... traditional European harmonic progressions.) * Spirituals and Field Hollers (emotional content and communication.) * Ring Shout (a recreational dance.) * Riff (a short melodic phrase that is repeated over the different chords in a harmonic progression.) A ll of these expressive elements from traditional African culture contributed to the development of the blues and jazz and all are characteristic of modern jazz as well. Like all historical eras, the jazz era did not begin on a certain date; jazz developed gradually, gestating between the years of 1895 and 1917. It is difficult to make any concrete statements about early jazz, because there is a library of early recordings. Jazz is primarily a performer's art not a composer's; therefore without many recordings we are limited as to how accurately we can discuss the early growth of jazz. There are five major factors that contributed to the early development of jazz: * Minstrel Music ...

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