Contemporary Jazz

Contemporary jazz denotes the main current of jazz practice from roughly the turn of the twenty-first century onward: acoustic and electric groups working with improvisation at the center while absorbing hip hop, electronic music, indie rock and global traditions. Artists such as *Kamasi Washington*, *Makaya McCraven* and *Robert Glasper* combine extended composition, odd meters and modal harmony with beats and studio techniques borrowed from popular music, and regional scenes from London to Chicago to South Africa have given the music a markedly international character. The term functions as a period and practice label rather than a single fixed style.