The Best Jazz Music Ever

Find out which albums have been voted the best jazz music ever.

The Best Jazz Music of the 20th Century

The best jazz music is a compilation of the greatest hits from the best jazz artists of the 20th century. This list includes the best jazz songs from Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and more.

The Birth of Jazz

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals,polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to many distinctive styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s Swing, big bands , Kansas City jazz , bebop emerged. In the late 1940s performers such as Charlie Parker , Dizzy Gillespie , Miles Davis , John Coltrane popularized bebop .

The Swing Era

The Swing Era was the period of time when swing music was at its most popular in the United States. Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the early 1930s and continued until the mid-1940s. The Swing Era is generally considered to have begun with the publication of the 1932 song “Sugar Foot Stomp” by Cab Calloway and ended with the 1943 recording of “Minnie the Moocher” by Benny Goodman.

During the Swing Era, big bands were at the height of their popularity and were able to fill entire dance halls with people eager to hear their favorite tunes. Some of the most famous bandleaders of the era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Count Basie. The music of this era is still some of the most popular jazz ever recorded, and many of the songs from this period have become standards that are still performed today.

Bebop

Bebop, or bop, is a style of jazz that was developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The music is characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody.

Hard Bop

Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or “bop”) music. Hard bop was developed in the mid-1950s, partly in response to the World War II bebop movement of the 1940s. Hard bop typically uses artists from other genres, such as gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues, and incorporates their influences into new compositions.

Cool Jazz

Cool jazz is a subgenre of jazz that emerged in the early to mid-1950s. It featured a more subdued sound than other types of jazz, and was often seen as a reaction against the more hard-driving styles of bebop and big band swing. Cool jazz often incorporated elements of classical music, and sometimes had a Latin flavor. Some of the most famous cool jazz musicians include Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans.

Modal Jazz

One of the most important and influential jazz styles of the 20th century, modal jazz was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Miles Davis and others. Rather than basing improvisations on chord progressions, modal jazz makes use of one or two modes—scale-like musical patterns that can be thought of as frozen melodies. This approach allows for greater freedom in soloing and harmonizing and often results in a more dense, meditative sound.

Free Jazz

Free Jazz is a style of jazz that emerged in the 1950s and is characterized by improvisation, freedom from traditional structure, and often a collective rather than individualist approach. While it can be seen as a reaction against the perceived constraints of bebop and other mainstream jazz styles of the time, free jazz was also influenced by traditional African music, gospel, and blues.

Some of the most important free jazz musicians include Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, and Pharaoh Sanders. Free Jazz weakly adhered to or consciously rejected many conventions of earlier jazz styles; for example, musicians typically improvise freely within (rather than adhering to) set chord changes. Additionally, there is often a marked departure from swing rhythm—the rhythmic foundation of most Jazz up until that time—and from conventional “blues feel”.

The Best Jazz Music of the 21st Century

Jazz is a unique and interesting genre of music that has origins in the early 20th century. Jazz has evolved over the years and has become one of the most popular genres of music. There are many different subgenres of jazz, and each has its own unique flavor. In this article, we will be discussing the best jazz music of the 21st century.

The New Millennium

The 21st century has been a golden age for jazz music, with more artists than ever before experimenting with the genre and pushed its boundaries. From established legends to new rising stars, there has been no shortage of amazing jazz albums released in the last 20 years.

Here are some of the best jazz albums of the 21st century:

-Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)
-John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (1964)
-Ornette Coleman – Free Jazz (1960)
-Keith Jarrett – The Köln Concert (1975)
-Milt Jackson – The Shades of Blue (1957)
-Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus (1956)

The Post-Bop Era

The post-bop era is a term used in the jazz community to refer to the period from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s when musicians began to experiment with different harmonic possibilities made available by bebop and hard bop. This period is often considered to be a transitional phase between the two styles, as well as a golden age of jazz.

One of the most notable aspects of post-bop jazz is the increased use of Modes, which are scales that do not follow the major or minor tonal center. This allowed for greater harmonic variation and created a more complex sound. In addition, musicians began to experiment with different time signatures, which led to a more polyrhythmic approach to playing.

Some of the most influential post-bop musicians include Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Hancock. These artists pushed the boundaries of what was possible in jazz and helped to create a new sound that would inspire generations of musicians.

Contemporary Jazz

The best Jazz music of the 21st century twists, turns and breaks all the rules. It’s a genre that is constantly evolving, with new artists emerging all the time.

If you’re looking for something fresh and exciting, then check out our list of the best contemporary Jazz albums of the 21st century. From Kyle Eastwood to Trombone Shorty, these are the artists keeping Jazz alive and kicking in the 21st century.