By Racheli Jian, Senior Arts and Culture Editor and Layout Editor
Jazz. The word usually provokes an image of legends like Louis Armstrong or Ella Fitzgerald. For others, maybe a cozy jazz club with a deep saxophone playing in the back. However, in the past few years, jazz has synthesized older themes and tones with new trends, and as a result, the face of jazz has changed dramatically since the classics.
Jazz music was born in the early 20th century in New Orleans. Combining blues and ragtime genres from the 1800s, it was a celebration of the different African American cultures that came together in the South. Blues and ragtime themselves were a blend of different African styles of music with the Civil War-era brass instruments of the American South, which ultimately provided a foundation for jazz music to come about. Since the beginning, jazz has long developed and changed into the music we listen to today.
One of the main artists who leads the new age of jazz is Laufey, a 25-year-old Icelandic-Chinese singer who incorporates classic jazz themes with modern twists into her music. As the most-streamed jazz artist on Spotify, she says her goal is to bring jazz and classical music to her generation.
Some would argue she is succeeding in doing so. Her song “Valentine,” a smooth jazz ballad, went viral on Tiktok in 2022 and “From The Start,” her bossa nova-inspired hit, surpassed 80 million streams in 2023. Despite her young audience, Laufey doesn’t shy away from her jazz roots. Laufey’s cover of “I Wish You Love,” a typical jazz standard originally by Charles Trenet, is featured on her EP, Typical of Me. Even though Laufey’s music is mostly jazz-infused, she won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her album Bewitched, which incorporates a seamless blend of pop and jazz.
Even though there aren’t many artists like Laufey who fully embrace the jazz genre in their music, there are many mainstream artists who incorporate elements of jazz in their songs. For example, Billie Eilish’s album, Happier Than Ever, explicitly references the genre with her song “Billie Bossa Nova.” The conversational vocals and samba-like beat along with the modern electronic high-hats synthesizes Billie’s usual pop songs with the Brazilian jazz style.
Another artist who incorporates elements of jazz into her discography is Beabadoobee. The British-Filipino singer is known for her 2020 single “death bed (coffee for your head)” which got over a billion streams. She also released “a night to remember,” a collaboration with Laufey that features smooth jazz motifs. However, Beabadoobee also uses jazz in her solo music, such as “the perfect pair.” While the song is not a classic jazz song, it uses a bossa nova guitar style along with a relaxed tempo, elegantly merging the feeling of jazz with her own R&B vocals.
Jazz is a cornerstone of music. One of the foundational genres which inspired Rock, R&B and Funk, it is present in so many of the songs we listen to. Despite its old history, it is not stuck in the past. One of the main characteristics of jazz is improvisation and unpredictability. These aren’t just present in the chords, but in the development of the genre as well.
Jazz is ready to be molded and changed for the new audience. All we have to do is sit and listen.