Jazz Cafe - 60 Smooth Jazz Favourites[mp3]

Jazz is a music that originated at the beginning of the 20th century, arguably earlier, within the African-American communities of the Southern United States. Its roots lie in the adoption by African-Americans of European harmony and form, taking on those European elements and combining them into their existing African-based music. Its African musical basis is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note.[1] From its early development until the present day, jazz has also incorporated elements from popular music especially, in its early days, from American popular music.[2]

As the music has developed and spread around the world it has, since its early American beginnings, drawn on many different national, regional and local musical cultures, giving rise to many distinctive styles: New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s on down through Afro-Cuban jazz, West Coast jazz, ska jazz, cool jazz, Indo jazz, avant-garde jazz, soul jazz, modal jazz, chamber jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz in various forms, smooth jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, jazz funk, loft jazz, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, M-Base, nu jazz and other ways of playing the music.

Talking of swing, Louis Armstrong, one of the most famous musicians in jazz, said to Bing Crosby on the latter's radio show, "Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation, then they called it ragtime, then blues, then jazz. Now, it's swing. White folks - yo'all sho is a mess!"[3][4]

In a 1988 interview, trombonist J. J. Johnson said, "Jazz is restless. It won't stay put and it never will".[5]

Forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized since at least the emergence of bebop. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a "tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form".[7] Traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, the 1970s jazz fusion era, and much else as periods of debasement of the music and betrayals of the tradition; the alternative viewpoint is that jazz is able to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles,[16] and that, by avoiding the creation of 'norms', other newer, avant-garde forms of jazz will be free to emerge.[7]

Another debate that gained a lot of attention at the birth of jazz was how it would affect the appearance of African-Americans, in particular, who were a part of it. To some African-Americans, jazz has highlighted their contribution to American society and helped bring attention to black history and culture, but for others, the music and term 'jazz' are reminders of "an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions".[17]

Stylistic origins:

Blues
Folk
March
Ragtime

Cultural origins: Early 1910s New Orleans
Typical instruments:

Saxophone
Clarinet
Bass guitar
Double bass
Flute
Vibraphone
Trumpet
Piano
Electric guitar
Banjo
Tuba
Vocals
Trombone
Rhodes piano
Drum kit

Mainstream popularity: 1920s–1970s
Derivatives:

Jump blues
Jazz fusion (a mix of jazz and rock)
Rhythm and blues
Rock and roll
Ska
Reggae
Funk

Bit Rate.....252kbps