Jazz influence?

Authors

  • Álvaro Menanteau Aravena Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Chile

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between North American jazz and some of the popular Latin American music. To this end, the concept of harmony in jazz is explored, challenging the existence of a, ‘jazz harmony’ that would alone define the influence of this genre on other Latin American repertoires. It is proposed that, in terms of the development of its harmony, we experience jazz uncritically as a ‘jazz influence’ on other musical genres. Beyond any ideologies underlying this problem, the author borrows from the field of linguistics to explain the motivation of this criterion of causality.

Keywords:

Jazz, harmony, Latin America, popular music, hegemony