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The History Behind Jazz and Music Today

On the blacktop of my elementary school on a beautiful sunny day, I sit enthralled by the sounds

coming from the band performing. I have never heard music that captivates me like this before.

The music is bold, powerful and unpredictable. Just when I think it cannot get more impressive I

notice someone in the band start to stand up. He raises his instrument to his face and starts to

play along with the drums, bass and piano. At first I think that this instrumentalist is playing

something that was written out for them, but I then see that his eyes are closed. I think how could

that be that he is playing his part without looking at it. My sister who was sitting next to me at

the time and had experience in jazz then tells me that they were just improvising. I was shocked,

how could someone spontaneously play the way he did. They were spontaneously composing

melodies, and expertly lining up with the chords. So I sat there in awe of the skill and dedication

of these musicians. I fell in love with jazz after that point going online and listening to famous

records just to be in awe again of the genius of improvisation.

As the years progressed I slowly started to learn more and more about jazz. I was taking

jazz band in school at this time and still gathering basic knowledge about improvising. It is not

until I enter high school that I start to gain serious knowledge of different styles of jazz, and

music from a lot of different cultures. I get introduced to new vocabulary regarding jazz from

latin cultures. As I learn more I also discover that there is never enough to learn. Even the

masters of jazz learn new things all the time. A key element of being a musician is to

authentically play every style that you will ever play. So we need to answer the question: How

do different styles of jazz differ harmonically, rhythmically, and structurally? Also how did

cultural aspects influence these distinctions, and how has this shaped modern music?
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I asked Javier Cabanillas; an expert percussionist who primarily plays latin jazz what

some of the differences are between jazz and latin jazz. I learned that jazz is like a melting pot. It

is very hard to separate the two worlds of jazz and pin point key differences. The reality is that

both jazz and latin jazz are heavily influenced from African rhythms and phrasings. Cabanillas

did also point out some key differences “to really differentiate latin rhythms are more influenced

and based on the rhythmic structures. And rhythms we are going to define as percussive rhythms,

things that you can scrape, hit and strike. Also certain chants which are part of the culture of a

specific type of people.” Cabanillas went on to say that it is very hard to document these

influences perfectly because not everyone had access to recording equipment, and the music was

not meant to be recorded; it might have been someone on their porch playing the guitar and

singing. So that is why he says it is very hard to point to specific influences. On the jazz side of

things African rhythms and chants were also a crucial influence in forming jazz. Cabanillas went

in depth about the influences of jazz here “If we were to look at New Orleans for example, and

the Haitian people and the French colony, and kind of what was going on in New Orleans. That

is where the influence of jazz came from in terms of improvisations. But the harmonies were

used as well with blues scales and chants with songs that were sung past on generation to

generation vocally.” During the Hatian revolution refugees fled from Haiti and went on to New

Orleans this doubled the size of the city at the time. This had a massive influence on the culture

of New Orleans. Some of the influences include Mardi Gras, Red Beans, Creole Cottages, as

well as rhythms and dances. This connection is summarized by this quote from an article written

by Katy Rechdahl about the connection between Haiti and New Orleans. “The ties between New
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Orleans and Haiti are so profound that they extend all the way back to the early days of the city,

They enter into the music on deep levels and into the society on deep levels. And the best way to

make that connection is through music”. Haiti is the most clear influence that we can see on

American Jazz.

Haiti did not just have an impact on jazz in the American world. It also massively

impacted the music in places like Cuba and Brazil. Many Haitians stopped in Cuba before

moving onto the United States, or they just lived in Cuba. The basis of Haitian musical structure

can be seen from this quote “There are a number of rhythms specific to Haitian music: Mayi,

Nago, Ibo, Kongo, Raboday and Pètwo, and an amazing variety of drums, shakers and sticks

with which to play them.” These concepts mixed and blended with Cuban music to form the

Cuban jazz that we enjoy today. They added on top of a rich history of Cuban music which was

influenced by Africa. In Brazil African rhythms and traditions also influenced the music in a

huge way. This quote shows the starting point for the African influence. “It all began with

candomblé and capoeira. Candomblé was practised in Brazil's slave quarters and settlements

inhabited by fugitive slaves ('quilombos'). Hailing from Africa, candomblé became a fully-

fledged Brazilian religion, mixing traditions brought from Angola, Benin, Congo and Nigeria.”

The African Slaves also brought their musical ideas to Brazil as shown in this quote. “Capoeira,

on the other hand, was a martial art directly associated with music, in which its fights or dances,

inspired by those from parts of Africa, moved to the groove of the stringed berimbau instrument.

Capoeira percussion brought from Africa, or adapted by slaves, was key to developing what

would eventually become samba.” other Brazilian styles would also develop and be shaped by

the music of the slaves. Cabanillas would go on to highlight the key differences and similarities

between the two major players in latin jazz Cuba, and Brazil. “in Cuba they have a clave. And
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the clave is a rhythmic pattern which is usually 5 strokes. It can be more or less but it is usually 5

strokes. In our way of thinking musically we divide it between two concepts. So it would be 4

counts and 1 of the measure would get 3 strokes the other would get the 2”. This concept of

Clave is the backbone of Cuban music. You cannot escape it when studying or listening to

Cuban music. Cabanillas is describing a very common type of clave called the son clave. He then

went on to describe how in Brazil they do not have the concept of clave in their music. However

that does not mean that they do not have similar things. “and the funny thing about it is

Brazilians do not use the concept of clave in their music, and you could arguably put in place

certain clave patterns.” Cabanillas then went on to clap the basic samba pattern that is very

similar to the Cuban son clave.

Another historic event that shaped jazz was a mass immigration of Cubans to New York

in the 1950s. The collaboration of American trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, and Cuban

Percussionist Chano Pozo was a big influence on both styles of jazz. I also learned from

Cabanillas that Carlos Santana’s hit song Oye Como Va was originally a composition by Puerto

Rican Timbale Tito Puente. Another iconic song that influenced jazz would have to be Mongo

Santamaria’s take on the Herbie Hancock tune Watermelon Man. On the Brazilian side of things

famous black musician Pixinguinha was a transformative figure in the world of choro, another

Brazilian style. Pixinguinha was not allowed to record his own music because of racism in Brazil

at the time, so, with the help of Flautist Bendito Lacerda he was able to record some of his

works. Some of the first exposure most americans had to Brazilian samba and bossa nova came

from the iconic collaboration between American saxophonist Stan Getz, and Brazilian musicians

Joao Gilberto, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. In the modern world a musician who is adding to

Brazilian music is Anat Cohen, an Israeli Clarinetist.

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Between the three hot spots for jazz in the west of America, Cuba, and Brazil there are

loads of commonalities and differences. But when you look at the history behind these regions

you can get a clearer picture of why the similarities and differences arose. For example during

the Cuban revolution Cubans brought their music and culture along with them. Cubans mixed

their music with the music which was already present in America. While looking at historical

events is a good start to understand why music is the way that it is, some music adopts an

escapist philosophy. Sometimes like in the Great Depression people did not want to think about

their everyday lives because of how terrible they were, so they used music as an escape. But

there are some key factors to look at as Cabanillas says here “when you look at history and you

look at what were the influences. So there will always be migration as one of them. In Cuba in

1959 you had a Cuban revolution. Before the revolution many of the people in the United States

and the neighboring countries, Miami and other places would actually go to Cuba and get a lot of

that music. But once there was a revolution and basically the United States cut off the ties with

Cuba.” So during this time of Cuban isolationism the people in the United States would only get

the music that Cubans brought when fleeing from Cuba in 1959. However these Cubans who fled

to America would also be influenced by the American music they heard. So all of the musicians

who stayed in Cuba would not be able to mix and interact with music from other places.

Cabanillas would also go on to say that technological blockades would also block people from

projecting their music outwards in this quote “so technological advances like I mentioned before

someone would have a guitar singing on their front porch maybe singing some kind of chant

gospel bluesy music. But they did not have access to recording technology. And they most likely

were not good singers; maybe they had a raspy voice or their guitars were out of tune they did

not have access to a tuner.” So that is another impediment to the mixing of music from different
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cultures. Jazz from around the Americas is a melting pot of loads of different cultures and styles.

From the Haitian revolution to the mass migration of Cubans to the United States, we can track

down specific examples of influences that music from different cultures had on each other.

But how has this influenced the music that is being made today? To answer that question

we need to again look at the foundation of jazz: improvisation. It is the defining trait of all jazz

music. It creates an open space in the music to be filled with the improviser’s thoughts, and

feelings. Improvisation allowed musicians to explore harmony and rhythms like never before. It

created a melting pot of ideas where every musician who has ever improvised added too. When

one musician hears something that they like from another musician they will use that idea in their

own playing. As the years progressed jazz kept diversifying because of this large open market for

musical thoughts and concepts. Sometimes ideas evolved so much that they hardly even

resembled jazz anymore. Over time these changes created entirely different musical genres. R&B

is heavily influenced by jazz genius Thelonious Monk. Some even go as far as to say Monk’s

“Round Midnight” was the first ever R&B song. The influence of jazz on all forms of music is

discussed in Lanie Garlock’s article “Contributions of Jazz to Modern Music” “What started off

as a totally new style has transformed into many forms of genres in the American culture. Rock,

R&B, Hip-hop, Pop and other genres have been influenced by Jazz.” All of these styles can be

traced back to the New Orleans musicians improvising out in the street just for fun.

Hip Hop is one of the most popular styles of music in modern times. It is no surprise that

Hip Hop has been influenced by jazz immensely. Garlock’s article goes on to address Hip Hop

“Jazz has contributed a great deal to the style of Hip-hop music. The artists of today are taking

the influences of past Jazz musicians and adding their own new elements to create new music.

Hip-hop takes all the elements that Jazz contains, like infectious rhythms and intense melodies,
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and develops it into something new. Just like with Jazz, improve-or freestyling-is a lauded skill

in hip-hop that allows rappers to express their thoughts and feelings on the spot with their

music.” The ties between Jazz and Hip Hop are so strong that some rappers like the late Daniel

Dumile better known as MF DOOM have said that they primarily listen to jazz music for

inspiration. When you listen to Dumile’s music the influence smacks you in the face. He often

includes famous jazz chord progressions and drum patterns in his music. Dumile is also well

known for his sampling of famous jazz recordings, this means taking the recording and

manipulating it in many different ways before using it as the background of your song. One of

Dumile’s most famous samples is of Lonnie Smith’s “Jeaninne” on his song “Figaro”. MF

DOOM is not the only rapper to incorporate jazz with their style of Hip Hop. Rapper Kendrick

Lamar Duckworth, better known as Kendrick Lamar teamed up with modern jazz legends like

Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, and Ronald Bruner Jr. on his 2015 album

“To Pimp a Butterfly”. The album incorporates styles like funk, modal jazz, and bebop.

Duckworth is breaking new ground in the world of hip hop all the time His 2017 album

“DAMN.” became the first ever non jazz or classical album to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

Another way that jazz has influenced the world of hip hop is with ad libs. An ad lib is a chant or

sudden utterance that is placed in the background of the rapper's verse in a song, the ad lib is

usually made by the same rapper that is rapping the verse but not always. Many have equated

rappers' heavy use of ad libs to early scat singers in New Orleans. Scat singing is a form of vocal

improvisation where the singer uses different sounds to improvise rather than words. Some scat

singers used their voices as rhythmic tools. Just as a drummer would improvise during space left

in the music by the improviser, scat singers would do much the same. Rappers have used this

concept in their music for a long time. Rapper Jordan Carter or Playboi Carti is known for his
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aggressive and punctuating ad libs. Many have equated him to old scat singers with the

frequency and way he uses these ad libs. Hip Hop group Migos is also well known for their

rhythmic and repetitive ad libs.

` Music can provide a connection to people all around the world. Music is the universal

language that can be understood by everyone. All humans can experience the same feeling but

their language has different ways to communicate these feelings. Music especially music without

words is mutually intelligible. Garlock talks about this concept in the article. “Music has a way

of communicating with people who may have little or nothing in common. Two people who

don’t speak the same language, or have the same culture, or look the same, can feel emotions and

enjoy a song in their own unique way. Jazz is one of those genres of music that everyone who

hears it experiences something, whether or not they are alike. Jazz has played a big part in

America’s culture and history, as a form of expression and a way of bringing people together.”

These words exemplify why humans from the very beginning loved music. All of the struggles

of everyday life can be blissfully drowned out by the sounds that we love to listen to. From the

perspective of the musician, music provides us a way to express ourselves often far better than

communicating verbally. We put our music out into the world and it is interpreted differently by

every single listener. It can be uplifting, enlightening, or sorrow depending on the listener and

how they interpret it. These are the reasons why it is so important to look at the influences on our

music. We learn more about History, Economics, Politics, and many more fields. Jazz music has

influenced most of all modern music today, so looking back at the origins of jazz gives us insight

into the sounds we love today.

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Works Cited

Cabanillas, Javier. Personal interview. March 4, 2021

Garlock, Lanie. “Contributions of Jazz to Modern Music.” Copyright Alliance, 1 Apr.

2021, copyrightalliance.org/contributions-of-jazz-to-modern-music/#:~:text=Rock%2C%20R

%26B%2C%20Hip%2Dhop,style%20of%20Hip%2Dhop%20music.

Katy Reckdahl, The Times-Picayune. “New Orleans Jazz Fest Emphasizes the Music of

Haiti.” NOLA.com, 29 Apr. 2011, www.nola.com/entertainment_life/festivals/article_b51377df-

7631-5245-b5e5-34ec95a0099d.html#:~:text=In%20the%20early%201800s%2C

%20Haitians,signature%20drumming%2C%20dances%20and%20rhythms.

Lloyd, Robin. “Jazz Caliente: The Cuba-Haiti Connection.” KNKX,

www.knkx.org/post/jazz-caliente-cuba-haiti-connection.