Jazz

Jazz

A style of music characterized by improvisation, syncopation, and usually a regular or forceful rhythm. It emerged at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions.

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Jazz

chord

Music; Jazz

The harmony at a given moment. Loosely, a group of 3 or more notes played together. Strictly, a chord is the basic unit of harmony, regarded abstractly as having a given root and specifying some ...

polytonality

Music; Jazz

The use of two different keys simultaneously. Despite much loose talk, true polytonality is rare. Upper structures (q. V. ) and outside playing do not usually qualify because there is always a strong ...

root

Music; Jazz

The fundamental pitch on which a chord is based, from which the chord takes its name, and to which the other tones of the chord are referred to intervallically the third, seventh, and so on, ...

upper structure

Music; Jazz

A triad used in the upper register over a chord of a different root, such as an A major triad over a C7 chord. From the standpoint of C7, the A triad consists of the 13th, the flat 9th, and the 3rd; ...

stride

Music; Jazz

The typical piano style of the 30s, tending towards virtuosity. The left hand plays alternating low-register bass notes (or octaves, fifths or tenths) and middle register rootless voicings, giving an ...

chorus

Music; Jazz

One complete cycle of a tune, one time through from top to bottom.

cross-rhythm

Music; Jazz

A passage in which a different meter is temporarily expressed or implied, while the prevailing meter continues underneath (see meter). Not particularly a Jazz term, but cross-rhythms are universal in ...