Throughout high school, I have had the fortune to learn about a wide range of music. Though I started off classical, I have been exposed to bluegrass, jazz, marching, pep, rock, and many other bands. However, the two that have stuck with me the most were jazz and bluegrass. Though the genres seem completely unrelated, and definitely attract different demographics, I think it is interesting to explore the similarities of these apparently disparate genres. They have quite a lot more in common than one might expect.
Jazz is the much older form of music, originating in the early 1900’s. The original jazz bands and musicians developed in New Orleans, and were a confluence of musical ideas from ragtime, brass bands, and the blues. The music form was primarily influenced by black musicians, and developed gradually as ragtime piano gained more improvisation and was played in bigger groups. Additionally, jazz has taken on many different forms throughout the years, changing from trad jazz to swing to bebop to fusion, many different styles which sound completely different.
Bluegrass, on the other hand, has maintained a very distinctive sound. This may be due to the fact that it developed somewhat more recently, in the 1930’s and 1940’s. It also could be because the origin of bluegrass can be attributed to one specific band and playing style, namely Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Bill Monroe actually described bluegrass as “blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound,” according to Discography of American Historical Recordings. While we in the modern day may perceive bluegrass as a set, distinctive sound and debate what music or instruments fit in the genre, the origins of the genre were much more flexible. Monroe was really just inspired by other musical influences at the time, including jazz, gospel, and old-time music. He developed his instrumentation based on what sounded the best. In reality, the seemingly huge difference between bluegrass and jazz music only exists because of decades of public perception. In reality, all the instruments used in bluegrass bands have been played in jazz bands.
Musically, bluegrass and jazz share a surprising number of similarities. Both are heavily focused on improvised soloing, with the band taking turns letting members perform their own renditions of the main melody. Both are very aural in nature, with songs being passed along and learned by ear. Historically, both originated in the American south, and were inspired heavily by African American genres like blues and gospel music. As Tom Daniel of the Abbeville Institute puts it, both are very virtuosic. The music is hard, blazing fast, and performed mostly to impress other musicians, unlike genres such as country or pop where the music is mostly intended to engage the audience. As he puts it, there is more of a connection, and more communication, between the band members than with the audience. I think this is what is most attractive to me about both genres. There is a strong sense of community within the performers, listening to each others’ solos and trying to elevate their performance to the highest skill possible, regardless of what others want to listen to. This, in my opinion, allows for a lot more expression and exploration during solos than in other genres. Musicians can try something weird that others might not like, but it doesn’t matter because they’re performing for themselves and their fellow musicians, not for anyone else.
Bluegrass, Banjos, and Banter 