New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Jazz

A foundational American genre born in New Orleans, jazz remains a broad, living tradition built around improvisation, swing, and restless group conversation.

Origins and context

Documented histories place jazz’s emergence in African American communities in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century, drawing on blues, ragtime, brass-band traditions, and related local musical practices. (loc.gov)

New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

History

Jazz is widely documented as emerging in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with roots in blues, ragtime, brass-band music, and other African American traditions. Library of Congress materials describe early jazz creation in New Orleans at the dawn of the twentieth century, while reference histories note that improvisation became central as the music developed. (loc.gov) By the Jazz Age, the style had spread well beyond New Orleans and begun splitting into major lineages such as swing, bebop, cool jazz, and free jazz. That long evolution kept jazz from settling into one fixed shape; it remained a living, argument-filled art form, built as much on group interplay as on individual voice.