Excursion in the music style of composer and jazz singer Sabina Vartanova

Jazz – a form of music art, appeared at the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century in the USA in the result of synthesis of the African and European cultures and universally spread later. Jazz is characterized with such features of the music language as improvisation, polyrhythm, based on syncopated rhythms and a unique complex of performing ways of the rhythmic pattern – swing. A jazz group or vocalist usually performs it. The later jazz development took place due to mastering the new rhythmic and harmonic models by jazz musicians and composers.

Soul – the most emotionally-felt, soulful trend of the popular music of the USA’s black citizens (rhythm and blues), formed in the southern states of the USA at the end of 1950s, influenced by improvisation traditions of jazz vocalists and spirituals.

Smooth jazz – a kind of jazz, appeared in the USA in 1960-1970s, significantly influenced by such music trends as rhythm and blues, funk, rock and pop. Sometimes it is translated as light jazz.

The modern trend of smooth jazz — an older, sensual jazz music, meant for the radio broadcasting format.

Smooth jazz is distinguished first of all by an intently emphasized smooth sound.

Improvisation is also significantly excluded from the music genre. Enriched with sounds of many keyboards together with rhythmic samples of the sound style, it is characterized by smooth sound. It also distinguishes the smooth jazz from other more alive performances, alive music and jazz. Smooth jazz has possibly been the most commercially viable form of jazz music since the swing period. This modern jazz trend is represented by the most numerous army of jazz groups and singers: Michael Franks, Chris Botti, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Larry Carlton, Stanley Clarke, Bob James, Al Jarreau, jazz singer Sabina Vartanova, Diana Krall, Bradley Leighton, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Jeff Lorber, Chuck Loeb and many others.

Lounge (from the English “lounge music”) – a term in the popular music to name light, background music, which initially often sounded in lounges of hotels, stores, as background in clubs, cafes, elevators, before the beginning of club, jazz concerts. As distinguished from a more general term of light music, lounge is characterized with larger jazz influence, chamber style and improvisation. Despite the fact that there is a specially recorded music for such purposes, the lounge term covers a wide range of different genres performers: from jazz and bossa nova to electronica.

Rhythm-n-blues (as well as rhythm and blues) (shortly R&B, shall not be mixed with so called “R’n’B”) – a popular music genre, initially performed by Negro musicians, in which a combination of blues, jazz and gospel was integrated. Together with racial segregation weakening in the USA the rhythm and blues term moved towards naming a wide range of soul and funk music, performed by musicians of all the races and nationalities.

Now it is accepted to distinguish modern so called “R’n’B” from (classic) rhythm and blues. Modern R’n’B is understood as a music trend, originated from symbiosis of blues, soul and other “racial” genres. And it is accepted to consider rhythm and blues as a music on a strongly marked blues basis.

Funk – one of the underlying trends of the Afro-American music. Funk appeared in the middle of 1960s in the USA as a modified extra heavy soul. The term marks a music trend, which together with soul forms rhythm and blues.

The funk word – slang, it means to dance in such a way to strongly sweat, later it was assigned to the music style, which is considered the most dancing in all rhythm-blues: extreme syncopation of parties of all instruments, pulsating rhythm, crying vocal, numerous repetition of short melodic phrases. The style founders are James Brown, George Clinton and Sly Stone.