THE JAZZ ESCALATION

I have been learning about African American society for almost three months now, and I have discovered a lot of factors I hadn’t recognized in the past. Maybe my mind has changed a little around everything which regards African American descendants, and maybe I could develop a whole new position about all the matters which surround American society. I have also discovered several kinds of music which I didn't know they were born from African American people, and it has been a really good experience.

Besides Gospel, R&B or Blues, there’s Jazz. I am not completely familiar with Jazz, but as far as I know, I enjoy it. Jazz music is pleasant, diverse and smooth, so it gets easy for us to enjoy it when we have certain mood. Regarding Jazz, there are different types of sub-genres, such as Bebop, Cool Jazz or Groove Jazz.

After listening to all of the different kinds of Jazz we can find out there, I found more likely for me the Brazilian Jazz, because I like smooth music, and even though almost every kind of Jazz has that feature, the fact of being Brazilian gives it more freshness (I’m just guessing here). I have also learned a little bit about Bossa Nova, and I know Jazz has been a direct influence on it: since I liked bossa nova, it is not surprising that I liked Brazilian Jazz as well. I think this kind of music would help me to think and meditate when I have to read, study or simply relax, so I find it really helpful for any of those situations. I have also liked that Brazilian Jazz is more structured than other kind of Jazz, and I have to admit that I am not a big fan of messy music. I want to highlight Modern Mainstream and Groove Jazz as well, because I have also found them really interesting.

I have also found a specific subgenre which I wasn’t comfortable with: Bebop. As soon as I read the description I was afraid I wasn’t going to enjoy it: “The revolutionary music that married swing rhythm with adventurous improvisation”. Improvisation: that’s the deal breaker. When I have that word surrounding my head, and mixing it with the fact that we are talking about Jazz, I knew it was not going to sound okay for me. As I had expected, the frenzy of this subgenre was not likely for my objective, which is to chill out and relax. I don’t find this messy music a good way to relax, so as soon as I listened to Bebop, it became to stress. Maybe we could find Jazz music as a highly messy genre, however, we can also find some structured subgenres, which help us to organize our own ideas even when it gets difficult. My point is, if you are trying to relax and clear your mind in order to organize your ideas, you will not succeed if you are listening to a frenetic, messy and unstructured music, with an inevitable rain of instruments and improvising that will mix up even more your thoughts.

My taste regarding Jazz music moves along with the objective I have: Relax. If a Jazz subgenre is not smooth, soft and organized, maybe it would not be adequate for me, and I think I have explained in a good way throughout this entry.