Such a small word. But man, what a mouthful!


Jazz is a broad and elastic musical form. From standards to pop to avant-garde, jazz offers flavours to suit your listening preference and style.


The genre traces its origins to the melange of culture and sounds emanating from the American south at the beginning of the 20th century. In places like New Orleans, blues, ragtime, Dixieland, country, bluegrass, spiritual, and soul were played in gin joints and on the street.


There were battling marching bands, each competing to blow louder and stronger than any other. More than any other musician, Louis Armstrong came to represent the artistry and flexibility of the jazz sensibility.


40 centrestage - WINTER 2011/12


Although early jazz was structured, there was a swing to the tunes that set them apart from any other music of the time.


Based in the call-and-response history of West African music, improvisation also became a hallmark of the music. And jazz grew more sophisticated. By the early '30s, swing music was all the rage in dance halls. Throughout the '40s and '50s, big bands led by figures like Duke Ellington and Count Basie ruled both the clubs and radio waves.


At the same time, a younger group of musicians was defining a new sound called bebop. Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie took improvisation to an exalted level of complexity.


Soon Miles Davis and John Coltrane were redefining jazz with their singular interpretations of the limits of musical expression.


Since then jazz has continued to expand its already broad borders into a tremendously deep musical language.


When the Grammy-nominated Ravi Coltrane Quartet takes the stage, you will be presented with an intense and engaging sweep of the musical map of jazz.


Ravi is the second son of famed saxophonist John Coltrane (who passed away when Ravi was just two years old). But Ravi has not rested on his father’s laurels.


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