How to Listen to Jazz

Wynton Marsalis stands out as the most famous musician associated with this approach,

Much of this music was deliberately playful and jesting, and you are advised to approach it with that in mind.

To some extent, the jazz world was simply following along with the broader currents of postmodernism sweeping through other art forms.

The exploratory attitude of early fusion gradually got supplanted by the slick formulas of smooth jazz. The rise of smooth jazz radio during the 1980s accelerated this process, as more and more labels and bands tried to match their sound with the tightly defined formats imposed by station program directors.

“neoclassicism”

Starting in the 1980s, a different attitude prevailed. “Why choose?” asked many members of the up-and-coming generation. Why couldn’t a musician range freely through these riches, mixing and matching as passing moods dictated?

the other type of fusion, which came to the forefront of the jazz world in the 1970s.

You can hear the whole history of jazz hiding inside this music, and songs can even be treated as museum exhibits.

Gunther Schuller proposed, back in 1957, that a merging of jazz and classical music into what he called a ‘Third Stream’ offered a promising path for future composers and improvisers.