Is there any Instrument that doesn't belong in Jazz?

I would suspect that you can play jazz on just about any instrument, although a giant pipe organ might be difficult to incorporate.

A drunkards hum isn’t jazz, but everything else could end up being a form of jazz.

@Darwin – that made me laugh trying to imagine it. You’re right that one my be difficult.

A harp?

Probably not a harp – check it out.

@Dog Hey!

bagpipes

COOL! I had no idea! Okay- I second Bagpipes!

@jonsblond – But what about Rufus Harley?

@Darwin you’re good!

@Darwin I suppose you can also link us to a xylophone…

And actually, I must discredit my own answer up at the top. There are jazz pipe organs, but not many. From this site :

“Most modern attempts to play jazz on the pipe organ have been almost useless because of the keyboard-to-pipe time delay, which “swallows” most of the notes in any reasonably fast solo (listen to George Gruntz’ “St. Peter Power” on MPS for a woeful example of the almost insurmountable technical problems the musician must face.) I have recently encountered a recording which features Clare Fischer playing a pipe organ specially modified by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer which offers the organist faster sound throughput. This remarkable recording offers probably the only significant continuance of the pipe organ sound usually identified with Fats Waller, and Fischer can be congratulated for not falling into the trap of being content to do nothing more than replaying Waller’s stride solos: Fischer effectively uses post-bop and classical structures on this instrument, which is never allowed to sink into gimmickry.”

Xylophone

Synthesiser

@Darwin I knew it!

@Darwin – interesting bit about the delay!

@hillo – Herbie Hancock would not agree. He is playing the keytar here.

A Cowbell

Nope.

“More cowbell!”

I’ve got a fever

Jazz is just a style of music, defined by the notes played, chords used, rhythms used, etc. Virtually any instrument could be adapted to that style.

BUT that doesn’t mean all instruments will sound equally good doing it. Jazz (in my opinion) tends to sound better with small, tight groups of instruments that blend relatively well. As mentioned, the pipe organ is neither small nor tight. The sound is just too big, though I reserve final judgment until I hear something from the site @Darwin has posted. That sounds interesting—I have to check that out.

Other instruments don’t blend well—bagpipes has already been mentioned. The presence of the drones would sort of mess up any particular type of harmonizing you were trying to do. Sitar wouldn’t be the best fit either, because the unusual harmonic overtones make it difficult to blend. But unusual harmonic overtones is what make saxophone sound like they do, and they’re good jazz instruments, so you never know. Koto is a bit too pure and sparse to be a good jazz instrument (IMO), and I wonder if it’s too slow as well. I’ve watched people play, and it’s slow; I wonder if a koto player would be able to keep up with quick jazz rhythms. Probably a good player would, but the beautiful pure tones are too “nice” for most jazz, in my opinion. And I don’t think the tones of the bassoon make it particularly well suited for jazz, either.

A didgeridoo would probably be a poor fit. As would Ben Franklin’s glass Armonica. And a huge Chinese gong. By the way, there’s a great web site about odd musical instruments here: http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery.

Cowbell?? More cowbell!

No…no more cowbell for me

I’m gonna go with handbells

@Harp They only belong in church ;)

The sitar has been used in jazz:

“The history of the sitar in jazz, that is the fusion of the sounds of Indian Classical music with Western jazz, dates back from the late-1950s or early-1960s when musicians trained in Indian Classical music such as Ravi Shankar started collaborating with jazz musicians such as Tony Scott and Bud Shank. Later jazz recordings containing sitar music include albums by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Joe Harriott (in collaboration with composer John Mayer), and Ornette Coleman.”

And so has the koto. From Wikipedia:

“June Kuramoto, of the jazz fusion group Hiroshima, was one of the first koto performers to popularize the koto in a non-traditional fusion style. Reiko Obata, founder of East West Jazz band, is the first to perform and record an album of jazz standards featuring koto. Obata also produced the first-ever English language koto instructional DVD “You Can Play Koto.”

David Bowie used a koto in the instrumental piece “Moss Garden” on his album “Heroes”. Paul Gilbert, a popular shred guitarist, recorded his wife, Emi playing the koto on his song “Koto Girl” from the album Alligator Farm. Visual Kei band Kagrra, are well known for using traditional Japanese musical instruments in many of their songs, an example being “Utakata” (うたかた), a song in which the koto has a prominent place. Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck composed “Koto Song” that, while not featuring the koto itself, is played to allow the piano to emulate its sound. Winston Tong, singer with Tuxedomoon, uses it on his 15-minute song, “The Hunger” from his debut solo album Theoretically Chinese.

Well-known solo performers outside of Japan include koto master and award-winning recording artist Elizabeth Falconer, who also studied for a decade at the esteemed Sawai Koto School in Tokyo, as well as koto master Linda Kako Caplan, Canadian Daishihan (Grandmaster) and a member of Fukuoka’s Chikushi Koto School for over two decades. David Horvitz pioneered the instrument into the contemporary indie rock scene playing on Xiu Xiu’s new album, The Air Force.”

Even the digeridoo and the glass Armonica have been used in jazz.

How successfully, I don’t know, but you could track down some of these recordings and see what you think.

Basically, if it makes noise, it can be used in jazz.

Jazz is the music of the ages. Seriously.

Seriously, I can’t think of any instruments which can’t be used in jazz. And @Darwin has shown that even the most unexpected instrument can be used (although I’d say that how successfully implemented the instrument has been is debatable).

What about gongs?
Oh nevermind

Gongs

The Hurty Gurty (sp?).

Theremins? Turn tables?

Even 8-Bit blips and beeps works. Just heard this one the other day.

Forceps, Hemostats.

@PretentiousArtist – Dj Spooky, and I’m sure a bunch of others, prove that turntables can work. I can see that not everyone would like it however.

Maybe the banjo. Maybe.

Banjo jazz

The attempt to find instruments that may never have been used in jazz is different from the question about whether there are any instruments that don’t belong in jazz. I do not think there is any instrument that does not “belong” there.

@tinyfaery just asked about a hurdy gurdy, and I can tell you that I just played with a hurdy gurdy player last week. It was the first time for me, and he was a bit shy (he’d never played with us before), but it was way cool! Hurdy gurdy is a lot like sitar in that it has a drone and a melodic element.

I wonder if an alpenhorn has ever been used for a jazz recording. @Darwin, what are you using to generate these recordings?

Oh, never mind!

Maybe, I said maybe.

Here at work we just listened to some songs from banjojazz.com. I guess it works in a weird sort of way, but it was much better for a hysterical laugh for me.

kazoo.

@eponymoushipster – Thanks, there’s no jazzkazoo.com yet, I’m off to register that domain right now…

@forestGeek 60/40 on the profits?

@eponymoushipster – Of course! I think it’s going to be big! Might want to consider opening a second bank account.

Dulcimer, sitar.

@Capt_Bloth Uh uh. Scroll up to find the jazz banjo link.

@Zen Yes, I missed that, and then edited my answer very quickly. Thank you.

Theremin

Harmonica? Toots Thielemans would be very sad if he saw this. Harmonica in jazz can be really wonderful, I’d say. A distorted electric guitar wouldn’t be so nice, if you ask me. Other than that I think everything works fine.

Timpani, Fife, Glockenspiel come to mind foremost

There are a lot of obscure-ish percussion instruments that you could say, but it would be nitpicky to mention. The same applies to woodinds (bassoon, oboe, english horn etc.). I was going to say harpsichord, but even that has made it’s way to the sacred annuls of jazz.

Then, of course it all depends on your definition of “an instrument” and your definition “jazz.”

Good question, though.

I think, like most of these lovely people, that any instrument can belong in jazz as long as the player has the right attitude.

And, of course, it depends on what you mean by “jazz”. To me, calling music “jazz” is even less descriptive than calling a drink “tea”. Both very broad definitions, no?

Oboe. E-flat clarinet. Sousaphone. Harpsichord.

@wildpotato http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6683392/a/Spirituals+&+Rags:+Jazz+Harpsichord.htm

@wildpotato Oh yeah! I forgot about the harpsichord, GA.

Now get back to work. ; )

@ish1212 Sorry, but I just don’t think it works.

@Capt_Bloth Oh yeah, that’s totally understandable. I don’t like jazz violin but I totally think it works. Personal preference.

And, for the record, it does sound pretty cool playing ragtime stuff.

@ish1212 It is interesting to hear, thank you for the samples.

any instrument can be in jazz. since jazz is an art form, even a mandolin can squeeze in the spectrum of music creativity.

footnote instrument: VIOLIN.

usually associated with classical music, but is so warm in jazz, like polished wood floors and contemporary kitchens where good food is being hooked up all at the same time.

somebody understands.

I was thinking the answer here was Kazoo (which @eponymoushipster already mentioned), and I started thinking of odd instruments.
I bet a Didgeridoo would be great in jazz.

Yeah… synthetic drum machines

[Not the mod] says: stay on topic @filmfann. The question wasn’t what would be “great” in Jazz – answer something naegative. Thanks.

@Zen How dare you try to impersonate the style of the mods. This will be brought to the attention of the Great Chairman Mod.

<alerts mods>

[Not mod] Shrinks back in fear, stumbling over a chair and hitting head.

The harpsichord (cembalo).

@SpatzieLover I don’t see any reason why handbells can’t be played outside of a church. What does venue have to do with beautiful music, anyway??
I played handbells (briefly) for a few concerts in college, and it was fun, and sounded beautiful, and had nothing to do with church.

@Darwin “Basically, if it makes noise, it can be used in jazz.” I said as much in the second sentence of my post, and I never argued that any of those instruments hadn’t ever been used for jazz. If it can be done, someone, somewhere has done it.
But the question isn’t about what has been used in jazz; but what belongs. And that is a very subjective question. The things I mentioned I don’t think would be a good fit, and I purposely sprinkled my post with lots of “in my opinions” to point out the subjective nature of the question, and of my reply.

@Gundark I don’t see any reason they can’t be used out of church… when I hear/see hand bells I think of x-mas mass, Easter vigil, and Catholicism, not “Awesome, these guys are playing hand bells!”

@Gundark I was in a handbell choir at school and I’m not a christian; I just did it for the music. I am a composer and have written a secular piece or two for handbells.

But, for jazz merely the size and quantity of people you would need to sufficiently play jazz would be ridiculous. Also, since jazz is based entirely on improvisation, there would be no real way to solo with a handbell orchestra.

@spatzielover If those are the associations you hold with handbells, then I can understand why you’d make a statement like that. But not everyone holds those same associations. @ish1212 supports my point about handbells not “belonging” only in a church setting. Some people really like the sound of them, regardless of where or for what reason they are played.

@ish1212 I agree—handbells wouldn’t be a great fit for jazz. But is jazz really based “entirely” on improvisation? That seems like too strong a statement. There is a lot of good music that is considered “jazz” that isn’t improvisation, or that has improvisation as only one component of a larger, cohesive composition.

I know that I’m very late to this Q & most might not still be here. It caught my attention & curiosity & I had to go do a little research. For me, Blues kinda blends into Jazz & everybody I know argues what is Blues & when it becomes Jazz. I found these 2 jazzy songs &felt the urge to share…

Harmonica Jazz
Funky Jazz @ WSP

@LuckyGuy THANK YOU for asking your Q in 2022 about how altitude affects wind instruments as I would have NEVER found this gem IF you hadn’t asked & this popped up!!! Also, THANK YOU to the powers that be at Fluther who deemed this Q as important enough to keep!!!