考生们在平时朗诵的时候可以熟记这些托福词汇，当托福口语考试需要用到时，能运用上,助力大家能够拿到口语高分。环球教育小编就给大家介绍下托福口语高频词汇。

1.解决：Solve, deal with, cope with, handle, resolve, address, tackle

2.损害：Damage, hurt, injure, harm, impair, undermine, jeopardize

3.给与：Give, offer, render, impart, provide, supply, afford

4.培养：Develop, cultivate, foster

5.优势：Advantage, merit, virtue, benefit, upside, strength

6.缺陷：Disadvantage, demerit, drawback, downside, weakness

7.使迷惑：Puzzle, bewilder, perplex, baffle

8.重要的：Key, crucial, critical, important, significant, vital, substantial, indispensable, imperative

9.认为：Think, believe, insist, maintain, assert, conclude, deem, hold, argue, be convinced, be firmly convinced, be fully convinced

10.保护：Protect, conserve, preserve

11.确保：Assure, ensure, guarantee, pledge

12.有害的：Bad, baneful evil, harmful, detrimental

13.要求：Request, demand, needs, requisition

14.消除：Eliminate, clear, remove, clear up, take away, smooth away

15.导致：Lead to, bring about, result in, cause, spark off, conduce to, procure, induce, generate

16.因此：So, therefore, thus, hence, consequently, as a consequence, accordingly, as a result, because of this, as a result of this

17.增长至：Grow to，rise to，increase to，go up to，climb to，ascend to，jump to，shoot to

18.降低至：Dip to，fall to，decline to，decrease to，drop to，go down to，reduce to， slump to，descend to，sink to，slide to

19.保持稳定：Level out，do not change，remain stable，remain still，remain steady，be stable，maintain the same level，remain unchanged，be still，remain the same level，stay constant，keep at the same level，level off，stabilize，keep its stability，even out

20.急剧地：Dramatically，drastically，sharply，hugely，enormously，steeply，substantially，considerably，significantly，markedly，surprisingly，strikingly，radically，remarkably，vastly，noticeably

21.平稳地：Steadily，smoothly，slightly，slowly，marginally，gradually，moderately，mildly

22.宣称：Allege, assert, declare, claim

23.发生：Happen, occur, take place

24.原因：Reason, factor, cause

25.发展：Development, advance, progress

26.有益的：Useful, helpful, beneficial, profitable, rewarding， advantageous

27.影响：Influence, impact, effect

28.明显的：Clear, obvious, evident, self-evident, manifest, apparent, crystal-clear

29.占：Comprise, take up, account for, constitute, consist of, make up, occupy, hold, compose

30.与…相比：Compared with，compared to，in comparison with，in comparison to，by comparison with，by comparison to

31.对比而言：By contrast，in contrast，on the other hand，on the contrary=，conversely

32.展示：Show, reveal, illustrate, demonstrate, depict, present, represent, describe

33.大约：Approximately，almost，about，around，nearly，roughly

34.波动：Fluctuate，go ups and downs，display a fluctuation，demonstrate a fluctuation

35.事实上：Practically，in practice，essentially，in essence，in reality，in effect，in fact，as a matter of fact，it is a fact that

36.换言之：Namely，that is to say，in other words，to put it like this，to put it differently，to put it from another way，to put it from another angle.

谁有尼亚加拉瀑布的英文介绍和周边游乐场所的介绍

在世界流行乐坛中，北欧常常能为我们带来一些惊喜。而来自丹麦的Michael Learns To Rock(MLTR)就是其中之一，他们在九十年代风靡世界，带来抚动我们心弦的音乐——斯堪的纳维亚清新气息和经典流行音乐的完美结合。没有漂亮迷人的外表，没有铺天盖地的宣传，没有引人遐想的绯闻；这些制造巨星的前提条件或副产品，MLTR都没有，有的只是百听不厌的原创作品。MLTR的故事可以说是世界摇滚音乐的一个经典：四个酷爱摇滚的年轻人走到一起，成立乐队，和全球各地的乐迷分享他们的作品。

故事在1987年从他们的故乡Arhus开始。乐队的核心——JASCHA RICHTER(主音兼键盘手)和鼓手KARE WANSCHER、吉他手MIKKEL LENTZ组成了一个小组合，这就是MLTR的雏形。三人和摇滚乐的缘分从孩提时经已开始，所以他们决定以JASCHA创作的歌曲为基础，组建一支乐队，但原先的三人组合还不完全。1988年的春天，KARE的好友、吉他手SOREN MADSEN的加入使得MLTR正式成为现实，其音乐旅程由此开始。紧接着在88年5月，刚成立的这支乐队在Arhus举行的"Dansk Rock Grand Prix"上完成了他们的处子演出，并在夏季参加了当地知名的音乐比赛，令人信服地取得冠军。正是在这次比赛中，作为评委之一的JP Andersen发现了这四个年轻人身上特有的天赋，很快他就成为了MLTR的经理人，直到现在。

接下来的两年中，在他们的经理人的安排下，MLTR进行了大量的巡回演出，其范围覆盖了整个丹麦；在各种各样的俱乐部、音乐会中，他们吸取丰富的演出经验，也发展出一段紧密维系乐队的友谊。在此过程中，他们不断地以更新、更好的歌曲充实他们的表演曲目，为即将推出的专辑作好准备，同时他们在演奏、和音方面的默契也渐入佳境。在丹麦制作人Jens Hofman以及Oli Poulsen的协助下，MLTR在录音室中花费了几个月的时间，潜心制作他们的首张同名专辑《MICHAEL LEARNS TO ROCK》，并于1991年9月1日正式发行。1992年1月，该专辑成为丹麦的销量冠军，停留时间达5周之久。其中的单曲THE ACTOR在1992年1月成为丹麦电台流行榜的冠军，其后这首作品迅速登上挪威、瑞典、新加坡、马来西亚等国的流行榜首，并进入加拿大、德国等许多国家，使得MLTR以闪电般的速度成为一个家喻户晓的名字。

在这片MLTR的热潮中，他们再次在丹麦开始巡回演出，并访问了一些东南亚国家，进一步巩固在乐坛所取得的成绩。这段期间，JASCHA RICHTER也没有放松，着手为第二张专辑编写新曲。这张名为《COLOURS》的专辑于1993年10月发行，其范围覆盖了欧洲大部分地区及远东，再次获得巨大成功。单曲SLEEPING CHILD成为MLTR又一首席卷全球的作品。包括25 MINUTES和OUT OF THE BLUE在内的其他单曲都在各地流行榜占据极高位置，而专辑的全球销量超过了1百万张。在随后的18个月里，乐队的足迹遍布这个世界，所到之处无不受到乐迷的狂热欢迎。1994年是乐队成绩辉煌的一年。作为一个完美的总结，MLTR在年末获颁德国的权威音乐奖项RSH大奖，并在新加坡举行的东南亚格林美(SEA Grammy Award)颁奖礼上被评为“The Best Performing Act Of The Year”。

MLTR的第三张专辑《PLAYED ON PEPPER》在1995年发行，其范围进一步扩展到欧洲、南美、南非、中东，及东南亚的11个国家。当年10月乐队在东南亚10国举行25场巡回演唱会，受到皇室般的礼遇，并推出THAT'S WHY(YOU GO AWAY)和SOMEDAY等极受好评的单曲，其中THAT'S WHY(YOU GO AWAY)以前所未有的速度登上榜首。该专辑的全球销量亦超过了120万张。

乐队广受欢迎的一个难以避免的负面影响就是大量盗版的出现，而在东南亚国家尤为猖獗。为了对付这个问题，MLTR特意在1996年向东南亚地区推出一张含金量极高的专辑——《PAINT MY LOVE》。这实际上是MLTR出道以来所得成绩的一次小结，其中包含前面所有专辑中最热门的单曲，并加入了同名单曲PAINT MY LOVE。尽管这首歌的MTV在许多国家都受到影视检查处的严格审查，它再次证明了乐队无与伦比的才华。最终专辑的销量达到了340万。1997年7月，作为主要表演嘉宾之一，MLTR参加了香港回归中国的庆祝音乐会。

在向乐迷推广《PAINT MY LOVE》的同时，MLTR第四张专辑的灌录工作也在密锣紧鼓地进行着。1997年9月，上一张专辑的热潮仍旧持续，《NOTHING TO LOSE》就已正式发行。包括NOTHING TO LOSE、SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW、MAGIC在内的多首单曲相继登上各国流行榜的冠军位置。这已是MLTR连续第三畔?抗?偻虻淖?恕?

九年的音乐历程，说长不长，说短不短。MLTR的四位成员也决定暂时放下工作，放下他们热爱的摇滚音乐。然而JASCHA早在1998年秋季就已准备好了几首新歌。于是乐队从中挑选出单曲STRANGE FOREIGH BEAUTY，为他们的精选专辑作为点缀。《GREATEST HITS》的名称恰如其分，因为它抽取了前四张专辑中的精髓，经过remix、重新灌录或编排等处理——从而汇集了MLTR九年以来的代表作品。这张1999年发行的精选专辑再次突破了百万销量，把MLTR的音乐带到世界更远的角落。

2000年春，当MLTR开始制作他们的第五张专辑时，SOREN MADSEN决定离开乐队，以作个人发展。虽然他的离开的确为MLTR带来相当冲击，乐队的其他三位成员RICHTER、LENTZ和WANSCHER决心继续这段旅程。该专辑的制作也在夏季重新开始。和以往一样，他们没有选择和外国善于“造星”的知名制作人合作，而是和丹麦本土的音乐制作人Boe Larsen合作。这张名为《BLUE NIGHT》的全新专辑已于2000年末发行。

2001年迈克学摇滚展开了他们的五周亚洲巡回,途径迪拜,菲律宾,新加坡,马来西亚和中国。 2001年11月在上海奥林匹克体育馆举行了声势浩大的亚洲巡回演唱会之中国上海演唱会。在一片熟悉而动人的歌声中，“迈克学摇滚”彻底引发了上海歌迷的热情和狂热，万人体育馆内一片沸腾。

一直以来，Michael Learns To Rock都通过他们的努力证明：即使是世界上最偏远的角落，和我们的距离也只不过是一首动人的歌曲.

专辑曲目：

01. The Ghost Of You

02. The Actor

03. Sleeping Child

04. Complicated Heart

05. 25 Minutes

06. Out Of The Blue

07. I Wanna Dance

08. That's Why (You Go Away)

09. Love Will Never Lie

10. How Many Hours

11. I'm Gonna Be Around

12. Nothing To Lose

13. Paint My Love

14. Breaking My Heart

15. Strange Foreign Beauty

16. You Took My Heart Away

17. Blue Night

18. More Than A Friend

19. Forever And A Day

英文名称：Paint.My.Love

专辑歌手：Michael Learns To Rock

地区：丹麦

语言：英语

01. My Love

02. Sleeping Child

03. That's Why (You Go Away)

04.? The Actor

05.Wild Women

06. Love Will Never Lie

07. I Still Carry On

08.? Complicated Heart

09. Breaking My Heart

10. Someday

11. The Blue

12.? 25 Minutes

13.? Breaking The Rules

14. How Many Hours

15.? Crazy Dream

16. Paint My Love (Acoustic Version)

17.? Breaking My Heart (Alternative Version)

其他的就不写了，你们去找吧~~`

谁帮我写一段关于爵士乐的英文介绍

尼亚加拉大瀑布英文介绍

被称为世界七大奇景之一的尼亚加拉大瀑布位于加拿大和美国交界的尼亚加拉河上，它那丰沛而浩瀚的水汽和磅礴的气势，使所有前来观赏的游人都为之震撼。

尼亚加拉河长约56米，上接海拔174米的伊利湖，下注海拔75米的安大略湖。这99米的落差，已足以形成湍急的水流，而两湖之间横亘着的一道石灰岩断崖，更使水量丰富的尼亚加拉河水在经过这里时骤然陡落，水势澎湃，声震如雷。

从高处的伊利湖到低处的安大略湖，在经过河床绝壁上的半岛时，湖水分隔成了两部份，分别流入加拿大和美国，形成了一大一小两个瀑布。这两个瀑布在加拿大这边的景致比在美国看起来要更加美丽壮观。

Niagara Falls comprises three distinct cataracts. The tallest are the American and Bridal Veil falls on the American side, separated by tiny Luna Island and plunging over jagged rocks in a 180ft drop; the broad Horseshoe Falls which curve their way over to Canada are probably the most impressive. They date back a mere twelve thousand years, when the retreat of melting glaciers allowed water trapped in Lake Erie to gush north to Lake Ontario. Back then the falls were seven miles downriver, but constant erosion has cut them back to their present site. The falls are colorfully lit up at night, and many say they're most beautiful in winter, when the grounds are covered in snow and the waters turn to ice.

The best views on the American side are from the Prospect Point Observation Tower (daily; 50￠), and from the area at its base where the water rushes past; Terrapin Point on Goat Island in the middle of the river has similar views of Horseshoe Falls. The nineteenth-century tightrope-walker Blondin crossed the Niagara repeatedly near here, and even carried passengers across on his back; other suicidal fools over the years have taken the plunge in barrels. One survivor among the many fatalities was the Englishman Bobby Leach, who went over in a steel barrel in July 1911 and had to spend the rest of the year in hospital. That practice has since been banned (though a couple of maniacs did it in summer 1995 and came away with minor bruises), for reasons which become self-evident when you approach the towering cascade on the not-to-be-missed Maid of the Mist boat trip from the foot of the observation tower (summer Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; $8.50; 716/284-4233). From Goat Island, the Cave of the Winds tour leads down to the base of the falls by elevator to within almost touching distance of the water (mid-May to late Oct; $5.50). A combination pass for these and other attractions costs $16. Rainbow helicopter tours (716/284-2800) are a more expensive proposition at $40 per person for a ten-minute ride. To check the view out from Niagara Falls, Ontario, it's a twenty-minute walk across the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side (25￠ each way; bring ID, and check with US Immigration officials before heading across), where you get an arguably better view, bigger crowds and even more tawdry commercialism. Driving across is inadvisable: the toll for a car is just 75￠, but parking on the other side is upwards of $15.

As you look on in awe, reflect that you're seeing only about half the volume of water - the rest is diverted to hydroelectric power stations. The full story of this engineering feat is related at the free Niagara Power Project Visitors Center in nearby Lewiston (July & Aug daily 9am-6pm; Sept-June daily 10am-5pm; 716/285-3211). With your own transportation it's also possible to trace the inhospitable Niagara Gorge two miles along the dramatic Robert Moses Parkway to the Whirlpool Rapids, a violent maelstrom swollen by broken trees and other flotsam.

Ten miles east of Niagara Falls, the town of LOCKPORT takes its name from the series of locks that raise and lower boats some 65ft at the western end of the Erie Canal. You can see the impressive flight of locks from the Pine Street Bridge, or up close on canal boat tours (May - Nov daily at 12.30 & 3pm, also 10am on Sat; $9; 716/693-3260).

尼亚加拉瀑布(Niagara Falls)位于加拿大和美国交界的尼亚加拉河中段，号称世界七大奇景之一，与南美的伊瓜苏瀑布及非洲的维多利亚瀑布合称世界三大瀑布。它以宏伟的气势，丰沛而浩瀚的水汽，震撼了所有的游人。从伊利湖滚滚而来的尼亚加拉河水流经此地，突然垂直跌落51米，巨大的水流以银河倾倒之势冲下断崖，声及数里之外，场面震人心魄，形成了气势磅礴的大瀑布。

Niagara Falls (Niagara Falls) in Canada and the United States Niagara River at the junction of the middle, so-called seven wonders of the world, South America and the Iguassu Falls and Victoria Falls in Africa collectively known as the world's three waterfalls. The momentum of it to the grand, rich and the vastness of the water vapor and shocked all of the visitors. From Lake Erie billowing from the Niagara River flows through here, suddenly dropped 51 meters vertical huge flow of power to the Galaxy-dumping under the cliff, and sound, and a few outside, and the scene was shock people destinations, and formed a magnificent large waterfall.

Jazz

I INTRODUCTION

Jazz, type of music first developed by African Americans around the first decade of the 20th century that has an identifiable history and distinct stylistic evolution. Jazz grew up alongside the blues and popular music, and all these genres overlap in many ways. However, critics generally agree about whether artists fall squarely in one camp or another.

II CHARACTERISTICS

Since its beginnings jazz has branched out into so many styles that no single description fits all of them accurately. A few generalizations can be made, however, bearing in mind that for all of them, exceptions can be cited.

Performers of jazz improvise within the conventions of their chosen style. Typically, the improvisation is accompanied by the repeated chord progression of a popular song or an original composition. Instrumentalists emulate black vocal styles, including the use of glissandi (sliding movements that smoothly change the pitch), nuances of pitch (including blue notes, the “bent” notes that are played or sung slightly lower than the major scale), and tonal effects such as growls and wails.

In striving to develop a personal sound, or tone color (an idiosyncratic sense of rhythm and form and an individual style of execution), performers create rhythms characterized by constant syncopation (the placing of accents in unexpected places, usually on the weaker beat) and by swing. Swing can be defined as a sensation of momentum in which a melody is alternately heard together with, then slightly at variance with, the regular beat. Written scores, if present, are often used merely as guides, providing structure within which improvisation occurs. The typical instrumentation begins with a rhythm section consisting of piano, string bass, drums, and optional guitar, to which may be added any number of wind instruments. In big bands the wind instruments are grouped into three sections: saxophones, trombones, and trumpets.

Although exceptions occur in some styles, most jazz is based on the principle that an infinite number of melodies can fit the chord progressions of any song. The musician improvises new melodies that fit the chord progression, which is repeated again and again as each soloist is featured, for as many choruses as desired.

Although pieces with many different formal patterns are used for jazz improvisation, two formal patterns in particular are frequently found in songs used for jazz. One is the AABA form of popular-song choruses, which typically consists of 32 measures in ? meter, divided into four 8-measure sections: section A, a repetition of section A, section B (the “bridge” or “release,” often beginning in a new key), and a repetition of section A. The second form, with roots deep in African American folk music, is the 12-bar blues form. Unlike the 32-bar AABA form, blues songs have a fairly standardized chord progression.

III ORIGINS

Jazz is rooted in the mingled musical traditions of African Americans. These include traits surviving from West African music; black folk music forms developed in the Americas; European popular and light classical music of the 18th and 19th centuries; and later popular music forms influenced by black music or produced by black composers. Among the surviving African traits are vocal styles that include great freedom of vocal color; a tradition of improvisation; call-and-response patterns; and rhythmic complexity, both in the syncopation of individual melodic lines and in the conflicting rhythms played by different members of an ensemble. Black folk music forms include field hollers, rowing chants, lullabies, and later, spirituals and blues (see African American Music).

European music contributed specific styles and forms: hymns, marches, waltzes, quadrilles, and other dance music, as well as light theatrical music and Italian operatic music. European music also introduced theoretical elements, in particular, harmony, both as a vocabulary of chords and as a concept related to musical form. (Much of the European influence was absorbed through private lessons in European music, even when the black musicians so trained could only find work in seedy entertainment districts and on Mississippi riverboats.)

Black-influenced elements of popular music that contributed to jazz include the banjo music of the minstrel shows (derived from the banjo music of slaves), the syncopated rhythmic patterns of African-influenced Latin American music (heard in southern U.S. cities), the barrelhouse piano styles of tavern musicians in the Midwest, and the marches played by black brass bands in the late 19th century. Near the end of the 19th century, another influential genre emerged. This was ragtime, a composed music that combined many elements, including syncopated rhythms (from banjo music and other black sources) and the harmonic contrasts and formal patterns of European marches. After 1910 bandleader W. C. Handy took another influential form, the blues, and broke its strict oral tradition by publishing his original blues songs. (Favored by jazz musicians, Handy’s songs found one of their greatest interpreters in the 1920s in blues singer Bessie Smith, who recorded many of them.)

The merging of these multiple influences into jazz is difficult to reconstruct because it occurred before the existence of recording, which has provided valuable documentation. Of course, individual musicians had varying backgrounds and few people were directly exposed to all of these influences. For example, most jazz artists were and are city dwellers and might have only known rural black forms indirectly.

IV HISTORY

Most early jazz was played in small dance bands or by solo pianists. Besides ragtime and marches, the repertoire included all kinds of popular dance music and blues. The bands typically played at picnics, weddings, parades, and funerals. Characteristically, the bands played dirges on the way to funerals and lively marches on the way back. Blues and ragtime had arisen independently just a few years before jazz and continued to exist alongside it, influencing the style and forms of jazz and providing important vehicles for jazz improvisation.

A New Orleans Jazz

Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the earliest fully documented jazz style emerged and centered in New Orleans, Louisiana. In this style the cornet, trumpet, or violin carried the melody, the clarinet played florid countermelodies, and the trombone played rhythmic slides and sounded the root notes of chords or simple harmonies. Below this basic trio the guitar or banjo sounded the chords, along with a piano, if available; a string bass (or tuba for marching parades) provided a bass line; and drums supplied the rhythmic accompaniment. In theory, these roles were the same as in other kinds of music—it was the addition of improvisation, along with elements of other black music such as blues and ragtime, that made jazz unique.

A musician named Buddy Bolden appears to have led some bands that influenced early jazz musicians, but this music and its sound have been lost to posterity. Although some jazz influences can be heard on a few early phonograph records, not until 1917 did a jazz band record. This band, a group of white New Orleans musicians called The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, created a sensation overseas and in the United States. Among the band’s many successors, two groups emerged in the early 1920s that were particularly celebrated: the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and the Creole Jazz Band, the latter of which was led by cornetist King Oliver, an influential stylist. The series of recordings made by Oliver’s band are often considered the most significant jazz recordings by a New Orleans group. Other leading New Orleans musicians included trumpeters Bunk Johnson and Freddie Keppard, soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet, drummer Warren “Baby” Dodds, and pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton. The most influential jazz musician nurtured in New Orleans, however, was King Oliver’s second trumpeter, Louis Armstrong.

B Armstrong’s Impact

Armstrong was a dazzling improviser, technically, emotionally, and intellectually. He and his generation changed the format of jazz by bringing the soloist to the forefront, and within his recording groups, the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, he demonstrated that jazz improvisation could go far beyond simply ornamenting the melody—he created new melodies based on the chords of the initial tune. He also set a standard for later jazz singers, not only by the way he altered the words and melodies of songs, but also by improvising without words, like an instrument. This form of vocal improvisation is known as scat singing.

C Chicago and New York City

For jazz, the 1920s was a decade of great experimentation and discovery. Many New Orleans musicians, including Armstrong, migrated to Chicago, Illinois, influencing local musicians and stimulating the evolution of the Chicago style. This style was derived from the New Orleans style but emphasized soloists, often added saxophone to the instrumentation, and usually produced tenser rhythms and more complicated textures. Instrumentalists working in Chicago or influenced by the Chicago style included trombonist Jack Teagarden, banjoist and guitarist Eddie Condon, drummer Gene Krupa, and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Also active in Chicago was Bix Beiderbecke, whose lyrical approach to the cornet provided an alternative to Armstrong’s bravura trumpet style. Many Chicago musicians eventually settled in New York City, another major center for jazz in the 1920s.

D Jazz Piano

Another vehicle for the development of jazz in the 1920s was piano music. The Harlem section of New York City became the center of a highly technical, hard-driving solo style known as stride piano. The master of this approach in the early 1920s was James P. Johnson, but it was Johnson’s protégé Fats Waller—a talented vocalist and entertainer as well—who became by far the most popular performer of this idiom.

A second piano style to develop in the 1920s was boogie-woogie. A form of blues played on the piano, it consists of a short, sharply accented bass pattern played repeatedly by the left hand while the right hand plays freely, using a variety of rhythms. Boogie-woogie became especially popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Leading boogie-woogie pianists included Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Pine Top Smith.

The most brilliant pianist of the 1920s, comparable to Armstrong in sheer innovation and present on some of his most influential recordings, was Earl “Fatha” Hines, a Chicago-nurtured virtuoso considered to possess a wild, unpredictable imagination. His style, combined with the smoother approach of Waller, influenced most pianists of the next generation—notably Teddy Wilson, who was featured with Goodman’s band in the 1930s, and Art Tatum, who performed mostly as a soloist and was regarded with awe for his virtuosity and sophisticated harmonic sense.

E The Big-Band Era

Also during the 1920s, large groups of jazz musicians began to play together, after the model of society dance bands. These were the so-called big bands, which became so popular in the 1930s and early 1940s that the period was known as the swing era. One major development in the emergence of the swing era was a rhythmic change that smoothed the two-beat rhythms of some early bands into a more flowing four beats to the bar. Musicians also developed the use of short melodic patterns, called riffs, in call-and-response patterns. To facilitate this procedure, orchestras were divided into instrumental sections, each with its own riffs, and opportunities were provided for musicians to play solos.

The development of the big band as a jazz medium was strongly influenced by the achievements of Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson. Henderson’s arranger, Don Redman, and later Henderson himself, introduced written jazz scores that were widely admired for their effort to capture the quality of improvisation that characterized the music of smaller ensembles. To achieve this improvisation, Redman and Henderson were aided by gifted soloists such as tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and by Armstrong, who played in Henderson’s band during 1924 and 1925.

Ellington led a band at the Cotton Club in New York City during the late 1920s. Continuing to direct his orchestra until his death in 1974, he composed colorful experimental concert pieces ranging in length, from the three-minute “Ko-Ko” (1940) to the hourlong Black, Brown, and Beige (1943), as well as songs such as “Solitude” and “Sophisticated Lady.” More complex than Henderson’s music, Ellington’s music made his orchestra a cohesive ensemble, with solos written for the unique qualities of specific instruments and players. Other black bands that were popular among musicians and audiences were led by Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, and Cab Calloway.

A different style of big-band jazz was developed in Kansas City, Missouri, during the mid-1930s and was epitomized by the band of Count Basie. Originally assembled in Kansas City, Basie’s band reflected that region’s emphasis on improvisation, keeping the prepared passages relatively short and simple. The wind instruments in his band exchanged ensemble riffs in a free, strongly rhythmical interplay, with pauses to accommodate instrumental solos. Basie’s tenor saxophonist Lester Young, in particular, played with a rhythmic freedom rarely apparent in the improvisations of soloists from other bands. Young’s delicate tone and long, flowing melodies, laced with an occasional avant-garde honk or gurgle, opened up a whole new approach, just as Armstrong’s trumpet and cornet playing had done in the 1920s.

Other trendsetters of the late 1930s were trumpeter Roy Eldridge, electric guitarist Charlie Christian, drummer Kenny Clarke, and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Jazz singing in the 1930s became increasingly flexible and stylized. Ivie Anderson, Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, and, above all, Billie Holiday were among the leading singers. Europeans also became more active in jazz during this time. Christian, for example, was influenced by Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt, whose brilliant recordings were available in the United States.

F Interplay with Popular and Classical Music

The pioneering efforts of Armstrong, Ellington, Henderson, and others made jazz a dominant influence on American music during the 1920s and 1930s. Popular musicians such as bandleader Paul Whiteman used some of the more obvious rhythmic and melodic devices of jazz, although with less improvisational freedom and skill than were displayed in the music of the major jazz players. Attempting to fuse jazz with light classical music, Whiteman’s orchestra also premiered jazzy symphonic pieces by American composers such as George Gershwin. Closer to the authentic jazz tradition of improvisation and solo virtuosity was the music played by the bands of Benny Goodman (who used many of Henderson’s arrangements), Gene Krupa, and Harry James.

Since the days of ragtime, jazz composers had admired classical music. A number of swing-era musicians “jazzed the classics” in works such as “Bach Goes to Town” (written by Alec Wilder and recorded by Goodman) and “Ebony Rhapsody” (recorded by Ellington and others). Composers of concert music, in turn, paid tribute to jazz in works such as Contrasts (1938, commissioned by Goodman) by Hungarian Béla Bartók and Ebony Concerto (1945, commissioned by Woody Herman) by Russian-born Igor Stravinsky. Other composers, such as Aaron Copland, an American, and Darius Milhaud, a Frenchman, acknowledged the spirit of jazz in their works.

G The 1940s and the Postwar Decades

The preeminently influential jazz musician of the 1940s was Charlie Parker, who became the leader of a new style known usually as bebop, but also as rebop or bop. Like Lester Young, Charlie Christian, and other outstanding soloists, Parker had played with big bands. During World War II (1939-1945), however, the wartime economy and changes in audience tastes had driven many big bands out of business. Their decline, combined with the radically new bebop style, amounted to a revolution in the jazz world.

Bebop was still based on the principle of improvisation over a chord progression, but the tempos were faster, the phrases longer and more complex, and the emotional range expanded to include more unpleasant feelings than before. Jazz musicians became aware of themselves as artists and made little effort to sell their wares by adding vocals, dancing, and comedy as their predecessors had.

At the center of the ferment stood Parker, who could play anything on the saxophone, in any tempo and in any key. He created beautiful melodies that were related in advanced ways to the underlying chords, and his music possessed endless rhythmic variety. Parker’s frequent collaborators were trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, known for his formidable speed and range and daring harmonic sense, and pianist Earl “Bud” Powell and drummer Max Roach, both leaders in their own right. Also highly regarded were pianist-composer Thelonious Monk and trumpeter Fats Navarro. Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan was associated early in her career with bebop musicians, particularly Gillespie and Parker.

The late 1940s brought forth an explosion of experimentation in jazz. Modernized big bands led by Gillespie and Stan Kenton flourished alongside small groups with innovative musicians such as pianist Lennie Tristano. Most of these groups drew ideas from 20th-century pieces by masters such as Bartók and Stravinsky.

The most influential of the midcentury experiments with classically influenced jazz were the recordings made in 1949 and 1950 by an unusual nonet led by Charlie Parker’s protégé, a young trumpeter named Miles Davis. The written arrangements, by Davis and others, were soft in tone but highly complex. Many groups adopted this “cool” style, especially on the West Coast, and so it became known as West Coast jazz. Refined by players such as tenor saxophonists Zoot Sims and Stan Getz and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, West Coast jazz flourished throughout the 1950s. Also in the 1950s pianist Dave Brubeck (a student of Milhaud’s), with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, achieved popularity with his blend of classical music and jazz.

Most musicians, however, particularly on the East Coast, continued to expand on the hotter, more driving bebop tradition. Major exponents of the hard-bop or East Coast style included trumpeter Clifford Brown, drummer Art Blakey, and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, whose unique approach made him one of the major talents of his generation. Another derivative of the Parker style was soul jazz, played by pianist Horace Silver, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and his brother, cornetist Nat Adderley.

H The Late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s

Several new approaches characterized jazz in the third quarter of the century. The years around 1960 ranked with the late 1920s and the late 1940s as one of the most fertile periods in the history of jazz.

H1 Modal Jazz

In 1955 Miles Davis organized a quintet that featured tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, whose complex approach produced a striking contrast to Davis’s rich-toned, unhurried, expressive melodic lines. Coltrane poured out streams of notes with velocity and passion, exploring every melodic idea, no matter how exotic; nevertheless, he played slow ballads with poise and serenity. In his solos he revealed an exceptional sense of form and pacing. In 1959 Coltrane appeared on a landmark Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue. Along with pianist Bill Evans, Davis devised for this album a set of pieces that remain in one key, chord, and mode for as long as 16 me