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

eight to the bar

Music; Jazz

Continuous eighth-note rhythm, as in boogie-woogie left hand patterns.

turnaround

Music; Jazz

A sequence of chords, or the portion of a tune that they occupy, that forms a cadence at the end of a section of a tune, definitively establishes the tonic key and leads back to the opening chord of ...

improvisation

Music; Jazz

The process of spontaneously creating fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes of a tune. The improviser may depend on the contours of the original tune, or solely on the ...

thumb line

Music; Jazz

The Jazz term for 'tenor' (q. V. ). A line played by the pianist's left thumb.

whole-tone

Music; Jazz

A 6-note scale, of which there are two, made up entirely of whole-step intervals, or the harmonies derived from it. Used by Debussy and suggestive of 'impressionism'. In Jazz, associated with ...

chart

Music; Jazz

(1) Any musical score. (2) A special type of score, used by Jazz musicians. Only the melody line, words (if any) and chord symbols are given. Clef, key signature and meter are given once only, at the ...