Jazz Glossary

Musical Instrument Digital Interface: An electronic standard by which musical information can be exchanged between synthesizers and computers.

A name usually applied to the music played by musicians in the post-bop era who maintained a broad stylistic approach that was still in contact with earlier jazz styles.

A musical section added to the danzón form in the 1940s; a musical form with heavy jazz influence developed in the 1940s and 1950s (Latin).

Perez Prado, "Mambo No. 5"

Numbers and letters stamped near the center of a 78 RPM recording indicate the number of the take on the record.

A grouping of beats, which indicates the meter of a particular piece of music. (See also bar).

One of the three basic tempos of jazz, between ballad and up-tempo.

Melodic ornamentation by the use of more than one tone in singing a syllable.

A grouping of beats based on their repeating patterns. The pattern of note accents and values for a section or the whole of a piece of music (see bar, measure).

An interval smaller than a half tone.

Jazz played with slower moving harmonies; playing based on older modal scales, drones, or pedal points.

The pitches within the octave that make up the melodic material of a performance or composition; a scale.

The change of key (or a change in rhythm) within a musical piece.

A 1940s modern jazz fan's derogatory term for a fan of traditional jazz.

A repeated two- or three-chord pattern on the piano played behind the coro and instrumental solos (Latin).

The use of a few short fragments or elements of melody in developing a solo.

Playing instruments of different types as a means of expanding a musician's creative possibilities

A wind instrument or vocal technique by which more than one tone is produced simultaneously. (See also overblowing.)

James Morrison

Devices placed over the bell of a brass instrument for altering or softening the tone.