Jazz was music played quietly in clubs with cigarette smoke wafting in the air. But in the 1990s, vinyl records played on turntables captivated jazz audiences.
Jazz's transformation into dance music has one great thing in common. Both love “improvisation. Jazz is the art of players freely spinning sounds on stage, while DJs have the craftsmanship to read the atmosphere and instantly mix tracks in a club. In other words, jazz and DJs went hand in hand under the watchword “freedom.
In the club scene of the 1990s, the genre of Acid Jazz was born. For example, artists such as Jamiroquai and Incognito are representative of this genre. These musicians combined the energy of funk, soul, and electronic music with the smooth grooves of jazz as a foundation. Saxophone melodies joined hands with turntable scratches, jazz swings blended with drum machine beats--magical moments were created.
The audience on the club dance floor was no longer dressed in suits and ties, but in street fashion, intoxicated by the music. The question on their minds was, “Is this jazz?” was the question on their minds, but they continued to move their bodies. Jazz has shed its image as “difficult music” and evolved into “music for fun.
How would the great masters of traditional jazz have reacted if they had seen this change?
Perhaps Louis Armstrong would have rolled his eyes and laughed, “Great, the younger generation is having fun,” or Charlie Parker would have jumped into the DJ booth, “Mix more of my saxophone! and he might have jumped into the DJ booth.
But there is a serious message behind this fusion. It is that “music lives on beyond time and genre. Through encounters with DJs, jazz has been brought back to life as music that lives in the present, not just a historical legacy. And its spirit continues to influence contemporary genres such as lo-fi hip-hop and electro-swing.
The 1990s was a golden age of musical freedom and adventurous spirit. Our musical experience was enriched by the intimacy between jazz and DJs and the nurturing of the child that is dance music.
Swinging around on the dance floor today, you may find yourself smiling a bit when you think, “This is another offspring of jazz.
