Ska, and a Generalization on Jazz

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   I've been a big fan of jazz for quite a while; been a jazz drummer in jazz bands for 5 years now. I'm curious as to the derivatives of jazz, and how they fit into the jazz spectrum. I'll likely add a few more genres to my list of inquiries in the future, but for now, let's discuss ska.
First of all, one of my chief interests in jazz comes from the level of academic, experimental, and artful qualities it posses. I am an avid fan of progressive bands (experimental, avant-garde, art, post-nonsense, math), and generally, I tend to rank anything jazz up there with these 'superior' genres (they are not actually superior, I just happen to enjoy them on a level above simply liking how they sound).

So, my question is twofold:

1.) What do you think of the 'superiority' of jazz as I have described it? Agree? Disagree? Mixed? and

2.) What place does ska have as a direct link from jazz, and does it share the 'superior' status I grant jazz? Personally, I believe its status as an amalgamation of  jazz and Caribbean music gives it an advantage over jazz in the area of experimentation, and most bands I listen to from ska take advantage of this: utilizing large bands to create a varied, progressive, artful experience that takes a lot from jazz. But what do you think?

Artists I recommend as proponents of my argument and important bands in general are RX Bandits, Streetlight Manifesto, The Specials, Eastern Standard Time, St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, JazzBo, and Jazz Jamaica All Stars.

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CoolJimmi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Newbie Joined: 12 Feb 2013 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote CoolJimmi Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Ska, and a Generalization on Jazz Posted: 12 Feb 2013 at 6:54pm
	I've been a big fan of jazz for quite a while; been a jazz drummer in jazz bands for 5 years now. I'm curious as to the derivatives of jazz, and how they fit into the jazz spectrum. I'll likely add a few more genres to my list of inquiries in the future, but for now, let's discuss ska. First of all, one of my chief interests in jazz comes from the level of academic, experimental, and artful qualities it posses. I am an avid fan of progressive bands (experimental, avant-garde, art, post-nonsense, math), and generally, I tend to rank anything jazz up there with these 'superior' genres (they are not actually superior, I just happen to enjoy them on a level above simply liking how they sound). So, my question is twofold: 1.) What do you think of the 'superiority' of jazz as I have described it? Agree? Disagree? Mixed? and 2.) What place does ska have as a direct link from jazz, and does it share the 'superior' status I grant jazz? Personally, I believe its status as an amalgamation of jazz and Caribbean music gives it an advantage over jazz in the area of experimentation, and most bands I listen to from ska take advantage of this: utilizing large bands to create a varied, progressive, artful experience that takes a lot from jazz. But what do you think? Artists I recommend as proponents of my argument and important bands in general are RX Bandits, Streetlight Manifesto, The Specials, Eastern Standard Time, St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, JazzBo, and Jazz Jamaica All Stars.

js Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Forum Admin Group Site admin Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Location: Memphis Status: Offline Points: 35161	Post Options Post Reply Quote js Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Feb 2013 at 7:49pm
	Hey there and welcome to the site. The roots of ska come from Jamaican jazz musicians. The Skatalites were basically a jazz/RnB band playing to ska rhythms. We have the Skatalites in our Dub Fusion section, as well as a few more bands like them. As far as later ska bands that used more pop elements (Specials, English Beat etc) I'm a fan of those bands and we may add them later, but we have so many full jazz artists to add right now, I can't see giving them priority until we have covered more pure jazz acts. If you know of one or two very jazzy ska bands that you would like to suggest for the site, just check out the suggest new bands thread, but please, don't drop off a big long list, we are still adding lots of jazz bands every day.

CoolJimmi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Newbie Joined: 12 Feb 2013 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote CoolJimmi Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Feb 2013 at 11:17pm
	Thank you very much. And yes, I do know of a number of very jazzy ska bands that are essentially jazz bands that utilize the rhythms and occasional stylings of ska. Perhaps I shall suggest a few of them soon.

davidrydelnik Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Forum Newbie Joined: 09 Jul 2013 Location: NY Status: Offline Points: 11	Post Options Post Reply Quote davidrydelnik Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jul 2013 at 2:23am
	I used to be really big into ska as a teen. In fact i was obsessed with it for a few years. There are a lot of good bands out there, and i love seeing a good ska show every now and then. Recently I saw one about 5 months ago. But only one band had improvisation as a part of the show (Reel Big Fish). The other bands didn't have improvisors. So I suppose if you want to put it in jazz terms, most if not all jazz has at least some improvisation, even in the big bands where everything is mostly arranged. But I am kind of a jazz snob so to answer the jazz "superiority" question, my only response (to not sound arrogant) is that in my opinion, if you can learn to master jazz, you can pretty much master the music of any genre since jazz has so many elements in it, from simple to very exotic.
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