Jazz

Jazz originated in the African-American communities of the Southern United States around the turn of the 20th century. Characterized by a unique mixture of influences, such as New Orleans Brass Bands, it was largely influenced by Ragtime and Blues, and quickly developed into one of the more popular musical genres by the 1930s with the development of Swing. The sound of jazz has changed many times, but one element that is usually present is improvisation. Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern; forms of Traditional Folk Music of the Black Americans in rural areas were also highly improvisational. Blue notes and syncopated polyrhythms are also fundamental to jazz expression. The genre has spawned its own vocabulary, including concepts such as "swing" (a sense of rhythmic "feel" or "groove" created by interaction between performers) and the extensive use of the ii–V–I progression.