Jazz
is a style of music which originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
at around the start of the 20th century. Jazz uses blue notes, syncopation, swing,
call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation, and blends African American
musical styles with Western music technique and theory.
Jazz has roots
in the combination of West African and Western music traditions, including spirituals,
blues and ragtime, stemming from West Africa, western Sahel, and New England's
religious hymns, hillbilly music, and European military band music. After originating
in African American communities near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz styles
spread in the 1920s, influencing other musical styles. The origins of the word
jazz are uncertain. The word is rooted in American slang, and various derivations
have been suggested. For the origin and history of the word jazz, see Origin of
the word jazz.Jazz is rooted
in the blues, the folk music of former enslaved Africans in the U.S. South and
their descendants, which is influenced by West African cultural and musical traditions
that evolved as black musicians migrated to the cities. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis
states that "Jazz is something Negroes invented...the nobility of the race
put into sound ... jazz has all the elements, from the spare and penetrating to
the complex and enveloping." The
instruments used in marching bands and dance band music at the turn of century
became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds, and drums, using the Western
12-tone scale. A "...black musical spirit (involving rhythm and melody) was
bursting out of the confines of European musical tradition [of the marching bands],
even though the performers were using European styled instruments." Small
bands of black musicians, mostly self taught, who led funeral processions in New
Orleans played a seminal role in the articulation and dissemination of early jazz,
traveling throughout black communities in the Deep South and to northern cities. Jazz
Music
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