//Artists and Bands
What is Jazz? I mean really. For some people it’s one of four general categories to classify all music. There’s only Classical music, Pop, EDM and Jazz. So what would make jazz unique in that regard, would be that it has the biggest amount of improvisation. Some say it’s west African rhythms mixed with European harmony, but that’s not really true, isn’t it?
If you go study Jazz at a university, what you will learn most of all and what is most considered the epitome of jazz in such institutions is Bebop. A style from the 60s pioneered by people like Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie or Thelonious Monk with fast and crazy chord changes and melodies, diverging from the former perception of Jazz dance music and making it more intellectual and experimental.
It’s weird that you mainly learn this isn’t it? Has nothing happened since the 60s? What I found to be the style most typically associated with the word Jazz by people in general, is either the 40s Swing or the 70s Cool Jazz, which sometimes sounds like, you know…elevator music. But all this is bullshit. This is not what defines jazz as an art form. The way we understand it, is not as a musical genre or style at all. If Yussef Kamaal, Norah Jones, Hiatus Kaiyote and Tigran Hamasyan are considered Jazz, what links them? King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are experimental, have intricate harmonies and they improvise a lot. But it’s not considered Jazz.
We think that genre classification in music is stupid and takes away from the experience that every artist is unique and doesn’t want to play Jazz or Rock or Pop, but to express themselves and inspire others. So here on this page everything is considered Jazz, that is expressive and real, creates something new and unique, takes a risk, is crazy and weird and beautiful. We hope the Jazz.Room will be a place, where you can find that Jazz spirit.
