Straight Ahead/Neoclassical

The bop and hard bop styles have become the cornerstones of mainstream jazz, which has two centers of activity, New Orleans and New York. This mainstream can be traced through the activity of player/band leaders like Art Blakey. His playing is rooted in the bop style and his group, the Jazz Messengers, served as a vehicle for launching many jazz players. The self-proclaimed champion of that long list of players now viewed as straight-ahead players. The self-proclaimed champion of that long list of players is Wynton Marsalis who established himself as a premier player and advocate of traditional jazz in the 1980s.

The line of players that follow in his wake have established a style of jazz often referred to as the neoclassical school. The neoclassical label is borrowed from the other art worlds, such as classical music, and represents a looking back to borrow ideas and material from earlier stylistic periods. The neoclassical school of jazz looks back primarily to the Hard Bop era for its expression and to the New Orleans era for its heritage. With the focus on hard bop, that era in jazz emerges as the center of gravity for the jazz tradition. The transition from popular to art music is reinforced in the minds of the world listener. Although the movement is a backward looking one, its demeanor presents jazz in a new posture stressing its contributions as America’s unique art form.Oleh:meltingpot.fortunecity