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Lindy Hop

Also "Jitterbug." A popular dance that drew on a number of African American popular dances, including tap, the Charleston, the Texas Tommy, and others, and reached its peak in the 1930s and 1940s. It was a form of choreographed swing, adding aerial moves, breakaways and acrobatics to mime the bravura style of the big swing bands.


Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (1941)

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lay back

To create an effect by falling behind the rhythm.

lay out

To temporarily cease playing while others continue.

lead

The melody or top part of an arrangement; a part played by a lead trumpet, lead alto saxophone, etc.

lead sheet

A piece of music in its simplest form: melody, words, and harmony.

left hand/right hand

A distinction made by drummers' and pianists' for the use of different hands.

legato

Performing with a minimal break between tones.

licks

Short musical ideas that are regularly repeated in the improvisations of a particular soloist. See formulaic improvisation.

line

A melody; one of the voices, such as bass line or melody line

lip

The strength and ability of brass players to execute music, especially high notes.

locked hands

A form of chord voicing for piano in which the left and right hands of a pianist moving together closely and in parallel, the left hand doubling the same chord played by the right. (See also block chords.)

lydian

A major chord or scale with a raised fourth. The composer George Russell saw the lydian as the most important jazz scale and made it the center of his theory of jazz.

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