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Instruments

Ten saxophone

Riff

A repeated figure or pattern in the bass part of a pop or jazz melody over which the rest of the music is built. Listen to an example from a jazz group in which the excerpt has the unusual time signature of 5/4, having five beats in a bar. 

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  Listen as the riff is built up with drum kit, piano and double bass, before a tenor saxophone enters with the main melody. Now listen to another arrangement on that same melody, this time in Latin American style, with the music changed to 4/4 time. Listen to the imitation of the melody and the whole change of style.