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The piano offers a wealth of improvisation opportunities, which is why it is so popular in jazz. Within jazz itself, there is a wide range of styles, from blues for piano and bar piano to experimental jazz. Whether you play jazz on the piano solo, four-handed, or in an ensemble, you will find a variety of sheet music and method books for jazz piano with us.
read moreQuality beats quantity. This also applies to practicing. Much more important than the number of hours we spend with our instrument is how we use that time. Endless, monotonous repetition of difficult passages is not always helpful. Creativity is the key. Or chance: Random Progressions allow us to easily create a variety of personalised exercises that are perfectly suited to our abilities.
read moreComposing and arranging for big band today is no easy task, as Jazz Award winner Thorsten Wollmann knows from personal experience. Here is a brief overview of the past and present of this quintessential jazz ensemble.
read moreChick Corea, one of the greatest jazz pianists, has left the stages of the world forever at the age of 79. For Stretta Journal, composer and musician Jan Reinelt describes the significance of the brilliant improviser for the music world—and for him personally.
read more“The blues is the foundation of all music. It is the root.” (John Lee Hooker).
With this bold, self-confident statement, the famous blues guitarist and singer John Lee Hooker wasn’t entirely wrong, at least when it comes to popular music after 1900. Jazz, Rock 'n' Roll and Soul have their roots in the blues, and even in the currently popular Hip-Hop, the connection is still evident.
Emerging among the Black US population around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, it contains elements of African, European, and Caribbean music.
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Show YouTube contentSpirituals are Christian songs that emerged in the 17th century in the USA, created by slaves who had been forcibly taken from Africa. Having encountered Christianity, they expressed their suffering, but also their hope, musically. Most well-known spirituals like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” or “Go down, Moses” depict scenes from the Old Testament.
In contrast, Gospels are more about the New Testament and express love and faith in God. Gospels are an evolution, incorporating Jazz and Blues elements. While Spirituals are considered folkloric group creations, Gospels are often composed. Additionally, the Gospel Choir is often accompanied by a band.
A key link between these genres were the "Field Hollers" or "Worksongs," the work songs of African American slaves.
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Show YouTube contentRagtime is a highly rhythmic piano style, and as such, a precursor to jazz. It emerged in the USA at the end of the 19th century and had its heyday in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Ragtime consists of a regular bass line, while the melody – often syncopated – provides the rhythm. One of the most famous works of Ragtime is Scott Joplin's “Maple Leaf Rag”. It was published in 1899 and became a sales hit for its time.
In the 1920s, Ragtime was replaced by jazz and then by swing, but experienced a revival in the 1970s. The 1973 film “The Sting” with Robert Redford, set to a soundtrack of Ragtime music, contributed significantly to this revival.
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Show YouTube contentDixieland is the "smoother" interpretation or imitation of the original black New Orleans jazz by white musicians in the 1910s. From 1930 onwards, there was no longer a clear distinction between the forms of "Traditional Jazz" (which also includes the slightly later and simplified Chicago jazz). Even Louis Armstrong played Dixieland.
A typical Dixieland ensemble consists of trumpet, clarinet, and trombone as the melody group, with the trumpet taking the lead position. The rhythm section is made up of a drum kit, piano, tuba (or sousaphone), double bass, and guitar (or banjo). Musically, collective improvisation is particularly characteristic.
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Show YouTube content"It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing." (Duke Ellington)
Swing, arguably the most popular form of jazz, developed in the 1920s from Dixieland and Chicago jazz.
Big Bands played Swing, whose danceability contributed to its rapid spread. The most famous musicians who entertained people with their Big Bands were the clarinettist Benny Goodman, the trombonist Glenn Miller, and the pianist Duke Ellington. Many songs from the musicals of Cole Porter became true classics, or evergreens.
Gypsy Jazz, also known as Jazz Manouche, is a form of Swing and became popular in France in the late 1920s through the guitarist Django Reinhardt. It is also called "String Jazz" because it is predominantly played with string instruments.
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Show YouTube contentSince the 1950s, Modern Jazz has been used as a collective term for all jazz styles after the Swing era, starting with Bebop.
Bebop developed in the mid-1940s from Swing. Unlike Swing, it was no longer aimed at danceability. This made the tempo faster, the harmonies more complex, and allowed for greater rhythmic freedom for drums and bass. The saxophonist Charlie Parker is considered one of the creators of Bebop.
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Show YouTube contentIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, musicians increasingly experimented with genres and crossed the boundaries of various styles to create something new. This led to the development of the Fusion style, a blend of jazz, rock music, and funk.
While the success of rock music is defined by catchy, emotionally appealing riffs and chord progressions, jazz thrives on complex harmonies. Spiced up with the energy of funk, Fusion forms a sophisticated yet catchy music style, which also laid the foundation for progressive rock.
Fusion / Jazz Rock – Sheet Music
Smooth Jazz is a commercially oriented crossover jazz that developed in the mid-70s. The style mixes jazz with pop or R&B and can be seen as a response to the bolder jazz fusion. It avoids the improvisational "risk-taking" of jazz fusion and emphasises melodic form.
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