Music opinion: Women are making jazz cool again
Jazz originated within African-american communities in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th century.
It became popular globally during the prohibition era in the 1920s and was the main genre until the 1940s and 1950s when Bebop rose in prominence.
Popular jazz artists include Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and John Coltrane – an era that was defined mostly by the male artists of the time.
The 1950s and 1960s solidified that jazz was no longer a main genre, instead being replaced by Rock & roll.
In recent years, jazz has had a resurgence, with female artists at the forefront, writes Music News Blitz’s Darshan Kaur Gill.
Laufey
Laufey is an Icelandic singer-songwriter who combines bossa nova rhythms with classical jazz and pop lyrics.
She released her debut single, Street by Street, in 2020 which reached number one on Icelandic radio charts, launching her career.
The song is considered modern jazz or jazz-pop, described as featuring slow-burning R&B grooves and a blend of jazz melodies to create her signature sound.
Like many musicians, Laufey’s music doesn’t fit into one singular genre, mixing jazz rhythms, pop lyrics and R&B vocals – reinventing jazz as a sound that can be embedded within other genres.
Olivia Dean
Olivia Dean is a British singer-songwriter who blends soul, R&B, pop and jazz to create a new genre of music, of which she’s leading the charge.
She’s a leading figure in a new wave of artists helping to bring jazz and its influences back into the mainstream.
Although her music is rooted in pop and soul rather than traditional jazz, Dean uses stylistic choices common in jazz, using jazz aesthetics, such as vocal phrasing and storytelling to define her music.
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RAYE
RAYE is a British singer-songwriter who, similarly to Dean, blends jazz, R&B, pop, and soul, rather than being strictly a jazz artist.
She frequently incorporates jazz elements into her music, highlighting it as a major influence on her songwriting and vocal style, seamlessly shifting between styles and mixing big-band jazz sounds with modern R&B.
Similar to the other women responsible for the resurgence of jazz, RAYE’s music is not defined by one singular genre, with jazz and other genres not being mutually exclusive.
All three of these artists have managed to repackage and sell jazz as something that interests younger generations, with jazz being seen as timeless and feeling like an escape from the structure that modern music follows.
