Latin jazz
A genre combining jazz harmony and improvisation with Latin American and Caribbean rhythms.
In Depth
Latin jazz fuses the harmonic language of bebop and post-bop with the rhythmic patterns of Afro-Cuban music, Brazilian bossa nova, and other Latin traditions. Dizzy Gillespie and Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz in the 1940s. The clave rhythm is typically the organising principle. Latin jazz ranges from the fiery mambo-influenced big bands of Tito Puente to the gentle bossa nova of Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Dizzy Gillespie's collaboration with Chano Pozo at Carnegie Hall in 1947 is considered the birth of Afro-Cuban [jazz](/term/afro-cuban%20jazz), permanently linking jazz and Latin rhythms.