jazz
An American music genre characterized by improvisation, swing rhythms, and blue notes.
In Depth
Jazz originated in New Orleans in the early 20th century, born from the convergence of African-American musical traditions including blues, ragtime, spirituals, and marching band music. Its defining characteristics are improvisation, swing rhythm, syncopation, and a harmonic language that embraces extended chords and blue notes.
From its New Orleans roots, jazz evolved through swing, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz, and fusion. Each era produced towering figures: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk among them. Jazz has influenced virtually every genre of popular music and is recognized as one of America's greatest cultural contributions.
The word jazz has no definitive etymology. Theories range from a Creole slang term to a West African word to a corruption of the name Charles — nobody knows for certain.