Modern Jazz
tagStarted mid-1940sPeak 1945–1965Last big hit still active
Modern jazz is the post-swing turn toward more advanced harmony, smaller groups, art-music seriousness, and improvised complexity.
History
Historically, bebop was the first decisive “modern jazz,” and later hard bop, cool, and post-bop all lived under the broader modern umbrella. The phrase marks a historical break: jazz stopped being primarily a dance music and became a modernist listening culture.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- bebop histories
- modern-jazz histories
- postwar jazz surveys.