bar—A rhythmic unit that contains a fixed number of beats; a measure.
bebop—A style of jazz developed during the 1940s, characterized by high-speed improvising, complex melody lines, and sophisticated harmonies.
big bands—Jazz bands of one or two dozen members, especially popular during the swing era of the 1930s.
blues—A type of folk song expressing sorrow, loneliness, defiance, or humor that originated among African Americans in the Deep South at the end of the nineteenth century.
burlesque—A type of humorous show featuring musical acts and comic skits.
cool jazz—A mellow style of jazz developed during the 1950s.
free jazz—A style of jazz developed during the 1960s characterized by few or no rules; players were free to dispense with the usual elements of jazz improvisation such as melodic themes and chord patterns.
gigs—Music jobs.
honky-tonks—Cheap nightclubs or dance halls.
jam session—An informal gathering of musicians to play music, especially improvised jazz.
jazz-rock fusion—A style of music that mixes jazz with rock, funk, and soul.
lyrics—The words to a song.
modal jazz—Jazz improvisation based on modes instead of chord changes. Modes are ancient scales used in medieval church music and Indian music.
mute—A device attached to a musical instrument to soften or muffle its tone.
octave—Eight notes of a scale.
ragtime—An African-American musical form featuring syncopated rhythms.
riffs—Short repeated rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic figures that form the basis of a musical composition.
scat singing—Vocal jazz improvisation consisting of nonsense syllables.
swing—A strong, syncopated rhythmic “groove” or feel created by playing behind or ahead of the beat; also a style of jazz popular during the 1930s and 1940s.
syncopated—Having accents or emphasis on the weak beat, or just before or after the beat.
transpose—To change a piece of music to another key.
vibrato—A quivering or pulsating effect created by slight and rapid variations in pitch.