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WHAT IS JAZZ?

Lewis Johnston

In recent years, jazz has achieved a more widespread popularity
than ever before. Radio and television time devoted to this music has

increased, the record market is literally flooded with jazz LP's of all
qualities, and the public is at last beginning to gain some respect for

this fascinating music which had sometimes been associated with
participants and environment of ill repute.

The jazz musician's major distinguishing feature is his ability
to improvise. Instead of executing a piece of music in the traditional

way, he will usually play the song through once the way in which it

was written, and then proceed with a number of choruses in which

he utilizes only the basic harmony structure, while weaving a pattern

of still-related, but unrecognizable melody lines around this founda-

tion. The important fact is that all of this is spontaneous. This in-

sures a certain amount of freshness and originality, and upholds the

old axiom that a jazz musician never plays the same song twice in the

same fashion. This spontaneity is the lifeblood of jazz music, for it

reflects the characteristics and feelings towards life of the musician,

thus providing an outlet for self-expression in its purest form. ,

Technique also plays a primary role in the foundation of this
native American music. Pure jazz music exhibits use of tonal quali-

ties and rhythmic concepts that are obviously dissimilar to those

which may be heard anywhere else. The true jazz musician is constant-
ly experimenting-always endeavoring to gain that "new sound"·

which i~ so talked about recently. Instruments used in jazz are exactly

the same as those that would be employed in a symphony orchestra,

but the variety of diverse tonal qualities that may be produced for

jazz's purposes is truly amazing. All other musical organizations de-

sire what the jazz lover repudiates as a "legitimate tone." He delights

instead in the brash slur of a trombone, or the high-pitched, debat-

ably satisfying wail of a tenor saxophone. While most aggregations

devoted to music rely on the traditional and time-proven rhythmic

bases, the jazz man explores concepts of time that would shock the
student of classical music.

These traits form the true jazz musician, the crusader for the

only true American art form. The music's popularity and rate of ac-

ceptance have accelerated rapidly in the last few years, giving this

~rea~ music the reco~niti9n it is so worthy of.