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Jazz vs. Soul — What's the Difference?

By Fiza Rafique & Maham Liaqat — Updated on May 13, 2024
Jazz is a complex, improvisational music style with roots in blues and ragtime, known for intricate harmonies and rhythms; soul music combines elements of gospel and rhythm and blues, focusing on vocals and emotional expressiveness.
Jazz vs. Soul — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Jazz and Soul

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Key Differences

Jazz originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily developed from blues and ragtime in New Orleans. Whereas soul music emerged in the 1950s in the USA, blending elements of gospel with rhythm and blues, particularly emphasizing emotional vocal deliveries.
Jazz is characterized by its emphasis on improvisation, complex chords, and intricate rhythms, showcasing the skills of individual musicians. On the other hand, soul focuses on smooth melodies, powerful vocal performances, and heartfelt lyrics that convey deep emotions and personal struggles.
In jazz, instrumental virtuosity is a hallmark, with iconic instruments like the saxophone, trumpet, and double bass playing pivotal roles. Whereas, soul music often features prominent vocalists accompanied by piano, drums, and brass, highlighting the voice as the primary instrument.
The influence of jazz can be seen across various music genres, including rock, classical, and funk, due to its innovative use of harmony and rhythm. Soul music, however, has profoundly impacted popular music by contributing to the development of genres like R&B, funk, and hip-hop, through its emotional depth and vocal styles.
Jazz often incorporates elements from other music styles globally, making it inherently eclectic and continually evolving. Soul music, while also versatile, tends to maintain a more consistent focus on gospel-inspired vocals and themes of love and redemption.
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Comparison Chart

Origins

Late 19th century, New Orleans
1950s, USA

Key Elements

Improvisation, complex chords
Emotional vocals, smooth melodies

Instrumentation

Saxophone, trumpet, double bass
Vocals, piano, drums, brass

Influence on Other Genres

Rock, funk, classical
R&B, funk, hip-hop

Emotional Focus

Musicianship, instrumental skill
Vocal expressiveness, personal lyrics

Compare with Definitions

Jazz

Influential in the development of other music genres.
Jazz elements can be detected in certain contemporary rock songs.

Soul

A genre that combines elements of gospel and rhythm and blues.
Aretha Franklin was one of soul music's most iconic figures.

Jazz

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music, linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage.

Soul

Features lyrics that deal with themes of struggle and redemption.
Soul songs frequently address personal and societal issues.

Jazz

A style of music, native to America, characterized by a strong but flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns and, more recently, a highly sophisticated harmonic idiom.

Soul

In many religious, philosophical, and mythological traditions, the soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being. Soul or psyche (Ancient Greek: ψυχή psykhḗ, of ψύχειν psýkhein, "to breathe", cf.

Jazz

Big band dance music.

Soul

The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.

Jazz

Animation; enthusiasm.

Soul

Emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance
Their interpretation lacked soul

Jazz

Nonsense.

Soul

The essence or embodiment of a specified quality
He was the soul of discretion
Brevity is the soul of wit

Jazz

Miscellaneous, unspecified things
Brought the food and all the jazz to go with it.

Soul

A part of humans regarded as immaterial, immortal, separable from the body at death, capable of moral judgment, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state.

Jazz

(Music) To play in a jazz style.

Soul

This part of a human when disembodied after death.

Jazz

To utter exaggerations or lies to
Don't jazz me.

Soul

In Aristotelian philosophy, an animating or vital principle inherent in living things and endowing them in various degrees with the potential to grow and reproduce, to move and respond to stimuli (as in the case of animals), and to think rationally (as in the case of humans).

Jazz

To give great pleasure to; excite
The surprise party jazzed the guest of honor.

Soul

A human
“the homes of some nine hundred souls” (Garrison Keillor).

Jazz

To cause to accelerate.

Soul

A person considered as the embodiment of an intangible quality; a personification
I am the very soul of discretion.

Jazz

To exaggerate or lie.

Soul

A person's emotional or moral nature
“An actor is ... often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not” (Alec Guinness).

Jazz

(music genre) A musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.

Soul

The central or integral part; the vital core
“It saddens me that this network ... may lose its soul, which is after all the quest for news” (Marvin Kalb).

Jazz

Energy, excitement, excitability.

Soul

A sense of emotional strength or spiritual vitality held to derive from black and especially African American cultural experience, expressed in areas such as language, social customs, religion, and music.

Jazz

The substance or makeup of a thing.
What jazz were you referring to earlier?
What is all this jazz lying around?

Soul

Strong, deeply felt emotion conveyed by a speaker, performer, or artist
A performance that had a lot of soul.

Jazz

Unspecified thing(s).

Soul

Soul music.

Jazz

(with positive terms) Something of excellent quality, the genuine article.

Soul

The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality, often believed to live on after the person's death.

Jazz

Nonsense.
Stop talking jazz.

Soul

The spirit or essence of anything.

Jazz

Semen, jizz.

Soul

Life, energy, vigor.

Jazz

To destroy.

Soul

(music) Soul music.

Jazz

To play (jazz music).

Soul

A person, especially as one among many.

Jazz

To dance to the tunes of jazz music.

Soul

An individual life.
Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.

Jazz

To enliven, brighten up, make more colourful or exciting; excite

Soul

(math) A kind of submanifold involved in the soul theorem of Riemannian geometry.

Jazz

To complicate.

Soul

To endow with a soul or mind.

Jazz

To have sex for money, to prostitute oneself.

Soul

To beg on All Soul's Day.

Jazz

(intransitive) To move (around/about) in a lively or frivolous manner; to fool around.

Soul

(obsolete) To afford suitable sustenance.

Jazz

To distract or pester.

Soul

Sole.

Jazz

To ejaculate.

Soul

By or for African-Americans, or characteristic of their culture; as, soul music; soul newspapers; soul food.

Jazz

A type of music that originated in New Orleans around 1900 and developed through increasingly complex styles, but generally featuring intricate rhythms, improvisation, prominent solo segments, and great freedom in harmonic idiom played frequently in a polyphonic style, on various instruments including horn, saxophone, piano and percussion, but rarely stringed instruments.

Soul

To afford suitable sustenance.

Jazz

Empty or insincere or exaggerated talk; as, don't give me any of that jazz.

Soul

To indue with a soul; to furnish with a soul or mind.

Jazz

A style of dance music popular in the 1920s; similar to New Orleans jazz but played by large bands.

Soul

The spiritual, rational, and immortal part in man; that part of man which enables him to think, and which renders him a subject of moral government; - sometimes, in distinction from the higher nature, or spirit, of man, the so-called animal soul, that is, the seat of life, the sensitive affections and phantasy, exclusive of the voluntary and rational powers; - sometimes, in distinction from the mind, the moral and emotional part of man's nature, the seat of feeling, in distinction from intellect; - sometimes, the intellect only; the understanding; the seat of knowledge, as distinguished from feeling. In a more general sense, "an animating, separable, surviving entity, the vehicle of individual personal existence."
The eyes of our souls only then begin to see, when our bodily eyes are closing.

Jazz

Empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk;
That's a lot of wind
Don't give me any of that jazz

Soul

The seat of real life or vitality; the source of action; the animating or essential part.
Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul.

Jazz

A genre of popular music that originated in New Orleans around 1900 and developed through increasingly complex styles

Soul

The leader; the inspirer; the moving spirit; the heart; as, the soul of an enterprise; an able general is the soul of his army.
He is the very soul of bounty!

Jazz

A style of dance music popular in the 1920s; similar to New Orleans jazz but played by large bands

Soul

Energy; courage; spirit; fervor; affection, or any other noble manifestation of the heart or moral nature; inherent power or goodness.
That he wants algebra he must confess;But not a soul to give our arms success.

Jazz

Play something in the style of jazz

Soul

A human being; a person; - a familiar appellation, usually with a qualifying epithet; as, poor soul.
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
God forbid so many simple soulsShould perish by the sword!
Now mistress Gilpin (careful soul).

Jazz

Have sexual intercourse with;
This student sleeps with everyone in her dorm
Adam knew Eve
Were you ever intimate with this man?

Soul

A pure or disembodied spirit.
That to his only Son . . . every soul in heavenShall bend the knee.

Jazz

A music genre characterized by improvisation and complex harmonies.
Miles Davis is known for his innovative contributions to jazz.

Soul

A perceived shared community and awareness among African-Americans.

Jazz

Focuses on live performance and musician interaction.
Jazz bands often feature extensive solo performances.

Soul

Soul music.

Jazz

Utilizes swing and blue notes.
Jazz music frequently employs a swinging rhythm that enhances its unique sound.

Soul

The immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life

Jazz

Embraces a variety of music traditions.
Latin jazz incorporates rhythms from Latin American music.

Soul

A human being;
There was too much for one person to do

Soul

Deep feeling or emotion

Soul

The human embodiment of something;
The soul of honor

Soul

A secular form of gospel that was a major Black musical genre in the 1960s and 1970s;
Soul was politically significant during the Civil Rights movement

Soul

Known for its emotional vocal delivery.
Soul music often expresses deep feelings of love or pain.

Soul

Influenced the development of modern R&B and hip-hop.
Many contemporary artists draw inspiration from classic soul music.

Soul

Centers on powerful lead vocals.
Soul performances typically showcase the lead singer's vocal prowess.

Common Curiosities

How did jazz music originate?

Jazz originated in New Orleans, blending influences from blues, ragtime, and local brass band traditions.

Can jazz be a vocal music genre?

Yes, vocal jazz is a subgenre that features singers and often includes scat singing, utilizing the voice as an instrument.

What defines jazz music?

Jazz is defined by its focus on improvisation, complex harmonies, and rhythmic innovations.

What makes soul music distinct from other genres?

Soul music uniquely blends rhythm and blues with gospel, focusing on vocal depth and emotional lyrics.

What are the core elements of soul music?

Soul music is characterized by its gospel-inspired vocals, emotional expressiveness, and smooth melodies.

Which instruments are typical in a jazz ensemble?

Typical jazz ensembles include saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, bass, and drums.

Who are some iconic soul music artists?

Iconic soul artists include Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and James Brown.

What role does improvisation play in jazz?

Improvisation is central to jazz, allowing musicians to spontaneously create music during performances.

How does soul music impact its listeners?

Soul music impacts listeners by conveying profound emotional messages through powerful vocal performances.

How has jazz influenced global music?

Jazz has influenced global music by integrating diverse musical styles and inspiring numerous genres worldwide.

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Author Spotlight

Written by
Fiza Rafique
Fiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Maham Liaqat

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