Is jazz considered classical music?
 

Jazz is by some considered classical, and by others popular music, so I what are your thoughts on this subject?

No.

Jazz is considered bluegrass.

Generally, no those are two different genres, but they have crossed paths.

A continuum
 

For me the Art Ensemble of Chicago fall into the classical slot even if I buy their work from 'Jazz'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMcRuh8O74

Dave Brubeck was fresh out of classical training when he produced his best work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFbOE5GuiBE

Some of the great practitioners of Jazz like Gillespie, Bird and Monk were very aware of classical composers like Schoenberg and Bartok.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeM0JMgj358

On the other side there are pieces like Milhaud's Le Boeuf sur la Toit and Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg that presage developments in Jazz, but most like Shostakovich and Stravinsky failed entire to grasp it.

Despite some of the really great musicians of all time being Jazz people overall there are rigid constraints in mainstream Jazz that do not exist in the Classical tradition. My father was a semi-pro jazz pianist and I'm trying to remember what they were. Something about not moving from the rhythmic and harmonic base of the original theme?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away.....

Classical was Classical.
Jazz was Jazz.
Gospel was Gospel.
Bluegrass was Bluegrass.
Country was Country.
Blues was Blues.
Ragtime was Ragtime.
Pop was Pop.

Then someone threw a party and all the genres showed up, got ridiculously hammered, and started an epic all night orgy out behind the barn.

It's been a complete cluster **** ever since.

Charles Mingus is another example of an artist doing jazz/classical crossover with his album Let My Children Hear Music.

Hi,

I would say both.
Early jazz pianists learned piano with classical methods, and therefore were inspired with european classical music (like vienna waltz i think). But at this time the jazz was popular music to dance.
I think in the 40's, it became more elitist with bebop and so people couldn't dance on it anymore as it was very fast.

No. Why would you consider it a different genre than jazz? Jazz is jazz.

Re the "crossover" etc. comments, third stream, fusion, ECM style, etc. are considered subgenres of jazz (despite Gunther Schuller's and others objections re third stream--conventionally it's treated as a jazz subgenre).

Re Art Ensemble of Chicago, a lot of their stuff, especially their earlier stuff, was free improv under a jazz rubric. Arguably some free improv wouldn't fall under jazz, but that's arguable.

And on the other side, Copland's Music for the Theatre (which has a heavy jazz influence), Four Piano Blues, etc., Stravinsky's Ragtime, etc. are considered classical.

Sorry I meant that jazz didn't came out of nowhere.
It has several influences which one of them is classical music.
And at first it was a popular music to dance on.
So yes jazz is jazz but you can consider it from more than one angle.

Well, all music is a combination of influences from a bunch of different genres, really. One of the best examinations of the historical musical influences of jazz, in my opinion, is James Lincoln Collier's The Making of Jazz.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be available to read online, but you can buy a copy, either hardcover or paperback, for 1 cent plus shipping on Amazon.

Thanks for the book, it seems interesting !

Uh, no, jazz is not classical music.

This is true.

Is birdsong music?

Birdsong is Jazz

Jazz is Bluegrass

Bluegrass is Classical..... hope this clears things up for everyone.

Thanks, Hypocrisy. I'll sleep easy now that's settled.

Technically bluegrass does have a bit of jazz in it. And birds are the founders of every genre movement, obviously.

Birdsong is music
Jazz is hip hop
Hip hop is ragtime

lel.

Noise is easy listening.

Harsh noise is rock'n'roll.
It actually really is.

I'd say that a lot of it is more punk rock.

Yeah, but punk is rock'n'roll in the broadest sense.

Prock n runkoll it is.

Depends on who's listening I think, though I have heard jazz described as America's classical music - take that for what you will. Speaking for myself, I got into jazz via classical music, as they both (to me) require the same amount of active listening/concentration to fully appreciate what's going on.

As a side note, I think that while jazz is more associated with improvisation, it's not certainly not a stranger in classical music. To me, a lot of the "improvisation" comes from the composer, who develops and modifies his themes and motifs. To my mind, jazz on the other hand relies more on sketches from the composer, and it's up to performers to fill in the blanks. And while some solos/cadenzas are written out for the classical performer, improvisation is certainly no stranger to the genre, I'm thinking. In fact, a (classical) musician who could not improvise was considered a very dull performer.

I totally agree with you !

That would be folk music.

there's crossover in every genre, look up 'Chamber Jazz' but in general I'd say 'no' because jazz is known for improv, right? What do I know? Not much.

Yep, in that sense it's really the opposite of classical music, despite some structural similarities sometimes emerging.

But birdsong is definitely jazz and hip hop is definitely ragtime, though.

^ Welcome to MB, HisGrace. :wave:

Yes, birdsong is definitely jazz:-



.... and Jazz is Voodoo:-



... or at least I wish it was, but too often it leaves all the zombies, herbs and bullfrogs behind.

Jazz is..........Jazz........

And It's dying, its dying, it's dying on a vine, and the world said let it die, it had its time. Well, not on my watch.

Dude should've kept with the times instead of staying chained to the 50s, but that would mean liking jazz and being original at the same time and you can only do one in LA.

Music doesn't die, people do

They're loosely related, just like with any other genre or sub-genre. Classical music is usually much more disciplined, I picture an orchestra with their instruments and composition sheets in front of them. Jazz is more the kind of music that you'd hear at a bar in New Orleans back in the early 20th century, much looser.

To me it is not either. Jazz is it's own category. Inside of jazz is other categories: Blues, bluegrass, swing, ragtime, some latin, and some ballads. Now a days there is overlap between jazz and pop. I can see the confusion of classical because there is classical jazz.