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.Also called progressive jazz.Compare bop1, cool jazz, hard bop.
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
