Jazz
From National Museum of American History:
Jazz developed in the United States in the very early part of the 20th
century. New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, played a key
role in this development. The city's population was more diverse than anywhere
else in the South, and people of African, French, Caribbean, Italian, German,
Mexican, and American Indian, as well as English, descent interacted with one
another. African-American musical traditions mixed with others and gradually
jazz emerged from a blend of ragtime, marches, blues, and other kinds of music.
At first jazz was mostly for dancing. (In later years, people would sit and
listen to it.) After the first recordings of jazz were made in 1917, the music
spread widely and developed rapidly. The evolution of jazz was led by a series
of brilliant musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington Charlie Parker,
and Miles Davis. Jazz developed a series of different styles including
traditional jazz, swing bebop, cool jazz, and jazz-rock, among others. At the
same time, jazz spread from the United States to many parts of the world, and
today jazz musicians--and jazz festivals--can be found in dozens of nations. Jazz
is one of the United States' greatest exports to the world.