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For non-aficionados, jazz can be slippery and difficult to grasp. Jazz can leave a novice baffled, unsure how to listen, and with the question "How is it that they know what to play?"Know-It-All Jazz takes readers from the African-American roots and all the way to the global mix of styles and performers in today's jazz scene. Along the way, it looks at the shape, style, and instruments of the discipline, key personalities and recordings in the jazz canon, and, finally, at what might be expected next from this most diverse of musical forms. Punchy and engaging entries help readers understand the basics in under a minute, ensuring that this is the ultimate companion for newcomers to the instinctive and diverse world of jazz.