Most teenagers would never consider jazz music to be anything special, in fact the majority of people our age wouldn’t even consider listening to it for leisure. But I’m here to open your eyes, and ears, to the wonderful world of jazz music. This blog post will have a little bit of the history of jazz music, some cool facts and even a few classic songs to help you start your journey into jazz music.
I used to be really close minded when it came to music, I hated classical and would never give pop a chance; I would simply stick to what I liked and not consider anything else. I wanted to play drums for my school band but my only option was for jazz, and as a strict indie rocker, I was not looking forward to it. But when I heard all of the amazing music that I know get the pleasure of playing, i can’t stop listening to jazz music. The amount of talent and skill that goes into these songs is impressive and most of the tunes are actually quite groovy.
10 Classic Songs to Help you Get Started
1. I’ve Got a Woman-Ray Charles
2. Try a Little Tenderness -Otis Redding
3. Waltz for Debby – Bill Evans
4. Delia – Blind Willie McTell
5. If I Were a Bell – the Miles Davis Quintet
6. Walkin’ – John Coltrane
7. Where Did you Sleep Last Night – Leadbelly
8. Mess Around – Ray Charles
10. The Things I Used to Do – Lightnin’ Slim
9. Lady is a Tramp – Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga
Connections to Jazz
Now if you listened to some the songs above, you probably recognized a few choruses and lyrics and here’s why:
Kanye West has been known to use jazz music as an inspiration for his songs. For example, Jay Z created a song called “Otis” in tribute to the king of soul himself Otis Redding and used his song “Try a Little Tenderness” as the starting point. You probably recognized the chorus of “I’ve got a Woman” from Kanye’s famous”Gold Digger” song featuring Jamie Foxx.
Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett just recently released a jazz album filled with covers of the jazz classics titled “Cheek to Cheek” appropriately named after the song made famous by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
The songs “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” first became popular when Nirvana covered it on MTV’s Unplugged. It wasn’t until later on that the original version by Leadbelly started to get noticed.
Quick History
Like most music, Jazz originated in Africa, but didn’t fully form until the 1800’s all the way up until the late 50’s during the slavery periods in the United States. The African American slaves would often sings songs throughout their days to get through the harsh and rigorous work they had to do. The white slave owners were intrigued with the music and eventually picked up on it as well. This was really where the genre began and grew in popularity. Jazz is truly an all-American type of music that is the base of most modern genres we have today. Jazz music is all bout copying and mixing together different beats and melodies. It is very much an eclectic form of music and that tradition has influenced many other genre’s to mix and match different elements of jazz into their songs as well.
Hopefully after reading this article, you have found a new appreciation for Jazz music and have found it as interesting as I do. Make sure to let me know if you enjoyed this article because I would be more than happy to make an “Ultimate Guide” to any other music genre you would like to see!