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Jazz, which was largely nurtured by African Americans, is a musical genre influenced by both European musical culture and African rhythms. Developed in part from ragtime and blues, jazz music's syncopated (breakbeat pattern) rhythms, improvisation, deliberate pitch deviations and use of original tones form the basic texture of this musical genre. Let's go back to the birth of jazz music and look at its most popular types together.

The Birth of Jazz Music

The birth of jazz music, which emerged in New Orleans, dates back to the early 19th century. When slaves gathered in Congo Square in New Orleans and began to produce their own music, the foundations of jazz were being laid. Towards the 1820s, people from different countries began to add a piece of their own culture to this new type of music. The influence of New Orleans music with its rich cultural exchange and ethnic diversity played an important role in the development of jazz.

Known as a music that was mostly danced to in its early years, jazz began to transform into a work of art that was listened to while sitting down over the years. With the first jazz recordings made in 1917, this type of music spread to a wide audience and entered a rapid evolution process. Important musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis played leading roles in this evolution. It would not be wrong to say that jazz music, which spread to different countries of the world in a short time, is one of the greatest artistic contributions of the USA to the world.

The Most Popular Jazz Genres

Although it is difficult to separate the subgenres of jazz music from each other in terms of musicality, a special place can be given to genres that have received more attention than others in the historical development of music. The most popular jazz genres include:

Fusion

Fusion jazz emerged towards the end of the 1960s as a result of the combination of harmony and improvisational elements with musical genres such as funk, rock and roll and R&B. The fusion style developed when musicians who grew up with rock and roll integrated electric guitars, amplifiers and keyboards into their music. Although fusion, which includes elements of other musical styles in songs, has influences from various musical genres from funk music to hip-hop culture, the basic style is always jazz elements. For this reason, improvisation in fusion jazz music is often found independently of other influences.

Fusion, performed with instruments such as acoustic guitar, piano, trumpet, saxophone, bass and drums, usually proceeds entirely instrumentally but when vocals are included, these sounds are usually not meaningful sentences. In fusion, where only vocalizations dominate, only exclamations or absurd words may be used to create a sense of melody.

Smooth Jazz

Formerly known as "smooth radio", smooth jazz gained its current name in the 1980s. Smooth jazz, which stands out from genres such as mainstream and cool jazz, combines easy-to-listen tones with crossover jazz. Smooth jazz, which combines two pleasant-sounding genres, remained an extremely popular music genre from the 1970s to the 1990s and was frequently played on the radio.

Jazz Funk

Becoming popular in the mid-1960s, jazz funk was influenced by the proto-funk innovations of Sly & The Family Stone. A blend of jazz and southern soul music, this genre resembles soul-jazz but is tied to a stronger backbeat and Stax/volt soul music genre. Early jazz-funk artists include organists such as Lonnie Smith, Reuben Wilson, Charles Earland and Jack McDuff and saxophonist Eddie Harris.

Swing

One of the popular jazz movements of the 20th century, the swing movement, which developed through different stages from the 1930s to the 1950s, was driven by the success of big bands and orchestra jazz music in the 1920s.

The simpler and often repetitive riffs and more complex solo structure of the swing jazz genre distinguish it from New Orleans jazz music and the Dixieland genre. Famous trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan, clarinetists Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young and singers Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Jimmy Rushing are important representatives of swing jazz music.

Join the Magic of Jazz Music at The Jazz Company Stage of Elite World İstanbul Taksim!

The Jazz Company stage of Elite World İstanbul Taksim is one of the important jazz stages that has hosted İlhami Gencer, one of the legendary names of Turkish jazz and pop music, whom we lost in 2023, for many years. The Jazz Company stage, filled with memories of İlhami Gencer, one of the first pianists in Türkiye, who contributed to the development of pop music and played an important role in the spread of jazz music in Türkiye, continues to offer its guests unforgettable experiences with live jazz and blues music concerts.

The guest of the Jazz Company stage located in Elite World İstanbul Taksim in November is Kubilay Kan. You can listen to the artist's live performance every Friday evening between 22:00 - 01:00 throughout November. If you would like to be a part of these events at Elite World İstanbul Taksim, you can contact us for reservations.