Jazz is an American art form whose roots go back to the songs and chants of the slaves of the mid-19th century. In the early 20th century, the art form flourished as instrumental music in the southern United States, primarily along the Mississippi River and specifically in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Early New Orleans instrumental jazz combos varied in instrumentation. More often than not, these early jazz groups generally consisted of trumpet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, and drums. This instrumentation developed into what is known as the “dixieland” combo, making its way up the Mississippi River to Chicago, where jazz greats like Louis Armstrong popularized the music.
Dixieland combos can be thought of as groups that play “polyphonic” improvisational music. Each instrument is independent of every other instrument, with each player creating separate musical improvisations based on known tunes or “tunes” of the day.
Each of the musicians in these early jazz combos had a separate role within the group. The trumpeter was relied on to deliver the song’s melody, while the clarinet player improvised complex lines over him. The trombonists’ role was to improvise or “fill in” the middle register with lines and notes that were essential to the chord changes of the song itself. The tuba (or bass player) usually set the root (and fifth) notes of each chord on beats 1 and 3 of each bar. The tuba served as the harmonic anchor for the group. Lastly, it was the role of the drummers to keep everyone together by keeping a steady beat throughout the song.
As jazz music developed during the 1940s and 1950s, the instrumentation of jazz combos began to become standardized. The jazz “quintet” and “sextet” became very popular during this time. The quintet consisted of trumpet and alto (or tenor) sax as main melodic instruments while the rhythm section (piano, bass and drums) dealt with rhythm and harmony.
The sextet added a trombone to form what was essentially a three-horn front line, complete with rhythm section accompaniment. The sextet’s additional melodic instrumentation made it possible for the horns to add more harmonic depth to the group’s sound. Each instrument had a role not only as a melodic voice, but also as an integral component of the harmonic structure.
Modern jazz combos consist of a variety of instrumentation: 4, 5 trumpet combos are common. However, as the group grows in size, the name “combo” is replaced with “band” or “little big band”.
The jazz combo has provided a musical and creative outlet for countless musicians over the past 100 years. The jazz combo continues to provide jazz musicians with the opportunity to work together to make music not only as a group, but also to develop their own voice as individual jazz improvisers. It is, and probably always will be, the perfect vehicle for learning the art of jazz improvisation.