And that style helped propel jazz through its most important developments - from swing to bebop to the avant-garde.

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"From the Harlem Renaissance to ... jazz and swing, so much of that was started by African-Americans, " she said.

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Some cowboy booted Oakey Swing Bands and a young Ray Charles - still doing his best Charles Brown cocktail jazz impersonation - recorded it.

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Mingus mashed up bebop, swing and soul, all while leading an avant-garde excavation of the free-jazz latent in New Orleans group improvisation a sort of bluesy Charles-Ives-meets-King-Oliver approach.

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It's like walking into a scene from Goodfellas - the crowd seated at candlelit tables, suited-up waiting staff distributing Old Fashioneds, the band on stage playing whipsmart swing and jazz.

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