Jazz Facts

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Jazz is a musical style that originated in the southern United States at the beginning of the 20th century.
Swing Jazz is considered to be popular dance music which is played from printed musical arrangements.
Bebop Jazz focuses more on small groups and simple arrangements played solo or in small groups.
Jazz originated in predominantly black communities in the southern United States.
Jazz was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. Its West
African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhytms, syncopation and the swung note.

From its early development until the present day jazz has also incorporated music from American popular music.
Gypsy Jazz is known as "Jazz Manouche" in France.
The modern drum set was invented by Jazz musicians.
The foundation of Jazz is "the blues" which evolved from Hymns and work songs.
"Blue Note Records" was a record company that recorded a lot of bebop and hard bop music.

Jazz continues to evolve and as the music has developed and spread around the world it has drawn on many different national, regional and local musical cultures giving rise to many distinctive styles.

Historically different regions have been identified with different styles of Jazz. For example, Chicaglo and New Orleans Jazz dates from the early 1910s, Kansas City Jazz, Gypsy Jazz, and big band style swing from the 1930s and 1940s, and more recently bebop, Afro-Cuban Jazz, Brazilian Jazz, Jazz-Rock Fusion, and even Acid Jazz.
Louis Armstrong, a trumpeter, band leader and singer, contributed greatly to the popularization of Jazz and became known as the Ambassador of Jazz.
The 1st jazz player to play with a full orchestra was Mary Lou Williams.
The 1st fully integrated jazz venue was called "Cafe Society".

Jazz is the original and preferred "easy listening" music genre and today there are still many radio stations that play exclusively jazz music. Jazz music is played around the world on radio stations, in office buildings, elevators, resorts, concert halls, and wedding receptions.

The oldest remaining jazz club is "The Village Vanguard" in New York City which was opened in 1935.
The "Six Brown Brothers" were the first Saxophone recording stars. They began their career as clowns playing saxophones in the circus.
Jazz music is perhaps also the most unique form of music as no two jazz music performances are ever the same.
The words "cool" and "hip" were originally Jazz terms.
The most influential Jazz guitarist in history, Django Reinhardt, was short two fingers.