modern jazz

noun

1. any of various styles of jazz that have evolved since the early 1940s and are marked generally by harmonic and rhythmic complexity, emphasis on chord progressions rather than melody, a tendency to draw on classical forms and styles, and eclectic, allusive melodic tags in improvisation.

modern jazz

noun

1. any of the styles of jazz that evolved between the early 1940s and the later emergence of avant-garde jazz, characterized by a greater harmonic and rhythmic complexity than hitherto

Word History and Origins

Origin of modern jazz¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

Monk once famously asserted that there were no wrong notes on the piano, a statement that was, by extension, a defense of his considerable body of compositions — now an essential lexicon for modern jazz.

From Los Angeles Times

Early influences included Bach and Debussy — whom he once called “the door to all 20th century music” — and he discovered modern jazz as he fell in with a crowd of hipster rebels as a teenager.

From New York Times

Lives Lived: Wayne Shorter was an enigmatic saxophonist and a composer who shaped modern jazz.

From New York Times

The saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who shaped modern jazz as one of its most influential composers, died at 89.

From New York Times

Many of Shorter’s textured and elliptical compositions — including “Speak No Evil,” “Black Nile,” “Footprints,” and “Nefertiti” — became modern jazz standards and expanded the harmonic horizons of jazz across some of its most fast-evolving eras.

From Seattle Times