modern jazz

American  

noun

1. any of various styles of jazz that have evolved since the early 1940s and are marked generally by harmonic and rhythmic complexity, emphasis on chord progressions rather than melody, a tendency to draw on classical forms and styles, and eclectic, allusive melodic tags in improvisation.

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modern jazz British  

noun

1. any of the styles of jazz that evolved between the early 1940s and the later emergence of avant-garde jazz, characterized by a greater harmonic and rhythmic complexity than hitherto

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Etymology

Origin of modern jazz

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

Through a career spanning more than 60 years, Mr. Lloyd has created as buoyant and searching a body of music as modern jazz knows.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 11, 2025

US jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette, a major figure in modern jazz who collaborated with Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett, has died at 83, his management said on Monday.

From Barron's • Oct. 27, 2025

Monk once famously asserted that there were no wrong notes on the piano, a statement that was, by extension, a defense of his considerable body of compositions — now an essential lexicon for modern jazz.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2023

Another Wabeeri member to find fame was Maryam Mursal, one of the first Somali singers to mix traditional music with modern jazz, who appeared with US legend Nina Simone.

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2023

This frantic, somersaulting style turned within a few years into bebop, the elite modern jazz of the late 1940s and ’50s.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall