Question about Jazz

I have just recently started composing jazz style music for a marching-band like ensemble (flute, clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax, trumpet, mellophone, trombone, baritone, contra, marimba/vibes, percussion). I have the beginnings of something put together, but I would like to learn more about jazz before I continue.

First off, "What makes Jazz...Jazz?"

"Is there some transition or feel that makes a piece Jazz?"

"Is Jazz always "jumpy"? (One of my friends told me in order to write jazz, the music has to jump from one melody to another often, but with a smooth transition.)

That's all I can think of right now. Any help would be appericated.

Here are some random thoughts.

Relaxed and 'swinging' rhythmic figures are prominent in all styles, top heavy with 'pushes' (accents), syncopation. Hardly anything happens right 'on' the beat.

Lots of chromaticism and 'blue' notes in melodies.

Mainstream - heavily altered II and V chords with augmented/flat fifths, sharp/flat nines.
Quick progressions through related tonal centres.

Modern jazz - chords with no thirds, fluid tonal centres. 'Angular' bass harmonies/dissonance.

There is no definition. You have to listen to truckloads of it until it becomes instinctive.

In a lecture on jazz, I heard a professor say that a good working definition of it is "improvisation+syncopation." While it's true, there's no real definition for jazz, this may help.

Thanks for the help.

Jazz is really hard to explain to people. The best way to learn to write jazz is to listen to jazz players and jazz pieces.

Jazz is indeed hard to explain. However, if your a beginner in jazz then the kind of jazz you are looking for is not so random. There is structure to jazz and in many cases is very traditional. For example, Autumn Leaves by Cannonball is a perfect example of structure as the accompaniment chords are really an ascending Circle of Fifths scale with thirtheenths and ninths. I hope this helps, try to find an mp3 of this song.

As for marching band, try going to hal-leonard.com, then to the marching band sections, to see if any of the mp3s you can listen to are of some jazz style.

Best,
Vinz

A lot of what makes jazz what it is is the chords it uses. Lots of related seventh chords and unusual non-harmonic tones. Also, jazz is well-known for its reluctance to completely resolve harmonies, which is part of why it was so looked-down-upon by the musical elite at first. Syncopation is characteristic in jazz, but not totally necessary... I've heard jazz pieces that followed a pretty straight rhythm. Syncopation's a continuum anyway, not a state of being. Every piece except maybe the most stringent Bach is syncopated to some degree, and some may even say Bach has some syncopation to it.

"If you ask what Jazz is... You'll never know!" - Satchmo

Well lets see...Jazz. Well Jazz can often be hazy, but here are some starters

one very common chord progression- ii7-V7-I . You hear it alot! Pretty much think of some melody that goes with that as a starter. Another thing you can do to spice up this chord progression is a thing called tritone substitution just take any of the chords in that above progression and substitute it with the chord a tritone away...example

dm7 - G7 - C ii7-V7-I
a-flatm7 - G7- C
dm7 - d-flatm7 - C
dm7 - G7 - G-flat

As far as melody, this method is hacneyed of course but mess around with a blues scale...

C-Eflat-F-Gflat-G-Bflat-C or for transposition purposes...1, flat3, 4, flat5, 5, flat7, 1

and above all listen to other jazz. I liked the suggestion of Halleonard.com for marching band...

Have fun!