Why do humans like jazz?

[mhardy6647]

Some people make quite a to-do over the jazz-esque hallmarks of some of the Grateful Dead's oeuvre.
One should draw one's own conclusions.

 

[fpitas]

Some people make quite a to-do over the jazz-esque hallmarks of some of the Grateful Dead's oeuvre.
One should draw one's own conclusions.

Jazz has been known to be drug and/or alcohol music. Not that the Dead ever did any of that...

 

[mhardy6647]

We will spend a dizzy weekend smacked into a trance...

Ironically, a rock and roll song about jazz.

 

[fpitas]

Ironically, a rock and roll song about jazz.

Steely Dan strayed into jazz more than once.

 

[mhardy6647]

Steely Dan strayed into jazz more than once.

There is that

 

[xaviescacs]

They don't, but they find it entertaining.

By the way, were the heck the myth that Jazz is the vanguard of music searching for new chords, exploring dissonances and so forth came from? Pure ignorance?

 

[fpitas]

They don't, but they find it entertaining.

By the way, were the heck the myth that Jazz is the vanguard of music searching for new chords, exploring dissonances and so forth came from? Pure ignorance?

Depends on the jazz. My jazz musician friends went down some strange rabbit holes. I doubt many normal people would get it.

 

[mhardy6647]

Y'all know the old joke contrasting rock vs. jazz guitarists, yes?

A rock guitarist plays 3 chords in front of 10,000 people, while a jazz guitarist plays 10,000 chords in front of 3 people.

 

[EJ3]

Works with patents too. Take a real-world thing - say, the chain you might have on your front door you slide to lock/unlock - quickly knock up a software version and voila - you've got yourself 20 years legal protection at tax payer's expense. Gotta protect all that unique, hard-won, think-outside-of-the-box originality, right?

eg:

Slide-to-unlock patent battle continues some 13 years later - 9to5Mac

The Slide-to-unlock patent battles continue, long after the company ceased using the original UI, perhaps given new life by a variation on the theme ...

9to5mac.com

Wow! I have a lot of trouble with the idea that a movement of your finger on a screen is patentable.

 

[Marc v E]

Does your thesis thus further suggest a correlation between jazz and golf?

It's complicated.
I like golf but I never play it.

 

[EJ3]

Well I'm 69, and except for jazz infusions into breakbeat hardcore and trip-hop, I can take it or leave it. Never liked blues much, either. I think I missed a bunch of Old Man memos

I'm 66 & have liked most music ever since I can remember. Singing is another story: I like much of it, but there is some I definitely don't like (Opera would be one). It just sounds like screaming to me (even when I know what the words are).

 

[EJ3]

It's complicated.
I like golf but I never play it.

It's called flog when I play it. Hence, playing it is a rare occurrence for me.

 

[fpitas]

I'm 66 & have liked most music ever since I can remember. Singing is another story: I like much of it, but there is some I definitely don't like (Opera would be one). It just sounds like screaming to me (even when I know what the words are).

The only opera I liked was in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Obviously I am plebeian

 

[EJ3]

The only opera I liked was in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Obviously I am plebeian

I was exposed to opera (having been born in Salzburg, Austria) before I knew what it was. I did not like it then & don't particularly like it now. Bugs Bunny & Opera were/are great. As are all the other slyly inserted classical music & adult things put put in those wonderful cartoons that I have many DVD's of. Those cartoons were made for children of all ages.

 

[sejarzo]

Then it doesn't really explain the why so many liked it during its heyday and fewer now.

Jazz has so many subgenres that I am unsure how to compare. Is big band music jazz? Free form jazz is certainly not my cup of tea, but big band music from its heyday and modern compositions for big bands are great. I had quite a few Sonny Rollins and Grover Washington Jr. LPs back in the 80s that included both more traditional jazz and covers of pop tunes. I absolutely love Cal Tjader...

 

[thecheapseats]

There's probably a graph somewhere on the internet that shows the relation between getting older and liking jazz.

if that's the case, I was an old man at 13 years old...

 

[Marc v E]

if that's the case, I was an old man at 13 years old...

It's probably a bell curve...
Or an exponential that doesn't start at 0.

 

[thecheapseats]

It's probably a bell curve...
Or an exponential that doesn't start at 0.

hopefully... it was a refuge from classical music study - and pissed off my music teacher... a win win...

 

[ahofer]

I'm a big jazz listener, but I don't really understand the question. Jazz hardly has a monopoly on dissonance of any sort, or rhythm patterns. Why do humans like any kind of music?

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

For those who are interested, here's a link to several jazz standards based on the chords to "I Got Rhythm." Note that "Lester Leaps In" is from the 1930s. https://www.learnjazzstandards.com/blog/learning-jazz/9-rhythm-changes-heads-learn/