Sandy Brown Jazz

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Arrangement - Coming to an agreement with other musicians about the way you have organised a piece of music.

Bar Line - A measure of how many people turned up for the gig.

Baritone - Colourful Welsh island

Bongo - French for 'Good To Go'.

Can-Can - Musician's reassuring mantra.

Capriccio – A quick coffee.

Cha Cha - Tea for two.

Chamber Music – Music of convenience.

Chart - Musical notation to help musicians guage how far a tune is 'cool' or 'hot'

Concussion Idiophone - Knockout performance by a drummer beating together two items of percussion.

Da Capo - Ruthless bandleader who makes offers you can't refuse.

Drone - Jazz played robotically rather than by a musician
e.g. as in 'Flying Home (by remote control)' or Angel Eyes in the Skies.

Free Jazz - Music that it doesn’t cost you any money to listen to.2

Galliard - Similar to a slim guitar player / pianist.

Grave - Where musicians go to decompose.

Gregorian Chant – Impatient Gregory Porter Fans.

Harmonic - Mouth Organ with a note missing.

Harmony - Payment to a band after a gig

Head Arrangement - Creative mind over matter

Hymn - Sexist term applied to a piece of religious music. Similarly the word 'Amen' is used rather than 'Awomen'.

a Lick - Using a Mouth Organ

Mancando - Jazz chauvinism. 3

Metronome – Busker of short stature on the Paris Metro.1

Modulation - Mad about Lambrettas, Paul Weller and The Jam.

picture by Justin Bua

Modulate - A young pretentious vegan jazz musician who arrives late to rehearsals wearing the suit from the night before.2

Nachtmusik - Term used by people who don't understand jazz. (as in: 'That's Nachtmusik!')

Obbligato - Student or Manager's fees.

Oboe - Wandering musician of no fixed abode.

One Step - Predecessor of Hip-Hop

Orchestration – a musical arrangement cut off in its prime.

Ostinato - a tomato eaten during the jazz flute solo
at the beginning of the Austin Powers movie.2

Overture - Passing from one soloist to another.

Perpetuum Mobile - People who don't turn their phones off during a gig.

Piped Music – Music indigenous to the Scottish Highlands and Dagenham.1

Pitch - Making a case to a club owner to book your band.

Practice Pad - Drummer with a basement flat

Presa - Sign in musical notation that indicates that a Lester Young solo is coming.

Prima Donna - High quality kebab

Pulse - Way of telling whether the audience is still awake / alive.

Quadrille - Strange dance where participants get thrown out to sea with lobsters.

Quaver – Stage fright.1

Relative major and minor - Sister in the Salvation Army and brother who plays with the colliery brass band.

Rubato – Music for a foot massage.

Runs – after effects of a vindaloo.1

Sackbut - Bags' Groove (sometimes played by an early form of trombone).

Sforzando - Tune dedicated to Zando

Singspiel - Rap

Solo - A note by a single instrument or voice as far down the register as possible.

Sonic Harmonic - Hedgehog with a mouth organ

Soprano - Gangster's girlfriend who wants to be a singer.

Spinet - Skill acquired by DJs

Subdominant – Masochist.1

Suite - Praise for a solo or a piece of music.

Super Tonic - A tonic that comes with the gin already in it.

Tarantella - A singing spider

Timbre - A warning cry best heeded when walking in the vicinity of lumberjacks. 3

Tre Corde - The basis of rock 'n' roll.3

Tremolo - Member of Brian Poole's band.

Triad – booking agency operating from Chinatown.1

Trill - Birdsong effect or an exciting piece of Irish improvisation.

Triple Tonguing - A Trio of Mouth Organs

Tuba - Instrument for playing Roots music

Xylophone – Small toy musical instrument often given as gifts to children who show their appreciation by playing it constantly, over and over, all day long; see also ‘drums’.

Yerba Buena – Spanish for ‘Good Grass’.1

If you would like to add to our list of definitions for jazz musicians please contact us.

1 - With thanks to Ron Rubin
2 - With thanks to Andrew Linham.
3 - With thanks to Dave Simms.

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