Jazz is a very broad category that encompasses a ton of styles, but most people only recognize the type that emphasizes brass and piano. Generally gets used to convey the the first half of the 20th century or otherwise make a character/setting seem old fashioned or classy without the elitist stigma of classical music.
Examples:
- In The Talented Mr. Ripley, all the characters besides the title one listen to jazz (which, for its time, was the music of free-spirited people before Rock came along).
- Temperance Brennan in the TV series Bones enjoys jazz, much to the surprise of Booth.
- According to Patrick in SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Grandma's Kisses", one of the requirements of being a grown-up is developing "a taste for free-form jazz."
- The entire soul and fiber of Cowboy Bebop is based on 70's jazz.
- Christopher Lewis in Seducing Dr. Lewis loves fusion jazz, much to the chagrin of Steve and Gérmain, as a way to portray him as a trendy, sophisticated yuppie.
- In Sonic Adventure 2, Rouge's theme and the background music to all of her levels is jazz-based.
- Baccano!! uses this as its core much in the same way that Cowboy Bebop does, though with a focus on various forms of 20's/30's jazz.
- Woody Allen frequently uses jazz for the soundtracks to his movies.
- Capcom's Alph Lyla sound team, from about 1997 to 2000, had an obsession with filling games entirely with Jazz fusion soundtracks. See Breath of Fire III and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
- One of the motifs in Haruki Murakami's after the quake is Jazz music as a metaphor in freedom in life.
- In Doctor Who, the Seventh Doctor's Establishing Character Moment in the TV Movie (intended as a point of introduction to people who didn't watch the show) is listening to jazz on a gramaphone while his TARDIS sails through the vortex. Since he is Dying to Be Replaced (the narration from the Eighth Doctor has already explained that he's "nearing the end of [his] seventh life") this is used to establish his age and old-fashioned-ness, and how it is time for him to be replaced with someone young.
- The soundtrack of Kamen Rider Double is heavily influenced by this, fitting the Hardboiled Detective theme.
- Persona 5's soundtrack was specifically described as "acid jazz" by its composer, Shoji Meguro.
- Many stage themes in the Super Mario Bros. franchise are jazz-style, with the main themes of the original game, 3, 64, 3D Land, and 3D World having particularly heavy influences.
- Io Fleming in Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt is big fan of free jazz and he sometimes plays it while slaughtering his enemies. His Arch-Enemy, Daryl Lorentz, was able to identify him due to his penchant of playing jazz on his cockpit.
