"It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." Duke Ellington wrote that song as an homage to jazz. Singer and bandleader Cab Calloway popularized the uptempo tune. And though critics and historians have since expended thousands of words attempting to define jazz, Cab said most of it in just 11 words. After all the searching there are still a handful of elements musicians and experts commonly accept as defining characteristics of jazz.
THREE KEY ELEMENTS
Although listeners may not agree on which music and musicians qualify as jazz, as a basic level, one should be able to identify jazz by a few distinguishing traits.
Swing and syncopation
the rhythmic momentum that makes you want to dance or snap your fingers to a good jazz tune is called swing. Part of what makes jazz swing is the use of syncopation.
When jazz really swings, the beat bombards you, even if the players emphasize the beat by playing right with it some moments, or just before or after it at other times. This technique of placing accents or emphasis in surprising places, is called syncopation.
To get a better understanding of what is being explained, think of classical music. Classical music is primarily written music - musicians rely on sheet music which shows them phrasing, where the beats fall, and what notes to play. Jazz on the other hand, is felt. Sure, lots of jazz standards (songs that are known and played by many musicians) are available as sheet music, but usually only in at outline form showing the basic changes (chord structure) of the song and a simple melody. The swing feel and syncopation can't be captured in musical notation, only in live jazz, where players either have rhythmic stuff, or they don't.
To hear what syncopation sounds like, take a common schoolyard song, for example "Jingle Bells." Sing it the first line the usual way, just like you learned it:
The "GLE" on the third "jingle" gets special emphasis (at least that's the way many learn it!)
Now sing it a few times and change some accents like this:
Make up your own interpretations. Try it with other songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." That's the basic idea behind syncopation. And when you get a few players bouncing these kinds of ideas back and forth, some of them hitting one beat harder, others hitting a different beat harder, one begins to get the magic of great jazz.
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