This paper examines how jazz music can be identified, but not easily defined by, its variety of forms and how one distinguishing
characteristic of jazz is its ability to lend itself to individuality among artists. It looks at how
performers of jazz have enjoyed modifying and adjusting certain music elements to set themselves apart, as well as to make a statement,and how one
movement that has emerged from this new attitude toward jazz is the Third Stream, which fuses Western musical influences with classical music. It discusses how the Third Stream movement is significant because it revives the dying tradition of bebop and encourages young jazz performers to redefine jazz.