Jazz Genres

Genre	Characteristics	Era	Artists
Acid blues
Acid jazz	Combined elements of soul music, funk, disco, including looping beats and modal harmony	1980s–90s	A Tribe Called Quest, Brand New Heavies, Brooklyn Funk Essentials. Digable Planets, Incognito, Us3
Asian American jazz			Hiroshima, Fred Ho, Vijay Iyer
Avant-garde jazz			AACM, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor
Bebop			Charlie Christian, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker
Bossa nova	Brazilian Genre influential in Cool Jazz/West Coast Jazz	1960s+	Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim
British dance band			Ray Noble
Cape jazz			Abdullah Ibrahim
Chamber jazz			Modern Jazz Quartet
Continental Jazz	Early jazz dance bands of Europe in the swing medium, to the exclusion of Great Britain.
Cool jazz	Genre in opposition to the hard, fast sound of Bebop. Based largely on Lester Young.	1940s-1960s	Chet Baker, Lee Konitz
Crossover jazz	Pop jazz		Grover Washington, Al Jarreau, Spyro Gyra
Cubop	Cuban jazz		Mario Bauza, Chano Pozo, Mongo Santamaria
Dixieland	Northern US name for New Orleans "hot" jazz.		Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman
Ethno jazz
European free jazz			Derek Bailey, Evan Parker
Free funk			Ornette Coleman, James Ulmer
Free improvisation			Art Ensemble, Anthony Braxton
Free jazz			Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor
Gypsy jazz			Django Rienhardt
Hard bop			Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron
Indo jazz	Fusion of jazz with Indian music (see also Sitar in jazz and Jazz in India).	1950s+	Yusef Lateef, John McLaughlin, Alice Coltrane
Jazz blues			Mose Allison, BB King, Arnett Cobb, Jimmy Witherspoon, Phil Upchurch
Jazz-funk			Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock
Jazz fusion	Combines elements of Jazz and Rock. Characterized by electronic instruments, riffs, and extended solos	1970s+	Weather Report, Return to Forever
Jazz rap			The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron
Jazz rock			Cream, Grateful Dead
Kansas City blues			Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann
Kansas City jazz			Count Basie, Buck Clayton
Latin jazz	Draws heavily on salsa and merengue influences. Heavy use of percussion, including congas, timbales, bongos, guiros, and others.		Tito Puente, Airto
Livetronica			Soulwax, Sound Tribe Sector 9
M-Base	Brooklyn based music collective prefering to use odd meters.		Steve Coleman, Geri Allen, Greg Osby
Mainstream jazz
Modal jazz	Fewer chord changes, song sections typically use one chord for many bars.		Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, John Coltrane
Neo-bop jazz			Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman
Neo-swing			Brian Setzer
Novelty ragtime			Zez Confrey
Nu jazz			French St. Germain, Groove Collective
Orchestral jazz			Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Gil Evans
Post-bop			Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan
Punk jazz			John Zorn, Lounge Lizards
Ragtime			Scott Joplin
Shibuya-kei	Tokyo jazz		Serge Gainsbourg
Ska jazz	Jamaican jazz		Skatalites
Smooth jazz	Combines jazz and jazz fusion elements with other styles of music, mostly R&B but also funk and pop music.	1970s–present	Creed Taylor
Soul jazz			Ray Charles, Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver
Stride jazz	Piano style with left hand playing 10ths.		James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Willie The Lion Smith
Straight-ahead jazz
Swing		1930s-1950s	Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman
Third stream	Mixes classical and jazz.		Gunther Schuller
Trad jazz	New Orleans "hot" music		Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet
Urban jazz
Vocal jazz			Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn
West Coast Gypsy jazz
West Coast jazz	A less frenetic, calmer style than hard bop, heavily arranged, and more often compositionally-based sub-genre of cool jazz.	1950s–60s	Chet Baker