Jazz (WFC)

The name or term "Jazz" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Jazz (disambiguation).

Jazz is an Autobot from the Aligned continuity family.

Apparently Primus isn't a matter of belief but his children are.

Jazz is a cool and collected Autobot. Before the war he was part of the caste tasked with cultural observation and analysis, which gave him more freedom and a wider perspective on the world than his good friend Orion Pax. Though the war has changed much of his life (he is now a skilled and deadly combatant), two things remain constant: his dedication to the friend who is now also his leader Optimus Prime, and the interest he takes in all facets of culture, wherever his travels lead. On Earth, Jazz has adopted many popular human idioms into his vocabulary, and his fascination with their music has led him to implement speakers that fire a hundred sonic booms per second into his weaponry.

Fiction

Exodus

Jazz was a cultural investigator who came to the Hall of Records to analyze new data from the Communication Grid, which was where he befriended Orion Pax. He secretly attended the gladiatorial combat in Iacon. When Orion told him about the gladiator Megatronus and his movement to abolish the caste system, Jazz suggested going to Kaon or that at the very least he should contact Megatronus, considering how much Orion agreed with his ideas. Orion followed his advice, and contacted Megatron (whose name had been shortened by the crowds following a particularly rousing victory). Orion practiced self defense with Jazz following a suggestion in his and Megatron's brainstorms. Jazz was suspicious of Megatron though, and warned Orion that he was the sort of bot that would kill him if he felt he betrayed his ideas.

After terrorists committed acts of violence in Megatron's name, Megatron took Orion to a gladiatorial pit in Iacon, exposing Jazz's secret. Jazz attended the High Council's hearing with Orion and Megatron and gestured to Orion to be strong in the face of the Council's accusations. After Orion was promoted to Optimus Prime, Jazz joined his Autobots and told him not to mourn every lost soldier following the capture of Fort Scyk. He, Optimus and Sideswipe led the Autobots to victory at Kalis by taking down the combiner Bruticus Maximus.

Jazz was with others in Optimus's inner circle—Bumblebee, Ironhide and Prowl—when the war turned into a siege of Iacon and Alpha Trion informed Optimus of a new weapon aboard Trypticon Station. He asked them what they knew about energon. Jazz joked that it was time for school, but Prowl chided him for making fun at Alpha Trion's expense and that if the Archivist had something to say, it was important. Alpha Trion explained Energon was the emanation of Primus, to which Jazz quipped he still didn't know what that was, prompting laughter from Ironhide and Prowl. Alpha Trion then said Megatron's weapon was Dark Energon, the essence of Unicron, and Jazz stopped joking when he realized a confrontation with superpowered Decepticons was imminent.

Indeed, it was Jazz's team that first encountered Darkened Decepticons at Maintenance Port A46, along the Iacon-Kalis energy conduit. Though faster than any Decepticon and able to evade them, the Darkened gladiators wiped out his six-member unit. Autobots continually had to flee whenever Darkened Decepticons appeared, but Optimus realized Dark Energon was inefficient and Decepticons always had to retreat if a battle was prolonged. Jazz suggested they continue to fight back.

When Megatron came to Iacon to steal the Plasma Energy Chamber, Jazz fought with Omega Supreme against the Darkened Decepticons, but Megatron was too powerful and took the Chamber to contaminate the core of Cybertron. Jazz went with Optimus and Prowl in rescuing Sentinel Prime from Kaon, getting briefly paralyzed by a guard's whip, though he was still able to hear Sentinel's last words. After Sentinel's funeral in Iacon, Optimus asked Jazz if he believed the Thirteen original Transformers existed, to which he replied he didn't, though he saw great metaphorical value in them.

Optimus journeyed to the core, purifying it and obtaining the Matrix of Leadership. He returned ordering the commencement of Project Generation One and the evacuation of Cybertron, a notion Jetfire found suicidal but which Jazz defended. He coined the ship's name: the Ark. Jazz helped down Trypticon as part of the Eight Track crew — bearing the brunt of Trypticon's drones' attacks with Prowl and Ironhide — before boarding the Ark. Despite Jazz's fears about the last space bridge, it transported the Autobots to a spiral galaxy away from the Decepticons and near the AllSpark. Transformers: Exodus

Exiles

After passing through the unstable Space Bridge, Jazz and the Autobots aboard the Ark found themselves in the vicinity of a Cybertronian colony world called Velocitron. They located it in part thanks to a mysterious starmap projected outwards from Optimus Prime's chest by the Matrix itself. Jazz was part of Optimus Prime's initial landing team, who made contact with the planet's rulers, Override and Ransack. It was a time of great stress between Velocitron's rulers, and the Autobots' arrival from mythical Cybertron only exacerbated the situation. Worse still, active acts of sabotage led the Autobots to the conclusion that one of their crew was actually a Decepticon agent. Jazz and Prowl conferred with Optimus about the situation, but ultimately concluded there was little they could do at the moment other than remain on guard. Although the Autobots secured an ally in Override, they left Velocitron on the brink of civil war during their departure, as Ransack's followers had been corrupted by the Decepticon rhetoric of "peace through tyranny" spread by the Ark's traitor.

The next leg of their journey through the Space Bridge brought the Autobots to fabled Junkion, a world composed entirely of space junk. Jazz mouthed off about the poor conditions of the planet and the somewhat meandering nature of their "quest", forcing Optimus Prime to put his foot down about his old friend's lack of discipline. Jazz remained behind on the Ark during the initial visit to Junkion. Of course, this meant he was on hand when the ship exploded and crashed down to Junkion's surface thanks to another round of sabotage. The Autobots went to work repairing the Ark, with the relative assistance of the Junkions. Prowl's investigations into their traitor turned up an astonishing culprit -- Makeshift, one of the fabled "Shifters" descendant from Amalgamous Prime, with the ability to change appearances at will. Jazz and Optimus managed to identify and trap the Shifter in a stasis field, ending his threat to the Autobots.

The Decepticons eventually arrived on Junkion in force, and the two sides warred over a hidden treasure at the planet's core...the Requiem Blaster. A weapon capable of drawing infinite power from nearby stellar sources, the Requiem Blaster had its own gravity field, and had literally been the core around which Junkion's "junk" had formed. The fighting over the Requiem Blaster ripped the planet apart, but both sides eventually called off the melee and abandoned the Blaster after learning the location of the Allspark itself. Optimus Prime, Jazz, and the rest of the Autobots boarded the Ark and began the long race to reach their civilization's greatest prize before Megatron could. Transformers: Exiles

Games

Transformers: War for Cybertron (Xbox 360/PS3)

Jazz was initially a pre-order exclusive downloadable content character and is not playable in the War for Cybertron storyline campaign. Using a preorder code to unlock him will allow the player to use Jazz in Escalation mode, and makes his chassis available for customizing an online multiplayer character for Autobot scouts. Jazz was later made available alongside the other preorder-exclusive characters in the Transformers: War for Cybertron Map and Character Pack 1. He was available for the XBox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, but not for the PC version.

Jazz was one of many Autobots who was captured by the Decepticons and sent to the Kaon prison complex. He passed the time in incarceration by doing push ups in his cell, waiting for the day he would be able to break out. That chance came when Optimus, Bumblebee and Sideswipe (who had allowed themselves to be captured) opened all the cells in Kaon during a daring attempted rescue mission of Zeta Prime. Air Raid led the prisoners to transport ships, with which they escaped. He could be seen waving Autobots onto the closest ship through the window from above. Transformers: War for Cybertron

Transformers: War for Cybertron (DS)

Voice actor: Scott Whyte (English)

Jazz is an unlockable character for the DS. He can be unlocked by completing the sixth Stadium mission as an Autobot in Arena mode.

Jazz was among the Autobot captives in Kaon Stadium when a team of escaping Autobots teamed up with him to escape. Jazz had figured a way out of the Stadium, but first the Autobots had to fight him to buy them some time. After the fight and Jazz's defeat, Jazz left with the Autobots free at last. Transformers: War for Cybertron

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Voice actor: Khary Payton (English)

I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet.

Jazz and his partner Cliffjumper have been called upon by Optimus Prime to track down the Dinobots. They follow the trail of destruction the team has left behind, fighting through hordes of Insecticons to find them. Jazz used his new grappling hook to reach higher areas from where he could snipe the enemy.

Notes

• According to his Transformers Hall of Fame bio, Jazz is trained as a Cyber-Ninja, a trait based on Animated Jazz.