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1.
Jazz: Jazz originated with American blacks in the early 20th century. No one knows for sure
where in America jazz was born. However, New Orleans is called the ¡°cradle of jazz¡±. Traditional jazz was characterized
by improvisation and strong rhythms. Louis Armstrong was an outstanding jazz player and the first well-known male jazz
singer. He invented ¡°scatsinging¡±, singing meaningless syllables in place of words. Modern jazz was influenced by the
blues and formed its unhurried and unemotive style. During the 1970¡¯s, many musicians blended jazz and rock music into
a new type of jazz called fusion jazz.
2.
Blues : a song sung or composed in a style originating among the American blacks, characterized
typically by the use of three-line stanzas in which the words of the second line repeat the first . The music is
slow, expressing a mood of longing and melancholy.
3.
American blacks: Early American blacks were taken to the New World by colonists as slaves.
Most of them labored in the cotton fields in the southern states. Their living conditions were primitive and their
working hours were long. With slavery abolished after the American Civil War, blacks were set free. However, the prejudice
and discrimination against blacks were still deeply rooted in the American society. In the 1960¡¯s, non-violent resistance
against racial discrimination grew under the leadership of Martin Luther King. From then on American blacks have been
struggling for their rights as full American citizens.
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