Japanese name Meister
Sub-Group Autobot Cars, Pretenders, Action Masters, Laser Cycles, Micro Vehicles, Spy
Changers
Motto "Do it with style or don't bother doing it."
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
Takara and
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 remains one of the more popular and well-remembered characters from the original series. Because of problems with trademarking the name Jazz, some later releases of Jazz are called Autobot Jazz.
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 acting like Optimus Prime's second in command (
Ironhide and
Prowl seemed to share this role with him though).
In the episode "
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 episode "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 the episode "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 935, 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.
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 lead 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.
During the time between the movie's release and the start of Season 3 of the TV show, Jazz's
voice actor,
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 and Action Masters.
