Jazz today is in what might best be described as a stylistically plural, or
post-modern phase that is, musicians work in myriad traditions
developed over the last 100 years, but no one style has come to
dominate. Neotraditionalists, avant-gardists, beboppers, post-boppers,
and musicians who defy genre entirely, blending classical, world music,
rock and jazz, all share today's jazz stage, as a new, dominant style
struggles to be born. Here are some CDs that reflect the rich jazz
period we live in today:
adjunct music professor at Seattle University, a regular contributor to
Down Beat magazine and founder of the Seattle jazz support
organization, Earshot Jazz. In 1993, his comprehensive history of the
early Seattle jazz scene, Jackson Street After Hours (Sasquatch,
Seattle) won the Governor's Writer's Award. A 2003-04 fellow in the
National Arts Journalism Program, speaker for the Washington
Commission for the Humanities' "Inquiring Mind" program, and
curator of the Experience Music Project's jazz showcase, de Barros
has written for many publications and has done liner notes for
Columbia, Fantasy and Verve Records.
options? What follows is a brief summary of jazz styles and how
they evolved over time written by Mark Allred.