There are a number of factors that have combined in different ways to create jazz music. Improvisation, blues with a lot of brass, swing and back beats all go into Chicago style, Dixieland, swing and soul. In all genres you will find the haunting strains of female vocalists.
One of the earliest types of jazz was that from New Orleans, although it was the earliest it is still immensely popular. If it had not been for Dixieland jazz we may never have had such standards as The Saints Go Marching In. Dixieland was the dominate force in jazz in the early part of the 20th century, the prime years were from the mid teens to the mid twenties. Dixieland spawned a counterpart in Chicago, they both used the same instruments which included guitars, drums and banjos; Chicago style was however played at a faster pace.
In the 30s all the way through the end of the Second World War the dominate force in jazz was swing. This genre was the principle form of US music and brought to party big bands, big band leaders and female vocalists. The genre was dubbed swing for the strong notes that were played in a uniquely jazz style.
If the names Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker ring a bell, then you know what bop is. Bop took the jazz world by storm for twenty years, from the mid forties to the mid sixties. This genre relied on harmony but to many connoisseurs of jazz the sound was incomplete and rushed.
In the 50s and 60s the jazz public saw the rise of cool jazz which relied on an easy tone, it stayed well away from bop and its abstracts; this was the beginning of the era of Miles Davis. Cool jazz was free style; it used less in the way of composition and introduced John Coltrane to the jazz world. Cool jazz was the corner stone of Latin and soul jazz, music that brought jazz to more listeners than ever before.
In the 70s rock music was at its best and the combination of rock and jazz developed jazz fusion with performers like Frank Zappa.
Jazz will never be defined in a few words, although there are primary genres there are countless movements in jazz that never have been defined by name, but they have all been part of the jazz revolution in America.
Sylvia Brooks is one of the female vocalists that have taken jazz one step further. Using a wide range of instruments not normally associated with jazz, Sylvia has developed her unique “Jazz Noir” sound.