Classic Jazz Retrospective

Let’s not beat around the bush — it’s tough to summarize a musical genre that defies definition.

We can say this much: jazz was invented in America but descended from Africa.   It is said to have originated in New Orleans – specifically, in the horn-and-drum-playing bands that would accompany funeral processions through the city — around the turn of the 20th century.  Since then, jazz has steadily morphed and spun off one subgenre after another, from swing to big band to bebop to hard bop to fusion to smooth jazz and the list goes on.  Wikipedia calls it “a blend of African American musical styles with Western music technique and theory,” and that’s a fair statement, even if it barely scratches the surface of a genre that embraces both carefully arranged pieces and almost pure improvisation, not to mention a huge variety of different instruments.

Given that the Daily Vault lays no claim to being a jazz site — to the contrary, we don’t pigeonhole ourselves in any genre, and dabble in almost all of them — we had a challenge on our hands figuring out how to approach a themed retrospective covering one of the most important, and diverse, threads in the tapestry that is popular music. 

In the end, we decided to invent our own category: classic jazz.  Much like classic rock, the meaning of this label is almost entirely in the eyes of the beholder.  In our case, it means a concentration of influential, big-name jazz artists from the 40s, 50s and 60s – giants like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Theolonious Monk, Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans.  Because we are all about diversity, though, you’ll also find us digging into some interesting digressions along the way.

The Daily Vault’s classic jazz retrospective starts Thursday, March 8 and will continue every weekday through Friday, March 23.  Over that span of the calendar, we’ll cover a dozen different classic jazz artists, generally featuring one classic album by that artist, but sometimes two.  Most of these reviews will appear on the site for the first time.

Founded in January 1997, the Daily Vault has featured over 4,600 reviews of over 2,200 artists covering almost the entire musical spectrum, written by a volunteer review staff from around the world. Previous Artist Of The Month retrospectives have spotlighted the work of artists from Tori Amos to Frank Zappa, including Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and many others. Themed retrospectives have focused on punk, hip-hop, female singer-songwriters and dynamic debuts.