2.  Louis Armstrong said, "Jazz is music that's never played the same way once."  Ralph Ellison said, "Jazz is an art of individual assertion within and against the group...”  You can see from the notes on the musical staff that some are normal, some are slurred, and some are syncopated. Skillful jazz musicians are able to combine all of these techniques to create new works of art right off the top of their head. This new creation is inspired by the original melody, but it represents the personality and feelings of the musician.

3. A. New Orleans via Africa and Europe  Jazz was born in New Orleans about 100 years ago (early 20th century), but its roots can be found in the musical traditions of both Africa and Europe. In fact, some people say that jazz is a union of African and European music.  From African music, jazz got its:  rhythm and "feel"  "blues" quality  tradition of playing an instrument in your own expressive way, making it an "extension" of your own human voice  From European music, jazz got its:  harmony -- that is, the chords that accompany the tunes (the chords played on the piano); jazz harmony is similar to classical music's harmony  instruments -- most of the instruments used in jazz originated in Europe (saxophone, trumpet, piano, etc.)  Musical improvisation came from both traditions.

4. B. Why New Orleans?  New Orleans was the perfect city for all of these elements to come together, as it was a port city (with people arriving from all parts of the world), a meeting place for people of different ethnic groups, and a city with a nightlife where musicians had the opportunity to play together, learn from each other, and blend all of these elements. C. African American Experience  Jazz was born out of and evolved through the African American experience in the U.S.  Jazz evolved from slave songs and spirituals (religious African American folk songs).  Jazz’s originators and most important innovators were primarily African Americans.

6.  Improvisation is when musicians use slurs, bent notes and syncopation in order to recreate the melody in new and interesting ways. Just as no two artists would paint the same scene the same way, no two musicians improvise a melody in the same way.  Slurs & Bent Notes:When musicians rapidly combine two or more notes, sliding smoothly between them, they are said to be "bending" or "slurring" the notes. This is sometimes called playing a "grace note.“  Musicians use slurs and bent notes to convey a feeling or emotion. Even though the notes of the melody now look radically different on the musical staff, you should still be able to hear the familiar tune.  Syncopation: Imagine a loudly ticking clock. The normal melody notes of Mary Had a Little Lamb match the ticking of the clock exactly. Syncopation, however, means playing those same notes either just before or just after the tick — in other words, "off the beat."

7.  Harmony is the simultaneous combination of tones, or musical notes, blended together into formations known as chords.  One way to think about harmony is that it represents the vertical aspect of notes piled up on top of each other and sounding at the same time, while melody is the horizontal aspect, with the individual noted following one another in a line.  Another aspect of chords is that some sound as though they want to resolve or keep moving to another chord, while others have a feeling of finality about them.  The interplay between these chords creates something akin to a musical conversation, and the increase and decrease in the tension between them is what makes music compelling and interesting to listen to.

8.  Rhythm is what the drums play. How the notes occur in time defines what the rhythm is.  If you take a favorite melody, and drum it out with your hands, what you are hearing is the rhythm.  These rhythms are grouped into recurring patterns that determine what the meter of the piece is.  Every piece of music has a rhythm — a measured pattern of strong and weak accents, or beats.  Typical meters include 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 (two, three, four and six beats in a bar).  4/4 rhythm has four beats per bar, and is also known as common time.  Most popular music is in this meter, and it forms the basis for jazz music.  A note that is one of four beats in a 4/4 measure is a quarter note, a note that is two beats long is a half note, and a note that is four beats long is a whole note.

9.  Notation is the system for writing down music. It tells us what the note is and how long its duration is.  The notes are represented by small black dots placed on a staff, which consists of 5 lines.  A musician learns to read music by understanding what note the dot on the line or space of the staff represents. Each dot has a kind of a tail on it, and the shape of this tail represents the duration, or rhythm, of the note.  There can also be small signs put in front of the note telling the musician whether to play the note a little higher or a little lower — these are called sharps (#) and flats (b).  Each note has a particular place on the lines or spaces of the staff depending on its pitch: low notes are shown in the bass clef, and higher notes in the treble clef.  The melody and rhythm of the music together determine how the notes are placed on the staff.  The staff is also divided into measures, or bars, by vertical lines, which divide the music according to its meter.

10.  Technically speaking, anything that produces a musical tone could be considered an instrument.  But instruments used by most jazz musicians fall into three families:  Brass  Woodwind  Percussion  Brass instruments (trumpets, trombones and tubas) produce a tone when the musician blows air through into metal mouthpiece, causing their lips to vibrate.  Woodwind players create a sound by blowing air across the mouthpiece (for the flute) or by blowing into a mouthpiece containing a wooden reed, causing it to vibrate (saxophone and clarinet). Using the fingers to open and close valves or holes creates different musical notes.  Percussion instruments are any instrument that are hit (drums and piano) or plucked (guitars, banjos), causing either the instrument itself or a membrane or string attached to it to vibrate.

11.  New Orleans  Swing  Bebop  Cool Jazz  Hard Bop  Free Jazz  Fusion