Styles and the use of drums in jazz history

Mehmet ARSLAN, Styles and Drum Use in Jazz History, Başkent University, Institute of Social Sciences, Performance Master's Degree Program with Thesis, 2025. This study analyses the stylistic evolution of jazz music and the drum instrument in the historical process, the drum performers involved in this process and their effects on the function of the drum in the orchestra with an analytical approach. The stylistic evolution of jazz since its emergence in New Orleans in the early 20th century is discussed chronologically and comparatively through sub-genres such as Ragtime, New Orleans, Swing and Bebop. Within the scope of the thesis, the historical origins, characteristics, period musicians, orchestras and drummers of each style are analysed; in this context, the transition process of the drum from its traditional time-keeping role to its position as a means of expression based on improvisation is exemplified. This thesis aims to analyse the evolution of styles and the drum instrument in the history of jazz, the characteristics of the styles and the drummers of that period, and to reveal in a detailed perspective how, since the birth of jazz, the style of jazz drumming has gone beyond being merely an element that provides rhythmic support and has become one of the constituent elements of musical discourse. The study evaluates the rhythmic universe of jazz and the transformation of the drum within this universe in a historical-musicological framework. Keywords: Jazz, jazz styles, jazz musicians, jazz band, jazz drummers.