FORM A_STORY 11 | QuestionPro

There are sundry definitions of jazz, all of them vague. Their vagueness seems imperative, however, if they are to accommodate the custom of jazz to appro¬priate everything in sight. This receptivity to sources derives from a dominant feature of jazz: improvisation. The emphasis on improvising entails an openness to the entire legacy of diverse musical elements. Although formulating the con¬tent of jazz is not feasible, there is little difficulty in pinpointing the group that spawns the music. Jazz musicians have always constituted a subculture of music, a cultish but scarcely organized body of instrumentalists who rarely manage to eke out a livelihood from their music. Until recently they have been unschooled in their chosen music, except as they have imitated recordings of other musicians. Never accepted by academics, only partially accepted by the public, jazz musicians comprise a closed community in which innovation and experimentation are more valued than tradition.