Under the guidance of the pianist-composer Richard Muhal Abrams

1965 under the guidance of the pianist-composer Richard Muhal Abrams

(b. 1930). Among the groups that have emerged, directly and indirectly,

from the AACM are the Art Ensemble of Chicago and The World

Saxophone Quartet, and notable musicians of this lineage include

trumpeter Lester Bowie (b. 1941), reedmen Anthony Braxton (b.1945),

Joseph Jarman, Julius Hemphill, Roscoe Mitchell and David Murray,

and violinist Leroy Jenkins, Ornette Coleman has continued to go his own

way, introducing a unique fusion band, Prime Time, collaborating with

guitarist Pat Metheny (b. 1954), and celebrating occasional reunions with

his original quartet.

Quite unexpectedly, but with neat historical symmetry, a new wave of

gifted young jazz players has emerged from New Orleans, spearheaded by

the brilliant trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961), who joined Art Blakey's

Jazz Messengers--a bastion of the bebop tradition--in 1979. Also an

accomplished classical virtuoso, Marsalis was soon signed by Columbia

Records and became the most visible new Jazz artist in many years.

Articulate and outspoken, he has rejected fusion and stressed the

continuity of the Jazz tradition. His slightly older brother, Branford

Marsalis (b. 1960), who plays tenor and soprano sax, was a member of

Wynton's quintet until he joined with rock icon Sting's band for a year. He

has since led his own straight-ahead jazz quartet. As his replacement with

Blakey, Wynton recommended fellow New Orleanian Terence Blanchard

(b. 1962), who later formed a group with altoist Donald Harrison also

from New Orleans, as co-leader.

Many other gifted players have emerged during the present decade -- too

many to list here. Many have affirmed their roots in bebop, and some have

reached even further back to mainstream swing (such as tenorist Scott

Hamilton (b. 1954), and trumpeter Warren Vache, Jr. [b. 1951]), but

almost all, even when choosing experimentation and innovation, operate

within the established language of jazz. As in the other arts, Jazz seems to

have arrived at a postmodern stage.

We ought not to overlook the increasingly important role being played by

women instrumentalists, among them Carla Bley, JoAnne Brackeen, Jane

Ira Bloom, Amina Claudine Myers, Emely Remler and Janice Robinson.

The durability of the Jazz tradition has been symbolically affirmed by two

events: the Academy Award nomination of Dexter Gordon, the seminal

bebop tenor saxophonist, for his leading role in the film Round Midnight,

and the widely acclaimed appearances of Benny Carter, approaching his

90th birthday, at the helm of the American Jazz Orchestra (an ensemble

formed in 1986 to perform the best in Jazz, past and present) both as a

player and composer.

And one may also take heart at the qualitative as well as quantitative

growth of Jazz education in this country, and the active involvement of so

many fine performing artist in this process.

SUMMING UP

No one can presume to guess what form the next development in Jazz will

take. What we do know is that the music today presents a rich panorama

of sounds and styles.

Thelonious Monk, that uncompromising original who went from the

obscurity of the pre-bop jam sessions in Harlem to the cover of TIME and

worldwide acclaim without ever diluting his music, once defined jazz in his

unique way:

"Jazz and freedom," Monk said, "go hand in hand. That explains it. There

isn't anymore to add to it. If I do add to it, it gets complicated. That's

something for you to think about. You think about it and dig it. You dig it."

Jazz, a music born in slavery, has become the universal song of freedom.

Jazz History - Periods, Styles

Batchelor, Christian: This thing called Swing ; a study of Swing music and the Lindy Hop, the original Swing dance. London 1997.

Belaire, David C. G.: A guide to the big band era. 1997.

Bergerot, Franck & Arnaud Merlin: The story of jazz ; bop and beyond. New York 1993.

Berlin, Edward A.: Ragtime ; a musical and cultural history. Reprint (1980). Berkeley, Calif. [etc.] 1984.

Boyd, Jean A.: The jazz of the southwest;an oral history of Western Swing. Austin, Tex.1998.

Budds, Michael J.: Jazz in the 60s ; the expansion of musical resources and techniques. Expanded ed. Iowa City, Ia. 1990.

Carver, Reginald & Lenny Bernstein: Jazz profiles ; the spirit of the nineties. New York 1998.

Cockrell, Dale: Demons of disorder ; early blackface minstrels and their world. Cambridge 1997.

Collins, R.: New Orleans jazz ; a revised history ; the development of American music from the origin to the big bands. New York 1996.

Corbett, John: Extended play ; sounding off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein.Durham, N.C. 1994.

Dean, Roger T.: New structures in jazz and improvised music since 1960. Milton Keynes 1991

Deffaa, Chip: Swing legacy foreword by George T. Simon. Metuchen, N.J. [etc.] 1989.

Deffaa, Chip: Voices of the jazz age ; profiles of 8 vintage jazzmen. Wheatley 1990.

DeVeaux, Scott: The birth of Bebop ; a social and musical history. Berkeley, Cal. [etc.] 1997.

Erenberg, Lewis A.: Swingin' the dream ; big band jazz and the rebirth of American culture. Chicago, Ill. [etc.] 1998.

Feather, Leonard: The encyclopedia yearbooks of Jazz. Reprint (1956 & 1958). New York 1993.

Feather, Leonard: The passion for jazz. Reprint (1980). New York 1990.

Fernett, Gene: Swing out ; great Negro dance bands. Reprint (1970). New York 1993.

Goldberg, Joe: Jazz masters of the 50s. Reprint (1965). New York [1983].

Gottlieb, William P.: The golden age of jazz. New & revised ed. San Francisco, Cal. 1995.

Griffiths, David: Hot jazz ; from Harlem to Storyville. Lanham, Md. [etc.] 1998.

Grudens, Richard: The best damn trumpet player ; memories of the big band era & beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1996.

Grudens, Richard: The music men ; the guys who sang with the bands and beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1998.

Grudens, Richard: The song stars ; the ladies who sang with the bands and beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1997.

 Hadlock, Richard: Jazz masters of the 20s. Reprint (1965). New York 1988.

Hall, Fred: Dialogues in Swing ; intimate conversations with the stars of the Big Band era. Ventura, Cal. 1989.

Harrison, Daphne Duval: Black pearls ; blues queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick, N.J. [etc.] 1990.

Hennessey, Thomas J.: From jazz to swing ; Afro-American jazz musicians and their music, 1890-1935. Detroit, Mich. 1994.

Jasen, David A. & Gene Jones: Spreadin' rhythm around ; black popular songwriters, 1880-1930. New York 1998.

Jones, Leroi: Black music. Reprint (1967). New York 1998.

Jost, Ekkehard: Europas Jazz 1960-1980. Frankfurt 1987.

Kennedy, Don: Big Band Jump personality interviews. Atlanta, Ga. 1993.

Kennedy, Rick: Jelly Roll, Bix and Hoagy ; Gennett studios and the birth of recorded jazz. Bloomington, Ind. [etc.] 1994.

Koerner, Julie: Big bands. New York 1992.

Koerner, Julie: Swing kings. New York 1994.

Kofsky, Frank: John Coltrane and the jazz revolution of the 1960s. New York 1998.

Korall, Burt: Drummin' men ; the heartbeat of jazz ; the Swing years. New York 1990.

Litweiler, John: The freedom principle ; jazz after 1958. Reprint (1984).New York 1990.

Lock, Graham: Chasing the vibration ; meetings with creative musicians. Exeter 1994.

Morgan, Thomas L. & William Barlow: From Cakewalks to concert halls; an illustrated history of African American popular music from 1895 to 1930. Washington, D.C. 1993.

Nicholson, Stuart: Jazz, the 1980s resurgence. Reprint (1990) of: Jazz, the modern resurgence. New York 1995.

Nicholson, Stuart: Jazz-Rock, a history. New York 1998.

Owens, Thomas: Bebop ; the music and its players. Reprint (1995). New York [etc.] 1996.

Piazza, Tom: Blues up and down ; jazz in our time. New York 1997.

Rosenthal, David H.: Hard bop ; jazz and black music 1955-1965. Reprint (1992).New York 1993.

Russell, Bill: New Orleans style compiled & ed. by Barry Martyn & Mike Hazeldine. New Orleans, La. 1994.

Scanlan, Tom: The joy of jazz : Swing era, 1935-1947. Golden, Col. 1996.

Schuller, Gunther: Early jazz ; its roots and musical development. Reprint (1968). New York [etc.] 1986.

Spellman, A: B.: Four lives in the bebop business. Reprint (1966). New York 1985.

Stewart, Rex: Jazz masters of the 30s. Reprint (1972). New York [1982].

Stowe, David W.: Swing changes ; Big Band jazz in New Deal America. Reprint (1994). Cambridge, Mass. 1996.

Tracy, Sheila: Bands, booze and broads. Reprint (1995). Edinburgh (etc) 1996.

Van der Merwe, Peter: Origins of the popular style ; the antecedents of twentieth-century popular music. Reprint (1989) Oxford 1992.

Vincent, Ted: Keep cool ; the black activists who built the jazz age.London [etc.] 1995.

Waldo, Terry: This is Ragtime. Reprint (1976). New York 1991.

Walker, Leo: The wonderful era of the great dance bands. Reprint (1964). New York 1990.

Wilmer, Valerie: As serious as your life; the story of the New Jazz. Reprint (1987).London 1998.

Wyndham, Tex: Texas shout ; how Dixieland Jazz works. Seattle, Wash. 1997.