Jazz

"Who's butt do I kick?"

- Jazz

"Is it time for my solo?"

- Jazz making his appearance in Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Jazz is a cool and collected Autobot and Optimus Prime's second lieutenant. 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.

Transformers: 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' 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: 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: War for Cybertron
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.

DS version
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: Rise of the Dark Spark
Jazz led the Autobot attack on Kaon to reclaim the Dark Spark from the Decepticons. When Bruticus incapacitated and captured Cliffjumper, Jazz called for a ceasefire and begged Shockwave to return Shockwave to return Cliffjumper, claiming that the Decepticons had got what they wanted, and didn't need to take Cliffjumper. Shockwave responded by simply laughing as he led Bruticus and unconscious Cliffjumper into Kaon.

Jazz reported Cliffjumper's capture to Optimus, and subsequently accompanied his leader to the Decepticon base Kolkular to retrieve their comrade and destroy the Dark Spark. Jazz was responsible for freeing Cliffjumper while Optimus covered them, but was captured, along with Optimus and Cliffjumper, by Megatron. They were freed when Jetfire commandeered the wrecked Trypticon's weapons systems and fired upon Kolkular, and the 'bots parted ways when Optimus ordered Jazz to take Cliffjumper and escape the base while Prime faced Megatron himself in order to reclaim the Dark Spark.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
After Grimlock went missing from his post, Optimus Prime met Cliffjumper and Jazz in the armory as they were preparing to go find Grimlock and his team. Sideswipe took the duo in a dropship to the Sea of Rust where they explored the ruins, with Cliff managing to save Jazz's life when he was trapped under debris. The pair tracked a distress signal to a huge pit, which Jazz opted to venture into alone. He managed to find Sludge, albeit non-functional, and immediately got into trouble in the form of Insecticons. He escaped by flooding the pit with toxic waste. Exploring further, they found an energon lake and spotted the huge tower in which Shockwave was conducting his space bridge experiments. Jazz and Cliffjumper infiltrated the facility, eventually finding Shockwave himself. The Decepticon trapped Cliff behind a forcefield and Jazz was forced to fight off wave after wave of Insecticons while the other Autobot worked out a way to destroy the base. They escaped just before the place exploded and reported the energon lake back to Optimus before returning to finish preparing the Ark for launch.

After takeoff, the Ark headed for a space bridge Shockwave had opened, but was pursued by the Decepticons aboard their flagship the Nemesis. They attacked the Ark and Jazz responded to a report that Bruticus was on board. His arrival was cheered on by the defending Autobots, but even though Jazz made full use of his grapple and shot Bruticus repeatedly in the face the giant Decepticon seemed unstoppable. However, with the help of air strikes from Jetfire and the Aerialbots, Jazz managed to knock Bruticus off-balance enough for the air strikes to knock him clean off the Ark and spiral away into space.

''Note: Jazz is also available as a playable character in the Escalation Map, 'Ancients'. He is an Ammo Supplier and fights alongside Cliffjumper, Perceptor, and Wheeljack.''

Robots in Disguise
Sent by the council to investigate the distress call from the Alchemor, Jazz landed not far from the scrapyard. Venturing in, he encountered Sideswipe whose attempts to challenge him were short-lived. After exchanging information with Bumblebee, Jazz found their reunion interrupted by the arrival of the Decepticon Ped. The Autobots pursued Ped underground, and Jazz was paired with Sideswipe. The pair found Ped's hideout, and were soon face-to-face with Ped himself. Jazz used a ruse to draw information out of Ped, but during the subsequent fight, he and Sideswipe were buried in rubble. When they arrived back at the scrapyard, a plan was in operation to trap Ped. After a brief setback in which the Autobots fell into a pit, Denny Clay managed to fish them out with an electromagnet. Jazz was grabbed by Ped until Sideswipe managed to anger Ped into letting go of Jazz and grab him instead. Jazz helped Sideswipe fight Ped in the stasis pod and the pair succeeded as Ped was knocked into his stasis pod by Denny who used his crane. Jazz and Sideswipe fist bumped on their success. Before returning to Cybertron, Jazz promised he'd smooth things over with the council about Bumblebee.

Season 3
Jazz was instead blacklisted by the council for his support of the Autobots and joined up with Optimus to investigate exactly what the council was up to.

In Enemy of My Enemy, while learning enough to make their move, Optimus's team traveled to Earth where they enlisted the help of Bumblebee and his team. While the Bee Team traveled to Cybertron, Optimus, Jazz, Ratchet, Windblade and Bulkhead remained on Earth temporarily. They soon found action when a signal led them to the steel mill that had just been burgled by a Cybertronian advance force. Within, they found a list of items pointing to the fact the advance force was building a space bridge receiver, and also a bomb which promptly exploded.

In Freedom Fighters, the group was saved by Ratchet's Triage Shield. They continued to follow the trail to the Crown City docks, where they battled the advance force. At one point Jazz had to pull Bulkhead to safety after the latter was hit by weapons fire. Following the destruction of the space bridge portal that had been opened, the team returned to Cybertron where Optimus nominated the rest of the group as a provisional council.

Personality
Jazz is a relaxed, firm, fairly mature, and a friendly Autobot soldier. He is also capable of taking down certain enemies and can be deceitful to trap them, like he was able to trick and blast Ped. Jazz also appears to be a role model figure to Sideswipe, as he taught Sideswipe to not care about what others think of him, which Jazz used Ped as an example of someone who cares of what others think.

Bumblebee
In Can You Dig It?, Bumblebee and Jazz rekindle their past friendship when Jazz comes to Denny's scrapyard. One night, Bumblebee and the other Autobots backed up Sideswipe when a strange figure attacked him, which the figure turned out to be Jazz. Jazz was surprised to see Bee and asked what he was doing, which Jazz refers to the scrapyard as a dump. Bumblebee states it was the nicest scrapyard on Earth. Jazz warns Bee about Sideswipe and Bee responded by stating Sideswipe was with him. Jazz helps Sideswipe up and talks with Bee about the distress call from the Alchemor. Bee also explains how he ended up on Earth with his team. In the morning, Jazz was glad to hear Bee's reasonable explanation of using a Space Bridge illegally. Jazz offered Bee and his team a lift back to Cybertron so that they could smooth things out with the council but Bumblebee stated that they haven't completed their mission, which he did not want to let Optimus down. Suddenly a Decepticon named Ped comes into the scrapyard through a hole he made and came out. Ped managed to escape with a few of the Autobot's energon cubes, which prompted Bumblebee, Jazz, Sideswipe, and Strongarm to go after the Decepticon. Bee's battle cry did not impress them, which made Jazz question if that was his battle cry and Bee responded by stating he was working on it. After Ped was eventually caught in a trap by the Autobots in the scrapyard, Jazz and Bumblebee exchanged their farewell handshakes before Jazz left.

Sideswipe
Upon their first encounter in Can You Dig It?, Sideswipe was startled but came to realize that Jazz is considered a legend among other older Autobots who survived the war on Cybertron. During a chase to catch Ped, Sideswipe made conversation to Jazz as he talked about how the others hold him back and Jazz stated he would never know when Sidewipe might need some extra boost as an Autobot. When they found Ped's hideout full of stolen Energon cubes, Ped arrived and attacked Sideswipe. Jazz goaded Ped out of harming Sidewipe further and they both survived a cave in despite Ped escaping with the Energon. During go a plan to lure Ped back at the scrapyard, Ped soon held down and zapped Jazz. Sideswipe was able to get Ped to release Jazz and grab him instead, which led them both to be in a stasis pod. Jazz went in to aid Sideswipe and they both emerged from the pod as Denny used his crane to hit Ped back in the stasis pod. Before Jazz left, he gave Sideswipe some advice of not letting others tell him different which he used Ped as an example of someone who didn't learn that lesson.

Ped
In Can You Dig It?, Jazz encountered Ped along with the other Autobots. On a pursuit for Ped, Jazz paired up with Sideswipe where they found Ped's hideout with his energon stash. When Ped found them in his hideout, Ped immediately zapped Sideswipe and threaten to crush him if Jazz did not move away from the energon pile. Jazz was able to use a ruse to get information out of Ped but both Jazz and Sideswipe were buried under rocks after Jazz used his built in shoulder blasters to take out Ped. Ped stated to Jazz that is what he gets for be selfless before escaping with the energon. Back at the scrapyard, the Autobots set up a trap for Ped but the Autobots fell in a hole. As they got on top of each other's shoulders, Denny Clay used his electromagnet to take Fixit, Bumblebee, and Jazz out of the hole. Ped grabbed onto Jazz and zapped him. Sideswipe comes up with a plan that makes Ped angry at him to let go of Jazz and attack Sideswipe instead. Sideswipe was able to get Ped into the stasis pod and with the help from Jazz, they both managed to fight Ped until Denny used his electromagnet to hit Ped on his head as he was locked in the stasis pod. Jazz used Ped as an example when he was telling Sideswipe about caring about what others think.

Robots in Disguise

 * "Can You Dig It?"

Season 3

 * "Enemy of My Enemy"
 * "Freedom Fighters"

Video Games

 * "War for Cybertron" (Debut/No Lines)
 * "War for Cybertron (DS)"
 * "Fall of Cybertron"
 * "Rise of the Dark Spark"

Novel Series

 * "Exodus"
 * "Exiles"
 * "Retribution"

Trivia

 * According to his Transformers Hall of Fame bio, Jazz is trained as a Cyber-Ninja, a trait based on Animated Jazz.
 * Jazz's trademark tool in Fall of Cybertron is his Grapple Hook, a multipurpose tool that allows him to manipulate far away objects and swing onto or from high areas.also Jazz Generation 1 cartoon continuity A similar tool is used by the Combaticon merchant Swindle.
 * Emiliano Santalucia created the design for Jazz that is in Hasbro's Binder of Revelation.

Gallery
Jazz/Gallery