Jazz is a style of music that originated at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in African-American communities in the United States (most notably in the state of Louisiana). Jazz is in fact an American invention, an invention in which many Americans have a great deal of pride.  In 1987 the Congress of the United States designating jazz as “a rare and valuable national American treasure” because it is so special and unique.

The word “jazz” was not used to refer to this type of music until around 1915, even though the music style of jazz already existed for at least a decade*.  The oldest form of jazz is considered to be New Orleans Dixieland style music.  Many other styles of music that have been created since the early 1900’s have their origins in jazz, these include: big-band style swing, bebop, Latin jazz, jazz fusion, funk, and even hip-Hop.

When you really look at the origins of jazz you can see the roots of this music go deeper than the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The North Atlantic slave trade, which brought almost half a million Africans to the United States, also brought with it the strong tribal and musical traditions of these African slaves.  The African musical traditions that slaves brought with them to America often used of a single-line melody and a call-and-response** pattern, African speech patterns, and the African use of pentatonic scales***.  These features of African music led to blues notes which are a big part of blues and jazz music.  One of the key features that makes jazz, “jazz”, is that it is a very free flowing, improvisational type of music that allows musicians to make up new arrangements on the spot.

There is so much more I could say about jazz, but one of the best things you can do to learn more about this music is to listen to it!

Here is video that gives a musical tour of jazz since it began (along with pictures of famous jazz musicians):

Additionally, this second video gives more information about the history of jazz in which you can learn more about the evolution of this all-American music style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9R7X6hehio&feature=related

* decade = a period of 10 years of time
** call-and-response = when two distinct musical phrases (usually played by different musicians) where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first
*** pentatonic scales =  a musical scale with five notes per octave