Abstract

Jazz is a musical genre which historically has thrived on the evolution of music by challenging and changing normative musical practices. However, the later half of the of the 20th century saw a development within the musical community of the jazz conservative, as represented today by Jazz at the Lincoln Center, who maintain a tradition of performing jazz in a style developed prior to the 1960’s. This presentation will illustrate what these traditions are, in context to rhythm, melody, harmony, form, improvisation, and song selection, and how artists, such as those of theECM record label, continue to evolve and break these traditions. The intent is not to display that there exists in jazz a strict schism between an american and european tradition, but that their is a continuum along two extremes in which most artists lie closer to the center.