As a jazz trained saxophonist and drummer, I can tell you that jazz is very much the opposite. It does more than almost any other genre to push the boundaries of chord and scale structures within songs, arrangements, and harmonies. Sometimes you'll run into particular jazz musicians or groups that ignore much of conventional music theory and look at sonic dissonance as another expression of one's self through music rather than the "wrong notes."
One of the cool things about jazz is that since its inception it has always been played as a medium open to interpretation. Whether your listening to your first jazz piece or recording your fiftieth, your ears put you on equal footing when it comes to listening. Or said another way, no matter how much a giant in the jazz genre tells you that the music theory means that the particular scales and structures he's/she's/they're using make sense, if your ears tell you otherwise thats all you need to know.
Jazz is a great genre and like any genre that has existed for a long time, there are offshoots, like the avante garde, experimental jazz, acid jazz, etc that go pretty far in deviating from the more mainstream iterations. As with any genre and its sub-genres, it's up to you to decide if those deviations hold any interest or musical value for you.
There was a period that peaked in the late 90s IMO where jazz as a genre became largely hamstrung by allowing its most prominent gatekeepers to be pretentious fools who seemed to be involved in some imaginary race to see who could find the weirdest/most novel act calling itself jazz and turn it into the direction of the genre for the next generation. That led to a time when smooth jazz and various experimental or avante garde styles were the only kinds of "jazz" music getting any press. Thankfully abysmal sales and a movement amongst musicians to bring the musical appeal to a more mainstream audience eventually righted the ship, so to speak. As a result, jazz and all its related sub-genres are enjoying a period of popularity unlike any we've seen in decades.
TL;DR: If the music doesn't sound like music to you, then it's not. Expert opinions need not apply. Jazz as a genre is wide ranging and complex so explore thoroughly before deciding on your preference for it.
Edit: spelling and punctuation
Thanks for the great post and short (but utterly relevant) history of modern jazz! My understanding of jazz is that it has its roots in early western classical music, specifically baroque music. On first listen, there appears to be nothing in common but, there is more than meets the eye in terms of both chord and melodic improvisation. I love both genres in how they invoke similar emotions when listening to them!
In the words of the Manhattan Transfer song Soul Food to Go:
My, my oh the feelin' of the sound
Precious and real and oh that's nice
Whip up some steamin' jazz
The pot is on the stove it's cookin'
Want some more we always save some
Art nouveau for special patrons
You look nice do you believe in jazz?
Kansas City to Brazil
It even gets you hot in your home
Kansas City to Brazil
I say blow your top, blow your own
Ooo oh ah this be-bop's too much
I know you know Hip-Hop never stop
I'll pour you tasty funk
We got cool and hot just for you
The pleasures of the soul
Come on, come in and check it out
Ooo see'est si bon ... soul food to go
And my favorite Pat Metheny
some old but classy Keith Jarrett
Jazz is “live chat” using instruments to me. You will learn “non-verbal” expressions of emotion, to the degree of actual conversation is even possible in Jazz world. Lyrics? It’s not necessary.
In Japanese Zen or more natively “wabi & sabi “ spirit —a philosophy of simplicity and subtraction— sometime words are rather obsolete and even nuisance. People could communicate with by just looking eyes, see body expressions. That’s something happening in Jazz.
Pat Metheny and Keith Jarret are both (relatively) old souls in my book and they are, oh so good! They are the ultimate expressions of non verbal communication! They are "soul whisperers"!
Lots of discovery here. I will be exploring some of the works of these musicians.
Add to that "wabi & sabi, another discovery of unspoken language.
Nicely put Chris! Does not get any better then that! Unspoken communication. So unlike our mutual profession!
Come on guys, this hobby is small enough, and wired IEM is being concerned to a niche sector now.
Let’s be generous toward each other, cable believer, science lover, hype or critique, we share same interest after all, enjoy your favorite songs with best possible means at your best.
Head-fi is a small community hobby enough, let’s be generous.
One exception to non-community outside paid part-timer writing random comments on a bad IEM and just disappear after that.
Hear, hear! To each his own. We all hear differently and one man's meat is another man's poison. Mutual respect is the name of the game here in these crazy tumultuous times!
Yes, yes it is. And, in the quiet parts of some of the more experimental jazz pieces, it isn’t even any notes at all.
And even then, they communication at some level! It's amazing that even noise and silence can communicate!
Actually there are lots of musical theory behind jazz, it is not just a chaotic amalgamating of notes.
There are different variants of jazz, but in general, compared to normal run-of-the-mill chords, the jazz genre spices things up by adding substitution and extension chords that give a different flavour/voicings to the usual classical triad chords.
Jazz musicians also improvise along notes of certain scales eg dorian, blues etc, and also utilize a few favourite chord progressions like II-V-I, in addition to using syncopated rhythms (time signatures may change within a song even).
Spoken like a true jazz musician!
Enjoy the music, in all its varied forms!
I used to try to practice them when walking home from bus (foot step for main beats, hands tapping for syncopated beats)
