Jazz is one of the most complicated and delightful genres to grace the music and entertainment world. While I can't call that an objective fact, millions of jazz lovers would agree with me.
Not enough people talk about the interesting facts behind what started jazz, the most influential names in jazz, and the random stories about jazz musicians that could entertain us for days.
I've taken some time to do a deep dive into the genre and want to point out 25 things that really stand out to me in relation to the jazz world.
Feel free to share some of these facts with your friends and family that share your love for music!
April 30 is officially named and celebrated as International Jazz Day, declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2011
Three dance styles that were introduced with jazz music include The Trot, The Charleston, and Black Bottom.
The saxophone is the most popular instrument in the genre of jazz.
Early hip hop was highly influenced by jazz, and rappers, including Eazy-E and Tajai of the group Souls of Mischief, sourced scat singing as one of their inspirations.
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There are tons of different subgenres in jazz, including Swing, Bebop, Free Jazz, Cool Jazz, Vocal Jazz, World Fusion, Funk, Dixieland, Modern Jazz, Latin Jazz, and Hard Bop.
Most jazz is at least partially improvised, meaning that the performers come up with musical ideas on the spot thanks to their extreme creativity and skill.
Jazz Fest in New Orleans brings around $300 million to the city every year, with an estimated 400,000 participants.
The birthplace of jazz is New Orleans, Louisiana, which had an eclectic mix of many different genres that surrounded African American culture.
Around the 1920s, jazz was considered to be pop music, with its influence from ragtime, blues, and marching band music.
The golden age of traditional Jazz dance lasted between the years 1930 and 1960.
The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s when the genre intertwined with youth and party culture.
Some of the most famous musicians in Jazz include Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington.
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Jazz bands called Big Bands became popular in the 1940s.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's popular book The Great Gatsby was set in The Jazz Age and provides an accurate social history of Prohibition-era America.
The Jazz Age happened to coincide with the events of the Harlem Renaissance in New York, where African American culture flourished through art, music, dance, and poetry.
Speakeasies were places in the Jazz Age where people could relax, have a drink, and experience live jazz music. They were often run by organized criminal groups.
Classically trained musicians created a backlash against jazz musicians when the genre first came on the scene because many jazz performers sang or played by ear, while classically trained artists found them to be untrained.
'Flappers' was a term used to describe young women in The Jazz Age who partied, got crazy, and listened to a lot of jazz (pop) music.
Jazz is scientifically proven to e one of the genres of music that can help you focus, relax, and even boost your creativity.
As an example of the many mysteries surrounding the genre, no one knows who actually came up with the term "jazz".
Before he became famous, the popular jazz musician Duke Ellington used to sell peanuts at baseball games.
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