JAZZ Subgenres: Your Essential Guide

"Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are” - John McLaughlin

Us musicians love a good subgenre. It is not enough to simply ‘be into jazz’ for example. You have to specify; to be able to determine the exact flavour of expression that you prefer. For that reason, endless subgenres of jazz exist, and as a matter of public service, I’m going to collect together as many of them as I know right here.

Jazz is a notoriously impenetrable world for outsiders to enter, because by its very nature, jazz music is all about breaking outside of conventions, and pushing against pigeonholes. Still, we need ways in which to talk about the music that we love, and since we love talking about music, we have subgenres to help us out! 

Today is all about jazz subgenres. I’ll put them into a rough chronology, but as we know, music tends to mangle out of its own timetable, so some of this will apply to multiple eras. But anyway: sit back, put on a nice relaxing record and let’s do this! 

The origin of jazz seems not to belong to any singular person, but to a number of musicians who developed the artform in New Orleans. We’re talking about the turn of the 20th century here, and the mixture of African music (particularly the rhythms), blues, Christian spiritual music, marching band music and harmonies from European classical music. This disparate collection of rich influences went into the melting pot of one of America’s most musical cities, resulting in a world of colourful and unpredictable music.

I don’t suppose anyone is really qualified to define jazz music, not least because it is so expressive and open to interpretation. But I can offer up a few suggestions that might prove useful in determining the main properties of the form, speaking generally of course…

• Swing: it’s a rhythmic feel, a way to count beats, and a style of jazz music. Swing is an extremely central concept in jazz music.
• Polyrhythms: not just with the rhythmic instruments, but everywhere. Melodies are polyrhythmic, as are calls, responses, counterpoint…rhythm is everything, and ties up with the notion of swing.
• Complex chords: extended chord voicings, which lead into new melodies, turnarounds and other musical devices that require the use of extra intervallic information.
• Blue notes: the notion of a note that sits just outside the accepted pitch of a note in western musical scale. Quarter and half tones come into play here, with the musician bending into the note, out of the note of hitting that blue note square on.
• Improvisation: one of the single most important ingredients in great jazz music is improv. It’s part of the excitement and tension in the music, and informs much of the nature of how jazz music ‘behaves’, for want of a better term.

Now, here are as many jazz subgenres as I can find for you right now…

Ragtime could either be considered a major precursor to jazz, or one of the earliest jazz subgenres itself. Ragtime dates from around the turn of the last century. We know about ragtime as being a piano style (mainly) but it may make sense to note that it came from banjo playing. The thumb bass notes that you’d steadily play on the banjo are how to view the left hand piano parts of ragtime piano. In terms of the fast, jaunty melodies, you can trace the influence of honkey-tonk piano from nearby Mississippi styles.

The important thing to emphasize is perhaps the idea of ‘swing’. Swing is a groove, a certain flavour of feel that imbues ragtime - and nearly all subsequent jazz music - with an infectious rhythm that for many, defines one of the main properties of jazz as a whole.

Some people call it Dixieland, some call it hot jazz, and others know it as traditional jazz. The term ‘Dixieland’ actually comes from a band (of white musicians) called the Original Dixieland Jass (later Jazz) Band, whose 1917 song Livery Stable Blues is generally accepted as the world’s first commercially available jazz record. This band didn’t invent or develop the style, but that’s where the name comes from. Musically, the Dixieland band’s sound was mostly a mixture of ragtime and Sicilian styles - which had wound up in New Orleans - as well as the brass music and blues.

The ‘dixie’ term is from the days of the Old South and the Mason-Dixon line that separated the northern states from the southern states. Whilst perhaps popularised by white musicians, the style is from the Black musical traditions mentioned earlier.

Dixieland jazz bands were often made of a ‘front line’ and a ‘rhythm section’. The front line was generally brass, with the rhythm section being made up of guitar, banjo, piano, drums or even the tuba!

New Orleans is where it all came together. Jazz is fundamentally New Orleans in origin, so it can be argued that all jazz is New Orleans jazz. As I mentioned, jazz is a beautiful melting pot of musical worlds, which includes gospel and Caribbean influences in addition to the African blues and marching band sounds.

New Orleans is significant because it was in this city’s Congo Square during the late 1800s that both free and enslaved African Americans would meet to play music, form drum circles and perform dances. This is the point zero for jazz music, which evolved from those highly significant gatherings. 

Artists like Buddy Holden, King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton were all pioneers of the New Orleans style, and even though Morton didn’t invent the style (as he claimed), his work informed all that came after. 

I’ve mentioned ‘swing’ as a musical feel, and as an interpretation of rhythm. In the mid 1930s, this became a full-on subgenre of jazz, thanks to bandleaders like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and the “King of Swing” Benny Goodman. Bandleaders were required, because this was the era of Big Bands, which were ensembles of 12 and beyond players. Big Bands were divided into sections for brass, rhythm and woodwind, and you’d hear more pre-written material being played alongside the improv.

Genuine guitar hero Django Reinhardt created a whole genre of his own alongside violinist Stephane Grappelli in the 1930s. By taking swing music and combining it with traditional Romany music (and some French music of the time), the French Romani gypsy legend gave the world gypsy jazz. The genre revolves around guitar, violin and a double bass.

In guitar terms, Reinhardt is well worth a deep dive, but one tip in particular is to pay close attention to his strumming pattern, which hits hard on the second and fourth beats.

Bebop is a slightly more specific term than some jazz subgenres. Developed in the 1940s,  it’s a relatively fast and energetic style, played in small groups (double bass, drums, a couple of lead instruments and piano) and highlights improvisation. Bebop is where virtuosos like Charlie Parker (alto sax), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet) and Thelonius Monk (piano) could express their art. Intricate and technical, bebop is also musically advanced and unpredictable.

Cool jazz is something of a response to the energy and kineticism of bebop. Slower, softer and more formally composed, cool jazz is more about relaxing into a vibe than sitting on the edge of your seat. The West Coast Scene is a famous collection of cool jazz sounds, with Dave Brubeck being perhaps the principal example.

Moving into the 1950s, hard bop emerged as a slightly more groove-based version of bebop. Ironically, hard bop is perhaps a little bit less intense than bebop, and incorporates more of a blues and gospel influence than before. Still played with a smaller group, you’ll often find two lead horn players (sax and trumpet is a popular pair) who’ll feature lots of call and response parts.

Soul jazz takes from hard bop but makes more of an emphasis on the danceability of the music. So, the grooves don’t just follow typical walking bass parts, and there’s perhaps even more crossover into gospel and blues in some regards. Soul jazz is often seen as the bridge into 1960s jazz funk. 

Also worth noting, the Soul Jazz record label is a more modern proposition. Formed in 1991, its main aim is to reissue rare jazz records from the 60s.

Following on from soul jazz, jazz funk makes a sound that’s more rock-flavoured in its beats than the swing of most jazz. Traditional jazz instruments are largely replaced too, with electric bass and synths being brought to the fore over double bass and horns. Dynamic, intentionally repetitive and more ‘infectious’ perhaps than more traditional jazz styles, it’s also far more well known. Jazz funk artists include people like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and George Benson. Soulive and the Greyboy Allstars are also popular exponents of the form.

This one is pretty specific. Modal jazz, as you’ve no doubt guessed, is based entirely on framing the music around the musical modes. Whether this is clear from listening to the music or not depends, I suppose, on your familiarity with the concept of the modes, and how they sound. Though lots of jazz is modal anyway, this style cuts away anything that doesn’t conform to strict modal expression. It’s based on the work and concepts of George Russell, whose famous 1953 book Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization is the prized text to refer to.

‘What type of jazz isn’t inherently free?’, I hear you ask. Well, once you’ve heard Meditations by John Coltrane, I think you’ll have context. Free jazz was/is part of the avant-garde jazz movement (see below) of the 50s and 60s, of which Coltrane was a major proponent. In short, free jazz abandons the whole notion of fixed rhythms, fixed meter and fixed melody. Structure and tradition are rejected in favour of truly free individual spontaneous expression. It’s either incredibly inspiring or incredibly frustrating, depending on your taste. 

Avant-Garde jazz is the ever-so-slightly more structured form that gave birth to free jazz (see above). Where free jazz basically throws out every sense of structure or tradition, avant-garde jazz still allows for some rough structural framework to exist: there is some level of pre-agreement in the music, if you will. Also, classical music has more of a look in here, made possible of course because of those agreed semi-structures. It’s still wild stuff, but the path through the forest is somewhat clearer to many ears. 

It could be said that avant-garde jazz was a deliberate move to see the music as art in its own right; something that was to be viewed as one would look at a painting in a museum. Coltrane is still a big name here, as is Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.

As the name suggests, music of Latin origin plays a significant part in the Latin jazz subgenre. I’ve included Bossa Nova in here too since it’s a key identifier for music fans who are working their way into the sometimes dense world of jazz.

The two strongest flavours of Latin jazz are Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian. Both bring their own rhythmic structures - such as the famous clave beats that are found in lots of Caribbean music too - and the influence of a ‘Spanish flavour’, such as references to tangoes and so on. Mongo Santamaria’s Afro Blue album is known as a significant reference here.

Bossa Nova is Brazilian and emerged in Rio from samba music. It’s more complex in the harmonies but less so in the rhythms, with the distinct bossa nova beat providing instant identification. 

Post Bop is another response to bebop music, but unlike free jazz, post bop does conform to structure, meter and, I suppose, rules. It’s just that those rules are every bit as genre-breaking as avant-garde, so the end result is still fresh, unorthodox and challenging.

Miles Davis is the king of this, with his Second Great Quintet. Also, Coltrane was a major part of this (with McCoy Tyner), as was Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Blue Note Records is the place to investigate this style.

Third Stream is a specific blend of traditional jazz and classical music. Classical is the first stream, as it were, and jazz is the second. Third Stream brings them together in a way that takes the instrumentation and formal composition of classical, but adds the rhythms and improvisation of jazz. Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain is a touchstone of this sound, as is Charlie Mingus’ Black Saint and Sinner Lady.

Jazz Fusion is a subgenre that is perhaps more visible to non-jazz fans. This is because of crossover artists such as Jeff Beck and Al Di Meola traversing the style in their own careers, and bringing their larger audiences into it. Jazz Fusion is jazz ideas mixed with rock music’s sensibilities. The Mahavishnu Orchestra is the big one to report on here, with John McLaughlin’s incendiary approach to guitar playing proving highly influential and genre-busting. As he said himself: "Mahavishnu mixed rock and jazz in the same way that a madman mixes fire with gasoline. They burned down every place they played." If that doesn’t make you want to listen, nothing will!

 Allan Holdsworth is perhaps the other best-known and most pioneering guitarist in jazz fusion. Holdsworth is routinely described as the ‘shredder’s favourite shredder’, which is both a shame to his art and a misunderstanding of what he was going for, creatively. Still, I do get what they mean!

Perhaps the style of jazz closest to pop and easiest to listen to, smooth jazz is maybe more ‘jazz-adjacent’ than full-on jazz. Smooth jazz is very accessible and commercial sounding, with saxophones mixing with synth textures and elements of r’n’b. It’s music that cruises along, setting a relaxed mood that doesn’t have too much dissonance or rhythmic alteration at all. That’s not to say it isn’t very appealing to listen to, as its soft, laid back style is very easy to like, but it is relatively dissociated from traditional jazz. Kenny G, George Benson and Paul Hardcastle are obvious examples.

The name ‘acid jazz’ was a tongue-in-cheek reference to acid house, the electronic music style, and it was DJ Giles Peterson who said it. The name makes sense though, as acid jazz takes traditional jazz sounds, harmonies and textures, and blends them with more overtly funky soul, hip-hop and electronic music. Repetition and groove are prized here, not improvisation or surprises. Acid jazz can be seen as a bridge towards the likes of drum ‘n’ bass, which is heavily jazz-accented if not quite a full subgenre of jazz.

Acid jazz artists include Jamiroquai and the James Taylor Quartet.

Likened to acid jazz but obviously featuring rapped vocals as a centrepoint, jazz rap is often made using samples of jazz records instead of newly recorded performances. Also known as jazz hop, artists like De la Soul and A Tribe Called Quest are innovators in the sound.

Jazz metal is essentially what the name suggests: an amalgamation of jazz guitar playing sensibilities fused with various types of metal. In the early 90s, British guitarist Shaun Baxter released an album called Jazz Metal, which leaned heavily into the shred subgenre of metal.

More contemporary jazz metal musicians would include bands like Animals As Leaders, whose physically demanding and dextrous music has an entirely different sensibility to either trad jazz or typical shred.

Jazz is a complex beast, is it not? Do these subgenres do the form justice? Is there actually only one genre of jazz? Some artists have argued that jazz fusion, for example, is just straightforward jazz, since jazz at its core is itself a fusion.

I don’t know, but I do know that these terms have all been developed to help us all speak about a music that is otherwise pretty difficult to verbalise. Jazz can be somewhat impenetrable for outsiders, and that’s always been an issue. If it isn’t stuffy and out of date, it’s gleefully twisted and atonal, an endurance match for the senses or a mild, pensioner-bore. 

Of course, jazz is none of those things at all. Jazz is defiance, jazz is expression of personality, of individualism and above all, it is a conversation with the world around it. The world changes and so jazz changes with it. We talk about it in order to enthuse, yes, but also to make sense of it. Maybe that’s the mistake? I’ve had good mileage already in this article by quoting John McLaughlin, so let me end this on another bit of his wisdom:

"The moment you start to talk about playing music, you destroy music. It cannot be talked about. It can only be played, enjoyed and listened to."

Thank you for reading! I hope this guide has proven useful. More below!