Ever since the fast-paced development in popularity of the Rock and Pop genres, Jazz has seemed to be on an equal and opposite decline.
Luckily, people have begun to realize that Jazz is not being ignored, but repurposed! This is being done with the help of Genre Fusions. Nowadays, you can pretty much hear an element of Jazz in every branch of music.
The Sax
To the right is an artists that just recently became a household name to the public. Masego has made a name for himself by writing songs on never before touched on topics, his unique tone, and implementing the use of the dearly missed instrument, the saxophone, back into modern day music. I would consider his vibe to be TrapHouseJazz – the flawless intersection of three different genres. In this video you can see Masego & Fkj looping and layering music to create a masterpiece.
Scatting
Snarky Puppy and Lalah Hathaway commences to effortlessly step on necks with this one! How can someone send the listener on an auditory journey like this with so much ease? Outside of blowing everyone away with her ability to sing multiple overtones (also known as polyphonic singing), she scats her heart away in this video, and by doing so brings back to the forefront an essence of jazz that was once lost. On the spot improvising had only ever been heard of decades before in the Bebop branch of jazz. The entire group as a collective showed up and showed out. The musicians in the band blend so well together only to surprise us with a surprise appearance from another key instrument in jazz, the trumpet!
The Progression
The ability to play with non-chord tones (notes that do not normally belong in a certain chord) is one of the most difficult and appreciated talents to have a a musician. My personal favorite [underrated] musician right now is known for that exact ability. Abigail Smith, better known for her stage name, Yebba, has been slowly but surely dipping her toe into the music industry. She started off with lightly treading as a feature on more popular artists’ music, but would find herself being the reason the song reached the success that it did. check her out!
