Sidney Bechet

Thall is a hyper-percussive, ultra–low-tuned offshoot of djent and progressive metal popularized by Sweden’s Vildhjarta. The style emphasizes tightly gated, staccato down‑picking; dissonant chord voicings; and lurching, polymetric grooves that drop into sudden rests and accents. Characteristic techniques include rapid release bends, stark contrasts between pitch‑shifted highs and subterranean lows, and the use of lush, reverb‑heavy ambient interludes to heighten tension and reset the ear before the next rhythmic assault. The result is a sound that feels both mechanical and cinematic—aggressive yet spacious.

New Orleans R&B is a piano-driven, horn-rich strain of rhythm and blues that emerged in the late 1940s and flourished through the 1950s. It blends blues harmony with the lilt of Caribbean rhythms, the swing of jazz, and gospel’s vocal inflections, creating an irresistibly rolling groove. The style is marked by triplet-based piano patterns, parade-inspired backbeats, syncopated horn riffs, and relaxed yet danceable shuffles. Its sound was defined by the city’s storied studio scene (notably Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio), visionary bandleaders and producers like Dave Bartholomew and Allen Toussaint, and charismatic singer-pianists such as Fats Domino and Professor Longhair. Lyrically, New Orleans R&B favors good-time party themes, romance, and streetwise vignettes. Its warm, unhurried feel and rhythmic cross-pollination would prove foundational to rock and roll, soul, funk, ska, and swamp pop.

Swing is a jazz style centered on a buoyant, danceable groove created by a walking bass, four-to-the-bar rhythm guitar, a backbeat emphasis on 2 and 4, and a lilted “swung” eighth-note feel. Typically performed by big bands (saxes, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section) as well as small combos, it balances written arrangements with improvised solos. Hallmarks include call-and-response between horn sections, riff-based melodies, shout choruses that build intensity near the end of an arrangement, and rich sectional voicings grounded in blues language and ii–V–I harmonic motion. Tempos range from medium to brisk, serving social dances like the Lindy Hop and Jitterbug. Swing’s expressive phrasing, dance-floor focus, and sophisticated arranging made it the dominant popular music of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Dixieland is one of the earliest forms of jazz, crystallizing in New Orleans in the 1910s and spreading to Chicago and New York in the 1920s. It is characterized by collective improvisation, where the front line—trumpet or cornet carrying the melody, clarinet weaving countermelodies, and trombone providing "tailgate" harmonies and slides—creates a lively polyphonic texture over a buoyant two-beat feel. Its rhythm section often features banjo or piano, tuba or string bass, and drums playing parade-derived press rolls and stop-time figures. Harmonically it draws on functional tonality (I–IV–V with frequent secondary dominants), and structurally it favors 12-bar blues, 16-bar strains from ragtime, and 32-bar AABA song forms. Repertoire includes marches, blues, spirituals, popular songs, and Creole dances, rendered with a brassy, celebratory sound that evokes the New Orleans brass band tradition.

Jazz is an improvisation-centered music tradition that emerged from African American communities in the early 20th century. It blends blues feeling, ragtime syncopation, European harmonic practice, and brass band instrumentation into a flexible, conversational art. Defining features include swing rhythm (a triplet-based pulse), call-and-response phrasing, blue notes, and extended harmonies built on 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. Jazz is as much a way of making music—spontaneous interaction, variation, and personal sound—as it is a set of forms and tunes. Across its history, jazz has continually hybridized, from New Orleans ensembles and big-band swing to bebop, cool and hard bop, modal and free jazz, fusion, and contemporary cross-genre experiments. Its influence permeates global popular and art music.

Ragtime is an African American–rooted piano style that flourished from the 1890s to the 1910s, characterized by lively syncopation in the right hand against a steady, march-like “oom‑pah” accompaniment in the left hand. Typically written in 2/4 or 4/4 time and notated with straight (unswung) eighth notes, classic rags unfold in multiple 16‑bar strains, often in the form AABBACCDD. The music draws on cakewalk rhythms, marching-band forms, and popular song, and it became a sensation through sheet music, piano rolls, and parlor performance. Scott Joplin, known as the “King of Ragtime,” helped codify the genre’s refined, compositional approach, calling for moderate tempos and a clear, singing melody. Beyond solo piano, ragtime was arranged for small ensembles and orchestras, found a home in vaudeville and dance halls, and laid essential groundwork for early jazz, stride piano, and much of 20th‑century American popular music.