Composers having jazz influences in music

[scandenavius]

Who are some of the composers having jazz influences in their music???

Here I'll start a list...

1. Kabalevsky
2. Kasputin

Please feel free to add as many composers to this list as you know 

[communist]

Some J.S. Bach.

[retrouvailles]

Kasputin

Surely you mean "Kapustin". How could you forget the most famous example: Gershwin?

[ahinton]

Surely you mean "Kapustin". How could you forget the most famous example: Gershwin?

Perhaps he meant Rapustin. The example of Gershowitz that you mention is not quite as straightforward as it might at first seem; whilst in no wise seeking to undermind him, where would one realistically draw the line between actual jazz and "jazz influence" in his work? The dividing line is surely quite frequently blurred, just as is that between composition and transcription in the works of some of the great transcribers such as Liszt and Godowsky (of whom the latter was of course related to George G).

Best,

Alistair

[retrouvailles]

Perhaps he meant Rapustin.

Highly doubtful, for Rasputin was a mystic, not a composer.

The example of Gershowitz that you mention is not quite as straightforward as it might at first seem; whilst in no wise seeking to undermind him, where would one realistically draw the line between actual jazz and "jazz influence" in his work? The dividing line is surely quite frequently blurred, just as is that between composition and transcription in the works of some of the great transcribers such as Liszt and Godowsky (of whom the latter was of course related to George G).

Point taken.

[richard black]

Mike Mower.

[thalbergmad]

Willie "The Lion" Smith

[ahinton]

Ravel
Milhaud
Bernstein
Seiber
...and there must surely have been many more who at one time or another have composed in a way suggestive of having been affected by jazz. Elliott Carter (who knew Gershwin from the latter 1920s - indeed, at the age of 18 he apparently sat next to him at the US première of Wozzeck in 1927) has said that he enjoyed some of the jazz of the time, but little of its influence appears to have found its way into his music, even the works prior to the 1945-46 piano sonata. Occasional published reviews of recordings and performances of my work have included oblique references to jazz, yet I have not been at all conscious of its influence in the contexts concerned...

[richard black]

and there must surely have been many more who at one time or another have composed in a way suggestive of having been affected by jazz

Surely quite literally hundreds. Ernst Krenek, Ronald Stevenson, Antheil - and more I could name but my wife's just announced dinner.....

[indutrial]

Almost every American composer since 1900...

Antheil
Bolcom
Seigmeister
Henry Martin (actually wrote many books on jazz as well as lots of piano music)
Tansman
Martinu
Auric
Albright

[ahinton]

Surely quite literally hundreds. Ernst Krenek, Ronald Stevenson, Antheil - and more I could name but my wife's just announced dinner.....

Interesting that you mention Krenek - a sadly underestimated composer who first two symphonies and other works all written before he reached the age of 25 deserve to be far better known than they are, even in his (almost!) native Austria; not much of the jazz influence in any of those, however - one has to wind forward abit to (non-Surabaya) Jonny to find that...

Best,

Alistair

[mikey6]

Would Kurt Weil count?
William Grant Still wrote an African American symphony thought that's the only work I know of his.

What's the point of this thread?

[indutrial]

Interesting that you mention Krenek - a sadly underestimated composer who first two symphonies and other works all written before he reached the age of 25 deserve to be far better known than they are

Agreed 100% on this. I've been on-and-off looking through the scores for some of Krenek's early chamber works (the Serenade, op. 4 and the first three string quartets), and I'm very impressed by how acute his technique was for a young composer.

Getting back to jazz-inspired composers, one should make sure they check out the Czech composers Ervin Schulhoff and Jaroslav Jezek. Both were very inspired by jazzy forms like tango, Charleston, rhumba, etc... and wrote considerable amounts for the piano.

[ctrastevere]

I am often surprised at the amount of people who can listen to Rachmaninoff (specifically several moments in the last two piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini) and not notice the subtle yet very real jazz influence in many of his works.