They say those who love jazz the most. Why do I love jazz? Why can't I stand jazz?
Last update: 03/12/2012
Is it possible that the music tracks hiding on your iPod actually reveal information about your identity? A study conducted by psychologists Jason Rentfrow and Sam Gosling suggests that knowing the type of music you listen to can actually lead to surprisingly accurate predictions about your personality. For example, researchers have found that people can make accurate inferences about a person's levels of extraversion, creativity, and openness after listening to their top ten favorite songs. Extroverts tend to look for songs with heavy bass lines, while those who like more complex styles, such as jazz and classical music, tend to be more creative and have a higher IQ.
Another study conducted by Heriot-Watt University researchers was conducted on more than 36,000 participants from around the world. Participants were asked to rate more than 104 different musical styles, in addition to offering information about aspects of your personality. Below are just a few personality traits associated with certain musical styles.
Pop
Do you prefer listening to top 40 hits? Are the latest tracks from Rhianna, Selena Gomez and Flo Rida making up your player's main playlist? If so, then most likely you are an extrovert. While pop music fans tend to be hardworking and have high self-esteem, researchers suggest that pop music fans tend to be less creative and more shy.
Rap and hip-hop
Are Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre more your style? Despite the stereotype that rap fans are more aggressive and violent, researchers have not actually found such a connection. Rap fans tend to have high self-esteem and a desire for freedom.
Country
Do you prefer watching CMT instead of MTV? Country fans tend to be hard workers. While country songs often focus on heartbreak, people who gravitate toward the genre tend to be very emotionally stable.
Rock/Heavy Metal
Despite the sometimes aggressive image that rock and heavy metal projects have, researchers have found that fans of this style of music tend to be very affectionate. They tend to be creative, but are often introverted and may suffer from low self-esteem.
Indie
Do you love searching for unknown bands and indie artists? Fans of the indie genre tend to be introverted, intellectual, and creative. They also tend to be less hardworking and less affectionate, according to the researchers. Passivity, anxiety and low self-esteem and others General characteristics personality.
Dance
You love fast pace and dance music rhythms? According to researchers, people who prefer dance music, as a rule, are assertive and goal-oriented.
Classical
Lovers classical music, as a rule, are more reserved, but also at ease with themselves and the world around them. They are creative and have a strong sense of self-esteem.
Jazz, Blues and Soul
People who love jazz, blues or soul turn out to be extroverts with high self-esteem. They also tend to be creative, highly intelligent and laid-back.
Many people don't realize how much music influences their lives. Simple melodies in commercials, music in bars, films, soundtracks for TV series... The whole world lives in a rhythm that is set by the environment. What could be better than your favorite track on headphones or speakers? Good track helps you relax, disconnect from the outside world and even lift your spirits. Some people like rap, others - calm and melodic indie. But Lately Somewhat unusual overseas jazz is gaining more and more fans in Europe. How music affects our productivity, mood and well-being, and what can be said about a person who prefers jazz tunes.
Why do people love jazz? This is improvisation, emotions, style and mood. Such compositions can be called relaxed music. Scientists have repeatedly said that our musical preferences change in direct proportion to our age and lifestyle. Interesting fact, but jazz rhythms appeal to middle-aged people who like to relax after a hard day at work and really know a lot about good company and music.
Also, numerous studies have confirmed the fact that jazz lovers are easy-going and have objective, and sometimes even somewhat inflated, self-esteem. They can safely be called extroverts. And if the fans classical symphonies prefer to stay at home alone with themselves or those closest to them, then fans of the multifaceted saxophone would rather go to the nearest bar for a get-together with friends.
At the beginning of the last century, during the golden years of jazz, it was difficult to have fun. In America at that time, the Great Depression had just ended, the population suffered from unemployment, Prohibition was soon adopted, then there was a period of prolonged devastation post-war years. Jazz music is rhythm and mood, into which the musician tries to put everything he can. A few minutes of a bright composition is a storm of good emotions, permanent shift rhythm and style. Distinctive feature jazz melodies in their richness and the absence of any rules. The most best compositions were created simply according to the mood of the authors, in an ideal tandem of saxophone, piano or cello.
If you yourself or one of your colleagues also like to work with headphones that sound perky sax melodies have you ever thought about How much does music affect your productivity at work?? In fact, music can do wonders for our brain. It is not for nothing that doctors attribute analgesic properties and the ability to relieve the listener of headaches to Mozart’s compositions.
The pleasant rhythms you hear through your headphones can improve your productivity. Repeated studies have confirmed positive influence musical compositions for those employees who perform monotonous office work. In this case, the composition sets the rhythm and does not allow you to “go astray.” Compositions that are too loungey and calm can lead to boredom, but playful jazz motifs are the best way to set the mood for a positive mood and effective work.
Favorite music is a great way to close yourself off from the outside world when you need to concentrate. Modern offices in most cases are built on the open space principle. Sales managers, programmers, or even call center employees can sit in the same office. Each of them has their own rhythm of work. Someone needs to share with colleagues latest news, while others need to focus on completing a complex task or writing a report. In this case, headphones will become a “legal” way to get rid of inappropriate questions from colleagues and unnecessary conversations. Some workers deliberately wear headphones without music, pretending to be inaccessible to “outside interference.” But it’s much better to enjoy your favorite jazz compositions.
By the way, jazz, like any other music you prefer, can make you happy. Studies on the effects of musical compositions on the brain have shown that while listening to pleasant songs, dopamine is produced in the body. This is a hormone that is responsible for feelings of love, euphoria and pleasure. It's stupid to give up music when it's so useful.
Music is a powerful tool for influencing a person’s mood, the course of his thoughts and, as a result, his performance. Of course, jazz is no exception here. For example, slow jazz helps reduce the level of anxiety and act more calmly, rationally and deliberately. This is especially important for mental work or work that requires high level concentration. So music in the work process is common among IT developers, web designers, professionals separate intellectual varieties card games and even surgeons. A study by British scientists showed that about 90% of British surgeons listen to music during operations, giving preference to calm compositions. And a study conducted at the University of Windsor (Canada) showed that background music has a positive effect on productivity and interest in tasks among IT industry workers. In cases where there was no music, employees showed lower KPIs.
By the way, jazz has a huge advantage before other musical genres. There are practically no words in the compositions, and this will not allow you to be distracted while working on their comprehension and perception. You will be able to concentrate on work, avoiding external irritants. The main rule " musical work“- don’t turn up the volume in your headphones too much and choose the songs that you really enjoy. Working to music is not only pleasant, but also useful - trust science!
21.05.2015
Few people like jazz compared to pop music. And why? Because the vast majority of people, and this is a medical fact, are idiots.
If you have never even tried to listen to jazz, you are a complete idiot and are wasting your breath in vain. Why? Read this story by Sergei Dovlatov about the history of jazz, he will explain it better and more clearly.
Close your eyes and blow
A mini-history of jazz, written by an irresponsible layman, partially justified by his fanatical passion for the topic at hand.
A short, turbulent story American jazz has an enchanting, triumphal character. Jazz gained recognition quickly. For a long time and with enviable ease.
There were no wasted talents, crippled destinies, or false idols in jazz. There were almost no belated laurels, debunked idols, or deceptive shrines in jazz.
Jazz has never experienced periods of decline, regression, or audience indifference.
Jazz has always been a fashionable, extremely popular, exciting phenomenon.
What is jazz?
Jazz is more than musical genre. Even more than art.
Jazz is a way of perceiving the world. Jazz is philosophy, morality, religion. Jazz is a style of life.
The outstanding American Scott Fitzgerald was called a “jazz writer.”
Not because he worked during the era of crazy passion for jazz. But because jazz was in his nature - open, suffering and clear.
Of the Russians, I would name a jazz writer - Vasily Aksenov. Not because he loves and knows jazz well. But because jazz stands between him and life.
Jazz has millions of parasites, dependents, imitators. Anything can be called jazz. A brigade of labukhs on the dance floor is jazz. Joseph Kobzon is jazz. Legrand is jazz. Some all-union orchestra radio broadcasting is also jazz.
I'm not saying that Kobzon and especially Legrand are bad. It's just not jazz.
Jazz is the art of self-expression. A jazz musician is not a performer. He is a creator who creates his art before the eyes of the viewer - fragile, instantaneous, elusive, like the shadow of falling snowflakes or the pattern of foliage overhead.
The writer creates within four walls and in the armor of his office. Looking for the right word he writes up mountains of paper. The artist changes the color a thousand times, practicing a subtle reflex on the ceiling. A jazz musician doesn't have drafts. He creates in front of witnesses, once and for all. Therefore, any false sound in his improvisation takes on the scale of an unseemly act.
The Jazz Lab is always open. The viewer thus becomes a participant in art, a necessary element of jazz.
One of the sensational jazz records is called “Lionel Hampton - with audience participation.”
Jazz is completely frank. Lester Young called it "a striptease of the soul." Billy Cale argued that jazz is a conversation with a celestial being. Mel Lewis says that jazz is “life itself.”
In the consistent vagueness of these formulations, an iron unity is discerned. Jazz is us in our best hours. That is, when elation, fearlessness and frankness coexist within us.
Jazz is the art of American blacks. They created jazz. They were leaders at all stages of the development of jazz. Jazz is in their blood.
Although, of course, there are also white people who have become luminaries of jazz. For example, Dave Brubeck. (By the way, the blacks gave him a special diploma as an equal. He was the first white man to reach the level of his black colleagues.) There are wonderful jazz musicians in Europe. One of them is Romano Mussolini, the son of the famous Duce. There are true jazzmen in Poland (Niemyslovsky, Komela). There are also in the Union.
The Communist Party fought against jazz for sixty years. No less persistent than with alcohol. But jazz won Soviet power. As, indeed, alcohol. Jazz won and established itself. Brilliant musicians live and work in the Union - Tovmasyan, Lukyanov, Goloshchekin.
But jazz was created by black people. And this, in my opinion, is enough to immortalize the Negro race.
By the way, there are no racial problems in jazz. Jazz doesn't remember the fight over skin color. Because jazz is above racial mentality. Apparently, jazz unites people more closely than common national interests.
Our generation was formed in an atmosphere of jazz. Jazz, Hemingway and Picasso determined our destiny. They branded an entire generation as “atypical representatives of Soviet youth.”
I know a smart grown man who emigrated to listen to jazz. Which is not the worst motive for emigration.
I know that in Leningrad, when discussing my fate, friends say:
He saw Gillespie alive!
Unfortunately, I am not a musicologist or a historian. I'm not even a very big expert on the subject under study. But I love jazz and I think I feel it. And if musicologists go into programming, then a newspaperman takes up his own business.
Of course I'll miss something important. I'm sure I'll get confused in the terminology. Apparently, I will be too partial to my favorite musicians.
In short, I ask for your indulgence. And let's start a conversation.
As Armstrong often said:
Close your eyes and blow!
No, you don’t need to urgently give up everything and love jazz without any alternative. But you have to try! If you don't understand anything, don't despair - jazz will remain for others.
Here are a dozen jazz albums to start your own collection with.
10. Esbjorn Svensson Trio - From Gagarin's Point of View (1999)
The clearest plot is how the millennium ended. A Swedish guy in white sneakers who is very good at doing his thing on stage. E.S.T. will record several more iconic sound albums, and then Svenson will die while diving. Everything is extremely simple here, people just play jazz. Listen, for example, to Dodge the Dodo, which is always with me.
9. Bill Evans - Complete Live in Village Vangaurd (1961)
The son of a Welshman and a Russian woman created a canon of complex post-bop piano playing aesthetics in the early 1960s. Evans is very melodic and easy to listen to with minimal cravings. jazz sound, but that doesn’t make it any less great. The three-disc album contains live notes that formed the basis of two classic records.
8. Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin (1958)
The greatest singer of the 20th century, a prostitute in Philadelphia at the age of 12, a heroin addict after the war. This is an archaic form, but you need to listen to the voice and the song, everything else will pass, but this will remain.
7. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (1959)
The greatest bass player in history jazz music, Mingus was a charismatic bandleader, and left several best records in the history of late bop. This is not a revolutionary, but a man who did his job better than anyone else.
6. Anouar Brahem Trio - Astrakan Cafe (1999)
I chose this record to show how jazz crosses the boundaries of genres and countries. Tunisian Anwar Brahem plays the oud - as you can see from the name, about an Astrakhan cafe.
5. Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners (1957)
Another bop pianist, Evans' alter ego. I wear T-shirts with his images on the streets. They say that Monk did not know how to play the piano at all from a technical point of view. Apparently this is true, and he was simply a genius who collected hats. To appreciate Monk you probably need to understand a little more about this music than you do with Evans.
4. Charles Parker The Compoete Live Performance on Savoy (1947)
Live recordings at the Savoy club of the main musical revolutionary of the mid-century - Charlie Parker. Parker was criticized by Glen Gould, and Parker himself complained about his fellow blacks who were fond of rhythm and blues. The oldest recording in the collection, bad sound, but real music. Listen to Koko and Grooving High.
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970)
The greatest innovator in the history of jazz, Davis also invented the fusion style. The album, called Bitch Brew, is meant to be laid on the floor and your legs kicking.
2. Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert (1975)
Solo improvisation by Keith Jarrett in 1975, very melodic music, one of the peaks of piano art of the 20th century, not only jazz, and quite difficult to understand if you do not constantly listen to academic modernists.
1. John Coltrane - Love Supreme (1965)
A story about God and the saxophone.
Jazz, as is commonly believed, is “intellectual” music. Not available to everyone. With a high entry threshold. Famous controversy: to listen to jazz, you need to understand it, but to understand it, you need to know what exactly to listen to! But these are all problems only at first glance. Firstly, our readers are not afraid of the word “intelligence” (even we in the editorial office are not very afraid of it). Secondly... I’m embarrassed to say, but jazz is also music, and also, excuse me, soulful.
It’s just that it may not be immediately clear what exactly to listen to and how to react to what you heard. And it’s true - you can’t sing along “la-la-la-lai” or stomp your foot to the beat. Well, the form: the square of the theme - and then continuous improvisations. Where's the chorus? Yes, it is not needed at all: the pleasure of jazz lies precisely in following the improvisation, which flows like a river or a conversation, and not throwing your fist up at the tired shock phrase of the chorus.
And it doesn't matter. There are jazz tracks that catch, captivate and don’t let go. We have selected the seven most “infectious”. Finally, a piece of advice - listen to improvisational pieces, keeping the theme in mind. Let the original melody play in the background in your head. And so, having understood this dizzying roll call of the play of harmony and counterpoint, spontaneity and vitality, you will have a condescending and calm attitude towards pop music. Even to Madonna and Zemfira!
Take 5
Brubeck is one of the creators of the post-war cool jazz style, a pianist and composer who combined the harmonies of European classics and cool jazz. He also “taught” jazz how to swing in asymmetrical time signatures. Yes, the great Max Roach and Thelonious Monk played pieces in waltz time and in 5/4, but those were isolated cases.
Brubeck's quarters released the album “Time Out” in 1959, where all the plays are in “crooked” meters. The 5/4 piece "Take Five" (by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond) became a hit. Later they even composed words for it. You've probably heard this melody, which, by the way, is based on the usual blues scale. But the whole album is good. And the next one is “Time Further Out”.
Song for My Father
The composition is a rare touching composition - a dedication by pianist Horace Silver to his father, a well-known Portuguese from Cape Verde. In the version with lyrics it is sung: “If there was ever a man so generous, kind and good, it was my father.”
Horace placed a photograph of his old father, John Tavares Silver, on the cover of his major album, Song for My Father (1965). And thus immortalized dad, because the album recorded with the team cool musicians like saxophonist Joe Henderson and trumpeter Blue Mitchell, became hard bop classics. The entire album is a must-have for anyone who is at least somehow interested in jazz, or simply any non-stupid music.
My Favorite Things
John Coltrane for his short life wrote that moved jazz forward. But, alas, almost none of this is suitable for entry into the genre. In addition to “My Favorite Things,” a cover of a song from the musical “The Sound of Music.” Of course, the great Train didn't play covers - he elevated famous tunes to his level as a sage and visionary. But specifically, “My Favorite Things” from the 1961 album of the same name is a beautiful melody in an original arrangement, with an oriental flavor, which “fits” absolutely any listener. Verified.
In the same 1961, the composition was even released as a single, although it was very original: it was broken in half and placed on two sides. Perhaps we'll listen to the shortened version.
Girl from Ipanema
One thing is worth saying: this song started world fame bossa novas. , but in general, father bosses Antonio Carlos Jobim and tenor saxophonist Stan Getz sang so well that the album with “The Girl from Ipanema” received “Record of the Year” at the Grammy in 1965.
And you have all, of course, heard this song a hundred times. But now know - this is serious music, bossa plus cool jazz - from the masters!
Waltz for Debby
A person does everything best (and worst) for his family and friends. Bill Evans is no exception. outstanding pianist style "cool", who wrote the touching "Debbie's Waltz" for his niece. The piece first appeared as a solo piano piece on debut album Evans "New Jazz Conceptions" (1957). A few years later - already in the trio version, on live album"Waltz for Debby" (1962). Everyone plays the piece in this arrangement.
Autumn Leaves
Yes, another cover of a pop song, but what a song! " Autumn leaves"(Les Feuilles mortes, 1945) by Vladimir Cosma and Jacques Prévert - a classic love ballad. And it seems that all the jazzmen sang and played it, but saxophonist Cannonball Adderley did something special for his album “Somethin’ Else” (1958). The arrangement - walking bass, Miles Davis's hoarse trumpet - simply enhanced the aching note to the utmost!
So what
But if “So What” doesn’t work, then you’re just an insensitive brute. Sorry, this is a typo, I wanted to say - try " My Funny Valentine"performed by him (album "Cookin" with the Miles Davis Quintet").
In general, jazz is not scary. It's scary when there is no jazz.
Marina Moskvina
My dog loves jazz
Autumn of my summer
I love the morning of the first of September. When it's time to go to school. Mom and Dad always shower me with gifts. This time they bought me a flashlight and solemnly presented it to me with the words that learning is light! Dad also handed over a kit to a young mechanic and said the following phrase: labor made a man out of a monkey.
Dad also bought me a good Schwarzenegger - a portrait of him with one bulging eye.
“Idols are idols,” said dad, “you have to smoke incense for them.”
And mom - pointed-toed, rag boots, the kind only fat women wear. I put them on, and they turned out to be sewn to each other with a harsh thread. Dad cut the thread with scissors and said
Well, take a long step into the fifth grade!
Then it suddenly became clear that my mother had not lengthened my school trousers. And a minute before leaving, I stood at the door, as they say, in “knee-length trousers.” Plus dazzling White shirt With yellow spot on the chest. This is my dear cousin Roma always messes everything up, and then gives it to me.
My socks are striped, like a clown's, although my favorite colors are grey, black and brown.
Damn, why are all these misfortunes haunting me? - I say.
Come on, says dad, pay attention to your clothes! This is not a man's business.
And he gave me a bouquet of wilted dahlias - he bought them in advance the day before yesterday. And just today they withered.
Well, well,” I say, “I see you, dad, have no nerves.” If you were in my place.
No,” said dad, “I don’t want to be in your place, I don’t want to be ten years old.” Growing up and growing up...
Only Keith understands me. He, of course, went with us.
Ruben was waiting for us at the entrance. His dad Armen didn’t buy any bouquet at all, so Ruben carried a stuffed hedgehog as a gift to the teacher.
“He lived and lived,” Ruben decided to explain, so that no one would think that it was he who killed him, “he lived and lived, and then he grew old and died. By your death.
Well, Ruben,” says my mother, “shut up, don’t torment our hearts.”
And Keith got terribly excited when he saw the hedgehog. He probably thought that the hedgehog was a cat. He chases and hunts all the cats. He probably thinks they are sables or ferrets.
Ruben says:
Andryukha! Your boots are like Lomonosov's. Lomonosov goes to school to study.
Ruben is good with shoes, his mother loves going to the shoe store. But my mother doesn't like it. She says:
I'm not cut out to go to a shoe store.
What are you created for? - Dad and I ask.
But for nothing! - she answers. - It’s impossible to adapt me for anything.
Let's go. The clouds have dispersed, the sun is golden, the sky is blue. How I love the holiday of the First of September! On school yard plays funny music- it lifts your spirit! Old bald tenth graders shake hands. All of us are assembled - Vadik Khrul, Senya - narrow eyes, Falileev, who walks around without a hat in an unbuttoned jacket in any bad weather. And no one will tell him:
Wrap your jacket, Falilei!
Everyone spread out and spread out. It's a pity that our physical education teacher can't see us. This was a real teacher. He taught us so much. From him we learned that the best smell in the world is the smell of the gym. And the best joy is muscular joy. The most A big dream he had - to walk along Red Square with his class: everyone with ribbons, flags, hoops, in front he was in wide white pants, in a T-shirt, and “Dynamo” was written on his chest, and his students were walking behind. This year he dropped out of school and became a robber.
The rest are all here, our favorite teachers.
Worker Vitya Panichkin in a black suit. The sleeves cover his calloused hands. He's been polishing pointers all his life. He grinds, sharpens, and polishes himself. We know very little about his life. We only know one thing: when Vitya’s heart was checked with ultrasound, his heart turned out to be like a dried lemon.
Vitaly Pavlovich in Russian and literature. The teacher, as they say, is from God, covered in black hair from head to toe. Takes us every year on an excursion to Execution place. So that we know and love the history of our country.
What is this little checkered thing there? Oh, this is an Englishwoman!
Leave with the dog! - she shouts to my mom and Keith. - Children and a dog are not things together! Like genius and villainy!
She is kind, but strict, and very uncultured. “The table, the table,” while she picks her nose. My whole nose was twisted. And everyone looks at her seriously. And the English office always smells of something - either sour watermelon or rotten tomato. Impossible to sit! But she doesn’t open the window, although it’s warm outside...
