progressive jazz

American  

noun

1. an experimental, nonmelodic, and often free-flowing style of modern jazz, especially in the form of highly dissonant, rhythmically complex orchestral arrangements.

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Etymology

Origin of progressive jazz

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Thundercat, born Stephen Bruner, grew up in L.A. immersed in the city’s progressive jazz scene, playing with everyone from Kendrick Lamar to Suicidal Tendencies.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 30, 2026

An accomplished player in the world of Carnatic music, a style of South Indian classical, Rajagopalan was invited to join the revived ‘70s band featuring progressive jazz guitar great John McLaughlin. “

From Seattle Times • Feb. 4, 2024

Indeed, there was a timeless quality to his show: It was contemporary and progressive jazz from its outset, but that outset was also an arrangement of the Cole Porter standard “So in Love.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 22, 2022

Mr. Marsalis performed and recorded throughout the 1960s and ’70s with a variety of modern and progressive jazz musicians, including the drummer Ed Blackwell and the eminent horn-playing brothers Cannonball and Nat Adderley.

From New York Times • Apr. 1, 2020

The quaint atonalities of progressive jazz and the childishly frantic rhythms of "cool sounds" were somehow soothing and reassuring in their reminder of a simple heritage from a simpler age.

From This Crowded Earth by Bloch, Robert