Ska, and a Generalization on Jazz

   I've been a big fan of jazz for quite a while; been a jazz drummer in jazz bands for 5 years now. I'm curious as to the derivatives of jazz, and how they fit into the jazz spectrum. I'll likely add a few more genres to my list of inquiries in the future, but for now, let's discuss ska.
First of all, one of my chief interests in jazz comes from the level of academic, experimental, and artful qualities it posses. I am an avid fan of progressive bands (experimental, avant-garde, art, post-nonsense, math), and generally, I tend to rank anything jazz up there with these 'superior' genres (they are not actually superior, I just happen to enjoy them on a level above simply liking how they sound).

So, my question is twofold:

1.) What do you think of the 'superiority' of jazz as I have described it? Agree? Disagree? Mixed? and

2.) What place does ska have as a direct link from jazz, and does it share the 'superior' status I grant jazz? Personally, I believe its status as an amalgamation of  jazz and Caribbean music gives it an advantage over jazz in the area of experimentation, and most bands I listen to from ska take advantage of this: utilizing large bands to create a varied, progressive, artful experience that takes a lot from jazz. But what do you think?

Artists I recommend as proponents of my argument and important bands in general are RX Bandits, Streetlight Manifesto, The Specials, Eastern Standard Time, St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, JazzBo, and Jazz Jamaica All Stars.

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CoolJimmi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Newbie Joined: 12 Feb 2013 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote CoolJimmi Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Ska, and a Generalization on Jazz Posted: 12 Feb 2013 at 6:54pm
	I've been a big fan of jazz for quite a while; been a jazz drummer in jazz bands for 5 years now. I'm curious as to the derivatives of jazz, and how they fit into the jazz spectrum. I'll likely add a few more genres to my list of inquiries in the future, but for now, let's discuss ska. First of all, one of my chief interests in jazz comes from the level of academic, experimental, and artful qualities it posses. I am an avid fan of progressive bands (experimental, avant-garde, art, post-nonsense, math), and generally, I tend to rank anything jazz up there with these 'superior' genres (they are not actually superior, I just happen to enjoy them on a level above simply liking how they sound). So, my question is twofold: 1.) What do you think of the 'superiority' of jazz as I have described it? Agree? Disagree? Mixed? and 2.) What place does ska have as a direct link from jazz, and does it share the 'superior' status I grant jazz? Personally, I believe its status as an amalgamation of jazz and Caribbean music gives it an advantage over jazz in the area of experimentation, and most bands I listen to from ska take advantage of this: utilizing large bands to create a varied, progressive, artful experience that takes a lot from jazz. But what do you think? Artists I recommend as proponents of my argument and important bands in general are RX Bandits, Streetlight Manifesto, The Specials, Eastern Standard Time, St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, JazzBo, and Jazz Jamaica All Stars.

js Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Forum Admin Group Site admin Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Location: Memphis Online Status: Offline Posts: 8946	Post Options Post Reply Quote js Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 12 Feb 2013 at 7:49pm
	Hey there and welcome to the site. The roots of ska come from Jamaican jazz musicians. The Skatalites were basically a jazz/RnB band playing to ska rhythms. We have the Skatalites in our Dub Fusion section, as well as a few more bands like them. As far as later ska bands that used more pop elements (Specials, English Beat etc) I'm a fan of those bands and we may add them later, but we have so many full jazz artists to add right now, I can't see giving them priority until we have covered more pure jazz acts. If you know of one or two very jazzy ska bands that you would like to suggest for the site, just check out the suggest new bands thread, but please, don't drop off a big long list, we are still adding lots of jazz bands every day.

CoolJimmi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Newbie Joined: 12 Feb 2013 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote CoolJimmi Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 12 Feb 2013 at 11:17pm
	Thank you very much. And yes, I do know of a number of very jazzy ska bands that are essentially jazz bands that utilize the rhythms and occasional stylings of ska. Perhaps I shall suggest a few of them soon.