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Jazz is the "very cool, very stylish, very competent" member of the Autobots in the Transformers television and comic series based on the popular toy line produced by Hasbro. His original vehicle mode is a Martini Porsche 935 turbo racing car. Self-possessed, calm, and utterly collected, Jazz is head of Special Operations, with his own dedicated roster of agents. He often gives the most dangerous assignments to himself. It's not a matter of ego—he just really is the coolest head for the toughest missions. Jazz's ease extends to whatever environment he finds himself in, no matter how weird or wonderful. He effortlessly tunes in to the local culture, assimilating and improvising, and making creative command decisions, making him an indispensable right-hand bot to Optimus Prime.
Jazz was voiced by the late Scatman Crothers.
History[]
Cartoon[]
Season 1[]
Jazz was among the Autobots who followed Optimus Prime on his mission aboard the Ark. They were attacked by Megatron's ship, the Nemesis, and crash landed on Earth, where all on board were preserved in emergency stasis. Four million years later, in 1984, a volcanic eruption awakened the Ark's computer, Teletran-I, and it repaired all on board. It reformatted Jazz in the form of an Earth race car. Jazz then became a regular character throughout the show's first two seasons serving as Optimus Prime's second in command (Ironhide and Prowl seemed to share this role with him though).
Season 2[]
In Attack of the Autobots, he and Bumblebee were the only Autobots to avoid being brainwashed. But thanks to his new sound system and Sparkplug's attitude exchanger, the Autobots were able to be cured and the Decepticon's plans were foiled.
In The God Gambit, Cosmos collected data in space on a potential new power source, but was attacked by Astrotrain, Thrust and Starscream. Crashing on the Saturn's moon Titan, the local priests worshiped the Decepticons as "Sky Gods", but rebels were able to reactivate Cosmos and call for aid from the Autobots. Optimus Prime sent Omega Supreme along with Perceptor and Jazz. Astrotrain set himself up as the chief god of the moon and forced the natives to gather energy crystals. The trip to Titan drained Omega of most of his energy, but Perceptor and Jazz were able to gather enough crystals to reactivate Omega and defeat the three Decepticons. Vowing to not let the Autobots gain the crystals, Astrotrain set up a chain reaction destroying them. The Autobots aided the natives to escape the explosion and helped them settle in another area of the moon.
In Prime Target, the big game hunter Lord Cholmondeley captured a secret Soviet jet, leading to panic of possibly war. Cholmondeley then set his sights on the ultimate trophy, the head of Optimus Prime. In order to lure Optimus, in Cholmondeley captured the Autobots Tracks, Bumblebee, Jazz, Beachcomber, Grapple, Blaster, and Inferno. Windcharger and Huffer were able to avoid being trapped. When Cosmos learned of the location Cholmondeley was keeping the captured Autobots, Optimus Prime accepted Cholmondeley's challenge to meet him alone. Although interrupted by Astrotrain and Blitzwing's attempt to ally the Decepticons with Cholmondeley, Optimus defeated the big game hunter and freed the Autobots. Cholmondeley and the stolen jet were given over to the Soviets by the Autobots as punishment for his actions.
When Starscream was exiled from the Decepticons and created the Combaticons (in Starscream's Brigade) his first act was to capture the Autobots Cliffjumper and Jazz during the unveiling of a statue of Optimus Prime.
Towards the end of 1985, Jazz was among the team of five Autobots who disguised themselves as the Stunticons in Masquerade. (Jazz, a Porsche 911 turbo, was made to resemble Dead End, the Stunticon Porsche 928.) Penetrating the Decepticons' camp, the Autobots ran into trouble when the real Stunticons arrived, trying to prove their identities by forming Menasor. With a combination of Windcharger's magnetic powers and Mirage's illusion-creating ability, the Autobots were able to appear as Menasor too. Though the deception was soon revealed, they were still able to thwart the Decepticons' plans.
The Movie[]
In The Transformers the Movie, set in the year 2005, Jazz was assigned to Moonbase One along with Cliffjumper. Jazz was responsible for monitoring Decepticon activity on Cybertron using the base as a secret staging ground for planning the liberation of Cybertron. After the Autobot City invasion of Earth, Moonbase One came under attack by the planet eater, Unicron. Jazz radioed to Earth for assistance and his faint signal was received by the Autobot Blaster who relayed the distress signal to Ultra Magnus. Jazz and Cliffjumper attempted to escape, however the shuttle could not achieve escape velocity and was swallowed by Unicron. During the assault on Unicron led by Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus, Daniel Witwicky encountered a smelting pit inside Unicron, where other Transformer-like beings were being sent to be melted into a liquid substance. Jazz, Cliffjumper, Bumblebee and Spike were about to be cast into the pit but Daniel managed to rescue them in the nick of time. Jazz and the others escaped Unicron before the planet-sized Transformer exploded from the effects of the Autobot Matrix.
Season 3[]
During the time between the film's release and the start of season 3 of the TV show, Scatman Crothers died. The movie release was the last time that Jazz spoke. However, Jazz made minor cameos throughout the season in the episodes "Five Faces of Darkness" where he competed in a race and fought alongside Perceptor and Rodimus Prime.
In the episode "Dark Awakening", he briefly stood beside the re-incarnated Optimus Prime. In the episode "Forever is a Long Time Coming" he appeared in another race and in the episode "Call of the Primitives", he was seen for the final time. It is assumed that Jazz was left to patrol Cybertron and was around to witness its new golden age.
After the animated series ended in the U.S., Jazz appeared in animated form in the commercials for the Classic Pretenders, Action Masters and Hot Rod Patrol.
Comics[]
Backstory[]
In the early years of the war on Cybertron, Jazz was a member of a unit who called themselves the Magnificent Six, along with Prowl, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, Inferno, and Stampede. They protected a group of Cybertronian neutrals from the sadistic Decepticon leader Megadeath, but the long siege that followed and the damage to their settlement caused the neutrals to turn against them and betray them to Megadeath. He tortured the Autobots and then killed Stampede in front of the others, who had been given weapons but were too broken to resist him. Megadeath then set up a nuclear charge which could kill the neutrals if not disarmed, and refused to reveal its location even after the Autobots disabled him in the blast zone. Jazz and the others fled the scene, keeping quiet about the incident out of shame.
Jazz later became part of Autobot leader Optimus Prime's inner circle, taking part in the defence of Iacon. He was at Optimus' side as he volunteered to take the Ark into space to clear a path for Cybertron through a minefield, and was part of Optimus' crew for the mission. When they were attacked by Megatron and the Decepticons, Optimus deliberately crashed on Earth, leaving everyone on board inactive.
Early battles on Earth[]
Reactivated four million years later, Jazz first saw action on Earth during the battle with the Decepticons at the Witwickys' garage. He was later part of a unit that accompanied Optimus Prime to Blackcastle, England, to investigate reports of a crashed Autobot scout ship. Jazz enlisted the help of the boy Sammy Harker and helped fight off a Decepticon raid on the area. Optimus chose to destroy the ship rather than have the Decepticons return and Jazz carried out the order, unknowingly killing the ship's navigator in the process.
When an argument broke out over a captive Sparkplug Witwicky providing the Decepticons with fuel, Jazz used his flame thrower to stop Sparkplug leaving, accidentally causing him to suffer a heart attack. When the Decepticons attacked, Jazz ended up fighting Soundwave and lost his arm in the process. He was left inactive when Optimus Prime decided to use all their fuel reserves to keep five undamaged Autobots fully operational to defend the Ark.
Rescued by Ratchet[]
After spending some time dormant with the Ark under Shockwave's control, Jazz and most of the others were finally liberated and brought back online by Ratchet. He decided to make a deal with the humans for fuel and contacted the industrialist G.B. Blackrock, who had been the target of several Decepticons attacks, offering him assistance in exchange for fuel. He and Wheeljack attempted to protect Blackrock's demonstration from Starscream and Frenzy, but were hampered by anti-robot vigilante Circuit Breaker, who attacked both sides.
Jazz later joined in the attempt to liberate Blackrock's aerospace facility from the Decepticons, during which he and most of the other Autobots were attacked and badly damaged by a dummy Optimus Prime until the real Optimus came to their rescue.
Further battles[]
Jazz suffered a minor accident while taking Buster Witwicky Christmas shopping which led to him again being attacked by Circuit Breaker, only being saved by Buster's intervention and the dawn of Christmas Day. He opposed Prowl's plan to use the Creation Matrix to create dedicated Warrior Autobots and was part of a team led by Jetfire who attempted to capture the rogue Dinobot Slag, suffering damage in the process.
When Optimus Prime, Prowl and Ratchet disappeared into limbo, Jazz went to scout out the Decepticons' base and quickly came across the indirect culprit: Future Decepticon leader Galvatron, along with his lieutenants Cyclonus and Scourge. Jazz was quickly spotted and captured, being tortured by Galvatron and finally turned into a lobotomised zombie. When Jetfire and the others traded a captured Scourge for him, Jazz was so unaware of his identity that he mindlessly attacked them and had to be subdued.
He was repaired enough to join Jetfire in protecting one of Blackrock's fuel shipments from Thrust and Bombshell, and thereafter attended a memorial when Optimus Prime was believed dead. Like most of Optimus' original crew, he disappeared around the time of Optimus' real death but reappeared towards the end of Grimlock's tenure as Autobot leader, witnessing the duel between him and Blaster on the moon.
After Optimus Prime returned, Jazz was part of the alliance of Autobots and Decepticons that defended New York from a rampaging Underbase-powered Starscream. He was deactivated during the incident but managed to knock Starscream off a bridge first.
Resurrected as a Pretender[]
Taken to Cybertron, Jazz was rebuilt as a Pretender by Ratchet, along with Grimlock and Bumblebee, in an attempt to halt a returned Megatron. The trio ended up battling Megatron's minions, the Decepticon Powermasters and Sports Car Patrol, while Ratchet arranged for Megatron's base to be destroyed.
They joined up with the local Autobots led by Emirate Xaaron, helping defeat some demons in Cybertron's sewers and launching raids on Decepticon strongholds, but knew they were needed back on Earth. As they prepared to transport there, along with the Rescue Patrol, they were attacked by the Decepticon Mayhem Squad which resulted in everyone being transported to the centre of Cybertron. The battle continued there and briefly woke the Transformers' creator Primus, attracting the attention of Unicron.
Along with his new fellow Pretenders, Jazz was one of the teams sent to search for the Creation Matrix, the only thing that could stop Unicron. They tracked it to the planet VsQs but were followed there by Decepticon leader Thunderwing, who sought the Matrix for himself. They retrieved the Matrix and nearly made it back to their ship but ran out of fuel. Thunderwing took the Matrix and left them for dead. After his defeat, the other Autobots retrieved them.
Earthforce[]
Jazz was part of a dedicated Autobot Earthforce left behind on Earth under Grimlock's command. He and Sunstreaker were quickly sent out to recover a rocket set up by Megatron to destroy Earth's atmosphere. They arrived to find the Stunticons and Battlechargers attempting to claim the rocket, only to be quietly informed that Prowl had already rendered it useless. Along with Ironhide, Sunstreaker and Bumblebee, Jazz disrupted peace talks between Megatron and Shockwave's Decepticon factions by framing Headstrong for an attack on Megatron.
On discovering Octane deliberately ramming and wrecking human cars, Jazz posed as just another human vehicle, goading Octane into chasing him and then luring him into the middle of a military testing range, leaving him stranded in the middle of artillery barrages. He and Bumblebee provided back-up for Prowl when he had to deactivate the Autobot base's defences, which Wheeljack had thoughtlessly activated while all the Autobots were outside the base. He was part of the squad that pursued the Stunticons when they captured journalist Irwin Spoon and managed to temporarily bring Motormaster to a standstill by shooting out his tyres, only to be himself rammed by Breakdown and taken out of the fight.
Unicron War[]
Transported back to Cybertron, Jazz took part in defending the planet from Unicron, although his main contribution was accidentally colliding with Siren as they charged into battle together. Despite this, he survived the battle and was present for the meetings of the Autobot/Decepticon alliance that followed and the attempt to evacuate Cybertron when the planet was believed to be destroying itself.
Generation 2[]
Regeneration One[]
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 Heroes
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