(2)
one of the most popular forms of music, is known as jazz.
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Each year, hundreds of thousands of people attend jazz concerts and festivals in cities around the world.
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Jazz music, both old and new, is played on the radio and on home stereos.
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Two of the most important features of jazz music are improvisation and syncopation.
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Improvisation means that music is created spontaneously by the musician during the performance.
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In other words, the musician modifies some existing music in a new and interesting way.
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Syncopation means that the regular patterns found in music may be broken up with new accents and uneven patterns being created.
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The features of improvisation and syncopation are difficult to use with skill and require great creativity on the part of the musician.
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Jazz music originated in the southern United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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It was based on African American music that was derived in part from rhythms in Western Africa.
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The earliest jazz musicians were influenced by a music style known as ragtime, which was popular during the late 19th century.
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Jazz music also incorporated some aspects of a related kind of music called the Blues.
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By the beginning of the 20th century, a fully developed form of jazz was being played in New Orleans, a city in the southern United States.
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Jazz musicians played instruments such as the trumpet, saxophone, cornet, and piano.
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Jazz soon became popular and was played on the riverboats that traveled along the Mississippi River.
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Some jazz musicians moved N to the city of Chicago, and young musicians in that city developed some new forms of jazz music.
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By the 1920s and 1930s, jazz was popular in many parts of the United States, and some musicians began forming large bands comprising many musicians and many different instruments.
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This began the period known as the Big band era, when a popular form of jazz known as swing music was played.
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During the 1940s and 1950s, other forms of jazz, known as Bob and cool jazz, were developed.
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Some people preferred these newer kinds of jazz, but others preferred the older varieties.
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By the 1960s, some jazz musicians began to experiment with different kinds of musical instruments and with other kinds of music.
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Some musicians incorporated musical styles from other parts of the world or combined jazz with rock music.
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And today, some musicians have blended jazz with rap music.
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However, some people prefer the more traditional forms of jazz music.
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Of course, most of the great jazz musicians of the early 20th century, people such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, aren't no longer alive.
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However, many great jazz musicians are still active, and many younger musicians have continued this form of music.
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People will continue to enjoy jazz music for a long time to come.