Brazilian Jazz

Today we can certainly speak of a Brazilian jazz, with initial capital letters. Note its existence is no problem. Now define it is something much more difficult.
One possible way of defining what is meant by "Brazilian jazz" would say he is simply the North American jazz, from New Orleans and Dixieland to Hardbop, practiced by Brazilian musicians. Brazil because it would be played with "accent" Brazilian. This definition would not be as wrong, however, leaves a lot out.

Another way would be to say that the Brazilian jazz equivalent to 'Brazilian contemporary instrumental music', practiced mainly by instrumental groups concentrated on the axis São Paulo - Rio de Janeiro - Minas Gerais from the 70s. Another way would be to define the Brazilian jazz as an improvised music using a syntax jazzística but with Brazilian rhythms and inflection, which would, in practice, a fusion between jazz and contemporary Brazilian instrumental music.
But at this point one could observe, with justice, that should be taking into account also the chorinho insofar as this is the musical genre that plays within the Brazilian musical culture the role similar to jazz in the North American culture.

And so on: each attempt to define it is not false but incomplete, too restrictive. One thing is certain: what we perceive as Brazilian jazz can not be reduced to just one of those aesthetic lines. It seems unlikely that it can be defined as some type of "combination" of these genres in certain relative proportions.
So when we talk about jazz Brazilian, we are not talking about a style defined and closed, but plural and mutable. Probably one reason for the difficulty in defining it is the extraordinary richness of rhythmic Brazilian matrix.The Brazilian territory pulsates from north to south in a myriad of different rhythms.

To mention only some, not necessarily in order of importance: the frevo the maracatu, the gherkin, the xote the Baiao, the coconut, the hammer, the piston, the fashion, the samba, the bossa nova, the Seresta the ranchers, the Wonder Dog. In other words, we could say that we have only one swing, we have many.
Since the Brazilian jazz is at the crossroads of multiple influences, it follows that we can seek its origins also in various directions. We seek these origins dating back to the old and Pixinguinha chorões. Or you can return to the orchestras of balls at the time of the Second War. Or we can confine ourselves to retreat to a more recent times, the emergence of the bossa nova, which, although not exclusively instrumental, put a new harmonic language that would be absorbed by many musicians. We can also, finally, in the report and innovative groups with a more modern language, as the Quartet New.

Perhaps the solution is not a defining stylistic closed, but the existence of a certain factor, a "Brazilian", for whose characterization be necessary to have the services, not a musicologist, but an anthropologist or sociologist. Finally, with regard to the characterization of a Brazilian jazz, as you can see that this is a difficult task, more difficult than any of the styles characterized "canonical" of North American jazz.
80's of the twentieth century here, witnessed a considerable recovery of Brazilian jazz, but the emphasis by the media to those artists are still short of that would be desirable. But has grown in the public and the press the perception that the Brazilian musicians were and are able to create a song out, coherent, technically well done, which certainly can match the best of what the North American jazz has produced.
by Bezerra VA
http://www.ejazz.com.br/