improvisation. However, when it comes to playing intervals and chordal harmonies, Jazz is free from the restriction of classical form. For example, if a song is written in the key of C or a minor there are no sharps or flats written on the staffs. Many times in Jazz music Accidentals are put in the music to cause a tonal effect found in chromatic tones. Tonal effects can occur when one or more notes are altered by raising or lowering a pitch by one half step. Sharps are symbols in the shape of a number sign or tic tac toe board (#). Flats are symbols in the shape of a lower case B(b), yet shaped differently like half a heart.

In some Jazz pieces, both the sharp and flat can occur simultaneously in a chord. The result of such musical experimentation can be Dissonant chords unresolved for the purpose of producing a certain sound. Depending on what tones are used the sound is either full of color, or full of tension. On the other hand, Consonance is a stable balance of harmonic tones without tension. One example of the essence of Jazz Music is the song “Route 66″ with cluster of chords with dissonant tones that move from major to minor to diminished to create tonal color.

The Tones in Jazz music is always about the speech rhythm and the chordal harmony full of color as influenced by music in the impressionism period. The essence of Jazz music serves as a personal interpretation of the picture the performer wants us to thinks about. The icing to the cake are the vocalists and instrumentalists who performs how they feel from the soul as the music beckons them to reply to it’s statement. As the soloist plays or sings, the beauty of strong kaleidoscope tones in the harmony encourages one to soar especially in ballads.

All of this can occur when the harmony plays in the right position above the correct bass tones found in all Jazz masterpieces. The true essence of Jazz music is present in its ability to shape the music through tones, the syncopation of speech rhythm, the chromatic harmony, improvisational solos, and constant motion of the bass. It is the free structure made from a balanced structure, and a music expressed from the soul.

Jazz music composition is the work of knowledgeable musicians with the skills to write, and create one of the most memorable masterpieces. Moreover, Jazz music Composition is a course included in colleges and universities who deem it a worthy subject to study. Composing Jazz music requires the theory of constructing chords that are altered or substitute that would fit within the guidelines of composition.

Meaning, experimentation is fine as long as you know how to fit in the musical shocks in the piece in a manner to not disrupt the flow. It is mandatory to keep the essence of Jazz music a part of you when creating, and keep all thoughts to restrict creativity out of your mind. The aim of Jazz music composition is to create what you feel about any subject into the sound of your musical work. To find your way into the making of Jazz music composition you should learn the skills of basic theory in ear training, notes on various instruments, key signatures, scales, chords, intervals, counterpoint, harmony, melody, music terminology, clefs, meters and time signatures, transposing of various instruments, and music reading.

Listening to Jazz music from various artists will give you a feel for the type of composition you would like to create. You can begin with music arranging which is recreating an old song with new ideas. For instance, it has been done many times by professional musicians to use a public domain song, or ask permission to use a certain song. One example is Chaka Khan’s ” The End Of A Love Affair” written for Billie Holiday by Edward C. Redding in an arrangement that fit Chaka Khan.

There are many versions of Jazz standards such as “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” , “Misty”, and “Stormy Weather” by different people who wanted to either keep the basic structure or interpret the song in their own special way. The basic rules to composing a Jazz Composition is to make a theme and arrange the music around it.

Meaning, as in basic songwriting structure you will need a beginning, middle, bridge, and ending. The order is always up to the person(s )creating the music. You can begin with the themes most common in notated Jazz and Blues sheet music or fake book forms. In addition, use the basic theory structure you find on sheet music as a format, but use your own ideas. In arranging, you can examine the basic format, and embellish on areas you think needs it. The direction one can go in music arrangement is infinite according to the history of how each style of jazz music was created.

When creating Jazz music composition one must remember the essential element present in all true Jazz music which is improvisation. Jazz Improvisation is not notated in any shape, way, or form. In fact, the improvisation in Jazz composition is invented by pure emotion of the musician moved by the accompaniment. Improvisation in Jazz composition can be in the beginning, the bridge and also at the end of the piece. Most commonly there is embellishment in the middle of the piece, but it all depends on the mood of the creator of the music.

Once you learn the theory behind Jazz music composition, you can learn the shortcuts on creating. For example, lead sheets usually have the Jazz chord symbol above the melody below it as a basic structure to follow. When all is said and done, you will have created your own masterpiece as a gift to the world from your heart.

The Jazz music sensation began to rub off on other parts of the world which encourages the experimentation of melding their familiar sounds with the essence of Jazz. In Europe’s country in the Region of France came the Quintette Du Hot Club de France who was responsible for the making of the early “Gypsy Jazz”.

The Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt created gypsy jazz by mixing the style of French Musette which was used in the dance halls, eastern European Folk known as Jazz Manouche, and American swing of the 1930′s. The sound was developed by instruments from the string family which are a steel string guitar, violin, and an upright bass. The atmosphere of the Jazz music is seductive with sudden unpredictable twists, and accelerating rhythms. The French artist Bireli Lagrene plays this unique music with old elements of the past.

Another style of Jazz music that allowed the musicians to express themselves freely was the invention of Avant-garde or free Jazz music. Both of these styles stemmed from the Bebop era, yet produced a relaxed form of harmonic and rhythmic music in the 1940′s and 1950′s. The musicians John Coltrane, Dewey Redman, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Ornette Coleman and many more were the creators of the free Jazz music. Between the 1960′s and 1970′s the Latin musicians created the Afro-Cuban and Brazilian Jazz Music styles after Bebop musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor cultivated it.

Gillespie and Taylor was influenced by the music of Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians Chico O’farrill, Tito Puente, Chano Pozo, Xavier Cugat, Mario Bauza and Arturo Sandoval. Jazz music expressed in a Latin interpretation was termed Bossa Nova with origins in Samba music which is a mixture of Jazz, classical and pop music from the 20th century. Bossa is a moderate sound of music with Classical harmonic structure from Europe, Samba polyrhythm’s from Brazil and cool music. The tempo of such a work is about 120 beats per minute. The instruments used in this particular sound is nylon stringed guitar, piano, high hat tap of eighths, tapping on the rim of the drum like Sade’s “Sweetest Taboo”, and a vocalist. The sound produced is a new relaxing sound where the acoustic sound of the guitar can lull one to sleep with it’s easy melodic line.

Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim became popular in the sixties with this style of music. The influence of Jazz music returned to the place of its origins in the religious music known as Urban Contemporary Gospel from the spirituals music. Much of spiritual music sung by southern slaves in the past has a haunting dark and mournful sound during the 1800 and 1900′s. The churches know as the sanctified or holy churches took a more happier approach by encouraging member to sing speak their personal testimonies as they celebrated with song and dance.

The sanctified artist Arizona Dranes who was a traveling pastor made recordings that would fit in many musical categories such as blues, and boogie-woogie with the use of Jazz instruments. At the time the Jazz instruments used with religious themed music were percussion and brass instruments.