Jazz music is one of the most popular music genres today. People love to listen to jazz on all kinds of social occasions and daily events. From studying at home or spending a romantic evening with your partner to throwing a business party for your colleagues, jazz finds a way to make it work. This is thanks to a wide variety of subgenres of jazz that have originated over the years.
Even though jazz was conceived in America, specifically in New Orleans, it quickly conquered the world. This is thanks to its amazing flexibility and adaptability to different cultures, eras, and people. Let’s see how jazz manages to adapt and localize itself to fit a new environment.
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Melding with the Locals
When jazz first came to life in New Orleans, it didn't take a lot of time for it to break into other parts of the US and then even further to other continents. One of the main reasons why jazz managed to travel so quickly is its ability to meld with local music.
Simply, jazz musicians would encounter local musicians, and the magic would happen. Jazz would find what’s unique and best from the local music traditions, patterns, and sounds and combine it with the recognizable jazz sound.
This merger created unique localized versions of jazz that sounded both familiar and fresh to the local audience.
Improvising
The main thing about jazz is improvisation and the lack of strict rules. Jazz musicians engage in musical conversations that sound a bit different each time they play. Everyone can take the lead and steal the audience for a couple of moments.
This trait is another reason why jazz is so easy to localize and why it quickly adapts to whatever culture.
Jazz allows musicians to use the spur of the moment and be spontaneous about their music. When this happens with artists of different cultural backgrounds, they tend to add their cultural influence to the picture.
And while it still remains jazz, you can hear the traditional patterns or sounds of the locals.
Migration
Migration was the primary reason why jazz moved across the US so quickly. People migrating from South to North and carrying the music with them was how it all started.
Today, migration is still one of the main ways jazz manages to find new influences and change continually.
Artists are collaborating on mutual projects, there are jazz festivals welcoming musicians from all over, and people are studying art at foreign universities. All of this contributes to making jazz as adaptable as it is. And while you'd need localization service to help adapt almost any other type of content or art, jazz does it on its own.
Education
Finally, there’s one more reason why we see jazz dominating different cultures completely localized and unique to that musical environment. Jazz art education has become globally spread and taught at universities all over. Students are learning about:
history of jazz
basic jazz techniques
theory of jazz
different jazz instruments
However, in each country, students also play jazz by fusing it with their previous music education and what they've already acquired from their cultures. These influences are shaped according to the personal feelings of the students, their group dynamics, or their teacher’s guidance.
The result is obvious- jazz is being changed, reshaped, broken down, and put together by musicians everywhere. The flexibility and adaptability of this genre are what allow jazz musicians whose education is still in progress to make it their own and bring something new to the table.
And the great news is that there are more and more jazz students and degrees awarded every year. Statistics show that this number grows by nearly 4% every year, so jazz lives on.
Final Thoughts
When we think about jazz, we all have some version of it playing in our minds. We all love different subgenres, artists, sounds, and patterns. There's no way that any of us have the same melody playing in our head or hear the same voices singing.
This is because jazz is the best example of what art localization is. Adapting the music to local cultures and allowing them to influence it and create something new and unique is what jazz is all about.
Author’s Bio
Olivia Evans is a music enthusiast and a blogger. Her passion for music led her to write about the importance of music in our lives and how it can contribute to better mental health, well-being, and even social skills.