Celtic Jazz
The English word Jazz is actually derived from the Irish Gaelic T'chass, which means "fiery and full of life". The word first entered the English language as slang and was used to describe anyone who was giving a passionate performance, primarily athletes at first. It was only later that the spelling was standardized as Jazz and it became associated with a specific musical Genre.
The music we call Jazz today originated in African American communities and evolved out of American Roots music and the Blues and often included instruments like Fiddle and Mandolin that are now more commonly associated with Folk or Roots music. Modern acts such as Clannad, Nightnoise, Melanie O'Reilly, and Raggle Taggle or Roland Becker (in the eighties) combine Celtic music with jazz. The jazz can range from the big band swing style to the smooth jazz style.
Read more about this topic: Celtic Fusion
Famous quotes containing the words celtic and/or jazz:
“I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, a plant, an inanimate object, indeed lost to us until the day, which for some never arrives, when we find that we pass near the tree, or come to possess the object which is their prison. Then they quiver, call us, and as soon as we have recognized them, the spell is broken. Freed by us, they have vanquished death and return to live with us.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.”
—André Previn (b. 1929)