
Jazz | Definition, History, Musicians, & Facts | Britannica
Dec 6, 2025 · Jazz, musical form, often improvisational, developed by African Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms. It is often characterized by syncopated …
Jazz Music Portal | Britannica
Jazz music, which was developed by African Americans and was influenced by both African rhythms and European harmonic structure, first appeared at the turn of the 20th century and has since …
Cool jazz | Description, Musicians, & Facts | Britannica
Cool jazz, a style of jazz that emerged in the United States during the late 1940s. The term derives from what journalists perceived as an understated or subdued feeling in the music of Miles Davis, the …
Bill Evans | Jazz Pianist, Composer & Innovator | Britannica
Dec 19, 2025 · Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist known for lush harmonies and lyrical improvisation, one of the most influential pianists of his time. Evans’s first piano teacher was his …
jazz summary | Britannica
jazz, Musical form, often improvisational, developed by African Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythms.
Jazz - Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz, Exploration | Britannica
Dec 5, 2025 · Jazz - Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz, Exploration: Whereas most of these postwar musicians worked out their individual styles through personal explorations within the central modern …
Jazz - Orchestral, Improvisation, Swing | Britannica
Dec 6, 2025 · Jazz - Orchestral, Improvisation, Swing: It was in the 1920s that the first forms of true orchestral jazz were developed, most significantly by Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington.
Jazz - Fusion, Improvisation, Swing | Britannica
Nov 14, 2025 · Jazz - Fusion, Improvisation, Swing: The first signs of these fresh musical sounds could be heard as early as 1941, particularly in works by such composer-arrangers as Buster Harding, …
Jazz - Ragtime, Blues, Swing | Britannica
Dec 6, 2025 · Jazz - Ragtime, Blues, Swing: In the early 1930s two bands made important contributions to jazz: Bennie Moten’s, with the recordings of “Toby,” “Lafayette,” and “Prince of Wails,” and the …
Bessie Smith | Biography, Songs, Music, Death, & Facts | Britannica
Oct 30, 2025 · Bessie Smith was one of the greatest blues vocalists ever. She made 160 recordings in all, in many of which she was accompanied by some of the great jazz musicians of the 1920s and …