The
rhythm section consists of the
percussion,
double bass or
bass guitar, and usually at least one instrument capable of playing
chords, such as a
piano,
guitar,
Hammond organ or
vibraphone; most will usually have more than one of these. The standard rhythm section is piano, bass, and drums. The
horn section consists of a woodwind section and a
brass section, which play the
melody. The earliest use of the banjo in a jazz band was by
Frank Duson in 1917, however
Laurence Marrero claims it became popular in 1915. There are three common types of banjo, the
plectrum banjo,
tenor banjo, and
cello banjo. Over time, the four-stringed tenor banjo became the most common banjo used in jazz.
Drums Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion, usually the
drum set, in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era
jazz-rock fusion and 1980s-era
Latin jazz. Stylistically, this aspect of performance was shaped by its starting place, New Orleans, as well as numerous other regions of the world, including other parts of the
United States, the
Caribbean, and
Africa. Jazz required a method of playing percussion different from traditional
European styles, one that was easily adaptable to the different rhythms of the new genre, fostering the creation of jazz drumming's hybrid technique.
Woodwind section Clarinet The clarinet is a woodwind instrument with a
single-reed mouthpiece. A clarinet player is known as a clarinetist. Originally, the clarinet was a central instrument in jazz, beginning with the New Orleans players in the 1910s. It remained a signature instrument of jazz through much of the
big band era into the 1940s.
Larry Shields was the clarinetist for the
Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz band to record commercially in 1917. The American players
Ted Lewis and
Jimmie Noone were pioneers of the instrument in jazz bands. The B soprano clarinet was the most common instrument, but a few early jazz musicians such as
Alcide Nunez preferred the C soprano clarinet, and many New Orleans jazz brass bands have used an E soprano clarinet. With the decline of the big bands' popularity in the late 1940s, the clarinet faded from its prominent position in jazz and the saxophone rose in importance in many jazz bands, probably because it uses a less complicated fingering system. But the clarinet did not entirely disappear. In the late 50s, traditional jazz experienced a revival, with the notable example of clarinetist
Acker Bilk's Bristol Paramount Jazz Band. Some of the works of Bilk's jazz band reached the pop charts.
Saxophone section In the saxophone section, all of the saxophones will play a similar melodic line, but the
baritone sax doubles by occasionally joining in with the
bass trombone and
bass to play the bass line. A big band saxophone section typically consists of two
alto saxophones, two
tenor saxophones, and one baritone saxophone.
String section Violin Jazz violin is the use of the violin or
electric violin to improvise solo lines. Although the violin has been used in jazz recordings since the first decades of the 20th century, it is more commonly associated with folk music than jazz. Jazz musician
Milt Hinton claimed that the decline in violin players coincided with the introduction of
sound movies, as many violin players were used as accompaniment for
silent films.
Vocalists The definition of a jazz vocalist can be unclear because jazz has shared a great deal with
blues and
pop music since the 1920s. In their book
Essential Jazz, Henry Martin and Keith Waters identify five main characteristics that identify jazz singing, three of which are: "Loose
phrasing [...], use of
blue notes [...], [and] free melodic embellishment." Often the human voice can act in place of a brass section in playing melodies, both written and improvised. ==Repertoire==