The origin of the word "jazz" is most often traced back to a vulgar term used for sexual acts. Some of the early sounds of jazz where associated with whore houses and "ladies of ill repute." However, the meaning of jazz soon became a musical art form, whether under composition guidelines or improvisation, jazz reflected spontaneous melodic phrasing.

The standard legend about jazz is that it was conceived in New Orleans and moved up the Mississippi River to Memphis, St. Louis and finally Chicago. Of course that seems to be the history of what we now refer to as jazz, however, the influences of what led to those early New Orleans sounds goes back to tribal African drum beats and European musical structures.

In reviewing the background of jazz one can

One of the original "rebels" of the bebop era, Monk's appreciation for early piano styles and his desire to express his personal ideas in pianistic terms led him to experiment with dissonance in a way that many musicians considered very unusual but strangely attractive. Monks playing was both unique and exciting. Today Thelonious Monk is recognized as one of the masters of jazz.

During the 1930's and 1940's Lester Young, along with Herschel Evans in the Count

The BeBop era, 1944-1955, represents for many the most significant period in jazz history; several consider it the time when musicians began stressing artistic rather than commercial concerns, put innovation ahead of convention, and looked toward the future instead of paying homage to the past. Others view bebop as jazz's ultimate dead end, the style that instituted solemnity and elitism among the fraternity stripped jazz of its connection with dance, and made it impossible for anyone except hard-core collectors, academics, and other musicians to enjoy and appreciate the music. Each assessment contains enough grains of truth to merit closer, more extensive examination, and there have been many studies, dissertations and essays, devoted to addressing and evaluating these contentions. But it's undeniable jazz changed forever during the bebop years. This chapter looks at the musicians who made these sweeping changes and what they were.

lyrical musician, Evans could also play exciting percussive solos. Like many earlier cool pianists, Evans explored the impressionistic aspects of the piano.

The free designation derives from saxophone player, Ornette Coleman's decision to offer performances that were not always organized according to preset melody, tempo, or progression of accompaniment chords. Freedom from these guidelines allows improvisers a greater degree of spontaneity than was available in previous jazz styles.

Jazz functions as popular art and has enjoyed periods of fairly widespread public response, in the "jazz age" of the 1920s, in the swing era of the late 1930s and in the peak popularity of modern jazz in the late 1950s. Beginning in the 20s and continuing well into the 30s, it was common to apply the word "jazz" rather indiscriminately, melodically or tonally. Thus George Gershwin was called a jazz composer. For Gershwin's concert work he was acclaimed to have made a respectable art form out of jazz. Somewhat similarly, Paul Whiteman, playing jazz-influenced dance music, was billed as the King of Jazz. Perhaps the broader definition of jazz, such as the one that would include the blues influence as well as those who shared our understanding of the art form, even if they did not perform it, would be the most useful historical approach.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)