In music, a vamp is a repeating musical figure, section, or accompaniment used in jazz, gospel, soul, and musical theater. Vamps are also found in rock, funk, reggae, R&B, pop, country, and post-sixties jazz. Vamps are usually harmonically spare: A vamp may consist of a single chord or a sequence of chords played in a repeated rhythm. The term frequently appeared in the instruction 'Vamp till ready' on sheet music for popular songs in the 1930s and 1940s, indicating that the accompanist should repeat the musical phrase until the vocalist was ready. Vamps are generally symmetrical, self-contained, and open to variation. The equivalent in classical music is an ostinato, in hip hop is the loop and in rock music is the riff.
The slang term vamp comes from the Middle English word vampe (sock), from Old French avanpie, equivalent to Modern French avant-pied, literally before-foot.
The term vamp also means to improvise a tune's simple accompaniment or variation. Outside of music, the noun vamp means something patched up or refurbished, or something rehashed, as a book based on old material. Similarly, outside of music, vamp as a verb means to put together, fabricate or improvise: "With no hard news available about the summit meeting, the reporters vamped up questions based only on rumor." These other meanings are related to the musical meaning, in that a musical vamp is something improvised or elaborated on throughout the composition.
Classic examples in jazz include A Night in Tunisia, Take Five, A Love Supreme, Maiden Voyage, Cantaloupe Island, and Chameleon. Rock examples include the long jam at the ends of Loose Change by Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Sooner or Later by King's X.
Read more about this topic: Ostinato