Christian Jazz

Jazz has roots in the combination of West African and Western music traditions, including spirituals, blues and ragtime, stemming from West Africa, western Sahel, and New England’s religious hymns, hillbilly music, and European military band music. After originating near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz styles spread in the 1920s, influencing other musical styles.

The origins of the word jazz are uncertain. The word is rooted in American slang, and various derivations have been suggested. Jazz was not applied to jazz music until about 1915, when jazz musicians in Chicago began calling their music jazz. Earl Hines, born in 1903 and later to become a celebrated “jazz” musician, used to claim that he was “playing piano before the word “Jazz” was even invented”. For the origin and history of the word jazz, see Jazz (word).

The instruments used in marching bands and dance band music at the turn of century became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds, and drums, using the Western 12-tone scale. A “…black musical spirit (involving rhythm and melody) was bursting out of the confines of European musical tradition [of the marching bands], even though the performers were using European styled instruments.” Small bands of musicians, mostly self taught, who led funeral processions in New Orleans played a seminal role in the articulation and dissemination of early jazz, traveling throughout communities in the Deep South and to northern cities.

The postbellum network of public schools, as well as civic societies and widening mainstream opportunities for education, produced more formally trained musicians. For example, Lorenzo Tio and Scott Joplin were schooled in classical European musical forms. Tio was a Creole who was born in Mexico. Joplin, the son of a former slave and a free-born black woman, was largely self-taught until age 11, when he received lessons in the fundamentals of music theory. Jazz is not a pure folk music, in that it more often derives from artists with formal music training and skills.

Taken From wikipedia.org. Christian Jazz is simply Jazz music performed by Bible believing Christian artists who generally play for their faith with God inspired music.

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