Η Ιστορία της Jazz

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AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
Απάντηση: Τι είναι JAzz???

Παραθέτω παρκάτω,

Jazz History

The history of Jazz music origins is attributed to the turn of the 20th century New Orleans, although this unique, artistic medium occurred almost simultaneously in other North American areas like Saint Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. Traits carried from West African black folk music developed in the Americas, joined with European popular and light classical music of the late 18th and 19th centuries, became the syncopated rhythms of Ragtime and minor chord voicings characteristic of the Blues.

Jazz and Blues are among America's greatest cultural achievements and exports to the world community. It gives powerful voice to the American experience. Born of a multi-hued society, it unites people across the divides of race, region and national boundaries. It has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and American identity at home and abroad.

Jazz, an American art form, an international phenomenon! Jazz is not the result of choosing a tune, but an ideal that is created first in the mind, inspired by one's passion, and willed next in playing music. It draws from life experience and human emotion as the inspiration of the creative force, and through this discourse is chronicled the story of it's people. Jazz musicians and those that follow the genre closely, can indeed be thought of as an artistic community complete with it's leaders, spokesmen, innovators, aficionados, members, supporters & fans.

The Definition of Jazz
Define Jazz - What is Jazz music?


Jazz - an American art form and an international phenomenon! Jazz is not the result of choosing a tune, but an ideal that is created first in the mind, inspired by ones passion and willed next in playing music. Jazz music is not found in websites or books or even written down in sheet music. It is in the act of creating the form itself, that we truly find Jazz (see Jazz etymology.)

An academic definition of Jazz would be: A genre of American music that originated in New Orleans circa 1900 (see Jazz timeline) characterized by strong, prominent meter, improvisation, distinctive tone colors & performance techniques, and dotted or syncopated rhythmic patterns. But Jazz is so much more than that!

Art in general hosts an invitation for the viewer or listener to invest a personal attentiveness. Unlike other mediums, the nature of music is tipped toward the emotional rather than intellectual. It is this personal connection with music and all art that enables the patron to actually experience what is being communicated, rather than merely understanding the information. While all forms of music share this dynamic, Jazz, with it's unique characteristic of collective improvisation, exemplifies it.

Most genres of music involve the listener into the realm of the completed work as it was scored. Jazz draws the onlooker to a deeper league, that of a partnership so to speak, of being along when each new phrase is created, when each inspired motive is often the interactive result of audience involvement. Jazz music's dynamic is its "newness" which can be attributed to the defining component - improvisation.

While Classical music may strive to conform the musical tones to orchestral sonorities, Jazz music thrives on instrumental diversities; the player's individual "sound" becoming the desired proficiency. This is where the passion is, a kind found no where else.

Like the self-motivating, energetic solos that distinguish the genre, Jazz continues to evolve and seek new levels of artistic expression. In slightly over one hundred years, evolution has given birth to approximately two dozen distinct Jazz styles. Jazz music draws from life experience and human emotion as the inspiration of the creative force, and through this discourse is chronicled the story of it's people. Jazz musicians and those that follow the genre closely, can indeed be thought of as an artistic community complete with it's leaders, spokesmen, innovators, aficionados, members and fans.

Πηγή :Copyright © 1998-2007 A Passion for Jazz!


Styles of Jazz Music
Jazz styles significantly evolved with an
inner necessity characteristic of any true art form

Ragtime - The origins of Jazz: Rhythms brought from a musical heritage in Africa were incorporated into Cakewalks, Coon Songs and the music of "Jig Bands" which eventually evolved into Ragtime, c.1895 (timeline). The first Ragtime composition was published by Ben Harney. The music, vitalized by the opposing rhythms common to African dance, was vibrant, enthusiastic and often extemporaneous.

Notably the precursor to Jazz styles, early Ragtime music was set forth in marches, waltzes and other traditional song forms but the common characteristic was syncopation. Syncopated notes and rhythms became so popular with the public that sheet music publishers included the word "syncopated" in advertising. In 1899, a classically trained young pianist from Missouri named Scott Joplin published the first of many Ragtime compositions that would come to shape the music of a nation.

Classic Jazz - At the beginning of the 1900's, Jazz styles took the form of small band music and its origin credited to New Orleans. This musical style is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "Dixieland" but is less solo-oriented. Though traditional New Orleans Jazz was performed by blacks, whites and African-American creoles, "Dixieland" is a term for white performer's revival of this style.

New Orleans style, or "Classic Jazz" originated with brass bands that performed for parties and dances in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the musical instruments had been salvaged from the Confederate War which included the clarinet, saxophone, cornet, trombone, tuba, banjo, bass, guitar, drums and occasionally a piano. Musical arrangements varied considerably from performance to performance and many of the solos embellished the melody with ornaments of Jazz improvisation. This lively new music combined syncopations of ragtime with adaptations of popular melodies, hymns, marches, work songs and the Blues. The mid 1990's saw a strong resurgence in the Classic form.

Hot Jazz - c.1925 Louis Armstrong recorded the first of his Hot Five band records, the first time he recorded under his own name. The records made by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven bands are considered to be absolute Jazz classics and speak of Armstrong's creative powers. The bands never played live, but continued recording until 1928.

The music was characterized by collective improvised solos, around melodic structure, that ideally built up to an emotional and "Hot" climax. The rhythm section, usually drums, bass, banjo or guitar supported this crescendo, many times in the style of march tempo. Soon, larger bands and orchestras began to emulate that energy, especially with the advance of record technology, that spread the "Hot" new sound across the country.

Chicago Style - Chicago was the breeding ground for many young, inventive players. Characterized by harmonic, inovative arrangements and a high technical ability of the players, Chicago Style Jazz significantly furthered the improvised music of it's day. Contributions from dynamic players like Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman and Eddie Condon along with the creative grooves of Gene Krupa, helped to pioneer Jazz music from it's infancy and inspire those who followed.

Swing - The 1930s belonged to Swing. During that classic era, most of the Jazz groups were Big Bands. Derived from New Orleans Jazz style, Swing was robust and invigorating. Swing was also dance music, which served as it's immediate connection to the people. Although it was a collective sound, Swing also offered individual musicians a chance to improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex.

The mid 1990's saw a revival of Swing music fueled by the retro trends in dance. Once again young couples across America and Europe jitter-bugged to the swing'n sounds of Big Band music, often played by much smaller ensembles.

Kansas City Style - During the Depression and Prohibition eras, the Kansas City Jazz scene thrived as a mecca for the modern sounds of late 1920s and 30s. Characterized by soulful and blusey stylings of Big Band and small ensemble Swing, arrangements often showcased highly energetic solos played to "speakeasy" audiences. Alto sax pioneer Charlie Parker hailed from Kansas City.

Gypsy Jazz - Originated by French guitarist Django Reinhardt, Gypsy Jazz is an unlikely mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall "musette" and the folk strains of Eastern Europe. Also known as Jazz Manouche, it has a languid, seductive feel characterized by quirky cadences and driving rhythms.

The main instruments are nylon stringed guitars, often amounting to a half-dozen ensemble, with occasional violins and bass violin. Solos pass from one player to another as the other guitars assume the rhythm. While primarily a nostalgic style set in European bars and small venues, Gypsy Jazz is appreciated world wide.

Bebop - Developed in the early 1940's, Bop had established itself as vogue by 1945. It's main innovators were alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Until then, Jazz improvisation was derived from the melodic line. Bebop soloists engaged in chordal improvisation, often avoiding the melody altogether after the first chorus. Usually under seven pieces, the soloist was free to explore improvised possibilities as long as they fit into the chord structure.

Differing greatly from Swing, Bebop divorced itself early-on from dance music, establishing itself as art form but severing its potential commercial value. Ironically, what was once thought of as a radical Jazz style, Bebop has become the basis for all the innovations that followed.

Vocalese - The art of composing a lyric and singing it in the same manner as the recorded instrumental solos. Coined by Jazz critic Leonard Feather, Vocalese reached its highest point from 1957-62. Performers may solo or sing in ensemble, supported by small group or orchestra. Bop in nature, Vocalese rarely ventured into other Jazz styles and never brought commercial success to it's performers until recent years. Among those known for writing and performing vocalese lyric are Eddie Jefferson and Jon Hendricks.

Mainstream - After the end of the Big Band era, as these large ensembles broke into smaller groups, Swing music continued to be played. Some of Swing's finest players could be heard at their best in jam sessions of the 1950s where chordal improvisation now would take significance over melodic embellishment.

Re-emerging as a loose Jazz style in the late '70s and '80s, Mainstream Jazz picked up influences from Cool, Classic and Hardbop. The terms Modern Mainstream or Post Bop are used for almost any Jazz style that cannot be closely associated with historical styles of Jazz music.

Cool - Evolving directly from Bop in the late 1940's and 1950's, Cool's smoothed out mixture of Bop and Swing tones were again harmonic and dynamics were now softened. The ensemble arrangement had regained importance. Nicknamed "West Coast Jazz" because of the many innovations coming from Los Angeles, Cool became nation wide by the end of the 1950's, with significant contributions from East Coast musicians and composers.

Hard Bop - An extension of Bebop that was somewhat interrupted by the Cool sounds of West Coast Jazz, Hard Bop melodies tend to be more "soulful" than Bebop, borrowing at times from Rhythm & Blues and even Gospel themes. The rhythm section is sophisticated and more diverse than the Bop of the 1940's. Pianist Horace Silver is known for his Hard Bop innovations.

Bossa Nova - A blend of West Coast Cool, European classical harmonies and seductive Brazilian samba rhythms, Bossa Nova or more correctly "Brazilian Jazz", reached the United States c.1962 (timeline). The subtle but hypnotic acoustic guitar rhythms accent simple melodies sung in either (or both) Portuguese or English. Pioneered by Brazilians' Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, this alternative to the 60's Hard Bop and Free Jazz styles, gained popular exposure by West Coast players like guitarist Charlie Byrd & saxophonist Stan Getz.

Modal - As smaller ensemble soloists became increasingly hungry for new improvisational directives, some players sought to venture beyond Western adaptation of major and minor scales. Drawing from medieval church modes, which used altered intervals between common tones, players found new inspiration. Soloists could now free themselves from the restrictions of dominant keys and shift the tonal centers to form new harmonics within their playing. This became especially useful with pianists and guitarists, as well as trumpet and sax players. Pianist Bill Evans is noted for his Modal approach.

Free Jazz - Sometimes referred to as "Avante Garde", true Free Jazz soloists shed even the ensemble arrangement structure, giving for a totally "free" impulse experience to the music. If Ornette Coleman was considered the prophet of Free Jazz, then John Coltrane would surely be it's leading disciple.

This radical departure from past styles invited much debate about whether it would even qualify as music and soon found its place in the Jazz underground. Ironically, the much ignored Free Jazz continues to influence the Mainstream today.

Soul Jazz - Derived from Hardbop, Soul Jazz is perhaps the most popular Jazz style of the 1960's. Improvising to chord progressions as with Bop, the soloist strives to create an exciting performance. The ensemble of musicians concentrates on a rhythmic groove centered around a strong but varied bassline.

Horace Silver had a large influence of style by infusing funky and often Gospel drawn piano vamps into his compositions. The Hammond organ also gained mass attention as the flagship instrument of Soul Jazz.

Groove - An off-shoot of Soul Jazz, Groove draws its tones from the blues and focuses mainly on the rhythm. Sometimes referred to as "Funk" it concentrates on maintaining the continuous rhythm "hook" complimented lightly by instrumental and sometimes lyrical ornaments.

Groove is full of joyous emotions inviting listeners to dance, whether in bluesy slow vamps or up-beat. Improvised solos are kept subordinate to the beat and the collective sound.

Fusion - By the early 1970's, the term "Fusion" had come to identity a mixture of Jazz improvisation with the energy and new rhythms of Rock music. To the dismay of many Jazz purists, some of Jazz most significant innovators crossed over from the contemporary Hardbop into Fusion. Eventually commercial influences succeeded in undermining its original innovations. While it is arguable that this Fusion benefitted the evolution of Rock, few of its influences remain in today's Jazz.

Afro-Cuban Jazz - also known as Latin Jazz, is a combination of Jazz improvising and highly infectious rhythms. It can be traced to trumpeter-arranger Mario Bauza and percussionist Chano Pozo who had a significant influence on Dizzy Gillespie (among others) in the mid 1940s. Evolving from it's early Bop centered roots, Afro-Cuban Jazz has become a true fusion between North, South and Central America.

Instrumentation can vary widely but typically centered around the rhythm section consisting of conga, timbale, bongo and other latin percussion, with piano, guitar or vibes and joined often by horns and vocals. Arturo Sandoval, Pancho Sanchez and Chucho Valdes are well known Afro-Cuban Jazz artists.

Post Bop - The terms Modern Mainstream or Post Bop are used for almost any style that cannot be closely associated with historical types of Jazz music. Starting in 1979, a new emergence of players hit the scene with a fresh approach to the Hard Bop of the 1960s, but rather than take it into the Groove and Funk rhythms that had evolved a generation before, these "young lions" added the textures and influences of the 1980s and 90s. Elements of Avant-Garde offer soloists new exploratory directions while polyrhythmic beats from Caribbean influences lend a wider diversity than previous Bop music.

Acid Jazz - The term Acid Jazz is loosely used to cover a wide range of music. Although it is not a true style of Jazz music that has evolved from traditional stems, it is too significant to ignore as a member of the genre.

Originating in the 1987 British dance scene, it defined a funky music style which incorporated sampled classic Jazz tracks, 70s Funk, Hip-Hop, Soul and Latin grooves, with the main focus on instrumental music and not the lyric. The resulting mosaic usually ignored improvisation giving argument to whether Acid Jazz is, in fact, Jazz.

Smooth Jazz - Evolving from Fusion, but leaving behind the energetic solos and dynamic crescendos, Smooth Jazz emphasizes its polished side. Improvisation is also largely ignored giving argument whether the term "Jazz" can truly apply.

High tech layering of synthesizers and rhythm tracks give it unobtrusive and slick packaging, where the ensemble sound matters more than individual expression. This also separates this style from other more "live" performances. Instruments include electric keyboards, alto or soprano sax, guitar, bass guitar and percussion. Smooth Jazz has perhaps become the most commercially viable form of all Jazz styles since Swing.

European - At the end of the 20th century, many Scandinavian and French musicians, feeling that Mainstream American Jazz expression had retreated into the past, began creating a new style nicknamed "the European."

As with Acid Jazz, European seeks to return to Jazz roots as dance music. Combining elements from House (a type of disco music based on Funk, with fragments of other recordings edited in electronically) with acoustic, electronic and sampled sound to create a popular and populist variety of contemporary Jazz. Musicians involved in this movement include Norwegian pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, French pianists Martial Solal and Laurent de Wilde and saxophonist Julien Lourau.

Νομίζω ότι δεν χρειάζεται να προσθέσω κάτι άλλο, άρα JAZZ δεν είναι μόνο ή BlueNote είναι κάτι παραπάνω από ένας αιώνας "έκφραση και τρόπος ζωής".

Χωρίς παρεξήγηση φίλε Θάνο.
 

AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
Απάντηση: Τι είναι JAzz???

Και μιας και το θέμα μας είναι η Jazz συνεχίζω με λίγες πληροφορίες, ιστορικές:

Jazz Timeline
Including first cousin - The Blues

Ragtime
- 1900 -
The Jazz timeline of style development has evolved significantly, spanning three centuries. Since its birth, well over two dozen distinct Jazz styles have emerged.

folk bluesNew Orleans Style
- 1920 -
The origins of Jazz are attributed to turn of the 20th century New Orleans, although this unique, artistic medium occurred almost simultaneously in other North American areas like Kansas City, Saint Louis and Chicago. Traits carried from West African black folk music developed in the Americas, joined with European popular and light classical music of the late 18th and 19th centuries, became the syncopated rhythms of Ragtime and minor chord voicings characteristic of the Blues.


Hot JazzChicago Styleboogie blues
- 1930 -
Most early Jazz was played in small marching bands or by solo banjo or piano. The dynamic of Jazz improvisation arose quickly but as an ornament of melody and was not to come into its own soloing styles until circa 1925.

SwingKansas City Styleclassic bluesGypsy Jazz
- 1940 -
During the years from the First to the Second World War (1914-1940) Europe, i.e. Paris, embraced Jazz music as its own. American musicians spread the globe as ambassadors of Jazz often in self-imposed exile from racial and social tensions at home, others in search of cultural and creative freedoms thought to exist abroad. Jazz music transformed from primarily an African-American genre into an international phenomenon.

Beboprhythm & bluesVocalese
- 1950 -
Post-war depression and the break-up of the 'Big Bands' brought a focus on the smaller ensemble sound and the emancipation of Jazz styles. Perhaps the most innovative, forward discoveries in style took place at this time.

MainstreamCoolsouthern bluesHard BopBossa Nova
- 1960 -
ModalFree JazzSoul Jazzsoul bluesGroove
- 1970 -
The 1950s Jazz scene faced new competition from other forms of entertainment. The growing popularity of television helped to introduce new popular music trends but shrinking Jazz audiences. Then Jazz music suffered an almost fatal trend upheaval first from the record industry's frenzy over Rock & Roll in the mid 1960s and followed by the Disco dance fad in the early 1970s. Many Jazz artists crossed over to more popular venues or joined the new Fusion school of Jazz.

blues funkFusionModern Mainstream
- 1980 -
During the 1980's, the Jazz timeline continued to evolve on a somewhat lateral direction with a multitude of influences, the most significant of which was the retro surfacing of it's own roots and styles. With an emergence of innovative young players revitalizing the creative spirits and a consistent increase of Jazz "purists" from the USA, Europe and abroad, the necessary energy and passion for creativity has continued to grow.

Afro-Cuban JazzPost Bopreturn classic bluesAcid Jazz
- 1990 -
Post Bop, now interpreted with a modern preciseness and proficiency, ushered in the school of Classicism, circa 1990. This 'retro-renaissance' has become the passion of listeners and followers of every age group, of every culture and has brought a new awareness to the early sounds of legendary players.
An unexpected fad of the 1990s was the emergence of Retro Swing, a joyous, easy listening celebration of Jump Blues, Hot Dance and Swing hybrid (sans soloing) played by young musicians from Indie Rock.
Hard Bop RevivalClassicismSmooth Jazzjump bluesRetro Swing

- 2000 -
European
Except for possibly Smooth Jazz and the European House dance music, significant change of Jazz style has not occurred since.
 

AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
Επειδή πιστεύω πως η Ιστορία της Jazz αξίζει και μόνο σαν αναφορά ανοίγω ένα νέο Thread στο οποίο θα μπορέσετε να ενημερωθείτε για τον κόσμο της Jazz γενικότερα.

Θα παρακαλέσω να μην υπάρξουν αντιπαραθέσεις, ξέρετε εσείς...:grinning-smiley-043

Ευχαριστώ.
 

AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
Etymology of Jazz
JAS, JASS, JAZ, JASCZ or just plain JAZZ

"If the truth was really known about the origins of Jazz,
it would certainly never be mentioned in polite society."


The expression arose sometime during the later nineteenth century in the better brothels of New Orleans, which provided music and dancing as well as sex. The original Jazz band, according to Herbert Asbury's The Latin Quarter (1938), was the 'Spasm Band' made up of seven boys, aged twelve to fifteen, who first appeared in New Orleans about 1895. They advertised themselves as the "Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band."

In c.1900 (see Jazz Timeline) another band adopted the same billing for an appearance at the Haymarket dance hall, it is said the 'Spasms' loaded their pockets with rocks and dropped by to protest the infringement. This prompted the owner of the hall to repaint his advertising placards to read: "Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band!" If the memories of Asbury's sources were correct (he talked to two surviving members of the 'Spasms') this represents the word's earliest-known appearance in print.

'Jazz' is not a bad word now, but almost certainly is of extremely low origin, referring to copulation before it was applied to music, dancing, and nonsense (i.e., all that Jazz). The vulgar word was in general currency in dance halls thirty years or more ago" (Clay Smith, Etude 9/24). "According to Raven I. McDavid Sr. of Greenville, S.C., the 1919 announcement of the first 'Jazz band' to play in Columbia, where he was then serving in the state legislature, inspired feelings of terror among the local Baptists such as what might have been aroused by a personal appearance of Yahweh. Until that time 'Jazz' had never been heard in the Palmetto States except as a verb meaning to copulate" (H. L. Mencken, The American Language Raven I. McDavid Jr. 1963). "She never stepped out of line once in all the years we been teamed up. I can't sell her on jazzing the chump now" (William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley 1946).

'Jazz' probably comes from a Creole or perhaps African word, but exact connections have not been proven. The presumed sexual origin is quite in accord with the development of many other related words, most notably:

'boogie-woogie' was used in the nineteenth century by blacks in the American South to refer to secondary syphilis.

'gig' the musician's engagement, probably derives immediately from the 'gig' that is a dance or party, but 'gig' and 'gigi' (or 'giggy') also are old slang terms for the vulva; the first has been dated to the seventeenth century.

'jelly roll' is black slang from the nineteenth century for the vulva, with various related meanings, i.e. sexual intercourse, a loving woman, a man obsessed with finding same. "What you want?" she asked softly. "Jelly roll?'" (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward Angel 1929). The term probably derives from 'jelly' meaning semen: "Give her cold jelly to take up her belly, And once a day swinge her again" (John Fletcher, The Begger's Bush 1622). Related expressions include 'jelly bag,' referring both to the scrotum and the female genitals; 'jerk [one's] jelly,' to masturbate; and 'jelly,' a good-looking woman. 'Jelly roll' appears in many blues songs, such as "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None o' My Jelly Roll," "Nobody in Town Can Bake a Jelly Roll Like Mine," and "Jelly Roll Blues," the last by Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe "Jelly Roll" Morton (1885-1941).

'juke' The modern 'jukebox' was preceded by 'juke house' which was a brothel to Southern blacks; the basic term coming from a Gullah word meaning disorderly or wicked.

'swing' The now archaic 'swinge' was used for many years as a synonym for copulation ('swive' according to the OED's discreet definition). Note the quote from 1622 in 'jelly roll' above. Or as John Dryden put it: "And that baggage, Beatrix, how I would swinge her if I could" (Enemy's Love 1668). The oldest meaning of both 'swinge' and 'swing' deal with beating, striking and whipping (i.e., the swing of a weapon predates the back and forth swaying of a swing or the rhythmic swing of music). For reasons that are not hard to guess, the conjunction of violent and sexual senses within the same word is very common.

In a more modern sense, Swing has been used describing 'wife-swapping' and related activities involving one or more partners of either sex. It has been so used from about 1964 or earlier, depending on the interpretation one gives to Frank Sinatra's 1956 record album Songs for Swinging Lovers.
 

AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
Glossary of Jazz Terms
Defined from the perspective of the Jazz musician
Jazz Glossary


A Section: The first section of a tune, typically 8 bars; the main theme.

AABA: The most common form in pop music. Typical of songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, etc. See Song Form.

Alteration: The raising or lowering of a tone by a half-step, from its diatonic value in a chord. In Jazz usage, the fifth and ninth may be raised (augmented) or lowered (diminished); the fourth (or eleventh) may be augmented; the thirteenth may be diminished. The expression 'diminished seventh' is used solely as the name of a chord. Of course, in general music theory, any interval may be augmented or diminished.

Altered scale: The dominant 7th scale with a lowered 9th, raised 9th, raised 11th, no fifth, and lowered 13th, along with the usual root, 3rd and 7th. So-called because every possible alteration has been made.

Augmented: Raised by a half-step. See 'Alteration'.

Augmented 7th (+7): A dominant 7th chord with a raised 5th added. The name is misleading because it is not the 7th that is augmented.

Axe: One's instrument. Even said of the voice.

B Section: Same as bridge.

Back-beat: Beats 2 and 4 in 4/4 time, particularly when they are strongly accented. A term more used in rock 'n roll.

Ballad: A slow tune. Ballad playing is replete with its own idiomatic devices.

Bebop: The style of Jazz developed by young players in the early 40s, particularly Parker, Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian and Bud Powell. Small groups were favored, and simple standard tunes or just their chord progressions were used as springboards for rapid, many-noted improvisations using long, irregular, syncopated phrasing. Improv was based on chordal harmony rather than the tune. The 'higher intervals' of the chords (9th, 11th and 13th) were emphasized in improv and in piano chord voicings, and alterations were used more freely than before, especially the augmented 11th. The ground beat was moved from the bass drum to the ride cymbal and the string bass, and the rhythmic feel is more flowing and subtle than before. Instrumental virtuosity was stressed, while tone quality became more restrained, less obviously 'expressive'.

Block Chords: A style of piano playing, developed by Milt Buckner and George Shearing, with both hands 'locked' together, playing chords in parallel with the melody, usually in fairly close position. It is a technical procedure requiring much practice, and can sound dated if the harmonies are not advanced enough. Also called locked hands.

Blow: The usual term for 'improvise.' It has a more mystical aura. Also, simply to play an instrument.

Blowing changes: The chords of a tune, particularly those intended specifically for improvising which may vary somewhat from the changes of the head. Sometimes written on a separate page.

Blues: (1) A form normally consisting of 12 bars, staying in one key and moving to IV at bar 5. (2) A melodic style, with typical associated harmonies, using certain 'blues scales', riffs and grace notes. (3) A musical genre, ancestral to Jazz and part of it. (4) A feeling that is said to inform all of Jazz.

Boogie (boogie-woogie): A style of piano playing very popular in the thirties. Blues, with continuous repeated eighth note patterns in the left hand and exciting but often stereotyped blues riffs and figures in the right hand.

Break: A transitional passage in which a soloist plays unaccompanied.

Bridge: The contrasting middle section of a tune, especially the 'B' section of an AABA song form. Traditionally, the bridge goes into a different key, often a remote key. Thelonious Monk once remarked that the function of a bridge is 'to make the outside sound good'.

Broken time: A way of playing in which the beat is not stated explicitly. Irregular, improvised syncopation. Especially applied to bass and drum playing.

Cadence: A key-establishing chord progression, generally following the circle of fifths. A turnaround is one example of a cadence. Sometimes a whole section of a tune can be an extended cadence. In understanding the harmonic structure of a tune, it's important to see which chords are connected to which others in cadences.

CESH: Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony, a foolish term used in some Jazz textbooks. The use of moving inner voices to give propulsion to a chord that lasts for a while.

Changes: (1) The chords of a tune. 'Playing' or 'running' the changes means using suitable scales, etc., over each given chord of the tune. Determining the exact changes to use is a big part of preparing a tune for performance. (2) Rhythm Changes (q.v.) for short.

Channel: An old term for the bridge.

Chase: Two soloists, such as the trumpet and sax, taking alternating 4-bar phrases (or 8, or 2). See Trading 4s.

Chart: (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 beginning. The standards of musical notation and calligraphy are low. Details are often scanty or inaccurate, which encourages the musician to amend and elaborate the chart for his own purposes. Every Jazz musician has his own book of miscellaneous charts.

Chops: Technical ability, to execute music physically and to negotiate chord changes. Distinct from the capacity to have good ideas, to phrase effectively and build a solo.

Chord: 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 other tones at certain intervals from the root, without regard to the actual voicing of the notes on the piano (see Voicing and Scale).

Chord tones: The root, third, fifth and seventh of a chord, as opposed to extensions.

Chromatic: Pertaining to or derived from the chromatic scale, which includes all 12 tones to the octave. Chromatic harmony is a vague term referring either to the use of many altered tones in the chord, or to the use of chromatic root-movement in between the given chords.

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

Close voicing: One in which the chord tones are bunched together, generally within an octave range.

Coda: (1) A portion of a tune which seems like a tail, or extra measures, added to the last A section. It is repeated for every chorus, however. (2) An ending for a tune, used only once after the final chorus. There is often confusion in written charts as to whether a coda is 'every time' or 'out-chorus only'. Some charts, to save space, are written so that the tune appears to have a coda, but it's really just a normal part of the tune.

Cool: The style of the early 50s, taken up by many white musicians and popular on college campuses. The basis was bebop, but the fastest tempos were not used and the sound was quiet and understated. Miles Davis was one of the main originators.

Counting off: Giving the tempo and meter by counting aloud.

Cross-rhythm: 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 Jazz performance. In ballad playing, for example, there is commonly a triplet-quarter-note rhythm that implicitly continues through the 4/4 meter and is "tapped-into" from time to time.

Crush: On the piano, a half-step played simultaneously.

Diatonic: The contrary of 'chromatic'. Said of melody or harmony using only the unaltered major (or sometimes minor) scale.

Diminished: Lowered by a half-step. See 'Alteration'.

Diminished triad: Triad composed of two stacked minor thirds root, minor third, and diminished fifth.

Diminished seventh (Ί7): Chord composed of 4 notes, stacked in minor thirds. The symbol is a small raised circle. Since an additional minor third on top will be the octave of the bottom note, inversions of a Ί7 will have the same interval structure in other words, they will also be diminished 7th chords in their own right. The extensions of a Ί7 are a ninth (or whole step) above each chord tone. Effective modern voicing requires using at least one extension; plain Ί7 chords sound remarkably old-fashioned. If the chord tones and extensions are put together within an octave, the diminished scale results. Often called just 'diminished' with '7th' being implied.

Diminished Scale: A scale of 8 notes to the octave in alternating whole-steps and half-steps. There are just three different diminished scales. Quite a complicated system of voicings and motivic patterns for diminished has been developed by modern players.

Dot time: A cross-rhythm based on dotted quarter notes, extending through a passage.

Double time: A tempo twice as fast, with the time feel, bar lines and chords moving at twice the speed.

Double time feel: A time feel twice as fast, so that written eighth notes now sound like quarter notes, while the chords continue at the same speed as before.

Eight to the bar: Continuous eighth-note rhythm, as in boogie-woogie left hand patterns.

Extensions: The ninth, eleventh and thirteenth of a chord.

Fake Book: A collection of Jazz charts, published without paying royalties and thus illegal (not in the Public Domain.) For decades, a book called '1000 Standard Tunes' circulated; you can still see its grossly simplified charts, written three to a page. Some 25 years ago the "Real Book" appeared, out of the Berklee School of Music, with some 400 tunes in excellent calligraphy. This has become the standard and all Jazz musicians are expected to have a copy. More recently a number of legal fake books have been published. The best is The Ultimate Jazz Fakebook.

Free: Without rules. Especially, improvising without regard to the chord changes, or without any chord changes. Usually there is an implied restriction in 'free' playing preventing one from sounding as if chord changes are being used.

Free Jazz: A style of the early and middle sixties, involving 'free' playing and a vehement affect. It was originally associated with black cultural nationalism. Sometimes two drummers and/or two bass players were used. Some free Jazz was not very good, and some who played it later denounced it, but the style became an ingredient in future styles.

Fusion: A style developed in the late 60s by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and others, partly as a reaction to the eclipse of Jazz on the music scene by rock. Incorporated elements of rock into Jazz and made greater use of repetition and non-improvised passages. Harmonic language was simplified; key feeling tended to be established by repetition rather than harmonic movement. Straight-8 time and a strong back-beat predominated.

Front: 'In front' means before the top, as an intro.

Front line: The horn players in a combo, those who aren't in the rhythm section.

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AFam

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11 September 2006
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A Section: The first section of a tune, typically 8 bars; the main theme.

AABA: The most common form in pop music. Typical of songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, etc. See Song Form.

Alteration: The raising or lowering of a tone by a half-step, from its diatonic value in a chord. In Jazz usage, the fifth and ninth may be raised (augmented) or lowered (diminished); the fourth (or eleventh) may be augmented; the thirteenth may be diminished. The expression 'diminished seventh' is used solely as the name of a chord. Of course, in general music theory, any interval may be augmented or diminished.

Altered scale: The dominant 7th scale with a lowered 9th, raised 9th, raised 11th, no fifth, and lowered 13th, along with the usual root, 3rd and 7th. So-called because every possible alteration has been made.

Augmented: Raised by a half-step. See 'Alteration'.

Augmented 7th (+7): A dominant 7th chord with a raised 5th added. The name is misleading because it is not the 7th that is augmented.

Axe: One's instrument. Even said of the voice.

B Section: Same as bridge.

Back-beat: Beats 2 and 4 in 4/4 time, particularly when they are strongly accented. A term more used in rock 'n roll.

Ballad: A slow tune. Ballad playing is replete with its own idiomatic devices.

Bebop: The style of Jazz developed by young players in the early 40s, particularly Parker, Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian and Bud Powell. Small groups were favored, and simple standard tunes or just their chord progressions were used as springboards for rapid, many-noted improvisations using long, irregular, syncopated phrasing. Improv was based on chordal harmony rather than the tune. The 'higher intervals' of the chords (9th, 11th and 13th) were emphasized in improv and in piano chord voicings, and alterations were used more freely than before, especially the augmented 11th. The ground beat was moved from the bass drum to the ride cymbal and the string bass, and the rhythmic feel is more flowing and subtle than before. Instrumental virtuosity was stressed, while tone quality became more restrained, less obviously 'expressive'.

Block Chords: A style of piano playing, developed by Milt Buckner and George Shearing, with both hands 'locked' together, playing chords in parallel with the melody, usually in fairly close position. It is a technical procedure requiring much practice, and can sound dated if the harmonies are not advanced enough. Also called locked hands.

Blow: The usual term for 'improvise.' It has a more mystical aura. Also, simply to play an instrument.

Blowing changes: The chords of a tune, particularly those intended specifically for improvising which may vary somewhat from the changes of the head. Sometimes written on a separate page.

Blues: (1) A form normally consisting of 12 bars, staying in one key and moving to IV at bar 5. (2) A melodic style, with typical associated harmonies, using certain 'blues scales', riffs and grace notes. (3) A musical genre, ancestral to Jazz and part of it. (4) A feeling that is said to inform all of Jazz.

Boogie (boogie-woogie): A style of piano playing very popular in the thirties. Blues, with continuous repeated eighth note patterns in the left hand and exciting but often stereotyped blues riffs and figures in the right hand.

Break: A transitional passage in which a soloist plays unaccompanied.

Bridge: The contrasting middle section of a tune, especially the 'B' section of an AABA song form. Traditionally, the bridge goes into a different key, often a remote key. Thelonious Monk once remarked that the function of a bridge is 'to make the outside sound good'.

Broken time: A way of playing in which the beat is not stated explicitly. Irregular, improvised syncopation. Especially applied to bass and drum playing.

Cadence: A key-establishing chord progression, generally following the circle of fifths. A turnaround is one example of a cadence. Sometimes a whole section of a tune can be an extended cadence. In understanding the harmonic structure of a tune, it's important to see which chords are connected to which others in cadences.

CESH: Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony, a foolish term used in some Jazz textbooks. The use of moving inner voices to give propulsion to a chord that lasts for a while.

Changes: (1) The chords of a tune. 'Playing' or 'running' the changes means using suitable scales, etc., over each given chord of the tune. Determining the exact changes to use is a big part of preparing a tune for performance. (2) Rhythm Changes (q.v.) for short.

Channel: An old term for the bridge.

Chase: Two soloists, such as the trumpet and sax, taking alternating 4-bar phrases (or 8, or 2). See Trading 4s.

Chart: (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 beginning. The standards of musical notation and calligraphy are low. Details are often scanty or inaccurate, which encourages the musician to amend and elaborate the chart for his own purposes. Every Jazz musician has his own book of miscellaneous charts.

Chops: Technical ability, to execute music physically and to negotiate chord changes. Distinct from the capacity to have good ideas, to phrase effectively and build a solo.

Chord: 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 other tones at certain intervals from the root, without regard to the actual voicing of the notes on the piano (see Voicing and Scale).

Chord tones: The root, third, fifth and seventh of a chord, as opposed to extensions.

Chromatic: Pertaining to or derived from the chromatic scale, which includes all 12 tones to the octave. Chromatic harmony is a vague term referring either to the use of many altered tones in the chord, or to the use of chromatic root-movement in between the given chords.

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

Close voicing: One in which the chord tones are bunched together, generally within an octave range.

Coda: (1) A portion of a tune which seems like a tail, or extra measures, added to the last A section. It is repeated for every chorus, however. (2) An ending for a tune, used only once after the final chorus. There is often confusion in written charts as to whether a coda is 'every time' or 'out-chorus only'. Some charts, to save space, are written so that the tune appears to have a coda, but it's really just a normal part of the tune.

Cool: The style of the early 50s, taken up by many white musicians and popular on college campuses. The basis was bebop, but the fastest tempos were not used and the sound was quiet and understated. Miles Davis was one of the main originators.

Counting off: Giving the tempo and meter by counting aloud.

Cross-rhythm: 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 Jazz performance. In ballad playing, for example, there is commonly a triplet-quarter-note rhythm that implicitly continues through the 4/4 meter and is "tapped-into" from time to time.

Crush: On the piano, a half-step played simultaneously.

Diatonic: The contrary of 'chromatic'. Said of melody or harmony using only the unaltered major (or sometimes minor) scale.

Diminished: Lowered by a half-step. See 'Alteration'.

Diminished triad: Triad composed of two stacked minor thirds root, minor third, and diminished fifth.

Diminished seventh (Ί7): Chord composed of 4 notes, stacked in minor thirds. The symbol is a small raised circle. Since an additional minor third on top will be the octave of the bottom note, inversions of a Ί7 will have the same interval structure in other words, they will also be diminished 7th chords in their own right. The extensions of a Ί7 are a ninth (or whole step) above each chord tone. Effective modern voicing requires using at least one extension; plain Ί7 chords sound remarkably old-fashioned. If the chord tones and extensions are put together within an octave, the diminished scale results. Often called just 'diminished' with '7th' being implied.

Diminished Scale: A scale of 8 notes to the octave in alternating whole-steps and half-steps. There are just three different diminished scales. Quite a complicated system of voicings and motivic patterns for diminished has been developed by modern players.

Dot time: A cross-rhythm based on dotted quarter notes, extending through a passage.

Double time: A tempo twice as fast, with the time feel, bar lines and chords moving at twice the speed.

Double time feel: A time feel twice as fast, so that written eighth notes now sound like quarter notes, while the chords continue at the same speed as before.

Eight to the bar: Continuous eighth-note rhythm, as in boogie-woogie left hand patterns.

Extensions: The ninth, eleventh and thirteenth of a chord.

Fake Book: A collection of Jazz charts, published without paying royalties and thus illegal (not in the Public Domain.) For decades, a book called '1000 Standard Tunes' circulated; you can still see its grossly simplified charts, written three to a page. Some 25 years ago the "Real Book" appeared, out of the Berklee School of Music, with some 400 tunes in excellent calligraphy. This has become the standard and all Jazz musicians are expected to have a copy. More recently a number of legal fake books have been published. The best is The Ultimate Jazz Fakebook.

Free: Without rules. Especially, improvising without regard to the chord changes, or without any chord changes. Usually there is an implied restriction in 'free' playing preventing one from sounding as if chord changes are being used.

Free Jazz: A style of the early and middle sixties, involving 'free' playing and a vehement affect. It was originally associated with black cultural nationalism. Sometimes two drummers and/or two bass players were used. Some free Jazz was not very good, and some who played it later denounced it, but the style became an ingredient in future styles.

Fusion: A style developed in the late 60s by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and others, partly as a reaction to the eclipse of Jazz on the music scene by rock. Incorporated elements of rock into Jazz and made greater use of repetition and non-improvised passages. Harmonic language was simplified; key feeling tended to be established by repetition rather than harmonic movement. Straight-8 time and a strong back-beat predominated.

Front: 'In front' means before the top, as an intro.

Front line: The horn players in a combo, those who aren't in the rhythm section.

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AFam

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Grand Staff: The complete 11 line staff encompassing the treble, alto, tenor and bass cleffs.

Go out: Take the final chorus, end.

Groove: An infectious feeling of rightness in the rhythm, of being perfectly centered. This is a difficult term to define. A Medium Groove is a tempo of, say, 112, with a slinky or funky feeling.

Ground beat: The basic metric beat, most often in quarter-notes, whether explicitly stated or not.

Half-diminished ( ψ ): The chord with a minor third, a lowered (diminished) fifth, and a minor seventh. Formally called 'minor 7 flat 5'. This chord probably evolved from the IV minor 6th chord, which was common in the swing period; if its sixth is taken to be the root, a half-diminished chord results. The symbol is a small O with a diagonal slash. It is most often the harmony of the ii in a ii-V-I progression in a minor key. Two different scales have been commonly used for this chord; one with a flat 9th, the 'locrian', and one with an unflatted ninth, the latter scale being more modern.

Half time: A tempo half as fast.

Half time feel: A time feel half as fast, while the chords go by in the same amount of time. Occurs in the intro to Chick Corea's Tones for Joan's Bones.

Hard Bop: The style of the late 50s, engineered by Horace Silver, Art Blakey, etc. Still essentially Bebop, the style used hard-driving rhythmic feel and vehement, biting lines and harmony drenched with urban blues, rhythm 'n blues and gospel. Original compositions were stressed over the old standards used in Bebop, ranging from simple riff-based blues to elaborate compositions, sometimes using whole-tone scales. Hard Bop had a black, street flavor, a reaction, in part, to the intellectuality of the Cool School.

Harmonic rhythm: The structural organization of chord progressions in time; the rate at which the chords pass by. Since this may not be related to the rhythms of the actual notes, it is an abstract concept.

Head: The first (and last) chorus of a tune, in which the song or melody is stated without improvisation or with minimal improvisation.

Hip (or Hep): Keenly aware of or knowledgeable about life's developments, especially in the arts. "Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain't..."

Horn: A wind instrument; or any instrument.

Improvisation (improv): 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 possibilities of the chords' harmonies, or (like Ornette Coleman) on a basis of pure melody. The 'improv' also refers to the improvisational section of the tune, as opposed to the head.

Inner voice: A melodic line, no matter how fragmentary, lying between the bass and the melody.

Interlude: An additional section in a tune, especially one between one person's solo and another's. The Dizzy Gillespie standard A Night In Tunisia has a famous interlude.

Intro (Introduction): A composed section at the beginning of a tune, heard only once.

Inversion: (1) In traditional music theory, a chord with a note other than the root in the bass. (2) With regard to any particular voicing, especially a left-hand rootless voicing, a rearrangement of the voicing by moving the bottom note up an octave. Or, any one octavewise arrangement of a voicing.

Jazz: (1) A style of American music that originated in New Orleans circa 1900, characterized by strong, prominent meter, improvisation, distinctive tone colors and performance techniques, and dotted or syncopated rhythmic patterns. (2) In a big band chart, a rhythm indication for medium to up-tempo swing (as opposed to latin).

Jazz Standard: A well-known tune by a Jazz musician. See Standard.

Jump: A very fast 4/4, usually in a dance-band context.

Latin: (1) Afro-Cuban, Brazilian or other South American-derived. There are many special terms used in Latin music and I haven't tried to include them here. (2) Played with equal eighth notes as opposed to swung (see swing def. 2). Also 'straight-8'. The feel of bossa novas and sambas.

Lay out: Not play. See stroll.

Left hand rootless voicing ('LHRV'): A close-position voicing without a root, played mainly in the octave of middle C. In a style perfected by Bill Evans, these left-hand chords are sprinkled in irregular syncopations under the right-hand melody. The absence of roots both frees the bass player and allows a richer harmony in the voicing. This has become the mainstream style of left-hand playing.

Legit: The Jazz musician's somewhat ironic term for music, or a gig, that is not Jazz.

Line: (1) A melody of successive, single notes. (2) A composed melody over predetermined chord changes, such as 'a line on Cherokee'. (3) One of the different voices, such as the bass or the melody.

Line-up: The personnel of a band.

Long Meter: A chart in 4/4 time is said to be written in long meter when a written eighth-note feels like a quarter-note, and a written half-measure feels like a whole measure. In this way, for example, a 64-bar tune can be written as if it were a 32-bar tune, which may make it easier to read. The term, though useful, is little-known.

Lydian: A major scale or chord with a raised 4th; the mode of the major scale built on 4. Regarded as the most fundamental Jazz scale by influential theorist George Russell.

Lydian Dominant: A dominant 7th scale with a raised 4th (11th). One of the fundamental forms of the dominant chord; also sometimes called 'lydo-mixian'. The scale/chord most appropriate for non-V dominants, such as II7 or bVII7.

Mainstream: The style of Jazz regarded by the average player as today's norm, as opposed to fusion, rock, avant-garde, etc.; sometimes the term implies a somewhat conservative, relatively diatonic vocabulary exemplified by Oscar Peterson. Mainstream Jazz is in a highly evolved state, having incorporated virtually the entire harmonic language of 20th century tonal music. In timbre, phrasing, form and rhythmic feel mainstream Jazz still rests on a basis of Bebop, which is why 'modern' Jazz is considered to have started with Bebop in the early 40s.

Medium: One of the standard Jazz tempos, neither 'up' nor 'ballad'.

Melodic minor: In Jazz, a scale with a minor 3rd but a major 6th and 7th (both up and down). This scale and its modes (Altered, Half-diminished and Lydian Dominant are the familiar ones) make up a realm called melodic minor harmony. Also called 'tonic minor'.

Melody: Specifically, the topmost line or voice.

Meter: A basic music term, but sometimes not fully understood. The organization of the beats of time (or ground beat), moving at a certain rate (the tempo), into groupings which are heirarchical, that is, there is a unit of a stated number of beats (the bar) which includes strong and weak beats in an organized pattern. All this is implied by a 'meter' of 4/4, 3/4, etc.

Modal: (1) Said of a section, or a whole tune, having static harmony (using one chord) and using scales from a particular mode, most typically the Dorian. (2) Having a key feeling derived not from dynamic chord progressions (like circle-of-fifths) but rather from repetition, monotony, and weight. (3) Loosely, a harmonic style that is diatonic and makes use of quartal harmony.

Mode: An incarnation of a scale in which a certain note is taken as the root. Thus, each scale has as many different modes as it has different tones. In common usage, the major scale and the melodic minor scale are regarded as 'given' and the scales constructed with other notes as the root are called modes. The modes of the major scale have names (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian); these names were applied in the Renaissance and have no relationship to the Greek originals. Some of the melodic minor scale's modes have names in today's theory: mode 3, the augmented major 7th; mode 4, the lydian dominant; mode 6, the half-diminished; mode 7, the altered.

Modern: The styles of Jazz since 1945. Especially applied to Bebop, Cool Jazz, and Hard Bop.

Modulation: The establishment of a new key. This is mainly a matter of harmonic progression, but expectation, emphasis and phrasing also enter into determining whether a new key has really been established. In standards, a modulation to the beginning of the bridge is strongly expected. Typically, a II - V or a iii - VI - ii - V progression in the new key is used.

Moldy Fig: A term used by the Beboppers to deride players and fans of older styles, especially trad. Someone whose tastes are not up to date.

Monster: A superior player.

Montuno: A term of Latin music which crops up in other Jazz. (1) An indefinitely repeated pattern of 1, 2 or 4 bars in the piano, typically with ingeniously syncopated moving inner voices and a differently syncopated bass line. (2) Incorrectly, a pyramiding vamp in which one instrument enters alone, then another is added, and so on at regular intervals.

Moving inner voice: A momentarily prominent line played by a voice in between the melody and the bass.

Neo-bop: The conservative Bebop style of several successful players in the 90s, like Roy Hargrove.

Open voicing: One in which the chord tones are spread out over a greater range.

Original: A tune composed by a Jazz musician and played by him but perhaps not well-known to others.

Out: The last chorus of a tune, when the head is played for the last time. On the stand the gesture of a raised clenched fist or a finger pointing to the head indicates that the out chorus is coming up.

Outer voice: The melody line or the bass, the top or bottom line.

Outro: A jocular term for coda; an added ending section.

Outside: (1) The A sections of a tune, the parts other than the bridge. (2) A manner of playing over changes that avoids using the normal scales, or has no relationship to the changes. (3) A style of playing without using conventional Jazz chords.

Pattern: A pre-planned melodic figure, repeated at different pitch levels. Something played automatically by the fingers without much thought. Reliance on patterns is the hallmark of a weak player.

Pedal: A bass line that stays mainly on one note (or its octaves) under several changes of harmony. Also pedal-point. The most typical situation is when a dominant pedal (bass on V) underlies a turnaround progression like I - VI - ii - V. The root of the I chord can also act as a pedal.

Pentatonic: Pertaining to scales of 5 notes to the octave, in particular 1-2-3-5-6 of the major scale. Pentatonic melodies are typical of much indigenous music around the world, and these scales are also an important part of the modern Jazz sound. Pentatonic melodies and patterns were especially typical of Jazz and fusion in the seventies.

Pickup: A phrase beginning that comes before the beginning of the first bar. A pickup can be one note or a longer phrase.

Pocket: In the pocket means perfectly in time, especially bass playing that is 'in the center' of the beat (rather than slightly leading or dragging the beat).

Polytonality: 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 single underlying tonality.

Progression: A definite series of chords, forming a passage with some harmonic unity or dramatic meaning. One speaks of the progressions that crop up repeatedly in different tunes, and studies how to negotiate them. Chords in progressions are labelled with Roman numerals (I, II, etc.) while scale degrees, and upper structures (q.v.), are labelled with arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.).

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AFam

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Quality: The character of a chord given by its third, fifth, and seventh. The qualities are major, dominant, minor, tonic minor, half-diminished and diminished. In theory augmented major and augmented (dominant) would also be 'qualities' but they are usually just considered alterations.

Quartal: Based on fourths. Chords built up of fourths were, famously, developed by McCoy Tyner in the John Coltrane Quartet in the 60s.

Quote: A snatch of some other well-known tune thrown into a solo. A good quote is unexpected, incongruous and yet seems to fit perfectly. Some quotes are clichιs, as 'Grand Canyon Suite' in 'All the Things You Are'.

Remote key: A key distant on the circle of fifths from the original one, such as E major compared to C major.

Riff: (1) A relatively simple, catchy repeated phrase. May be played behind a soloist or as part of a head. Often in a bluesy style. Riff tunes are made up of riffs, characteristic of the black bands of the 30s. (2) A pre-packaged phrase used by an improviser when he can't think of anything else, especially one which is especially catchy.

Root: 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, regardless of their actual intervallic relationship in an actual keyboard voicing. Note that the root is often absent in Jazz piano, both in voicings and in r.h. patterns and lines. This avoidance of the obvious is part of the character of Jazz.

Rhythm Changes: The chords to 'I Got Rhythm' (Gershwin), somewhat modified and simplified. Many Jazz tunes use these changes and every player must know them. There are several variations.

Rhythm Section: The piano, bass and drums in a combo, those who play throughout the tune, behind the soloists. Might also include guitar or vibes, or there might be no piano.

Run: A rapid descending, or ascending, usually right-hand passage on the piano in the form of a continuous scale, or a scale with variations.

Scale: (1) A selection of tones in the octave, arranged in ascending or descending order, usually but not always using intervals of half- or whole-steps, and using the same notes in every successive octave. One tone is usually thought of as being the root, but it need not be the first note played. Most scales have 5, 6, 7 or 8 notes to the octave but any number from 2 to 12 is possible. (2) The same group of tones regarded abstractly as a 'pool' of available notes. In this sense, scale really means the same as chord. There is a maxim: 'Scales are chords and chords are scales.' (3) A section of melody in the form of a scale.

Shed: Short for Woodshed, to practice diligently.

Shell: A two-note structure in the left hand, consisting of the root and one other note, usually the 7th, the 3rd or 10th, or the 6th. A simple, open left-hand style, used by Bud Powell and many of his imitators and followers.

Shout chorus: A special, complete, through-composed chorus played just before the final out-chorus. Used in classic (20s) Jazz, some bebop, and a few modern compositions, such as Wayne Shorter's This Is For Albert.

Side-slipping: To play a passage, a melody or chord, a half-step up or down from its expected place or in relation to the given harmony.

Solo: Any one player's improvisation over one or more choruses of the tune (occasionally, especially in ballads, less than one chorus). A sharp distinction is made between soloing, and playing the head.

Song form: A musical form with two contrasting themes A and B, thus-- A (8 bars); A repeated; B (8 bars); A repeated. The three A's have slightly different endings (turnarounds). Another common form may be called song form also, ABAB' (the second B starting like the first but ending differently). Most older standards are in song form.

Stand: The bandstand or stage.

Standard: A tune universally accepted and played by many Jazz musicians. Many standards are tin pan alley and Broadway songs from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Others are strictly Jazz compositions. A professional Jazz musician is expected to know many, many standards.

Stop time: A rhythm where certain beats aren't played, e.g. 1 2 3 (rest) 1 2 3 (rest).

Straight 8s: With equal, even 8th notes. Same as 'Latin'.

Stride: 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 'oom-pah' effect, interspersed with step-wise parallel tenths. The right hand often employs busy runs, arpeggios and octaves or full chords. Suggestions of stride remain in the technique of many of today's players.

Stroll: Omit the piano. A soloist (playing a horn) strolls when he plays for a time with bass and drums only (or maybe the pianist strolls outside to have a smoke).

Substitution: A chord put in the place of a different chord. A substitution can be made throughout a tune, or just ad lib at a particular moment. Usually the operative idea is that the root of the chord is changed, while the other voices are common to both chords. Typical examples bII 7 for V7, and iii for I.

Swing: (1) The style of the 30s, when the big band was the dominant form of Jazz. The style implies certain types of harmony (use of added 6ths rather than 7ths in major and minor chords, of un-embellished diminished chords, frequent use of the augmented 5th and little use of the augmented 11th, etc.) and a rhythmic organization that states the beat explicitly, puts more weight on 1 and 3 and tends to obey the bar-line phrasing. (2) A rhythmic manner, unique to Jazz, in which the first of a pair of written 8th notes is played longer than the second, even twice as long, while the second tends to receive a slight accent, though the distribution of accents is irregular and syncopated. (The degree of this effect depends on the overall tempo, and is modified by the requirements of expression and phrasing.) (3) As a direction in a chart, played with a swing feel, as opposed to latin. (4) A mysterious, unexplainable quality in any music, but especially Jazz, which makes one 'feel that shit all up in your body' (Miles Davis).

Syncopation: The process of displacing 'expected' beats by anticipation or delay of one-half a beat. The natural melodic accent which would fall, in 'square' music, on the beat, is thus heard on the off-beat. This adds a flavor of ambiguity as to where the beat is (not an actual ambiguity, only a flavor).

Tenor: The voice above the bass, often that played by the thumb of the left hand. Not a Jazz term.

Tetrachord: A four-note portion of a scale. For example, the diminished scale is composed of two tetrachords with identical interval constructions.

Third stream: A term coined by Gunther Schuller in the early 50s. The supposed confluence of Jazz and classical music.

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

Timbre: [pronounced tamb'r] Tone quality, characteristic instrumental sound. Not especially a Jazz term, but note that timbre is one of the basic dimensions of music along with rhythm, melody and harmony. Students sometimes have trouble developing a real Jazz timbre. For the piano the word 'touch' is more usual.

Time feel: (1) The subjective impression of which time unit constitutes one beat and how long a bar is. May or may not correspond to the written music. (2) The emotional quality of the rhythm.

Tonic minor: A scale / chord with a minor 3rd and a major 6th and 7th, generally used for the tonic or home chord in minor keys. Distinguished from other minor chord functions.

Top: The beginning point of each chorus, the first beat of the first measure.

Trad: (Traditional) the Jazz style of the of the early 1900s, known retrospectively as Dixieland. Used a marked 4/4 beat, triadic harmony, 'sectional' tunes (with numerous separate sections), simultaneous improvisation, largely I - IV - V type harmonies, etc.

Trading 4s (or 8s, 2s): A form of discontinuous drum solo in which 4 measure sections are alternately played solo by the drummer, and by the band with another soloist (who goes first). The latter can be one particular soloist throughout, or it can cycle through the different instruments. Also, two different instrumental soloists can trade 4s with each other, such as the trumpet and the sax. This is called a chase. Trading 4s usually goes on for one or two choruses.

Tranpose: To write or perform (a composition) in a key other than the original or given key, most often to accomodate the range of a vocalist or another instrument.

Triad: (1) Concretely, a chord of three notes - the root, 3rd and 5th - played together in close position in one of the three inversions. (2) Abstractly, a chord with a root, 3rd and 5th but no 7th. Might be decorated with the 6th or 9th. Triadic harmony is characteristic of Dixieland and rock.

Tritone: The interval of three whole steps, i.e. an augmented 4th or diminished 5th.

Tritone substitution: See 'Substitution'. The substitution of a chord whose root is a tritone away. In turnarounds it's common to do this for any of the chords.

Tune: A single Jazz composition or Jazz performance, a piece. The word 'song' is frowned on.

Turnaround: 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 the next section, or to the top. Typically the turnaround chords are I - VI - ii - V, with half a measure apiece. With possible substitutions and alterations, the variations are infinite. There are also entirely different progressions possible. If the opening chord of the next section is not a I chord, the turnaround must be suitable. Learning to negotiate turnarounds is essential to making a coherent solo. It's often effective to play a phrase that starts partway through a turnaround and continues past the beginning of the next section.

Up: In a fast tempo.

Upper structure: 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; at the same time it has the unified sound of a major triad.

Vamp: A simple section like a riff, designed to be repeated as often as necessary, especially one at the beginning of a tune. Also a constantly repeated bass line over which a solo is played.

Verse: In many older standard songs, an introductory section, often rubato, that leads up to the 'chorus' or main strain, which is the tune as generally recognized. Jazz players (and fakebooks) usually omit the verse, though singers like to use them.

Voice: Any one of the melodic lines formed by the flow of the music. The bass line and the melody form the two outer voices, and the tones in between may, to a greater or lesser extent, form melodic lines of their own called inner voices.

Voice-leading: Getting the succession of harmonic tones in the inner voices to form coherent melodic lines of their own, or, at least, to move in a smooth, mainly step-wise motion. The perfection of voice-leading was in Bach, where 4 or more independent melodies can mesh to form perfect chordal harmony.

Voicing: A particular arrangement of the notes of a chord in which chosen harmonies color the tone.

Walk: In bass playing, to play mostly one note per beat, making a smooth, continuous quarter-note line. A fulfillment of the time-keeping function of bass playing, which many bass players have transcended since around 1960. The pianist can also walk with his left hand.

West Coast School: A much criticized label for the 'Cool' style (q.v.) as it was taken up in California in the early 50s by mostly white players, like Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker and many lesser figures like pianist Russ Freeman. In addition to the typical features of cool Jazz, the style experimented with 'classical' instruments and complex counterpoint.

Whole-tone: 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 Thelonious Monk and explored in a number of hard bop originals.

Woodshed: To practice diligently. Also 'shed'.

X: 'Time'. Thus ' 4X ' on a chart means '[play] four times'
 

AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
Jazz Improvisation
Jazz Improvising - What is it?


Jazz improvisation is 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 possibilities of the chords' harmonies. It has been said that the best improvised music sounds composed, and that the best composed music sounds improvised. Composed music and improvised music may seem to be opposites, but in Jazz they merge in a unique mixture.

"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it." - Duke Ellington

A common misconception about Jazz improvisation is that it's invented out of the air. This notion may exist because many small Jazz groups do not read music when they perform. Jazz players will choose phrases that seem to be preordained so you intuitively know where they are going, even though it's being created at the instant you are hearing it. The musicians are actually spontaneously creating a very intricate form of theme and variation; they all know the tune and the role of their instrument. The guitar, piano, bass and drums, while all able to solo, basically provide the rhythm and harmony over which the soloist will create improvised variations. The structure is flexible so that the soloist may venture in various directions depending on the inspiration of the moment.

"In Jazz, improvisation isn't a matter of just making any ol' thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There's no right or wrong, just some choices that are better than others." - Wynton Marsalis

But there's more to Jazz than just improvisation. Composers such as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus wrote occasional Jazz compositions practically devoid of improvisation. The real challenge comes when a composer integrates improvisation into a piece, merging Jazz composition and improvisation in the act of creativity. Coleman Hawkins' Body and Soul, or Thelonious Monk's Straight, No Chaser, are sophisticated compositions built from the improvised line.

Composers including Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Liszt have all been celebrated for their ability to improvise. In a sense, all Jazz musicians are also composers. While they do not necessarily sit down with pen in hand to write out their solos on score paper, their solos do require the same discipline as that of any composer. Listen to players who are both great composers and soloists, such as Benny Carter or Billy Childs, improvise their own material and extend their creative reach.

"In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds." - Steve Lacy

Three methods of Jazz improvisation are melodic, harmonic and motivic. Improvised melody occurs when musicians use slurs, alternate notes and syncopation in order to recreate the melody in new and interesting ways. Improvising harmonically employs chords and tone centers to inspire new soloing. Improvising by redefining motives, phrases and statements serves to sophisticate the musical arrangement. Just as no two artists would paint a scene in the same way, no two musicians improvise in the same way. Seasoned Jazz musicians combine these techniques to create new works, inspired by the original melody, harmony and structure, but representing their unique creative passions.
 

AFam

AVClub Fanatic
11 September 2006
26,961
"My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul;
it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he
would not discover otherwise... a part of yourself you never knew existed."
- Bill Evans

Όσο πιο αναλυτικά μπορούσα να σας τα παρουσιάσω, αξίζει το κόπο να τα διαβάσετε.

Ο συγγραφέας όλων αυτών είναι ο D C DowDell
 

supersonic

Μέλος Σωματείου
17 June 2006
49,336
Αντώνη...
δώσε λίγο χρόνο στον κόσμο γιατί πέσανε πολλά μαζί.
 

Μιχάλης Κορ.

Moderator
Staff member
18 June 2006
21,453
Πειραιάς
Αν μου επιτρέπετε,
θα πρότεινα το παρακάτω βιβλίο που είναι μικρό κ περιεκτικό κ προτείνει ακούσματα τζαζ από όλες τις κατηγορίες, κάνοντας παράλληλα κ σχολιασμό.
Το έχω αγοράσει κ το προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα.

0141023279.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Το πήρα από το fnac στην αθήνα στο the mall στα 36 ευρώ.
http://www.fnac.gr/index.asp?pathID=1_2_36_37_125&srcterm=%F4%E6%E1%E6&pg=1&art=1236

Περισσότερες πληροφορίες κ σχολιασμός εδώ :
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=23610

-bye-
 

Δημήτρης Ν.

AVClub Fanatic
17 June 2006
10,209
Θεσσαλονίκη
Αν μου επιτρέπετε,
θα πρότεινα το παρακάτω βιβλίο που είναι μικρό κ περιεκτικό ( 1534 το μικρό και περιεκτικό ; τότε το μεγάλο ποιό είναι ; :flipout: ) κ προτείνει ακούσματα τζαζ από όλες τις κατηγορίες, κάνοντας παράλληλα κ σχολιασμό.
Το έχω αγοράσει κ το προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα.

0141023279.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Το πήρα από το fnac στην αθήνα στο the mall στα 36 ευρώ.
http://www.fnac.gr/index.asp?pathID=1_2_36_37_125&srcterm=%F4%E6%E1%E6&pg=1&art=1236

Περισσότερες πληροφορίες κ σχολιασμός εδώ :
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=23610

-bye-


:chinscratch: