The music of the 50’s thus constitutes a canon. For three decades this canon has been analyzed, codified, reinterpreted, extended, and refined. But it has not been superseded.
What this means, briefly, is that jazz today, like jazz in the 50’s, is a music of themes, briefly stated, and solo improvisations, elaborated at length. It is played by small groups, rarely larger than a sextet. It is a music neither of arrangements nor of compositions, but of songs. Songs, moreover, are conceived of not primarily as melodies but as chord progressions or forms. Any particular performance is unified primarily by the form of the song that is being played, the improvised solos that compose the bulk of the performance have, as a rule, no melodic connections either with the song’s original theme or with one another.
In these crucial respects, and in many others, the bop revolution was a revolution indeed. For example, while all jazz is supposed to swing, the way in which this happens has changed dramatically. In modern jazz, the basic rhythm is played not on a drum or a high hat cymbal, as before, but on the ride cymbal, either in a bright shimmer or in a kind of clunk. The result is a much lighter, more open texture that gives both soloists and accompanists an unprecedented opportunity to accentuate different beats, or to anticipate or lag the beat, producing thereby a kind of on going, improvised rhythmic counterpoint. In a typical modern jazz performance, as many as four or five different rhythmic patterns might be played at one time, imparting a polyrhythmic quality hitherto unknown in the history of Western music, jazz or otherwise.
Chick Corea - Blues Connotation
- Released on: Circling In abum
- Released in: 1975
- Written by: Ornette Coleman
"Chick Corea was an American jazz pianist/electric keyboardist and composer. His compositions are considered jazz standards. A member of Miles Davis' band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion."
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