Three Approaches to Defining Jazz

WA E will examine three approaches to defining jazz. None of them is entirely satisfactory, but each has virtues that the others lack. All specify somewhat different, though overlapping, bodies of music that can be called jazz. Too few speakers and far too few authors take the time or thought to explain what they mean by jazz. When they assume that listeners and readers share their frame of reference, endless problems result. The term 'jazz has always been particularly problematic. Even its origins are in dispute, and it has been used in widely disparate ways. This has caused endless controversy, much of which is probably needless. Numerous books on the subject do not even offer a definition of the term.' When a definition has been attempted, the results have often been confusing. Compare, for example, the following definitions that have been offered by various journalists and teachers: