Rapp on Jazz

Jazz and rock are always borrowing and always inspiring each other. Here are a few rock songs shaped by jazz, where improvisation, rhythm, and harmony push the music beyond boundaries.

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Jazz left an indelible mark on rock music. Take The Beatles’ “Something.” George Harrison’s use of rich jazz chords and a melodic, walking-style bassline shows how jazz progressions can inform songwriting. 

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Jazz has left its fingerprints all over popular music. From the swing era forward, jazz rhythms, harmonies, and improvisation have shaped the sound of pop.

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During the Civil Rights Movement, jazz was a voice for freedom. Musicians like Nina Simone, with her searing anthem "Four Women," spoke directly to the struggle for justice. 

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Jazz has had a profound influence on the Broadway stage. In the 1920s and ’30s, jazz rhythms and harmonies began to reshape the sound of the American musical, giving it a freshness and vitality audiences hadn’t heard before.

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Lily Pearl Woodard, better known as Pearl Woods, was born in Saint Matthews, South Carolina, in 1933. She later moved to New York, drawn by Harlem's vibrant music scene, where she began singing on street corners and with local groups. 

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Webster Young was born in Columbia, South Carolina, on December 3, 1932. Though he left South Carolina as a toddler, the musical seeds planted there would flourish elsewhere. 

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Composer, singer, and percussionist Nick Ashford was born in 1941 in South Carolina. As an infant, he moved north to Michigan, eventually settling in New York City, where he dreamed of becoming a dancer.

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Mac Arnold, born in 1942 in Ware Place, South Carolina, is a powerhouse in jazz and blues whose career spans decades and coasts. 

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Ken Burns’ "Jazz" documentary, first aired on PBS in 2001, is more than a history lesson—it’s a celebration of an American art form. 

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