Jazz a true US creation

JAZZ has been around since the late 1800s. At the turn of this century, in New Orleans, it really caught on. Jazz is truly an American art form. It combines melodies and rhythms from Africa, Europe and America. Ragtime was an early form, popular around the early 1900s.

The blues followed. Dixieland jazz was all the rage from about 1912. Early stars were Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. New styles have always been emerging. There was big-band, swing, be-bop, cool and free jazz in the 1960s. Dizzy Gillespie, one of the giants of jazz, recently died.