{
  "slug": "jazz",
  "name": "Jazz",
  "aliases": [
    "bebop",
    "swing",
    "modal jazz",
    "hard bop"
  ],
  "description": "A century of American improvised music, from New Orleans marching bands to modal abstraction, compressed here into one doorway rather than a survey. Every genre on this map that values a soloist owes it something.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "New Orleans, Louisiana",
    "year": 1917
  },
  "lineage": [],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 60,
    "max": 300
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-30",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/jazz/",
  "trackCount": 12,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "louis-armstrong-and-his-hot-five--west-end-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/louis-armstrong-and-his-hot-five--west-end-blues/",
      "title": "West End Blues",
      "artist": "Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/louis-armstrong-and-his-hot-five/",
      "year": 1928,
      "label": "OKeh",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The opening cadenza is twelve unaccompanied seconds that reorganised the music around the individual soloist. Everything about jazz as a personal statement starts in that phrase.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Louis%20Armstrong%20and%20His%20Hot%20Five%20West%20End%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=BTxhgmk_ofk",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "miles-davis--so-what",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/miles-davis--so-what/",
      "title": "So What",
      "artist": "Miles Davis",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/miles-davis/",
      "year": 1959,
      "label": "Columbia",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Two chords and an instruction to stop running changes. Kind of Blue remains the best-selling jazz record ever made because it is also one of the calmest and most radical.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Miles%20Davis%20So%20What",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk1LBvIqU",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "john-coltrane--acknowledgement",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/john-coltrane--acknowledgement/",
      "title": "Acknowledgement",
      "artist": "John Coltrane",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/john-coltrane/",
      "year": 1965,
      "label": "Impulse!",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A four-note cell moved through every key, then sung. A Love Supreme is devotional music that requires no shared belief to level you, which is a very rare achievement.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/John%20Coltrane%20Acknowledgement",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmx2WuUPVcs",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "charlie-parker--ko-ko",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/charlie-parker--ko-ko/",
      "title": "Ko-Ko",
      "artist": "Charlie Parker",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/charlie-parker/",
      "year": 1945,
      "label": "Savoy",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Bebop's founding document, taken at a tempo designed to exclude people who could not keep up. Parker's phrasing is still the standard against which improvisation is measured.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Charlie%20Parker%20Ko-Ko",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGJpbPKbz8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "billie-holiday--strange-fruit",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/billie-holiday--strange-fruit/",
      "title": "Strange Fruit",
      "artist": "Billie Holiday",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/billie-holiday/",
      "year": 1939,
      "label": "Commodore",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Her own label refused it, so she released it elsewhere. The most uncomfortable three minutes in American popular music, sung with almost no inflection, which is why it works.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Billie%20Holiday%20Strange%20Fruit",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=649wWWkW_1o",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "thelonious-monk--round-midnight",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/thelonious-monk--round-midnight/",
      "title": "'Round Midnight",
      "artist": "Thelonious Monk",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/thelonious-monk/",
      "year": 1947,
      "label": "Blue Note",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The most recorded composition by any jazz musician, and nobody plays it like its author. Monk's sense of where a note should not go is the whole style.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Thelonious%20Monk%20'Round%20Midnight",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=iYY8-2TWzbU",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "coleman-hawkins--body-and-soul",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/coleman-hawkins--body-and-soul/",
      "title": "Body and Soul",
      "artist": "Coleman Hawkins",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/coleman-hawkins/",
      "year": 1939,
      "label": "Bluebird",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Hawkins states the melody once and then abandons it for three minutes of pure invention, on a hit single, in 1939. A commercial risk that permanently raised the ceiling.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Coleman%20Hawkins%20Body%20and%20Soul",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7J4PgrRsY",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "the-dave-brubeck-quartet--take-five",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-dave-brubeck-quartet--take-five/",
      "title": "Take Five",
      "artist": "The Dave Brubeck Quartet",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-dave-brubeck-quartet/",
      "year": 1959,
      "label": "Columbia",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A jazz single in five-four that went into the charts. Paul Desmond's tune, Joe Morello's drums, and the unlikely proof that odd metres can be effortless.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Dave%20Brubeck%20Quartet%20Take%20Five",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-DHuW1h1wHw",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "art-blakey-and-the-jazz-messengers--moanin",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/art-blakey-and-the-jazz-messengers--moanin/",
      "title": "Moanin'",
      "artist": "Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/art-blakey-and-the-jazz-messengers/",
      "year": 1958,
      "label": "Blue Note",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Hard bop's calling card — gospel call and response welded to bebop technique. The most direct line from the church to the jazz club, and it swings enormously.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Art%20Blakey%20%26%20The%20Jazz%20Messengers%20Moanin'",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fsJ3JjpZyoA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 10,
      "trackKey": "herbie-hancock--maiden-voyage",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/herbie-hancock--maiden-voyage/",
      "title": "Maiden Voyage",
      "artist": "Herbie Hancock",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/herbie-hancock/",
      "year": 1965,
      "label": "Blue Note",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Suspended chords that never resolve and a rhythm section that floats rather than drives. The record that made harmonic ambiguity feel like weather rather than like theory.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "twice-over",
          "name": "Twice Over",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/twice-over/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Herbie%20Hancock%20Maiden%20Voyage",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=EWC5x9G45yo",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 11,
      "trackKey": "benny-goodman--sing-sing-sing",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/benny-goodman--sing-sing-sing/",
      "title": "Sing, Sing, Sing",
      "artist": "Benny Goodman",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/benny-goodman/",
      "year": 1937,
      "label": "Victor",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Gene Krupa's tom pattern turned a dance band into a phenomenon, and made the drummer a star for the first time. Swing at its most physically irresponsible.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Benny%20Goodman%20Sing%2C%20Sing%2C%20Sing",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=u_E0UVNtJ9Y",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 12,
      "trackKey": "original-dixieland-jass-band--livery-stable-blues",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/original-dixieland-jass-band--livery-stable-blues/",
      "title": "Livery Stable Blues",
      "artist": "Original Dixieland Jass Band",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/original-dixieland-jass-band/",
      "year": 1917,
      "label": "Victor",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The first jazz record, made by white musicians playing a Black New Orleans music, which is the industry's original sin stated on the very first release. Included for that, not despite it.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Original%20Dixieland%20Jass%20Band%20Livery%20Stable%20Blues",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=So-iDJiKMHQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}