Evolutionary Processes in the Context of Jazz Music Culture of the USA in the 1940s: Cultural Aspect

The purpose of the article is to identify and examine the characteristic features of the jazz music culture of the USA in the 1940s in the cultural aspect. The research methodology involves the use of the system analysis method. The methods of generalisation and comparison are applied as well. Scientific novelty. The issue of evolutionary processes in the jazz music culture of the United States in the 40s of the twentieth century is highlighted in Ukrainian culturology for the first time. Conclusions. The study reveals the transformational processes that occurred in the context of the jazz music culture of the United States in the 1940s. It is noted that the leading trends of the era of modern jazz culture were laid in this chronological period. The reasons for these evolutionary shifts are in the field of sociology and psychology. The leading position is occupied by the process of self-actualisation, the reasons for the specific course of which are to be found in the field of social life of the African-American community of this period. The peculiarities of the process of self-actualisation resulted in changes in the traditions of jazz performance, namely the crystallisation of solo improvisation, a significant reduction in the ensemble members, a rethinking of the function of the rhythm section, the transformation of the stage image of the jazzman, which formed the leading concept of the Modern Jazz era performing. It is pointed out that the phenomenon of creativity, which has always occupied a dominant position in jazz culture, became a reinforcing factor in the crystallisation of the features of the process of self-actualisation within the psychological portrait of an African- American individual of the 1940s in the United States. This period also laid the foundation of the world professional jazz education, which became traditional for the era of modern jazz culture. The article demonstrates that these aspects caused the shift of jazz music culture from mass to elite culture space, where the world jazz music culture remains today