BanginBülows

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.

Nordic music is an umbrella term for the musical traditions and contemporary scenes of the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and associated territories). It encompasses folk traditions, national-classical idioms, jazz, pop, rock, metal, and electronic styles that share a characteristic attention to timbre, spaciousness, and nature-inflected imagery. Across its many substyles, Nordic music often favors modal melodies, open textures, and a balance of austerity and lyricism. From joik and polska dance forms to national romantic orchestral writing, from ECM-influenced jazz atmospheres to chart-dominant Scandinavian pop, the spectrum blends deep-rooted folk practices with innovative production and global-facing songwriting.